1,500 miles into a new FFE, now dead

[pciccone]

We purchased two 2013 FFE's 7 weeks ago. BOTH of them are now back at the dealer, one via a tow truck. Most note-ably of issues is while driving down the road (on a highway) with a 90% charge the vehicle chimed "pull over safely" and dropped ALL power (not even turtle mode). The vehicle has around 1,500 miles on it. The other vehicle has mechanical issues with the charge port and computer problems (crashing, lockups, reboots) with the entire sync system.

On top of this, on a thread I started in a different sub-forum, we have compatibility issues with the Siemens Level 2 charger making using some of the vehicle features impossible, like "Go Times". Siemens blames Ford on a "bad implementation" of the global level 2 charging specifications.

Coupled with some significant problems (not yet resolved) with the dealer (Malcolm Cunningham Ford in Atlanta, GA) we, reluctantly, purchased these vehicles from we are not off to a good start.

We were optimistic for a good start with these vehicles, but thus far have had significant problems both charging, dealer interactions and reliability right out of the gate. Ford needs to re-visit and re-educate the dealers that have decided to sell these vehicles with, and certainly have to work out failure issues with brand new vehicles. I can start a whole topic alone on our very bad dealer interactions. I have purchased a very good number of new vehicles in my lifetime, and never have I had such a bad experience in my life... and, to make it worse my issues with the dealer are yet to be resolved (besides these repair problems).

Let this message serve as a warning to others that they MAY have higher-then-average problems when buying into this new technology.

 

[vetboy45]

I'm sorry to hear about your problems. There are going to be problems with any new tech at first. It's too bad you seem to have gotten 2 vehicles with issues. I also own a tesla and there were a few cases of cars just dying on them as well. The big question is how ford responds. Tesla either fixed the car or gave the owners a new one if they couldn't determine the cause in a reasonable amount of time. I would love to know what the issue is with the dealer. There has been a push by tesla to make an exception for EVs from the law in most states that manufacturers must sell through dealers. The idea being that dealers pushing the benefits of EVs would be going against their economic interest since most of their sales are still ICE based. In effect, the dealers would need to say that 99% of their inventory was obsolete. One of the arguments that the dealers are using to push back is that dealers offer better service when problems arise with the car than a manufacturer could. I guess we'll see. Keep us updated.

 

[pciccone]

I most certainly will. Thanks.

 

[JTCalif]

You wrote "Siemens blames Ford on a "bad implementation" of the global level 2 charging specifications."
I question that:
At least 4 EVSE (charger) types have worked fine with our FF Electric.
(Charge Point, Eaton, SPX, and <I forget>.) No problem seen with any, so far.

(But, I simply went for power and left, no extras like "Go Times" on any but the SPX in our garage.)

Our 2012 has served us well, and I hope that is true of Most FFE's of either year.

 

[jmueller065]

(Charge Point, Eaton, SPX, and <I forget>.)

I think the other manufacturer you are thinking of is GE Wattstation.

 

[pciccone]

As you stated, no one really "tests" the advanced features of the car when visiting public charging locations, so I am not sure if the issue exists with other chargers besides Siemens. Specifically, what happens is when the car is full, or nearly full any attempt to charge it will produce a fault. Examples include 1) plugging the car in when it's past 98% already, turning the accessories on (radio, vent, etc), "Go Times", etc.

 

[pciccone]

Ford service just called and reported back exactly what everyone else is saying, "We can't find anything wrong". We gently explained to them we cannot accept this answer. They are keeping the car for further diagnosis. More to come.

 

[kmaluo]

Keep at it! Hopefully Ford has a solution soon. This is a common thread in these forums unfortunately.

 

[JTCalif]

Ford service just called and reported back exactly what everyone else is saying, "We can't find anything wrong"

Could QUICK start up sequence lead to problems for your car, sometimes?

I think (not proven carefully) the computer in my FFE has awakened in an improper status a couple of times, after I hurried: press START, swiftly move shift lever, try to go / or stall. When I then turned it off and restarted, allowing time for displays to come up looking right, the (small) problem was gone.

Maybe your service people have consistently allowed lots of time for wake-up process (?).

Please DO let us know what you learn: many are interested.

 

[pciccone]

Update: Dealer still has one of the cars (12 days now?), the one that wen't dead with the "stop safely now" message. They cannot re-create it, but due to our persistence they are continuing to try. My wife is dead-scared of taking the car back without a fix and potentially losing power at the wrong time.

The other car with the computer problems has been returned, they applied a TSB procedure, that re-flashed the GPS module that they think will fix the crashing/lockup problem. It affects all 2013 models made before 1/2013 (which mine was one of). Too early to tell if it fixed it or not, since it was random lockups and delays.

On the dealer front, finally got all outstanding issues resolved. Regardless of resolution, I would not recommended the dealer in the least for what we went through to get to this end-point with them (Malcolm Cunningham Ford of Atlanta, GA).

 

[vetboy45]

What is the issue with the early 2013 models? I'll have to look and see when mine was made but I haven't had a single issue with sync locking up and I don't have 3.5. Sorry to hear about your ongoing issues but it might not be a repeatable problem. That's a bit scary but what have they done? Did they take a look at all the connections? How about re-installing the software? Did it have the updated firmware?

 

[WindPowered]

What is the issue with the early 2013 models? I'll have to look and see when mine was made...

Do we know that the early 2013 models are the culprit for this issue? I certainly hadn't come to that conclusion, but maybe I'm subconsciously ignoring that because mine was built on 12/14/2012 (a Friday to make things worse).


WP

 

[pciccone]

No. The computer problems is an early model 2013. The "stop safely now" is a late model 2013, so that does not support that conclusion.

 

[WindPowered]

No. The computer problems is an early model 2013. The "stop safely now" is a late model 2013, so that does not support that conclusion.

I don't know that we've collected enough data to support that conclusion either.


WP