Recall 23S56 - HVBJB Replacement / Powertrain Software Update

[VaderMachE]

Again, NW Ohio Brondes Ford Maumee. Called dealership, they said they'd order parts and contact me for vehicle to be repaired. Five days later, got the call, set up pickup and drop off, along with vehicle to drive. Car hit service, two days to do everything and get vehicle back. I couldn't ask for anything better. Everything was on time and as promised. Vader is back in the garage with new box in the belly!?

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[Logal727]

Again, NW Ohio Brondes Ford Maumee. Called dealership, they said they'd order parts and contact me for vehicle to be repaired. Five days later, got the call, set up pickup and drop off, along with vehicle to drive. Car hit service, two days to do everything and get vehicle back. I couldn't ask for anything better. Everything was on time and as promised. Vader is back in the garage with new box in the belly!?

I don’t think there are any Ford dealers around here with that level of service.

 

[Robz]

My dealer ordered parts two weeks ago. Spoke to them yesterday and they said they have some of the parts but are still waiting for others. No ETA for whatever else they need.

 

[Electricponi]

A little birdie just told me that the dealership needs to order the parts (basically the HV Junction Battery contactor stuff and the BECM and the SOMDBC modules) thru Ford's Special Service system prior to receiving the car for recall work. That is supposed to occur five (5) days prior. Then the work can be done.

I contacted my dealership to schedule and was told the same- Located in Nevada

 

[JSW]

My parts arrived on Monday. I dropped it off on Tuesday.
No progress yet due to availability of an EV technician. ?

 

[Tampamike]

Picked up mine yesterday after the recall was concluded. Got SSN twice on the way home. (Seemed to be triggered by regen in unbridled with 1pd). Back in the shop today. I drive the rest of the way home and back to the dealer in Whisper with 1pd off. Switched it back on in the dealer lot. I think whoever drove it away got SSN as I got the pop up in the FP app while I was talking to the service advisor.
Got another MME for a loaner. Apparently they are plentiful as I saw about 10 lined up in the sales lot.

 

[DaMeatMan]

Every single time I have ever had to schedule a service appointment with the dealer, I am reminded why literally everyone absolutely hates dealing with the dealership network!

About 2 weeks ago I scheduled a service appointment specifically to deal with this Recall notice, and nothing else. After the appointment was confirmed and I was a few days away from my appointment I called to confirm if the (required) parts where available at the dealer to complete the Recall work. I politely explained to the person on the phone that this appointment would require me to take time off work, as well as make alternate travel arrangements for my kids to get to and from school, and I wanted to be sure that parts where ordered (and available) when I came in to get this work done, otherwise i would like to reschedule my appointment. The person on the phone called parts department, and was told the parts were ordered when appointment was created, but they could not determine the status if the parts, and or when they would arrive. They advised me to call a day before the appointment to confirm.

So I call again the day before the appointment, the person who took my call said she would look into this and give me a call back. She calls back and tells me that the Recall would require "programming" and depending on the programming results, they would then determine if hardware replacement was required. I was a bit stunned by this and explained that this is a (hardware specific recall), and the whole point of the recall was to replace the HVBJB, and that programming was in addition to the hardware replacement. I told her I'm looking at the notice right now, and if as a consumer I can see this, why can't they see it, and why isn't it clear to them what needs to be done? She said I'm sorry but I'm just relaying what I was told. I explained that I understand that, but I'm reading the Recall notice, and it's extremely clear what needs to be done, and in what order, and politely explained that I'm just trying to determine if I should take the time off work and re-arrange my day to get to the appointment or not. She then tells me she would have a service manager call me. I thanked her and waited for the call.

Shortly after the service manager calls me, and I can tell by his tone that he's talking to me like I'm some nuisance client that is giving them a hard time. I explained I simply would like to know if you have the parts to complete the Recall before I come in tomorrow morning, that is all I'm trying to determine. He goes on a bit of a rant about these being "special parts" that are VIN specific orders, and that they don't just carry them in stock. I agreed, and explained I understand this, and I asked again, have you ordered the parts to complete this Recall on my specific Vin (which you already have) and which I was told was ordered when I made the appointment the first time I called to confirm.. he stumbles a bit, his tone now changes to be a bit more apologetic, and says the part has not been ordered, asks me if I have a GT.. I say no, it's a premium AWD with Extended range battery and I provided this info on appointment creation. He tells me ok we will order that part now, please don't come in for the appointment tomorrow. I'll make a note here to reschedule the appointment based on arrival of the part. I thank him and told him that is all i was trying to determine from the very start, and we end the call.

So my question is this.. why do all dealers (at least every single one I have ever dealt with) behave in this way?? Why do they act like they are doing me a favor, and I am annoying them by asking them basic information that (is required) based on the point of the service appointment. Why do they completely ignore the needs if the clients, and our time?

These folks just don't care, and they just don't read the work order or purpose for the service visit and they just do what they want! It's for this reason that I have PURPOSEFULLY ignored the glass reseal recall for the windshield and roof on my vehicle, particularly after reading other people's horror stories. I figured I don't have any excess noise, it doesn't leak, so I feel my odds are better letting it go unchecked, than they are of actually having it serviced CORRECTLY!

In the past at other Ford dealers I've made appointments, come in to drop off my vehicle, told it's a 2 hour job, only to have my car sit on their lot all day long while I wait for their call. At which point I come in about an hour b4 closing, to learn my car never moved, and they were simply too busy to look at it. To which I asked the simple question, so what was the scheduled appointment time slot for if you were not going to work on my vehicle when we scheduled the time for you to work on my vehicle, and why did i take time away from work for this and reschedule my entire day? This sort of scenario happened twice!

I can fill this post with instance after instance where they just completely drop the ball, and don't seem to give a shit about their customers time, and service satisfaction. But upon conclusion of every single appointment they tell me I will receive a survey about my satisfaction, and remind me that the service (schedulers) performance and compensation is directly tied to my feedback and not the techs... they send me email reminders, txt reminders for weeks, and out of kindness for the poor guy or gal that scheduled my appointment (but was not responsible for working on my vehicle), I intentionally bite my tongue and avoid giving a bad review.

But why???... honestly I bought my car from Ford because I wanted to "vote" with my dollars to give legacy auto a chance at staying relevant in the EV space, but this antiquated service center business model is complete garbage, adding next to ZERO VALUE to the customer, and it's forced upon us and the Manufacturers!

Anyway I think I just needed to vent! Thanks for taking the time to listen to my rant, and I sincerely hope that Ford finds a way to get the dealer network TO DO THE JOB THEY SHOULD BE DOING, or just drop them altogether to the way side of extinct business models like Blockbuster that refused to change with the times, particularly in the face of far better consumer facing options (like Teslas direct to customer model), or in keeping with the BlockBuster analogy, Netflix' direct to consumer streaming!

 

[Logal727]

Every single time I have ever had to schedule a service appointment with the dealer, I am reminded why literally everyone absolutely hates dealing with the dealership network!

About 2 weeks ago I scheduled a service appointment specifically to deal with this Recall notice, and nothing else. After the appointment was confirmed and I was a few days away from my appointment I called to confirm if the (required) parts where available at the dealer to complete the Recall work. I politely explained to the person on the phone that this appointment would require me to take time off work, as well as make alternate travel arrangements for my kids to get to and from school, and I wanted to be sure that parts where ordered (and available) when I came in to get this work done, otherwise i would like to reschedule my appointment. The person on the phone called parts department, and was told the parts were ordered when appointment was created, but they could not determine the status if the parts, and or when they would arrive. They advised me to call a day before the appointment to confirm.

So I call again the day before the appointment, the person who took my call said she would look into this and give me a call back. She calls back and tells me that the Recall would require "programming" and depending on the programming results, they would then determine if hardware replacement was required. I was a bit stunned by this and explained that this is a (hardware specific recall), and the whole point of the recall was to replace the HVBJB, and that programming was in addition to the hardware replacement. I told her I'm looking at the notice right now, and if as a consumer I can see this, why can't they see it, and why isn't it clear to them what needs to be done? She said I'm sorry but I'm just relaying what I was told. I explained that I understand that, but I'm reading the Recall notice, and it's extremely clear what needs to be done, and in what order, and politely explained that I'm just trying to determine if I should take the time off work and re-arrange my day to get to the appointment or not. She then tells me she would have a service manager call me. I thanked her and waited for the call.

Shortly after the service manager calls me, and I can tell by his tone that he's talking to me like I'm some nuisance client that is giving them a hard time. I explained I simply would like to know if you have the parts to complete the Recall before I come in tomorrow morning, that is all I'm trying to determine. He goes on a bit of a rant about these being "special parts" that are VIN specific orders, and that they don't just carry them in stock. I agreed, and explained I understand this, and I asked again, have you ordered the parts to complete this Recall on my specific Vin (which you already have) and which I was told was ordered when I made the appointment the first time I called to confirm.. he stumbles a bit, his tone now changes to be a bit more apologetic, and says the part has not been ordered, asks me if I have a GT.. I say no, it's a premium AWD with Extended range battery and I provided this info on appointment creation. He tells me ok we will order that part now, please don't come in for the appointment tomorrow. I'll make a note here to reschedule the appointment based on arrival of the part. I thank him and told him that is all i was trying to determine from the very start, and we end the call.

So my question is this.. why do all dealers (at least every single one I have ever dealt with) behave in this way?? Why do they act like they are doing me a favor, and I am annoying them by asking them basic information that (is required) based on the point of the service appointment. Why do they completely ignore the needs if the clients, and our time?

These folks just don't care, and they just don't read the work order or purpose for the service visit and they just do what they want! It's for this reason that I have PURPOSEFULLY ignored the glass reseal recall for the windshield and roof on my vehicle, particularly after reading other people's horror stories. I figured I don't have any excess noise, it doesn't leak, so I feel my odds are better letting it go unchecked, than they are of actually having it serviced CORRECTLY!

In the past at other Ford dealers I've made appointments, come in to drop off my vehicle, told it's a 2 hour job, only to have my car sit on their lot all day long while I wait for their call. At which point I come in about an hour b4 closing, to learn my car never moved, and they were simply too busy to look at it. To which I asked the simple question, so what was the scheduled appointment time slot for if you were not going to work on my vehicle when we scheduled the time for you to work on my vehicle, and why did i take time away from work for this and reschedule my entire day? This sort of scenario happened twice!

I can fill this post with instance after instance where they just completely drop the ball, and don't seem to give a shit about their customers time, and service satisfaction. But upon conclusion of every single appointment they tell me I will receive a survey about my satisfaction, and remind me that the service (schedulers) performance and compensation is directly tied to my feedback and not the techs... they send me email reminders, txt reminders for weeks, and out of kindness for the poor guy or gal that scheduled my appointment (but was not responsible for working on my vehicle), I intentionally bite my tongue and avoid giving a bad review.

But why???... honestly I bought my car from Ford because I wanted to "vote" with my dollars to give legacy auto a chance at staying relevant in the EV space, but this antiquated service center business model is complete garbage, adding next to ZERO VALUE to the customer, and it's forced upon us and the Manufacturers!

Anyway I think I just needed to vent! Thanks for taking the time to listen to my rant, and I sincerely hope that Ford finds a way to get the dealer network TO DO THE JOB THEY SHOULD BE DOING, or just drop them altogether to the way side of extinct business models like Blockbuster that refused to change with the times, particularly in the face of far better consumer facing options (like Teslas direct to customer model), or in keeping with the BlockBuster analogy, Netflix' direct to consumer streaming!

Totally agree, the inconsistencies and misinformation is very bad among the dealer network, still Ford's greatest weakness. I'm still waiting to hear if my car is done from a recall that isn't even a hard one, the E-brake cable replacement, they've had it since yesterday morning. Then I'm supposed to hear about when parts will be in for HBVJB recall. It's all very bad for the customers.

 

[Just Lurking]

My dealer just called me and wants the car next Tuesday to take pictures
And then they will order the parts to install on the 11th.

I sent emails to service managers with the helpful attachment in the original post. One of them is still insisting on taking pictures of the car, vin, miles, etc. before ordering the parts.

I scheduled an appointment last week for tomorrow (12/28) and made sure they were ordering the parts. I called today to verify that they actually ordered the HVBJB and they insisted that they WILL NOT order the parts until they reviewed the vehicle in person, ran updates, and checked for codes.

Had to drive 25 minutes to my dealer and 25 minutes back home because my dealer wouldn’t order the parts until I left the car at the dealership. Printed out the pdf and the guy got a little combative with me saying that because I had the papers doesn’t mean it’s true. Manager approved ordering the part without my car being there after 15 minutes of waiting. This is an hour of my life I’ll never get back.

Sometimes you just can’t win …

Called to schedule recall service last week. Went over the recall notice with service scheduler on the phone. Verified rental authorized. Pointed out that parts need to be ordered and it might take 5 days - she checked with service manager. Yes, parts will be ordered. Called yesterday to check. Adviser unavailable but left message. I gave it 50/50.

Showed up early this morning. No parts. Reschedule for next week. Ugh.

My dealer did not order the parts. From the interchange with their service scheduler, they are unaware of the recall, the parts order process and the Ford rental time period. Not looking forward to this adventure.

I had my appointment for today, and they were able to complete all work except for the HVBJB as the part is on backorder until February. They ordered through the appropriate process (allegedly.)

....

The part is allegedly tagged to me, so they'll notify me when it's in and schedule service accordingly.

These dealers are just maddening. It makes me want to scream, "JUST DO YOUR F*ING JOB!" I know that won't help and would never do that to a dealer employee, but if I were experiencing this level of incompetence I'd definitely be screaming inside.

Same thing happened to me. Appointment today and part is back ordered. Will not be available till February.

Why wouldn't they notify you in advance that the part is back-ordered and give you the option to reschedule so you don't waste your time? It's infuriating.

Mine has been at the dealer now for a full week and no progress. “Should get it by the end of the week.” Called in late December ( make sure parts are ordered), called before drop off, rescheduled to next week, called again to make sure parts would be on site, showed up as scheduled, came back next week, called Friday (let me check - I’ll get back to you, or not), called yesterday (let me check again), found out part was not ordered until car was dropped off and hoping it will be here this week. Ugh (again).

That is just an unacceptable level of incompetence.

“You may not need that part,” is because until they run your VIN, they don’t know.

You know of course because you already got the letter. But it’s better for them to be vague as it reserves the right for them to be wrong. ?

This is such a cop-out. They just need to run the VIN, and they don't need to see the car to do that. If you're an existing customer your VIN is already in their system!

 

[DaMeatMan]

These dealers are just maddening. It makes me want to scream, "JUST DO YOUR F*ING JOB!" I know that won't help and would never do that to a dealer employee, but if I were experiencing this level of incompetence I'd definitely be screaming inside.



Why wouldn't they notify you in advance that the part is back-ordered and give you the option to reschedule so you don't waste your time? It's infuriating.



That is just an unacceptable level of incompetence.




This is such a cop-out. They just need to run the VIN, and they don't need to see the car to do that. If you're an existing customer your VIN is already in their system!

It's an absolute sh!t show of a situation, and the dealer network will be the death of Ford and many other legacy auto makers. Not only is legacy auto trying to catch up to Tesla, but they are trying to do so with the dealership network dragging the down. Not to mention soon they will also have to compete with Chinese EV's entering our markets, competing for market share as well!

I just don't get it to be honest with you. If I go to work tomorrow and I continually suck at my job, guess what, I get fired!

If I start a business with making a product or offering a service that absolutely bucks, guess what, I go out of business, and a better business comes along to take its place!

The last time I checked this was a "free market" society that I live in, yet for some absolutely bizarre reason, we have a business model that is absolutely trash (dealernetwork), yet I absolutely have no option but to get my car serviced with this hot trash of a business model, and the manufacturer has no option but to keep using that dealer network with no option to sell direct to customer, or offer direct to customer service and support! What the heck happened here!!?

 

[mkhuffman]

It's an absolute sh!t show of a situation, and the dealer network will be the death of Ford and many other legacy auto makers. Not only is legacy auto trying to catch up to Tesla, but they are trying to do so with the dealership network dragging the down. Not to mention soon they will also have to compete with Chinese EV's entering our markets, competing for market share as well!

I just don't get it to be honest with you. If I go to work tomorrow and I continually suck at my job, guess what, I get fired!

If I start a business with making a product or offering a service that absolutely bucks, guess what, I go out of business, and a better business comes along to take its place!

The last time I checked this was a "free market" society that I live in, yet for some absolutely bizarre reason, we have a business model that is absolutely trash (dealernetwork), yet I absolutely have no option but to get my car serviced with this hot trash of a business model, and the manufacturer has no option but to keep using that dealer network with no option to sell direct to customer, or offer direct to customer service and support! What the heck happened here!!?

BTW - Fisker is going to leverage a dealer model.

While it is sort of a free market, there are all sorts of franchise laws and dealer laws that reduces the "free market" aspect. In a true free market, there would be little to no regulation preventing direct vehicle sales if an auto company wanted to sell direct. Of course, there are franchise agreements that are contracts between the dealers and the auto makers, so violating those would violate contract law. Definitely contracts should be enforced.

 

[Logal727]

Welp, my service advisor just called me and said "Ford won't let them order the parts" for my VIN. Which doesn't sound right at all.

 

[DaMeatMan]

From what I've read on the matter the only real way forward would be for manufacturers to do one of the following to side step the dealers and existing franchise agreements and law.

1) Buy out the dealers, and acquire the employees, the locations and convert them to a purely service based model, gaining absolute control over how they operate. Obviously this is incredibly cost prohibitive, and if ever implemented would like result in the closure of many locations that simply don't make sense, and lay off allot of employees that are no longer ger necessary via major restructuring.

2) Start a subsidiary business that does not have existing franchise contracts in place, and use that as the primary means to launch vehicles direct to customer, and decide how best to implement service for the customer in a way that works best for (both) customer and manufacturer, rather than being hamstrung by dealer franchise law.

I have no idea which way Ford will go, but it looks to me like Farley is very well aware of the issues here, and is trying to find the best way forward for the company and the customer. The only question is whether or not they can execute and implement something viable before the legacy business model drags them under like a sinking ship!

 

[Logal727]

So it looks like Ford SSC has stopped allowing ordering of some HVBJB, I’ve got the screenshot from the portal that my advisor gave me, attaching here, text is really small, so I will transcribe it as well.

Seems like they actually are staggering availability now?

It reads: "Due to the high backorder situation with part number NK4Z-106C666-E, if the vehicle is down you will need to use the reman part number NK4Z-10C666CRM to complete the repair. You can order the reman part through the normal channels. The bulletin and claiming will be updated to accept this part number to close the recall repair. When the OEM part is in better supply normal ordering will resume. Please type UNDERSTOOD in the box below indicating you will order the reman part if the vehicle is currently down in your shop"

and then there's box with UNDERSTOOD asking if they want the reman part.

I'm so confused, what's happening here? Any ideas @Mach-Lee ?

Seems to be a lot of overall confusion around, my service advisor said a Ford rep was in yesterday and they had a meeting with everyone about this and about how the dealer is supposed to order the parts 5 days in advance, but they responded that they weren't able to. I think something got messed up with this recall in communicating and availability.

 

[Mach1E]

Well, I got mine back. All 3 recalls done and they updated “all available modules.” Even had the tech plug the laptop in when I picked it up just to be sure.

All in all not a bad experience.

Called to schedule Dec 29.
They picked my car up and dropped off a 23 GTPE loaner Jan 3.
Ordered parts Jan 4.
Parts show up Jan 9.
Pick up car Jan 12.

They had 3 other Mach Es in the shop for the same recall. Some pics of another car (not mine) from today-

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