Stop Safely Now (HVBJB): Mach-E Owners Biggest Fear - Facts and Info Thread

[r5turbo2]

You do realize those wire leads in the bumper aren't hooked up to the 12V battery right? They only open the frunk, they do not charge the battery. You have to remove the frunk panels before you can charge the 12V battery. Also a 12V power supply isn't enough voltage to charge the battery. You need a battery charger that operates at 14-15V.

Being in the mountains I was working with what I had on hand which was a pc supply and a 10amp 12V battery charger. The PC supply was just to pop the frunk. The 12V charger on the frunk leads did nothing (even on boost mode). Modern chargers won't energize output until they sense some residual battery voltage so this is expected since as you point out the frunk leads are not connected to the battery. Once I had the 10Amp charger on the boost terminals the car came online and I could open the doors etc...

 

[r5turbo2]

Final update:

• Ford was fine doing warrantee work on a US car in Canada.
• Convinced Ford to tow the car to a dealer with a history of doing HVBJB repairs in Surrey BC vs nearest dealer they recommended
• Dealer confirmed HVBJB failure and ~1 week ETA for repair (5 days to get part plus 1-2 days for repair)
• None of Ford Canada's online tools work with a USA VIN so all roadside assistance and BEV case work had to be done live on the phone (more than 3hrs total)
• BEV case created before towing smoothed dealer engagement once car was delivered and they had case id
• I convinced the tow operator to leave the car in tow mode in case the LVB discharged during the tow and they were then locked out with car in park.
• Make sure Ford roadside assistance enable text notification for your case. Mine wasn't until my fourth follow-up call.
• Assume any eta for the tow is a wildly optimistic guess. I recommend calling well before expected arrival to get updated timing.
• Had the tow hook diagram on my phone and went over it with the operator before they loaded the car. Operator was great but had not done a MME before. Diagram and guide from forum were super helpful.

 

[newmme]

Sounds like a nightmare. Sorry this happened to you

 

[YellowItsMe]

Turns out that they broke off a trim piece near the wheel and scratched and cracked the black front fender thing "because it was really hard to get the battery out." Oh, and then I opened my Ford Pass app to find my car 20 miles away from the dealer at an auto body shop. Service advisor told me to call the body shop to find out more about what was being done and when my car would be done. Are you serious?!

This entire recall process has been an amateur hour joke.

Picked up my car on 1/6. About 2.5 weeks after the car HVBJB failure occurred.

They took about 1.5 weeks to order the part twice (received the wrong part first) and do the replacement (which only took about a day). The remaining time was spent at the body shop to repaint a piece of trim that they said had popped off a previous repair. They re-used my trim piece. The front splitter was not damaged.

The invoice shows that the part was replaced with a:

LK9Z*10C666*B

I don't know what they took off the vehicle but from what I'm reading online I'm getting mixed reviews of whether this is the updated part or not. I have a 2021 GT Performance Edition. I've asked my BEV contact but she has not responded. REALLY don't want to deal with this again within 6k (or any) miles!

 

[Beachman346]

I just wanted to loop back around with my story. After my 2021 GT got the SVS message, I immediately contacted the ford BEV team and opened a case. I had it towed to South Bay Ford(Highly Recommend). This all happened early Monday morning, and the dealer didn't know how fast the part would take to arrive. It was confirmed to be the HVBJB issue. Low and behold the replacement part arrived the next day and they got it all installed, and I had my car back by Thursday morning. The service rep at the dealer was amazed how fast the part came in, so I believe I got very lucky. The BEV rep was extremely helpful and always followed up directly with the dealer to make sure progress was happening as well as contacting me each day. The dealer service rep also gave me daily updates. Overall I found the experience very easy to handle because of this forum and following the directions for everything.

 

[mkhuffman]

Those with early failures paved the way.

I took my car in for the annual state inspection and asked if they had ever replaced a HVBJB. They have! The service advisor said the process was easy it was just getting the replacement part that took forever. I asked if he used COPIS and he said they always use it for emergency repairs. He even showed me pictures and videos of the repair on his phone.

I feel much better knowing these guys are ready to do it again, and if seems like parts are much more available. Now my box can fail. It is time.

On a side note, I told him I expected mine to fail and he actually agreed with me. He said he expected to see more failures come in. The problem that was notorious in this forum 10 months ago is now notorious around the country. That's good I think.

 

[r5turbo2]

Picked up my car on 1/6. About 2.5 weeks after the car HVBJB failure occurred.

They took about 1.5 weeks to order the part twice (received the wrong part first) and do the replacement (which only took about a day). The remaining time was spent at the body shop to repaint a piece of trim that they said had popped off a previous repair. They re-used my trim piece. The front splitter was not damaged.

The invoice shows that the part was replaced with a:

LK9Z*10C666*B

I don't know what they took off the vehicle but from what I'm reading online I'm getting mixed reviews of whether this is the updated part or not. I have a 2021 GT Performance Edition. I've asked my BEV contact but she has not responded. REALLY don't want to deal with this again within 6k (or any) miles!

Looks like you got the revised 'B' version of the HVBJB based on this online part listing...

Anyone buy this part online and carry it with them for the inevitable failure?

 

[ElectrifyCLT]

UPDATE: Original post below. I got an update from Ford Case manager that she advised the dealer to file a COPIS for it. We'll see if the dealer followed directions!

Final update for the time being. I got my MachE GT back today! 5 weeks after getting Stop Safely Now while parked (Positive contactor stuck closed). In summary:

• Failed 12/4
• Diagnosed 12/6
• Part arrived 12/26
• Fixed 1/10
• Picked up this morning, 1/11, with 100% SOC.

A couple observations:

1. This was the first HVBJB failure that Joe Maus Ford took on. They were very professional the whole time but clear they wanted to take their time. The battery rails and all the under tray looks just like new.
2. The holidays probably delayed things ~1 week.

I took some readings with Car Scanner on the trip back. Some notable readings.

• 100% Indicated SOC, 95.1% actual SOC.
• 386V on the HVB @ HVB temp of 50-degree F
• HV Leakage Resistance Bus Negative (kOhm): 1638.38
• HV Leakage Resistance Bus Positive (kOhm): 1638.38
• HV Leakage Resistance Bus Overall (kOhm): 1281.60
• HV Contactor Voltage Negative (V): 0.96
• HV Contactor Voltage Positive (V): 386.77

The dealer was emailing me all the paperwork, I've yet to get it, I'll update this note when I get the details of what was ultimately replaced.

 

[Al-E]

Hello all, I wanted to give an update on how my situation resolved. I was the one who got stranded in Casa Grande, AZ in the middle of a road trip.

After an entire Monday at the Arizona dealership waiting for them to diagnose and trying to find a way to get home, they ended up diagnosing it as the HVBJB. There were no rental cars in the area so we ended up flying back home that night, dogs and all. First time taking pets on an airplane . Once we were home I was a lot calmer about everything since getting back was my main concern.

Since that Monday I was in constant contact with my case manager, who I have to say was wonderful. Before doing anything I always checked with him if Ford would reimburse it. He’d take half an hour to a couple hours to find out and get back with me, which I appreciated.

Turns out they ended up shipping my car to a dealership close to my house to be fixed which was great, didn’t have to worry about going back to AZ to pick up. But there they said it WASN’T the HVBJB, just a huge number of updates that had failed and maybe messed everything up. It took over a week in the shop to do them because they said they kept failing even there. So who knows. I was always up to date with software as far as I could tell on the screen and I never got a recall notice in the mail….until 2 days after we got home from the debacle Timing.

Covert Ford Hutto service manager was also great and always in contact. In total the car was out of use from December 4-29. Since picking it up it’s been running fine so hopefully those updates will prevent the actual mechanical failure.

My advice to anyone dealing with this would be to initially press Ford as much as you can while still being polite/calm. But they really do need that initial push. Once we had a case manager it was very smooth. Hah, at one point the service manager in AZ came out and asked us “what did you do? I have 3 different people from Ford calling me to ask if I’m working on your car yet and what’s the status”

And of course, save save save every receipt for transportation, gas, lodging, hell even food, that you have to go out of pocket for during that time so they can hopefully reimburse you once the car is done. I was reimbursed for hotel, flights, a tank of gas (borrowed a friends car during December because also no rental cars in my area either) and an Uber ride.

Huge thanks to everyone on this forum. I don’t think I would have been able to handle the situation as effectively, if even at all, without everyone’s sharing of knowledge, stories, advice and support. Thank you all. And if you’re in the same position please feel free to DM with any questions. I’d be happy to pass on even a fraction of the help I received.

 

[Homer007]

Thanks to this forum for all your help with my recent issue. I don't post much but wanted to give a quick summary of my experience with the HVBJB replacement.

• Received SVS error on dashboard coming back from a show late at night (1/13), on the freeway going around 74
• Made sure to back my car into the driveway, made an online appointment with the El Cajon Ford in CA at 9:15am Monday (1/9). Ford app also gave me the two alerts I knew to lookout for Powertrain Malfunction / Reduced Power and High-Voltage Battery Warning
• Dropped car off at Service Center on Monday with no problems, was a little worried as the service guy stated it's probably just a software issue. I told him that I'm 99% sure it's the HVBJB, and he stated their diagnostic tool will let them know.
• Due to the confusion at drop off I immediately called the BEV team to open a case, they stated that we would wait for an update on the diagnostic and to let them know the result.
• Received a call from El Cajon Ford around 4pm letting me know that yes, my HVBJB was failing and needed to be replaced, they put in an emergency order for this part, and assured me this is about the 10th one they've done at this location. I updated the BEV team who thanked me for the update and stated they would reach out on 1/16 if it wasn't fixed by then.
• On Tuesday (1/10) I noticed both my alerts in the Ford app had cleared at around 3:30pm. I figured they were working on it and didn't think about it much after that.
• Received a call on Wednesday morning (1/11) at 9am that my car was fixed and the replacement went fine.

I'd also like to point out that a loaner was offered as well with no issues.

All-in-all this experience for me was really a non-issue. A BIG THANK YOU to everyone in this forum as it helped me understand this process. I was prepared to wait weeks to get my car back but they had it fixed in about 48 hours.

 

[Say Watt]

I waited eight months for delivery when I bought my GTPE from Elk Grove Ford, CA through the Car Pro program so it was locked into MSRP without ADM or dealer “add ons”.

The purchase was okay but there was a transport damaged panel that took five weeks to replace. The salesman kept say “parts on order” until I called Ford to find out it wasn’t ordered.

My next service experience was worse. The dreaded “SVS” warning came on October14th. The dealer’s next available diagnostic appointment was October 25th.

They confirmed the HVBJB that morning and I immediately contacted BEV to expedite parts. After they ran the diagnostics, they charged it to 100%, washed it, and parked it in the back lot - FOR OVER A MONTH!

The Ford rep called me on a regular basis to share in the frustration and dealer “stories” - IF the dealer actually answered the phone or called back. “The parts are on order” - they had the parts. “The tech is sick” - he probably quit. “We have it taken part and are working with the factory” - it was parked untouched out back.

The manager was AWOL. She didn’t return calls or emails and was never in the office. Fortunately, I had installed a Thinkware U1000 dash cam with parking mode radar. They didn’t start work until the day I came by and downloaded the dash cam card. When it was finished, they sent a Lyft driver to get me at the end of the day on December 6th (they didn’t want me talking to their shuttle driver). Forty three days in the shop. Fifty four days from failure.

I have a reliable Kia EV6 GTL so I didn’t need an ICE rental in my driveway. Even though I saved them $2400 in rental cost, Ford “apologized” by giving me a $500 debit card. I would have gotten much more but I didn’t finance the vehicle - they couldn’t get it back from me later on through usury.

 

[ctenidae]

Got this yesterday leaving from lunch to go home. FordPass gave both Powertrain Malfunction and High-Voltage Battery warning and sent messages.

Drove 5 miles home, no apparent loss in power, backed into the garage, and shut it down. Hour later I went out and started it, and the lights were out. Plugged it in, went to dinner, turned it on when I came back, no lights.

This morning, drove it 1/2 mile to the dealership, no warnings, no issues. While in line waiting to pull into the service garage I checked FP and the alerts had cleared.

Computer has been glitchy for a week, I'm concerned it's the "LVB drain caused by the contactor going out that fritzes the computer" problem (you guys are awesome) and the 1 EV tech they have will have a hard time diagnosing it correctly.

I opened a case with Ford BEV, so away we go...

 

[bluestripes]

Update on my situation - Into my 6th month now without my vehicle and the final part (some kind of sealant) has finally arrived and now they're chasing to find a technician/engineer that's qualified for it apparently... so no idea how long that's going to take and just been told "soon". You'd have thought they'd have it a bit more organised! Car still has to be shipped back to me after that and then they need to sort the software on the car... absolute nightmare!

 

[r5turbo2]

Update on my 'no start' 2021 GT PE. Fix was completed 7 days after car reached dealer. Ford were very helpful getting the repair done in Canada saving a 125 mile cross border towing cluster cuss. Mainland Ford in Surrey BC did the work as scheduled, completed 2 days after part arrived (including all software updates at my request based on some advice from MME experts). Verified the part number is the revised HVBJB. More details below:

• Credit to this forum for the HVBJB repair map. I insisted the car be towed to a dealer with a verified timely HVBJB repair history.
• BEV case created ahead of time helped dealer handoff.
• I'm sure I felt some power limit events prior to the failure. I suspect with enough force of will I could have had this repair done before the 'no start'.
• Roadside assistance case isn't settled yet. By default I'm only covered to nearest dealer, which was a small town dealer with no history of HVBJB repair. Mainland Ford was another 60 miles...IMO Ford should cover this, as they agreed to the destination for the tow...
• My advice to anyone with the original part is drive straight to a verified HVBJB dealer on any sign of failure....once a contactor welds shut the 'no start' cannot be reset...flatbed tow time.
• I'd be interested if anyone has bought the revised part and carries it in the car? This would have saved me almost 1 week and been cheaper overall when I factor in my time etc. even if Ford didn't cover the part cost.

 

[dcheng]

I was trying to go through this thread, but I’m on mobile, and it’s a less than ideal. But great information!

I have a 2022 CR1 RWD with 4494 miles, built after the recall in June 2022. In SoCal, we’ve been getting rain, and my wife just reported that she got the SVS message along with the Pre-Collision Assist Not Availble messages. Unfortunately, I’m not home, so she parked the car nose in. Hopefully that won’t be a problem. I do not see the HVBJB message in Ford Pass. Ford Pass also has some messages about Restraints Indicator Lamp Warning.

Is this something that could be caused by the rain? We haven’t driven through many puddles, but there is a lot of water on the roads, so it’s not entirely avoidable. Am I safe to assume this isn’t an HVBJB issue? I’m scheduling an appointment, but I think it’s too late to call the dealer at this time.

Ford Power-Up 3.6.2 was the latest update, installed 1/12/23.