Mach E left us stranded

[SonicBlue]

A zipper if regular access is required??‍

Or just don’t cover it to begin with!

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[scott_77]

What an unfortunate experience to have to face. Good for you @A-A-Ron for getting through it like you did. Hope your daughter is feeling better, too.

I find it so hard to believe with the tech of today that if this kind of thing isn’t already designed out, then its smart enough to detect or predict an upcoming issue and notifying us in advance.

They really need to take this seriously

Your experience alone is enough to scare me into never taking it anywhere for longer than a day really other than home if I can help it. Trust is lost.

I wonder if just having access to 12v status on the app is all it takes.

 

[ced0412]

Why can't the 12v be maintained by the HV battery?

 

[AhardFSU]

Why can't the 12v be maintained by the HV battery?

It is maintained by the HVB. But Ford has had to revise the methodology related to that process and they've discovered modules that have been waking up the 12 volt battery.

 

[Sikkun]

Your experience alone is enough to scare me into never taking it anywhere for longer than a day really other than home if I can help it. Trust is lost.

Have you honestly never had a car battery die before?

 

[AhardFSU]

Have you honestly never had a car battery die before?

I have as recently as 2018 on a ICE Toyota 4Runner inside the garage at my house as I was getting ready to leave to go to work. The battery in my sister's ICE Lexus died last week as she was getting ready to take her son to school and it was raining heavily outside where she hard parked her car; the car wouldn't start so he hard to get new battery. I say all of this to say that you're absolutely correct.

 

[rreddy3]

Many European cars have batteries hidden in the trunk or under the seats behind panels. They often have remote terminals to allow jump starts but you can still get locked out and not access the battery without power. I'm not calling out that this is a good idea just more common than one might think.

I may be incorrect in this, but I seem to recall seeing images of other EVs whose 12v batteries are similarly “hidden”. Although not the greatest design from a maintenance point of view, it’s not unique to Ford.

But, it It seems to me Ford could incorporate a cheap, cost effective, solution for at least accessing the jump points to avoid some of the frustration and aggravation of a dead 12v battery. For example, see the attachment, and if I could do this surely Ford can do it.

There are other examples on the forum, some are truly elegant solutions, like Steve’s, @HuntingPudel , but the simple access ports have a benefit of being a cheap solution not requiring sourcing any hardware or additional wiring.

 

[bdeweese]

I may be incorrect in this, but I seem to recall seeing images of other EVs whose 12v batteries are similarly “hidden”. Although not the greatest design from a maintenance point of view, it’s not unique to Ford.

But, it It seems to me Ford could incorporate a cheap, cost effective, solution for at least accessing the jump points to avoid some of the frustration and aggravation of a dead 12v battery. For example, see the attachment, and if I could do this surely Ford can do it.

There are other examples on the forum, some are truly elegant solutions, like Steve’s, @HuntingPudel , but the simple access ports have a benefit of being a cheap solution not requiring sourcing any hardware or additional wiring.

Anyone have an idea as to how Ford Lease might view this mod (assuming done neatly) upon vehicle turn in? I have 3 yrs to go on my ‘24. Would like to create easy access to the terminals - now, while I don’t heed it. However, don’t want to get dinged a bunch of $$$ for cutting holes in that panel. Thoughts?

 

[scott_77]

Have you honestly never had a car battery die before?

Ha! Yes, of course i have, but the difference here so I thought, unlike an ICE, I can t simply jump the car and be on my way and let the alternator take my home at same speeds and power.

Is this incorrect? Seems to me that instead of an alternator, we have massive battery cells and some logic and boards that keep the 12V topped off. And in AARon's situation there, he was impeded by turtle mode which implies battery cells were low, no?

@A-A-Ron what was the SOC % on the vehicle when you parked it vs once you jumped it?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Came back from a week long trip very late Saturday night. Made it to the airport offsite parking lot, and the car was sluggish to wake up (not uncommon after 7+ days). The back door didn’t want to open and I knew we were in for it when the rear hatch popped open but didn’t raise up and there were no interior lights.

Tried starting the car and knew immediately - the 12v battery was dead - lights randomly came on and off, the center console went to the “powered off to save battery”, Stop Safely Now and a slew of door, camera, brake and other errors on the IPC.

We’d been up for 20 hours at that point, it was 1am, my daughter got stuck on the flight and was puking every few minutes, the weather was colder than forecast so I’m outside in the 40s in shorts - just not a great time for this.

The parking lot had a jump cart but the operator was off getting gas so I pulled the frunk panels while I waited for him to come back. Hooked it up and started the car (save a stop safely error and red ! turtle - the car was running but maybe a bit sluggish). Made it home at nearly 2am. Put the windows down so I could get back in and plugged in and everything went back to normal the next morning.

The battery was only 3 months old and tested fine. I put it on a charger for half a day and reset the BMS in case it was set improperly when the battery was replaced but I suspect some module hung up and didn’t go to sleep, drawing a small but constant load. (No, I don’t have any after market accessories plugged in to drain power).

No idea if that happens often - I drive it often and long and charge every night typically so a small drain wouldn’t normally drain it this low.

Still, not a great experience and we likely won’t bring the Mach E to the airport for long trips again because I’m not sure I can trust it when I need it most. Can’t even imagine what this would be like for an average consumer that isn’t familiar with the 12v issues, how they manifest, how to get to the battery and jump it.

Now to go find some new frunk panel clips because I’m down 4

Did you park it with the HV battery especially low? Or was it charging while you parked? Or neither?

I agree some module probably didn’t go to sleep or do its job.

2021s really need their software updated, I encourage owners to get them updated (find somebody with FDRS). Powertrain, IPC, and BCM especially for 12V issues.

 

[Sikkun]

Ha! Yes, of course i have, but the difference here so I thought, unlike an ICE, I can t simply jump the car and be on my way and let the alternator take my home at same speeds and power.

Is this incorrect? Seems to me that instead of an alternator, we have massive battery cells and some logic and boards that keep the 12V topped off. And in AARon's situation there, he was impeded by turtle mode which implies battery cells were low, no?

@A-A-Ron what was the SOC % on the vehicle when you parked it vs once you jumped it?

When the car is turned on it does provide a 15v charge to the battery charging the entire time you are driving. Turtle mode more would in theory indicate something is wrong with the big battery….which probably cleared itself out once the car was rebooted.

Can always tell when I’m driving based on my batteries logs.

 

[Sikkun]

Anyone have an idea as to how Ford Lease might view this mod (assuming done neatly) upon vehicle turn in? I have 3 yrs to go on my ‘24. Would like to create easy access to the terminals - now, while I don’t heed it. However, don’t want to get dinged a bunch of $$$ for cutting holes in that panel. Thoughts?

Could buy a spare panel, can’t find the part number currently but I believe it was under $200.

 

[scott_77]

When the car is turned on it does provide a 14v charge to the battery charging the entire time you are driving. Turtle mode more would in theory indicate something is wrong with the big battery….which probably cleared itself out once the car was rebooted.

Cool. so it really isnt anything to worry about (short of making it more accessible) and provided the big battery isnt too low. Thanks.

Admittedly, have been reading too deep into these things -- being new to EV and seeing the various items crop up for people here. Read an older post from mach-lee the other day that popped up in the feed on when Frunk wouldnt open completely for him and how to go about repairing things when it really got stuck out of nowhere... so when i picked up food for family w a bunch of overfilled beverages Saturday night. i thought, hey, perfect time to use the frunk (if not simply for the built in drain) but decided not to use the frunk after just reading that to avoid risking not feeding family warm food if that would've happened . Instead I opted to possibly spill in the trunk space (which it did just a little bit).

 

[GreaseMonkey]

Anyone have an idea as to how Ford Lease might view this mod (assuming done neatly) upon vehicle turn in? I have 3 yrs to go on my ‘24. Would like to create easy access to the terminals - now, while I don’t heed it. However, don’t want to get dinged a bunch of $$$ for cutting holes in that panel. Thoughts?

They won’t be able to see it. If you follow these instructions, it’ll be almost invisible.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...nect-relay-for-safety.4107/page-7#post-309362

 

[DeusEx]

Yeah I think you’re right. The update I received on Saturday was for 12 volt drain but it was related to the gateway module.

This looks like an OTA update. I don't think updates via FDRS show in FordPass. You might be the first car I've seen get ECG-24.2.5.7.1. Are you in the EAP?

I've seen Lightnings get ECG-24.2.5.7 last month to update the GWM.

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