sshephard
New Member
- First Name
- Scott
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2021
- Threads
- 0
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 5
- Location
- South Dakota, USA
- Vehicles
- Ford F-150 Platinum
- Occupation
- retired
I'll add my saga from yesterday to this thread. There are similar symptoms others have reported but there are significant differences as well.
I was in a town about 120 miles from our hometown with 95 miles of range left so I figured I needed about 40 miles added to make the return trip. I had been charging in a family member's garage on the 110 plug on the supplied Ford Charger. Everything went well as it charged overnight. In the morning, needing more miles more quickly, I went looking for a faster publicly available charger. At an Audi dealer I tried a level 2 (brand unknown) and got a charge fault. I'd seen this once or twice before on other chargers but when I tried another available plug, things worked.
In this case, though, the second charger plug resulted in the same warning. So I proceeded to a ChargePoint charger a few miles away that has worked every time in the past. As I was driving there, I got a "Service Engine Soon" dialogue and an orange wrench on my middle display. I also got a "Powertrain Malfunction/Reduced Power" on my display. I'd read reports of others getting this and was horrified. But the car continued to perform as it always had.
At the ChargePoint station I plugged in and briefly got the slowly flashing blue light in the chargeport area but within a 2 or three seconds, I got the solid orange circle and another "charge fault" message.
I went back to the family member's garage, plugged in the the 110 circuit that had worked so well before and got the solid orange circle.
I was down to 71 miles of range and I needed to get home or leave the car at the local Ford dealer. The problem was that it was Saturday afternoon and we needed to get back home and if we left the car behind, how would that work?
The solution ended up being that we got on the interstate and headed north. At 60 mph with a good tail wind, we are getting close to 3.0 miles per kw. And the orange wrench went away. We got to a town halfway home, tried another ChargePoint charger with the same result - solid orange circle. So we headed home on a secondary road (speed limit 65). We went between 35 and 40 mph for the last 50 miles figuring that at some point we'd have to call for a tow truck. But we made it back home with 3% battery and 9 miles to spare. Needless to say, yesterday was pretty stressful.
I should say that the temperature was in the mid-30s (Fahrenheit), which helped given that the day before it only got up to 8. We turned the heat off but stayed warm enough. The windows were fogging a little as we go close to home. My wife commented on this and I said we were experiencing the "Apollo 13 Syndrome." Some of you will know that I'm referring to the failed moon mission where the astronauts, in an attempt to save battery power for re-entry processes, turned the heat down so much that frost was forming inside the capsule. But, like us, they made it home.
This morning I plugged in to my 240 40 amp JuiceBox, then my 240 and 120 plugs of my Ford Charger all with the same result.
So that's my story. The biggest difference from what others have reported is that my orange charge fault light happens almost immediately. And replugging results in the same thing. Also, I forgot to mention that I also got a "Cord Lock System Failure" dialogue on my cabin screen. That went away as we drove home but it came back on this morning. I did try disconnecting and reconnecting the 12 volt battery yesterday but nothing changed. Voltage underway yesterday was 14.4 or so and this morning with the car off it was 12.5. Finally, I found the emergency manual cord lock string inside the frunk and pulled that but nothing changed.
I have just enough miles to get the car to our local dealer on Monday, which will be the first time in 8000 miles that it has made a visit for service. We'll see what happens . . . .
I was in a town about 120 miles from our hometown with 95 miles of range left so I figured I needed about 40 miles added to make the return trip. I had been charging in a family member's garage on the 110 plug on the supplied Ford Charger. Everything went well as it charged overnight. In the morning, needing more miles more quickly, I went looking for a faster publicly available charger. At an Audi dealer I tried a level 2 (brand unknown) and got a charge fault. I'd seen this once or twice before on other chargers but when I tried another available plug, things worked.
In this case, though, the second charger plug resulted in the same warning. So I proceeded to a ChargePoint charger a few miles away that has worked every time in the past. As I was driving there, I got a "Service Engine Soon" dialogue and an orange wrench on my middle display. I also got a "Powertrain Malfunction/Reduced Power" on my display. I'd read reports of others getting this and was horrified. But the car continued to perform as it always had.
At the ChargePoint station I plugged in and briefly got the slowly flashing blue light in the chargeport area but within a 2 or three seconds, I got the solid orange circle and another "charge fault" message.
I went back to the family member's garage, plugged in the the 110 circuit that had worked so well before and got the solid orange circle.
I was down to 71 miles of range and I needed to get home or leave the car at the local Ford dealer. The problem was that it was Saturday afternoon and we needed to get back home and if we left the car behind, how would that work?
The solution ended up being that we got on the interstate and headed north. At 60 mph with a good tail wind, we are getting close to 3.0 miles per kw. And the orange wrench went away. We got to a town halfway home, tried another ChargePoint charger with the same result - solid orange circle. So we headed home on a secondary road (speed limit 65). We went between 35 and 40 mph for the last 50 miles figuring that at some point we'd have to call for a tow truck. But we made it back home with 3% battery and 9 miles to spare. Needless to say, yesterday was pretty stressful.
I should say that the temperature was in the mid-30s (Fahrenheit), which helped given that the day before it only got up to 8. We turned the heat off but stayed warm enough. The windows were fogging a little as we go close to home. My wife commented on this and I said we were experiencing the "Apollo 13 Syndrome." Some of you will know that I'm referring to the failed moon mission where the astronauts, in an attempt to save battery power for re-entry processes, turned the heat down so much that frost was forming inside the capsule. But, like us, they made it home.
This morning I plugged in to my 240 40 amp JuiceBox, then my 240 and 120 plugs of my Ford Charger all with the same result.
So that's my story. The biggest difference from what others have reported is that my orange charge fault light happens almost immediately. And replugging results in the same thing. Also, I forgot to mention that I also got a "Cord Lock System Failure" dialogue on my cabin screen. That went away as we drove home but it came back on this morning. I did try disconnecting and reconnecting the 12 volt battery yesterday but nothing changed. Voltage underway yesterday was 14.4 or so and this morning with the car off it was 12.5. Finally, I found the emergency manual cord lock string inside the frunk and pulled that but nothing changed.
I have just enough miles to get the car to our local dealer on Monday, which will be the first time in 8000 miles that it has made a visit for service. We'll see what happens . . . .
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