Lemon Yellow instead of Rapid Red? Serious system failures on my MME FE that could trigger Lemon Law return to Ford

[0CO2]

Am I alone in having experienced serious problems with my MME FE? Here's a summary:

a) FordPass shows numerous errors - drivetrain errors w/loss of power warnings (but no obvious loss of power), failure of collission avoidance system while driving leading to near accident in traffic when using intelligent cruise control, Electrify America Charger Fault errors when connecting to EA chargers

b) Inability to be recognized by Electrify America charging stations. Attempting to hook to an EA charger generates a hardware error, and it requires calling EA for them to manually activate the charger. I also can't enable Plug & Charge through the FordPass app although other car control features through the (activated) modem work fine.

c) The numerous powertrain faults are related to module communication failures according to my dealer's service dept; and this is likely also related to problems communicating with the front camera that have resulted in failures of the collision avoidance system while driving. This disabled auto braking and nearly led to an accident last night - so there are significant safety issues. There were several tens of such comms errors including references to "antenna 1, ..., 7" losing connection. I assume many of the sensors communicate wirelessly in the MME.

d) There are issues with Apple Car Play. When streaming Amazon Music eventually the music stream cuts in and out, then Car Play and my phone both freeze, and the phone overheats. I have no such issues with Car Play and Amazon Music on my Chevy Bolt.

e) There are bugs using the main screen's trip meter. Often the mileage for "This Trip" doesn't reset when the car is powered up and a new trip begins. The power used in kWh under trip 1 apoears to be identical to trip 2's power used, even when they should be different.

Ford tech support has frankly been useless in dealing with my issues, and I've spent hours in the phone with them FordPass and FordPass Charging Network support lines, and also brought the car back to the dealer's service dept. Nothing was resolved and the dealer only said something vague about a software update in May. Electrify America admitted they were getting losts of tech support calls from MME owners.

I was promised a call-back from a FordPass Charging Network supervisor two days ago - but no such call has happened. Other tech support issues elevated to Ford Engineering have also disappeared into the ether. I feel abandoned with a car with failed systems - these errors started within the first 200 miles of driving - and having experienced a lack of automatic braking because the front camera failed to communicate with the car's collision avoidance subsystem, and having to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending a vehicle in front of me when auto braking didn't happen - I feel that this car is not safe to operate.

Any others out there suffering in silence? My FE was held at Kansas City Speedway for a good long while for QC issues. While it may have passed Ford QC, it is a defective car. This is NOT good enough and unless we have resolution very soon, Oregon's lemon law will be invoked.

Anyone from Ford Corporate care to answer this? I am getting no response from every effort I've made to get Ford to respond through their official channels. I am not a twitter user, but if someone decided to start a thread on this with Jim Farley, I would have no objection.

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[TheSteelRider]

a) FordPass shows numerous errors - drivetrain errors w/loss of power warnings (but no obvious loss of power), failure of collission avoidance system while driving leading to near accident in traffic when using intelligent cruise control, Electrify America Charger Fault errors when connecting to EA chargers

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-by-service-vehicle-soon-alert-displayed.3415

b) Inability to be recognized by Electrify America charging stations. Attempting to hook to an EA charger generates a hardware error, and it requires calling EA for them to manually activate the charger. I also can't enable Plug & Charge through the FordPass app although other car control features through the (activated) modem work fine.

Did you try this: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/how-to-enable-plug-charge-in-7-steps.3094

c) The numerous powertrain faults are related to module communication failures according to my dealer's service dept; and this is likely also related to problems communicating with the front camera that have resulted in failures of the collision avoidance system while driving. This disabled auto braking and nearly led to an accident last night - so there are significant safety issues. There were several tens of such comms errors including references to "antenna 1, ..., 7" losing connection. I assume many of the sensors communicate wirelessly in the MME.

Did you bring it in and let them fix it? See my response to (a) but I see you already posted in that thread.

d) There are issues with Apple Car Play. When streaming Amazon Music eventually the music stream cuts in and out, then Car Play and my phone both freeze, and the phone overheats. I have no such issues with Car Play and Amazon Music on my Chevy Bolt.

Alex on Autos described this issue: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/alex-on-autos-10-complaints-about-the-mach-e.4060/unread

e) There are bugs using the main screen's trip meter. Often the mileage for "This Trip" doesn't reset when the car is powered up and a new trip begins. The power used in kWh under trip 1 apoears to be identical to trip 2's power used, even when they should be different.

Yes, this was brought up on this forum probably a few weeks ago, having trouble finding the posts at the moment.

 

[0CO2]

Thanks. I was aware of and had tracked all of those previous threads. I don't think the discussion yet has really done a deep dive in the underlying causes of some if not most of these issues - communications failures between PCM, ECM modules, the CPU and the wireless sensors. That was what Ford's internal diagnostics (not available to users through the error reporting functions of FordPass or the Ford website) has revealed. And yes I did bring this to the dealer, which is how they first started pulling the diagnostics off of their internal system, and now that I have an open ticket with them every time I get an obvious error I phone them and they pull off more internal diagnostics (I think they showed 38 diagnostic errors the car generated just two days ago) - but they admitted that the only person at the dealer who had any idea about Mach-e issues is in training this week. I asked if they could push this up the chain to Dearborn to get engineering involved, but as yet, nothing has happened.

Customer support has been truly awful.

I went with Ford over Tesla primarily because I thought that a) Tesla's have poor fit-and-finish issues, b) the nearest Tesla showroom is two hour's drive away, so servicing would be a hassle, c) I'm not a fan of having everything on the big central screen and hardly any physical controls, d) the local Ford dealer's service department would be a big advantage.

The rationale was good, but the reality is very very different.

 

[TheSteelRider]

Thanks. I was aware of and had tracked all of those previous threads. I don't think the discussion yet has really done a deep dive in the underlying causes of some if not most of these issues - communications failures between PCM, ECM modules, the CPU and the wireless sensors. That was what Ford's internal diagnostics (not available to users through the error reporting functions of FordPass or the Ford website) has revealed. And yes I did bring this to the dealer, which is how they first started pulling the diagnostics off of their internal system, and now that I have an open ticket with them every time I get an obvious error I phone them and they pull off more internal diagnostics (I think they showed 38 diagnostic errors the car generated just two days ago) - but they admitted that the only person at the dealer who had any idea about Mach-e issues is in training this week. I asked if they could push this up the chain to Dearborn to get engineering involved, but as yet, nothing has happened.

Given these facts, I would, in fact, blame the dealer not Ford. It is my opinion from reading other posts here those members seeing the LVB and/or Powertrain issues are getting better responses from their dealers. Note that I am not saying great responses, and I am not disputing that Ford may have shortcomings here, just saying it is clear your dealer isn't "on your side" as much a some others. That said, my opinions don't magically make your problems better and are, essentially, meaningless.

 

[JellyBelly]

Thanks. I was aware of and had tracked all of those previous threads. I don't think the discussion yet has really done a deep dive in the underlying causes of some if not most of these issues - communications failures between PCM, ECM modules, the CPU and the wireless sensors. That was what Ford's internal diagnostics (not available to users through the error reporting functions of FordPass or the Ford website) has revealed. And yes I did bring this to the dealer, which is how they first started pulling the diagnostics off of their internal system, and now that I have an open ticket with them every time I get an obvious error I phone them and they pull off more internal diagnostics (I think they showed 38 diagnostic errors the car generated just two days ago) - but they admitted that the only person at the dealer who had any idea about Mach-e issues is in training this week. I asked if they could push this up the chain to Dearborn to get engineering involved, but as yet, nothing has happened.

Customer support has been truly awful.

I went with Ford over Tesla primarily because I thought that a) Tesla's have poor fit-and-finish issues, b) the nearest Tesla showroom is two hour's drive away, so servicing would be a hassle, c) I'm not a fan of having everything on the big central screen and hardly any physical controls, d) the local Ford dealer's service department would be a big advantage.

The rationale was good, but the reality is very very different.

Sorry you are having these issues. But as you already have read all the threads , you now understand that no one has answers yet to some of your questions.

First and foremost - you need your dealer involved to take care of the malfunction alerts/warnings. Even if the car is driving. that is what I would do.

The other issues with FordPass and connected services - they are real and unanswered . Hoping some these will be addressed via All updates or OTA or both.

Yes Ford is monitoring the forum. You obviously reported them to Ford as well, so they are aware.

Will we ever get to the bottom of these i.e. root causes? No I dont think we will. I dont think Ford is going to tell us whether it was supplier issue, design issue, production issue or software or which part of software. The best we can hope is something like XYZ part has to be replaced. So far we have not yet seen repeat pattern with any hardware replacements. Reported Error messages are common for variety of issues.

Not desireable - but its what we have and we have to deal with this. I for myself just want issues fixed as soon possible even if they dont tell me root cause. I do believe Ford is paying attention (does not mean resolution timeline will be satisfactory) but we need to make sure they get reports of all issues we all see.

 

[0CO2]

That's an excellent idea! Good advise for any safety related issue Ford has not dealt with in a timely manner.

 

[0CO2]

An update. Yes I filed a report today with the NHTSA, and I phoned my dealer for an update, but Ford corporate had not responded to them.

But... some progress. I noticed the update to the FordPass app so tried to toggle Pkug and Charge on just to see what would happen. It turned on! So I then drove 30 miles to the nearest DC charger - an EA one at Walmart. I plugged in to a charger that didn't work for me 2-d ago and it quickly started charging - so Plug & Charge is now working.

Amazon Music on Apple Car Play is still a little glitchy, but noticeably less so.

Definitely incremental progress! It would be nice if Ford actually responded to all my attempts to communicate or to phone back as promised, but now at least I can charge at EA when on the road.

 

[machefan]

The numerous powertrain faults are related to module communication failures

My friend hang in there!!!

I can personally vouch that Ford is working on it, they are aware of these issues. The communication issues you are expecting I am too. However my are localized to my garage. When I park in my garage my MME tosses up the powertrain fail and service soon on dash. When I leave my garage, park elsewhere and return the errors are gone. Park in my garage again, leave and return they reappear etc. Ford added tracking to my MME so they can capture more extensive data as well a tool to report when it happens.

I echo what others have already said, our first OTA and second will address many of your other notes. Charging issues are a known issue, which I think they have resolved in the first OTA update along with some of the others you noted. I don't know any details aside from mostly what you read here on the forum.

"and this is likely also related to problems communicating with the front camera that have resulted in failures of the collision avoidance system while driving"

The above however sounds like something local to your MME and could be a loose cable. My MME had a loose ABS cable upon delivery which the dealers tech was able to fix. This was after 4 hours plus working direct with Ford ENG. They told him to replace the ABS module which they borrowed from another MME, turns out that was not it. I actually talked with the tech yesterday and he said it was just one PIN that was not making good contact.

 

[available_username2]

The dealership model is made for service. The reason tesla sucks is because they are trying to protect the bottom line and just do what corporate is ordering. If your dealership doesn't know how to fix mach es, you go to another dealership and they not only are going to do something different they are incentivized to do it will because they are charging ford. Go to a bigger better dealer

 

[smartino]

An update. Yes I filed a report today with the NHTSA, and I phoned my dealer for an update, but Ford corporate had not responded to them.

But... some progress. I noticed the update to the FordPass app so tried to toggle Pkug and Charge on just to see what would happen. It turned on! So I then drove 30 miles to the nearest DC charger - an EA one at Walmart. I plugged in to a charger that didn't work for me 2-d ago and it quickly started charging - so Plug & Charge is now working.

Amazon Music on Apple Car Play is still a little glitchy, but noticeably less so.

Definitely incremental progress! It would be nice if Ford actually responded to all my attempts to communicate or to phone back as promised, but now at least I can charge at EA when on the road.

Have you tried using Car Play plugged into a USB port instead of connecting wirelessly just to test that out? Others have said that when connected via the USB port it is much more stable.

 

[machefan]

Have you tried using Car Play plugged into a USB port instead of connecting wirelessly just to test that out? Others have said that when connected via the USB port it is much more stable.

I can second this, however it's been okay for me, I have an iPhone 12.

The wireless charger does fall out of charge for me if it moves slightly.

 

[tomterky]

I would have your dealer get a Ford Field Service Engineer out to your car immediately. By looking at the updates that they did to mine, below, these are what are affecting your car.

It took the FSE over three hours in the car plugged into it and overnight to get it uploaded and fixed.

 

[JayDoc]

Am I alone in having experienced serious problems with my MME FE? Here's a summary:

a) FordPass shows numerous errors - drivetrain errors w/loss of power warnings (but no obvious loss of power), failure of collission avoidance system while driving leading to near accident in traffic when using intelligent cruise control, Electrify America Charger Fault errors when connecting to EA chargers

b) Inability to be recognized by Electrify America charging stations. Attempting to hook to an EA charger generates a hardware error, and it requires calling EA for them to manually activate the charger. I also can't enable Plug & Charge through the FordPass app although other car control features through the (activated) modem work fine.

c) The numerous powertrain faults are related to module communication failures according to my dealer's service dept; and this is likely also related to problems communicating with the front camera that have resulted in failures of the collision avoidance system while driving. This disabled auto braking and nearly led to an accident last night - so there are significant safety issues. There were several tens of such comms errors including references to "antenna 1, ..., 7" losing connection. I assume many of the sensors communicate wirelessly in the MME.

d) There are issues with Apple Car Play. When streaming Amazon Music eventually the music stream cuts in and out, then Car Play and my phone both freeze, and the phone overheats. I have no such issues with Car Play and Amazon Music on my Chevy Bolt.

e) There are bugs using the main screen's trip meter. Often the mileage for "This Trip" doesn't reset when the car is powered up and a new trip begins. The power used in kWh under trip 1 apoears to be identical to trip 2's power used, even when they should be different.

Ford tech support has frankly been useless in dealing with my issues, and I've spent hours in the phone with them FordPass and FordPass Charging Network support lines, and also brought the car back to the dealer's service dept. Nothing was resolved and the dealer only said something vague about a software update in May. Electrify America admitted they were getting losts of tech support calls from MME owners.

I was promised a call-back from a FordPass Charging Network supervisor two days ago - but no such call has happened. Other tech support issues elevated to Ford Engineering have also disappeared into the ether. I feel abandoned with a car with failed systems - these errors started within the first 200 miles of driving - and having experienced a lack of automatic braking because the front camera failed to communicate with the car's collision avoidance subsystem, and having to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending a vehicle in front of me when auto braking didn't happen - I feel that this car is not safe to operate.

Any others out there suffering in silence? My FE was held at Kansas City Speedway for a good long while for QC issues. While it may have passed Ford QC, it is a defective car. This is NOT good enough and unless we have resolution very soon, Oregon's lemon law will be invoked.

Anyone from Ford Corporate care to answer this? I am getting no response from every effort I've made to get Ford to respond through their official channels. I am not a twitter user, but if someone decided to start a thread on this with Jim Farley, I would have no objection.

Other than inability to activate PaaK, everything else seems to be working perfectly. Haven't had opportunity yet to try DCFC. So far, I'm pleased.

 

[machefan]

I would have your dealer get a Ford Field Service Engineer out to your car immediately. By looking at the updates that they did to mine, below, these are what are affecting your car.

It took the FSE over three hours in the car plugged into it and overnight to get it uploaded and fixed.

Local tech can apply these, Ford just needs to extend it to them if not already available. However I think everyone will be getting updates soon via OTA.