My MachE has Bad battery cells

[generaltso]

let @Ford take their time studying and refurbishing the faulty pack.

Im sure Robert would have no interest in doing that.

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[dtbaker61]

Looking at teardown videos, it seems okay to just replace modules and not the whole battery.

I think it would be feasible and ok... I just don't know if modules are available individually to Dealership service centers as replacement parts, or if they are Certified to remove/replace modules and re-balance, commission, and test the 'refurbished ' pack as a whole.

I would want that done 'at the factory'.

What I suspect is that there will be some number of used, damaged, or salvaged battery trays sold back to Ford at 'scrap' price... and they'll be pulled apart, refurbished, tested, and certified by Ford to be made available at some (reduced) refurbished price with a limited warranty versus 'new' battery trays for people that need to replace battery packs for whatever reason.

If 'refurbished' modules are available in 48v 'chunks' as stand-alone parts, I would be VERY interested in the price.... both for use in custom DIY conversion EVs, and/or ESS for Solar/battery backup systems. It would be super-cool to get a 'refurbished' deal on a Mach-e battery tray and bolt that sucker up under a ICE->BEV conversion. Even better if we could get our hands on an open-source controller and take the whole drivetrain out of scrapped Mach-es.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

I think it would be feasible and ok... I just don't know if modules are available individually to Dealership service centers as replacement parts, or if they are Certified to remove/replace modules and re-balance, commission, and test the 'refurbished ' pack as a whole.

I would want that done 'at the factory'.

What I suspect is that there will be some number of used, damaged, or salvaged battery trays sold back to Ford at 'scrap' price... and they'll be pulled apart, refurbished, tested, and certified by Ford to be made available at some (reduced) refurbished price with a limited warranty versus 'new' battery trays for people that need to replace battery packs for whatever reason.

If 'refurbished' modules are available in 48v 'chunks' as stand-alone parts, I would be VERY interested in the price.... both for use in custom DIY conversion EVs, and/or ESS for Solar/battery backup systems. It would be super-cool to get a 'refurbished' deal on a Mach-e battery tray and bolt that sucker up under a ICE->BEV conversion. Even better if we could get our hands on an open-source controller and take the whole drivetrain out of scrapped Mach-es.

Dealer techs don’t seem qualified to do swapping yet. It appears that Ford is using a field engineer to do this work. But there’s no such thing as ‘at the factory’. The vehicle is immobilized and the work is not that challenging. I think Ford has it dialed in for now. We’ll see how the market evolves.

My understanding is that OEMs have a closed loop system on battery recycling, similar to how they handle 12-v. batteries have to go back to a Ford reprocess to harvest useable material.

 

[UnforAll]

I was told it was going to be a while before I get my car back, which sucks cause they won't provide a loaner or rental in the meantime.

And hopefully @Ford Motor Company can also work to get you a loaner or rental while they are getting the battery sorted out between the dealer and FoMoCo

 

[dtbaker61]

Dealer techs don’t seem qualified to do swapping yet. It appears that Ford is using a field engineer to do this work. But there’s no such thing as ‘at the factory’. The vehicle is immobilized and the work is not that challenging. I think Ford has it dialed in for now. We’ll see how the market evolves.

My understanding is that OEMs have a closed loop system on battery recycling, similar to how they handle 12-v. batteries have to go back to a Ford reprocess to harvest useable material.

the 12v batteries are just lead (AGM), which can be recycled anywhere that takes lead-acid. replacements can literally be any 12v-35ah size h3 AGM.

the 48v chunks in a battery tray are a whole different animal.... not just a simple remove/replace. It takes special equipment to balance state-of-charge with other modules, re-commission, re-set BMS, and presumably re-certify for some revised warranty.

 

[Mari76]

And hopefully @Ford Motor Company can also work to get you a loaner or rental while they are getting the battery sorted out between the dealer and FoMoCo

I’m hoping that happens too as the service advisor made it seem that’s it’s gonna be a long wait. I honestly don’t know much about how these batteries work but when i did ask him about the parts, he said they were in back order.

I don’t think even he knows what’s going to happen since he kept saying it was an VERY uncommon issue and that they needed to wait on the ford engineers.

 

[KennyCaphill]

I have a 2021 FE Mach E with about 36500 miles on it. The last few months I've been having issues with the car. Getting the powertrain malfunction/reduced power and the high voltage battery warning lights in the car.

Called my local dealership to set up an appt to have the car checked out, as I didn't want to end up getting stranded again in the middle of nowhere. I dropped off my car last Wednesday and got a call the following day from the service tech. He told me that they had found the cause to all the warning lights. It turns out the battery on the car has 2 bad cells and that it was uncommon in the MachE. He said they had to contact ford engineers to figure out what they needed to do. I was told it was going to be a while before I get my car back, which sucks cause they won't provide a loaner or rental in the meantime.

Has anyone here had this issue with the MachE?? Service advisor said that this was a very uncommon issue and that ford would want to investigate what caused this and look into any other batteries from the same manufacturer. I'm not sure how much of this is true.

I just got my 2021 Premium Mach E out of the dealer shop, after sitting there for 2 1/2 months, for this exact same issue. They had to replace two cells in my battery and it took forever for them to arrive.

Took my car in, with the turtle and powertrain warnings, in the 1st week of March and I got my car back last weekend!! Infuriating!

 

[Mari76]

I just got my 2021 Premium Mach E out of the dealer shop, after sitting there for 2 1/2 months, for this exact same issue. They had to replace two cells in my battery and it took forever for them to arrive.

Took my car in, with the turtle and powertrain warnings, in the 1st week of March and I got my car back last weekend!! Infuriating!

Oh wow! I’m hoping that’s not the case with ours. Did Ford give you a rental or loaner car in the meantime? That’s a long wait for sure to be without a car. How is your car running now? When i dropped off our car last week, it no longer had any warning lights on.

 

[Snakebitten]

Like everything mechanical, I am willing to accept the potential of faulty components. It happens. It's part of the risk assessment that I make knowingly.

But all of that goes out the window when the manufacturer can't provide the replacement parts with even a hint of urgency. The car is entering its 4th year of production. Taking weeks/months to acquire a currently manufactured component would infuriate me too.

It wounds the brand and destroys the goodwill that an otherwise wonderful product has achieved.

 

[KennyCaphill]

Oh wow! I’m hoping that’s not the case with ours. Did Ford give you a rental or loaner car in the meantime? That’s a long wait for sure to be without a car. How is your car running now? When i dropped off our car last week, it no longer had any warning lights on.

I got a 2021 Mach E GT for the whole time, which was a nice fun ride.

Since I got my car back, it's been running great but having my car in the shop for that long didn't exactly leave me with a feeling of confidence going forward.

 

[Mari76]

I got a 2021 Mach E GT for the whole time, which was a nice fun ride.

Since I got my car back, it's been running great but having my car in the shop for that long didn't exactly leave me with a feeling of confidence going forward.

Yeah, i get what you mean. We’ve had quite a few issues with this car and has left us stranded twice since owning. Also the whole charging issues we’ve had has been a pain that my husband is really fed up with the car and really wants to get rid of it. We find it unreliable at this point to take on long trips.

 

[waldo1949]

I have a 2021 FE Mach E with about 36500 miles on it. The last few months I've been having issues with the car. Getting the powertrain malfunction/reduced power and the high voltage battery warning lights in the car.

Called my local dealership to set up an appt to have the car checked out, as I didn't want to end up getting stranded again in the middle of nowhere. I dropped off my car last Wednesday and got a call the following day from the service tech. He told me that they had found the cause to all the warning lights. It turns out the battery on the car has 2 bad cells and that it was uncommon in the MachE. He said they had to contact ford engineers to figure out what they needed to do. I was told it was going to be a while before I get my car back, which sucks cause they won't provide a loaner or rental in the meantime.

Has anyone here had this issue with the MachE?? Service advisor said that this was a very uncommon issue and that ford would want to investigate what caused this and look into any other batteries from the same manufacturer. I'm not sure how much of this is true.

My 2021 had some sort of fluid leak which required battery replacement. Rather than replace the entire HVB, they replaced two of the modules. Ford engineers were involved and actually guided the dealership mech. through the process. It was all done under warranty and the car seems fine now. Diagnostics, getting parts and waiting for mechanic time led to big delays. They had my car for 11 weeks. Ford would have made a loaner available without charge, but I didn’t need it
It was clear that Ford needs to improve parts availability and that more EV certified mechanics are needed.
I did not get it serviced where I bought it because there was a 3 week wait for mechanics time just for the initial evaluation. I spoke with the dealership owner recently and they have had to stop selling EVs because they lost their mechanic. They hope to being selling them again once a mechanic can be hired.
.

 

[ChehRob]

There should be regional repair shops for this. It doesn't make sense for every dealership to do rare and complex repairs. Likewise for similar software issues. Alternately some dealerships could be authorized to specialize in particular problems.

When you need surgery go to someone who does multiple dozens per month, not someone who does a dozen a year.

 

[kdonnel]

And I am pretty sure there are a few threads where members have just had modules replaced. I can’t se3 why they would replace the whole battery if only one or two modules were bad.

I thought there were issues with replacing older modules with brand new modules and the voltages of the various modules not matching across the entire battery?

Maybe the battery has to be older than the current oldest MME before that becomes an issue?

 

[Thunderbuck]

I asked the service advisor about how it would be fixed, they really couldn't tell me. They're waiting on what ford engineers say. He did tell me the car has 10 cells (I'm assuming he meant modules?) and it was number 5 and 8 (if I remember correctly)that were bad.

Your Service Advisor may be using imprecise terminology. What it sounds like is there are two MODULES faulting, not individual cells. I don't know how deeply the local service techs go into the battery pack but it's more likely they can replace individual modules than cells.

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