Road trips and HVBJB issue

[JoeSnow]

Yeah, it has been 5, but as you know I am an extremely rare case. There are not too many people who spend 4 hours at a time out in the country multiple times a month with full throttle starts and coming out of hairpin turns full throttle on uphill slopes. That seems to be really hard on our HVBJBs.

That's a crazy experience!
May I ask if you have considered a different car at some point? Why or why not.

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[Maquis]

That's a crazy experience!
May I ask if you have considered a different car at some point? Why or why not.

You missed it.
https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...ll-be-sticking-around-here.29744/#post-674189

 

[heisnuts]

Hmm, I bet they didn't test it enough on hills. So it might be drawing more power than they anticipated. Or something like that.

Engineering was very interested in my exact routes so they could put that through simulators to test the effects given the conditions I subject it to. The day before saying goodbye I spent 7 hours and 300 miles going over all the routes with a DCFC after running the battery down to 20%, before continuing on. That was more than I usually do in one day, as I usually call it a day when I hit 20%.

 

[Shayne]

I voted: I had the HVBJB fixed at least once and I'm afraid it will happen again.

That was the closes match. I am not afraid of it but would word it I am aware it can happen again. From what we have seen to date I do not think anyone can say it won't happen again unless they neglect facts. Mine was repaired a month before the first revision came out so there is most likely another original installed in it at this time. If it happen once it can happen again. No fear but possible.

 

[HuntingPudel]

That's a crazy experience!
May I ask if you have considered a different car at some point? Why or why not.

@heisnuts really is… Well, was. ??

 

[AKgrampy]

When I got the SVS message, I was driving less than 50 mph. However, I have the GT version because of the power, which I was using from time to time.

At one point someone was collecting data. Even though people were getting their SVS alarms at lower speeds or while charging they had been traveling at high speeds which may have generated the heat and accounted for the detection of potential HVBJB damage.

 

[mkhuffman]

When they first started failing over a year ago, I was much more worried than I am now. Of course I expected the fix in the spring of last year to be the final solution. We know it is not. But mine is not failed yet, and I don't even think about it anymore. Except for when I see threads like this. Thanks, man.

 

[jeffvick2005]

I just got back from my first road trip - 80-85 MPH up and down mountains in central Utah @ 100 degrees + Vegas driving where it was 110+. While I got a strange "battery drained, SSN" message that cleared itself, no HVBJB issues...hopefully that means I should be OK in "normal" driving conditions going forward (probably famous last words...)

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

My vote:
I haven't had the issue and am not at all worried about it.

I drive an 1100 mile road trip and a 500 mile road trip each about once every other month. Some months we do more and, or, longer road trips. We also do a 250 mile road trip about every other week.

The only time I even think about the HVBJB is when I log into this forum.

 

[hprose]

I did some research before buying MME and I saw the HVBJB issue every where, but I read that this issue applies to cars manufactured before 5/24/2022 and there was a recall for this models and it is already addressed by ford. I felt more confident after this and started looking around.
I decided to go with a used MME GT and I found one that was manufactured July 2022 and has around 6K miles. I pulled the trigger and couldn't be happier.
After less than 2 months (around 1K mile) I got the SVS message while driving (speed was about 45mph and battery was around 22%). So I dropped the car at the dealership the next day and didn't receive it back yet.

Last weekend, I was walking in a mall with my family when I saw a Mach E promoting event in the middle of the mall.
The guy asked me if I'm interested in a test drive. I told him that I have the car and it is the best car that I won't recommend to anyone.
He was surprised and I explained to him my experience with the HVBJB issue and that the dealer is having the car for 2 weeks without even looking at it, and the many calls with ford that ended with "The BEV team will give you call in 24-48 hours" and of course 3 weeks later, I have never received that call.
Interestingly, when I explained the HVB issue to him, the ford guy mentioned that I wasn't the first one mentioning this issue on that day and asked for more details. So I asked him to google "HVBJB" and he will see all these issues on the forums, Reddit and car websites.

This discussion brought something I didn't think much about before, will this car be good for a road trip?
I enjoy driving cars in general, and I do a lot of road trips with the family, but with all the cars I have owned or rented, this is the first car that I feel unsafe driving for a long road trip. I feel this HVBJB issue is an enjoyment-killer and it is against the whole point of having the MME GT, which is about how fun driving this car is. Giving the fact that some owners had the issue more than once (I'm not sure if anyone had it after the redesigned replacement)

I would like to see what other MME owners think.

PS: I'm not sure if this is the right sub-forum to post this and please feel free to move it to the correct one.

I know a number of MME drivers. None have had the problem or even think about it. Some take long road trips. I don’t floor it and can’t imagine flooring it for 5 seconds. Hopefully I will never get the dreaded fault and hope you are on the road quickly.

 

[JoeSnow]

I know a number of MME drivers. None have had the problem or even think about it. Some take long road trips. I don’t floor it and can’t imagine flooring it for 5 seconds. Hopefully I will never get the dreaded fault and hope you are on the road quickly.

I've never floored it more than 5 seconds, it is just from traffic light stop to 50 or 60mph.
People buy the GT / GTPE for a reason.

 

[hprose]

I've never floored it more than 5 seconds, it is just from traffic light stop to 50 or 60mph.
People buy the GT / GTPE for a reason.

I have a GT. My reason was the order bank was closed on the premium. I don’t regret the choice. I have a friend with a premium RWD ER. He wanted to extend his range as much as possible. He came out of an M3. Never have driven it so I can’t compare them. I must be weird. I like the suspension as well as the tight steering. I come from a long line of trucks and sports car that I drove with relatively high tire pressures. Luckily the roads are excellent in my area. We have to get beyond the Tesla thing. There are a lot of models out there now. Different rides, styling, screens, different power, etc. and as in ICEs different price points. I always chose vehicles based on what I liked when I looked at, got in it, test drove it. I wouldn’t buy what I didn’t like because it was a few thousand cheaper. I start d saving tons of money when I stopped reading Car and Driver/Road and Track. I became an expert on stats which were meaningless in my day to day driving and choosing cars based on those stats and bought car accordingly. Then the next year some car was a slight bit faster or had slightly superior g forces. I see these discussions in these forums.

 

[Avelli]

Mine happened on a flat freeway, at approx. 80 mph (passing a box van), at 75 degF. It was also not on a charger for 2 days prior (almost exclusively charged on Level 2, can count on one hand how many times I've used DCFC in the past year). I also drive very conservatively (tires are expensive!).

It looks like there are enough people in my same situation who can refute it being tied to DCFC, or hard pulls.

 

[thekat03]

Mine happened on a flat freeway, at approx. 80 mph (passing a box van), at 75 degF. It was also not on a charger for 2 days prior (almost exclusively charged on Level 2, can count on one hand how many times I've used DCFC in the past year). I also drive very conservatively (tires are expensive!).

It looks like there are enough people in my same situation who can refute it being tied to DCFC, or hard pulls.

I suspect driving like a Prius driver (that's me!) isn't a guarantee of avoiding the HVBJB issue, but spirited driving may increase the odds of failure. So I am assuming it may happen to my car someday.

 

[mkhuffman]

I suspect driving like a Prius driver (that's me!) isn't a guarantee of avoiding the HVBJB issue, but spirited driving may increase the odds of failure. So I am assuming it may happen to my car someday.

High speed appears to be the most common cause, and even if the failure occurs at a lower speed, previous high speed driving could have been the cause. It isn't the only cause, of course, and I am going off data Todd collected last year prior to the new HVBJB being implemented.

If you drive at 85+ mph, and maintain that speed up a long grade, it is the best way to kill your HVBJB IMO. So if you want to kill it, do that.

I almost never exceed 80 mph, and I am still on my original 2021 Job 2 HVBJB. Coming up on 35k miles now...

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