SSM 54388 - NCM Battery - HV Battery Module Replacement

[jmgreen]

When looking around for recent TSB & SSM updates, I came across this one:

SSM 54388 2021-2023 Mustang Mach-E, 2022-2025 E-Transit - NCM Standard/Extended Range Battery - High Voltage Battery Module Replacement And FDRS Battery Health Chart Updates

Some 2021-2023 Mustang Mach-E vehicles equipped with nickel, cobalt and manganese (NCM) standard/extended range battery with minor feature codes HTHAD/HTHAE and 2022-2025 e-Transit vehicles equipped NCM standard range battery with minor feature codes HUKAL/HUKAA may require a high voltage battery module replacement. Technicians can now replace the affected battery module for high voltage batteries with a state of health (SOH) of 70% or higher. It is no longer necessary to replace the complete high voltage battery assembly for vehicles with 70% SOH or higher. Additionally, the battery health chart has been updated to display the actual battery SOH as a percentage and now requires the selection of checkboxes corresponding to the specific high voltage battery module(s) being replaced. After a high voltage battery module replacement and battery reinstallation, relaunch the Ford Diagnosis and Repair System (FDRS) "BECM - Battery Health" application which will prompt for confirmation of a successful repair. To confirm a vehicle is built with a certain minor feature code, review the build information by double-clicking the vehicle identification number (VIN) in the upper left corner in the Professional Technician System (PTS).

Well, apparently this could potentially apply to my car.
But this "may require a HV battery module replacement", how to know whether this is really necessary? Only by chance, when looking into the FDRS Battery Health Chart? Or will there be a trigger in case the overall HV battery SoH drops below a certain threshold?

Furthermore, where can I find the Battery Health Chart in FDRS? I currently don't have a license (and even if I would, I am trying since one month with Ford to get rid of a "user authorization has failed" error) and therefore cannot search myself.

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[TravisD]

The way this reads to me, the bulletin is saying that when a battery change is indicated, that the tech can now swap out just a module within the battery instead of having to replace the entire battery pack.

Technicians can now replace the affected battery module for high voltage batteries with a state of health (SOH) of 70% or higher. It is no longer necessary to replace the complete high voltage battery assembly for vehicles with 70% SOH or higher.

 

[jmgreen]

I understand what you mean. But I am irritated and concerned about this statement:

Some 2021-2023 Mustang Mach-E vehicles ... may require a high voltage battery module replacement.

 

[ARK]

I understand what you mean. But I am irritated and concerned about this statement:

I agree with Travis, this SSM seems to be saying if your vehicle experiences an issue with a HV battery module, the tech doesn’t need to replace the entire battery pack anymore but can instead just replace that module.

I think it’s important to remember with these SSMs that they are not public facing, they are meant for Ford technicians. The existence of this SSM does not mean an issue has been found with your specific vehicle.

On top of that, an SSM is more like a note or an FYI to the tech. If Ford found some issue where lots of battery modules were dead and needed replacement across the lineup, it would probably issue a TSB instead to techs for how to check for the issue, what to do, how to prevent it from happening again, etc.

 

[Chapron]

Hey jmgreen. How did you find out that ur car is identified to have this issue?

 

[jmgreen]

Well, still I hope that my car's battery does not have an issue at all ;-)

There used to be an internet page where you could insert your VIN, and the page returned you all features of your car. But unfortunately, this page is not alive anymore (-> see here).
In this list that I kept for myself, I can find this mentioned minor feature code HTHAD:

But I think that I read in the German forum that there are other pages that shall offer the same. Only that for them I did not kept their addresses.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The concern was if you have one bad cell module in your pack that had to get replaced, now you will have a mixture of cells with different capacities in the pack, which is not ideal. The remaining old modules might be 80% state of health, but the new ones will be 100% state of health. This will cause the cells to become out of balance anytime the pack is discharged or completely charged. To avoid this, Ford previously required complete replacement of the battery pack if the state of health was below 90% rather than risk mismatched cell capacities. Now that many battery packs in that age range have dropped below 90% state of health, the previous requirement may have been triggering a lot more complete battery pack replacements. So it appears as a cost-saving measure, Ford has changed the complete replacement threshold to 70% (which is now the same as the capacity warranty threshold).

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