My Mach-E did not charge last night!

[SnBGC]

Any possibility it has to do with Microsoft's Azure AD crash yesterday?

They were different events. Several of us had issues with charging over the weekend and the MS crash was yesterday so probably not related unless MS experienced problems back at that time frame as well. Sounds plausible....

I have a working theory about why my car didn't charge last Thursday evening. That was a heavy travel day for me. I think I drained about 150 miles from the battery that day and I don't think I started the day at 100% so by the time I got home the car calculated a little more than 8 hours of L2 to charge back up. My charge schedule was midnight to 6 am plus a Departure Time of 7:15 am.

This triggered the alert message on my screen that the car would charge outside the schedule in order to meet the departure time. In my head I said to the car....."Okay cool. Start at 11 pm then to make yourself happy" then I got out and plugged in thinking the car would wait until later that evening to charge. But, I heard the contactors on my EVSE close so the car was drawing some power but I just assumed it was cooling the battery after my drive home. Something very normal during the summer months but a little abnormal this time of year.

Before starting dinner, I decided to check FordPass to see what it said and it was charging. So I stopped it somehow. Not sure what I did but FordPass said my schedule was synced and charging stopped.....whatever that means.

I then closed FordPass and woke up the next morning to a car that didn't charge overnight and wasn't preconditioned either.

I think I did something in FordPass that caused the car to skip the next departure time and the next scheduled charge. I know MyFordMobile allows to skip the next GoTime so maybe FordPass offers something similar?

I just got a new phone so I am going to try FordPass again and see if it works any better. If so, then I can dig through the menus and see what I can find. I haven't had FordPass running for the last 3 or 4 days I think so maybe some stuff has improved since then.

I will report back what I learn (if anything...)

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[ChasingCoral]

They were different events. Several of us had issues with charging over the weekend and the MS crash was yesterday so probably not related unless MS experienced problems back at that time frame as well. Sounds plausible....

I have a working theory about why my car didn't charge last Thursday evening. That was a heavy travel day for me. I think I drained about 150 miles from the battery that day and I don't think I started the day at 100% so by the time I got home the car calculated a little more than 8 hours of L2 to charge back up. My charge schedule was midnight to 6 am plus a Departure Time of 7:15 am.

This triggered the alert message on my screen that the car would charge outside the schedule in order to meet the departure time. In my head I said to the car....."Okay cool. Start at 11 pm then to make yourself happy" then I got out and plugged in thinking the car would wait until later that evening to charge. But, I heard the contactors on my EVSE close so the car was drawing some power but I just assumed it was cooling the battery after my drive home. Something very normal during the summer months but a little abnormal this time of year.

Before starting dinner, I decided to check FordPass to see what it said and it was charging. So I stopped it somehow. Not sure what I did but FordPass said my schedule was synced and charging stopped.....whatever that means.

I then closed FordPass and woke up the next morning to a car that didn't charge overnight and wasn't preconditioned either.

I think I did something in FordPass that caused the car to skip the next departure time and the next scheduled charge. I know MyFordMobile allows to skip the next GoTime so maybe FordPass offers something similar?

I just got a new phone so I am going to try FordPass again and see if it works any better. If so, then I can dig through the menus and see what I can find. I haven't had FordPass running for the last 3 or 4 days I think so maybe some stuff has improved since then.

I will report back what I learn (if anything...)

Oops, brain glitch and forgot to check the date on the OP. Problem last night was last Friday's last night.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

I am still trying to figure out how the charge schedules and departure times work. Here is what I think I have learned so far..... (AC L1 or L2 only)

1. If you plug in at a new or unknown location then the vehicle will begin charging now and continue to do so up to 100%. If you aren't sure if your car is charging then you can view the icons on your screen.
   
2. If you program a Charge Location into SYNC then you have more features and settings. You can limit the charge percentage, set a charge schedule and set a departure time. Departure times appear to be location specific so that is a bit strange to me. (maybe I am wrong about that though...??)
3. The vehicle prioritizes your Departure Times above all else. Meaning, it will always try and get your vehicle fully charged (to your pre-set level) before your departure time. If it can do this while charging within your charge schedule then fine.....if not, then it will take matters into its own hands and charge outside that window(s). My preliminary observation is that it will begin charging now, even if your charge schedule isn't set to begin until later that evening! In this case, the vehicle may stop charging once it reaches the point where the remaining charge can be completed inside the charge schedule.
4. If your car decides to charge outside your charge schedule and you stop it via the in car controls or FordPass then it might skip your upcoming charge window. I have tested this twice so far with the same results. I believe it also skipped the next departure time as well (did not pre-condition the cabin). If any of you are willing, please test this on your car and see if you get the same behavior...
5. Lastly.....your charge schedule will finally come into play. If there is no conflict with reaching your max S.O.C. prior to your next departure time or you don't have a departure time set then your vehicle will charge within that schedule......even if it means you might not reach your max state of charge before the window closes.

Another tidbit that is related to Departure Times.....

If you are plugged into L1 and set a departure time with cabin preconditioning then the vehicle may use the HVB to supplement the L1 shore power to heat/cool the cabin. It is less likely to do that with L2 power but is still possible.....especially if your L2 power isn't 32 amps or greater.


Feel free to add/question/correct anything I listed here. This is a work in progress. ?

EDIT: It also appears the vehicle learns the charge rate for each charge location. So, the very first few charge events may not function as expected because the car will assume AC L1 until it learns differently. If you REALLY want to confuse the car......have two different EVSE units at two different power levels and switch back and forth between the two. (ask me how I know this.....)

this is a super interesting breakdown. It would be nice for Ford to chime in and say if you're right or not. wait, I'll start holding my breath...

[GoGoGadgetMachE has died]

 

[SnBGC]

Oops, brain glitch and forgot to check the date on the OP. Problem last night was last Friday's last night.

Easy to lose track of what day it is when you are on vacation.

 

[SnBGC]

this is a super interesting breakdown. It would be nice for Ford to chime in and say if you're right or not. wait, I'll start holding my breath...

[GoGoGadgetMachE has died]

Yes it would. What say you @RonTCat ?

Some of that comes from the Owner's Manual and some comes from the Service Manual and the rest from my driveway.

I saw it published by Ford several times that Departure Times take priority over everything else. I also saw it published by Ford saying that if you get that message about charging outside the schedule then it will "usually" start charging right away. In my testing......"usually" and "always" was interchangeable but I only got that message twice so more testing is required of course.

 

[RonTCat]

Yes it would. What say you @RonTCat ?

Some of that comes from the Owner's Manual and some comes from the Service Manual and the rest from my driveway.

I saw it published by Ford several times that Departure Times take priority over everything else. I also saw it published by Ford saying that if you get that message about charging outside the schedule then it will "usually" start charging right away. In my testing......"usually" and "always" was interchangeable but I only got that message twice so more testing is required of course.

I say the OTAs should be pushed sooner instead of later.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Yes it would. What say you @RonTCat ?

Some of that comes from the Owner's Manual and some comes from the Service Manual and the rest from my driveway.

I saw it published by Ford several times that Departure Times take priority over everything else. I also saw it published by Ford saying that if you get that message about charging outside the schedule then it will "usually" start charging right away. In my testing......"usually" and "always" was interchangeable but I only got that message twice so more testing is required of course.

The challenge is identifying which information comes from Ford Engineering and which comes from Ford Marketing.

 

[SnBGC]

They were different events. Several of us had issues with charging over the weekend and the MS crash was yesterday so probably not related unless MS experienced problems back at that time frame as well. Sounds plausible....

I have a working theory about why my car didn't charge last Thursday evening. That was a heavy travel day for me. I think I drained about 150 miles from the battery that day and I don't think I started the day at 100% so by the time I got home the car calculated a little more than 8 hours of L2 to charge back up. My charge schedule was midnight to 6 am plus a Departure Time of 7:15 am.

This triggered the alert message on my screen that the car would charge outside the schedule in order to meet the departure time. In my head I said to the car....."Okay cool. Start at 11 pm then to make yourself happy" then I got out and plugged in thinking the car would wait until later that evening to charge. But, I heard the contactors on my EVSE close so the car was drawing some power but I just assumed it was cooling the battery after my drive home. Something very normal during the summer months but a little abnormal this time of year.

Before starting dinner, I decided to check FordPass to see what it said and it was charging. So I stopped it somehow. Not sure what I did but FordPass said my schedule was synced and charging stopped.....whatever that means.

I then closed FordPass and woke up the next morning to a car that didn't charge overnight and wasn't preconditioned either.

I think I did something in FordPass that caused the car to skip the next departure time and the next scheduled charge. I know MyFordMobile allows to skip the next GoTime so maybe FordPass offers something similar?

I just got a new phone so I am going to try FordPass again and see if it works any better. If so, then I can dig through the menus and see what I can find. I haven't had FordPass running for the last 3 or 4 days I think so maybe some stuff has improved since then.

I will report back what I learn (if anything...)

New info to add....
We know priority 1 is Departure Time.
I learned priority 2 is end of charge schedule. This means your car will make sure it reaches full charge (or preset limit) by end of charge schedule.

So there are now three scenarios that I am aware of in which the car will begin charging as soon as it is plugged in.

1. No schedule or departure time set for that location.
2. Departure time set and not enough time to charge in the schedule window to ensure a full charge prior to set departure time.
3. Not enough time to charge in scheduled window (even when no Departure time is set).

 

[SnBGC]

More info to add.....
If vehicle calculates it needs to charge outside schedule then it starts charging when plugged in (like we already knew....)
However, it only charges long enough to reach the point where the vehicle CAN finish charging in the scheduled window and then it stops and waits until that time to finish the charge.

 

[SJ_Okay]

Thanks @SnBGC for directing me here. So as it stands, if I want to charge at set times, I can’t have departure times set. This is pretty sh*tty, not going to lie.

Also, so much in this thread that could be contributing to issues for me. For starters, my home charge location in the car has the location some 30 miles away! Same in FordPass, despite the physical car location being correct, both car and app have home charge location 30 miles away.

Another thing I saw posted were the different charge speeds in EVSE’s. Mine is variable and used in conjunction with my solar. So my charge schedule is 6 hours a day, 10am - 4pm, 7 days a week @ 1.4kW speed… so a nice, slow and free trickle charge. But if I have a long journey ahead I’ll do 7kw to get me to desired level.

It’s something really minor, but it’s a real pain in the butt for me. So the short of it is that I can’t use departure times with my charging schedule? This really sucks when I’m trying trickle charge from my excess solar… it will just default and start charging from the grid if I arrive home and plug in at night.

 

[SnBGC]

Thanks @SnBGC for directing me here. So as it stands, if I want to charge at set times, I can’t have departure times set. This is pretty sh*tty, not going to lie.

Also, so much in this thread that could be contributing to issues for me. For starters, my home charge location in the car has the location some 30 miles away! Same in FordPass, despite the physical car location being correct, both car and app have home charge location 30 miles away.

Another thing I saw posted were the different charge speeds in EVSE’s. Mine is variable and used in conjunction with my solar. So my charge schedule is 6 hours a day, 10am - 4pm, 7 days a week @ 1.4kW speed… so a nice, slow and free trickle charge. But if I have a long journey ahead I’ll do 7kw to get me to desired level.

It’s something really minor, but it’s a real pain in the butt for me. So the short of it is that I can’t use departure times with my charging schedule? This really sucks when I’m trying trickle charge from my excess solar… it will just default and start charging from the grid if I arrive home and plug in at night.

Yeah. I wish the car would let us prioritize the schedule over all else. That would be helpful.

Are you able to set a schedule in your EVSE? That could work for you instead of letting the car do it.

 

[SJ_Okay]

Yeah. I wish the car would let us prioritize the schedule over all else. That would be helpful.

Are you able to set a schedule in your EVSE? That could work for you instead of letting the car do it.

I can yes, so will give that a try next.

 

[SJ_Okay]

@SnBGC do we know if the car still uses the EVSE for thermal battery management if you have a charge schedule set? It must do, but how would we know?

 

[macchiaz-o]

@SnBGC do we know if the car still uses the EVSE for thermal battery management if you have a charge schedule set? It must do, but how would we know?

Scott,

I agree "it must do," but several of us in hot climates have not noticed any evidence that heat management takes place unless plugged in AND within the location's charge schedule. This is likely a defect and hopefully it will be resolved.

When switching back to Park from a drive, the vehicle's instrument cluster will say display a warning with poor grammar: Outside Air Temperature High Plug Vehicle in When not in use. But it doesn't matter, it won't do anything once plugged in unless the vehicle's within its permitted charge schedule.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/warmest-day-so-far-this-summer.6586/post-185614

 

[SnBGC]

Scott,

I agree "it must do," but several of us in hot climates have not noticed any evidence that heat management takes place unless plugged in AND within the location's charge schedule. This is likely a defect and hopefully it will be resolved.

When switching back to Park from a drive, the vehicle's instrument cluster will say display a warning with poor grammar: Outside Air Temperature High Plug Vehicle in When not in use. But it doesn't matter, it won't do anything once plugged in unless the vehicle's within its permitted charge schedule.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/warmest-day-so-far-this-summer.6586/post-185614

^^
My observations are same.

I did catch my car running the fan one time while plugged in outside the charge schedule but it only did so for a few minutes. Then the fan turned off and the louvers closed again. It might have just been awakened when the fob came near.

I routinely park my car at work inside the charge schedule but with a very low charge setting yet plugged in. I get a message on FordPass saying my cat has reached the charge percentage yet I haven't seen it cool the battery while parked.

So, I am not sure why the dash message is displayed if the car doesn't take advantage of being plugged in. My previous Ford BEV did. ??

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