OTA bricked car

[ZombieJester]

Mostly likely failing due to low SoC/capacity. That is very common with updates that require the vehicle to be inhibited. I can check in PTS with your VIN. PM if you prefer to keep it private.

It's not in my case, attempted installs at 95 and 97% soc. Seen a few others on here as well. In my case, Lee looked and my software is showing a weird error code regarding a config mismatch. Will gladly PM you my VIN and maybe you see something. Thank you for offering!

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[bshaw]

Why? If you're happy with your car now as is, why risk any updates? It was really only in the last few years did we expect any OTA updates for our cars. Before then, the infotainment you got from the factory lasted the life of the car.

Some of the updates are safety related. For instance, the ability to detect when the HVBJB was at risk of failure was added via OTA. This alerted a driver to take their vehicle to a dealer before total failure of the component occurred.

Receiving OTAs should (in theory) add to the resale value of earlier model years. If my 2021 has low miles, and all the features that a 2023 has with similar mileage, wouldn't those cars be worth similar values on the used car market?

 

[Ghost Ryder]

Some of the updates are safety related. For instance, the ability to detect when the HVBJB was at risk of failure was added via OTA. This alerted a driver to take their vehicle to a dealer before total failure of the component occurred.

Receiving OTAs should (in theory) add to the resale value of earlier model years. If my 2021 has low miles, and all the features that a 2023 has with similar mileage, wouldn't those cars be worth similar values on the used car market?

Buyers wouldn't know about specific updates. And most updates show no visible changes on the UI.

As far as safety, those are recall, and you would get a letter telling you that you can get it installed at a dealer.

 

[rugedraw]

It's not in my case, attempted installs at 95 and 97% soc. Seen a few others on here as well. In my case, Lee looked and my software is showing a weird error code regarding a config mismatch. Will gladly PM you my VIN and maybe you see something. Thank you for offering!

Yea, you're right and he's right. I just responded to your message. He can see the same thing I can see.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Do all Ford models update software using FDRS? More occasionally for other models of course, but are all techs trained on it?

Yes, de-bricking a Mach-E is the same as de-bricking a Bronco OTA. It doesn’t require handling high voltage components, so a regular tech can do it. Excuses…

 

[ricapar]

So, some happy news for me. Ford (corporate) seemed to have helped nudging the dealership along. I got a call back around 4:30 today that the car was all set and ready to be picked up.

As expected, they just needed a tech to hook up the computer, reset the lockout, and force and update on the modules that failed the OTA.

The car is now up to date and back in my driveway fully functional again.

I’m not at all thrilled that this happened in the first place, but I’m pretty sure that without the help of Ford corporate the car would still be at the dealership. My conversations with them did not inspire confidence.

 

[ARK]

Yikes, just seeing this. I felt I had a near miss with 6.7 a few weeks back. I was trying to cancel the scheduled nighttime update and force my Mach-E to do the update immediately. But somehow, the update screen got locked and wouldn’t let me modify the schedule anymore - I was stuck with the pre-scheduled time.

Anyway, it was evening and I had just plugged in for an overnight L2 charge when the above happened. In the morning, I see that the update had failed and my Mach-E had stopped charging at 1:00 a.m. (when the update was supposed to occur). I don’t think a L2 charger is supposed to stop after an update is done. Notably, this was a dumb charger that didn’t require any sort of charger-side activation - just plug and play.

I was able to resume the charging remotely with FordPass and ultimately get the car running fine, but maybe it was silly of me to have not disabled the updates as I was in a hotel parking lot and plugged in nose first in a stall. I think the BlueCruise 1.4 news had broken and I was really hoping to have it for my drive home.

 

[ChasingCoral]

So, some happy news for me. Ford (corporate) seemed to have helped nudging the dealership along. I got a call back around 4:30 today that the car was all set and ready to be picked up.

As expected, they just needed a tech to hook up the computer, reset the lockout, and force and update on the modules that failed the OTA.

The car is now up to date and back in my driveway fully functional again.

I’m not at all thrilled that this happened in the first place, but I’m pretty sure that without the help of Ford corporate the car would still be at the dealership. My conversations with them did not inspire confidence.

Glad it worked out well!

 

[TheSteelRider]

FWIW, Louis Rossman covered this story as well, so yes it is definitely making all the rounds

 

[Mach-Lee]

Yikes, just seeing this. I felt I had a near miss with 6.7 a few weeks back. I was trying to cancel the scheduled nighttime update and force my Mach-E to do the update immediately. But somehow, the update screen got locked and wouldn’t let me modify the schedule anymore - I was stuck with the pre-scheduled time.

Anyway, it was evening and I had just plugged in for an overnight L2 charge when the above happened. In the morning, I see that the update had failed and my Mach-E had stopped charging at 1:00 a.m. (when the update was supposed to occur). I don’t think a L2 charger is supposed to stop after an update is done. Notably, this was a dumb charger that didn’t require any sort of charger-side activation - just plug and play.

I was able to resume the charging remotely with FordPass and ultimately get the car running fine, but maybe it was silly of me to have not disabled the updates as I was in a hotel parking lot and plugged in nose first in a stall. I think the BlueCruise 1.4 news had broken and I was really hoping to have it for my drive home.

Charging should pause at 1 AM and resume when the OTA is finished. But I wouldn’t count on that.

I also don’t recommend people try to install OTA updates when they’re at work or on vacation in case there is an issue. Wait until the car is parked at home and you have options in case of total failure.

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