triangles
Well-known member
First, I'm not nitpicking I'm just trying to help people understand how the FFE works.
This article shows some cutaway images of the motor/gear box when the FFE was first shown to the public. http://www.electric-vehiclenews.com/2011/01/ford-focus-electric-motor-exposed.html The differential is inline with the motor and the passenger side axle actually goes thru the hollow center of the rotor. What you can't see in the pictures is the gear between the output of the motor and the differential. I'm not sure if it's been removed or just can't be seen in the pictures.
In my official internet expert opinion, :lol: I would guess only one of two things could be the problem if you can back out of a spot and then it won't go forward. 1) the switch that the mechanical "gear selector" is attached to is going bad such that the car doesn't know you've put it in D. 2) Something in the electronics of the inverter has gone bad. Ok so I just thought of a third possible but unlikely possibility, 3) the mechanical linkage between the shifter and the switch on the TCM is not right such that when you put the car in "D" the switch on the TCU isn't quite in the "D" position.
Sadly with the FFE's nonexistent data logging, if the problem is intermittent there's no way to troubleshoot what's wrong unless they just happen to catch it misbehaving when the diagnostic equipment is hooked up to the car. So they won't find the problem until it is no longer an intermittent problem. Good luck! Hopefully I'm just being a pessimist and they can figure it out with out just throwing parts at it or just telling you to go away, there's nothing wrong with it. Either way keep us updated.
The FFE technically doesn't have a transmission. It has a gear box with a differential. It's a gear box and not a transmission because the gears are always connected to the motor. There are no "changing gears." When the car goes forward the motor spins one way and when the motor spins the other way the car backs up. So you see there's nothing to "engage" as the motor is always engaged with the wheels. That's why it should never be towed flat.GHTech said:The vehicle intermittently not having the transmission engage after backing out of a spot...
This article shows some cutaway images of the motor/gear box when the FFE was first shown to the public. http://www.electric-vehiclenews.com/2011/01/ford-focus-electric-motor-exposed.html The differential is inline with the motor and the passenger side axle actually goes thru the hollow center of the rotor. What you can't see in the pictures is the gear between the output of the motor and the differential. I'm not sure if it's been removed or just can't be seen in the pictures.
In my official internet expert opinion, :lol: I would guess only one of two things could be the problem if you can back out of a spot and then it won't go forward. 1) the switch that the mechanical "gear selector" is attached to is going bad such that the car doesn't know you've put it in D. 2) Something in the electronics of the inverter has gone bad. Ok so I just thought of a third possible but unlikely possibility, 3) the mechanical linkage between the shifter and the switch on the TCM is not right such that when you put the car in "D" the switch on the TCU isn't quite in the "D" position.
Sadly with the FFE's nonexistent data logging, if the problem is intermittent there's no way to troubleshoot what's wrong unless they just happen to catch it misbehaving when the diagnostic equipment is hooked up to the car. So they won't find the problem until it is no longer an intermittent problem. Good luck! Hopefully I'm just being a pessimist and they can figure it out with out just throwing parts at it or just telling you to go away, there's nothing wrong with it. Either way keep us updated.