"Yellow Wrench" light while driving in the rain... later red warning!

[Heima]

In regard to bulletin 16B02, I was pondering why it was limited to those states. Some of those states did not see an official sale of the FFE there, and if you read the bulletin, vehicles that were brought to those states are eligible. So what does that mean? Ford is covering its legal ass. Most likely, those states have regulations that vehicles that are registered in that state are covered by the manufacturer for any problems to electrical systems, caused by road salt. Notice that salvage and out of warranty vehicles are included, free coverage. This is the makings of a recall, without the word "Recall". But only in states where Ford could get sued by the state, and not just unhappy owners.
My California and probably every California FFE doesn't have this shield/protector.
Time to see how cheap I can get it. And if not, maybe time to give Mr. Berardi a call.

Best price so far is ebay $99 with $17 shipping. Otherwise, many part suppliers have it for $123, and probably the same for shipping.

 

[electrons]

Heima, interesting analysis. I didn't know it was an Eaton Bussman part.
Also, you might be right that Ford was naming low-volume sales states with road salt laws on purpose with FSA 16B02. I tried to get my dealership to go ahead and perform TSB 20-2004 which was really an expanded version of 16B02 (shield + waterproof spray). They should have bought me a shield and put it on since the SSN red warning was there during a rain storm. The technician just did a band-aid temporary fix that got me on the road immediately anyway.

I ordered a shield and will do it myself, after looking at the raw exposure near the back tire. Too much trouble to cajole Ford to act. They are infamous for NOT acting, similar to most other car makers actually.

 

[electrons]

Filed an NHTSA complaint explaining how Ford won't add the water splash shield thingie even though they have an admitted problem, as proven by FSA 16B02 and TSB 20-2004.

Called Ford Customer Service; she barely spoke English, thick accent, but got the points through. She said "You have to do dealership service opinions." and "We don't work with technical issues, only dealerships."

Went to Twitter, @Ford which they actually responded to! They asked for my VIN number to "look into it". Yeah, right, we'll see, not holding my breath.

 

[Heima]

I applaud your determination Electrons.
You might get some feedback through the twitter channel.
Though most likely it will be that the VIN is not part of the campaign.

Do you remember the bulletin, 16B02, how it was called a "Delivery Hold - Customer Satisfaction"?
That is another way of saying, Damage Control.
When vehicles are manufactured improperly, or have defective parts installed at the factory, this situation might be discovered before the vehicle leaves the factory, or before the vehicle is loaded onto a transport. At that point a hold, delivery hold, containment hold, etc is put on the vehicle. This means do not move, do not sell, do not deliver the vehicle until the issue is rectified. The vehicle might be at the dealers lot at the time of the discovery, and the dealer must address the issue before the vehicle can be sold. The delivery hold is 16B02.

Should a vehicle get sold and is now in the customer's ownership, a service bulletin will be issued, to fix those "escaped" vehicles. This bulletin is TS-20-2004.

An aside, a week ago, if you searched the NHTSA site for 2018 Ford Focus Electric, the first bulletin that came up was TS-20-2004, stating that it is for 2012-2018 FFE. Right now, nothing is coming up for any make, any car. The 2012-2018 is not a mistake by NHTSA, Ford told them those years, they specifically filled out a form or sent an email with those years listed. Sadly, the bulletin does not list 2017 or 2018, so somebody at Ford dropped the ball.

 

[electrons]

Heima, good points. Yes Twitter may turn out to do something, Its hard to tell. One can Tweet to @Ford and someone like "Drew", who DM'ed me back, asked me about some more story details and he set up a Case Number, although it so far looks like he wll just throw it back to the dealership for now.

I saw the "Damage Control" aspect of this as you mentioned.

My view of this is that Ford created the Field Service Action 16B02with a fix, the water shield, which then got folded into TSB 20-2004 and possbly on to 2017 & 2018 Focus Electrics at the Wayne, Michigan factory and the european sister factory. Yes, for a while there, to finish out the '16 model year, they were having the dealerships install the shield before it was sold, and they mailed out letters to owners in some states. CO & CA notably missing.

Certainly anybody who notices a safety problem like this (Stop Safely Now can make it quit in the middle of the road if the Eaton Bussman fuse blows) should tell the NHTSA's website like I did. That's the only hope of getting an actual Mandatory Recall out of this, cuz Ford ain't in any hurry to do it.

At this point its just annoying. This is a small loss since the part is cheap enough, & I can put it on myself. Looks easy anyway. I'll just ask Ford to pay for the part. With the water-shield, that should keep water (& salt, dirt, rocks) from hitting the 300 volt HV connector all by itself without spraying any "Flex Seal" or Nox-Rust 7703-W. Shield covers it pretty well.

 

[Heima]

On my 2017, there is no shield, but it does look like some type of tar or paint was applied to the metal plate where the high voltage connectors mount on the lower battery. Still, I am like you. If the shield is good enough for earlier FFEs, then it is good enough for mine.

 

[kalel14]

Anyone have the part number for the splash shield?

 

[electrons]

Anyone have the part number for the splash shield?

CM5Z-9916A315-A High Voltage Lower Battery Connector Shield

TSB 20-2004 for installation of the Water Shield:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10170911-0001.pdf

The old Field Service Action which got folded into TSB 20-2004:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2016/MC-10074364-0699.pdf

On my 2017, there is no shield, but it does look like some type of tar or paint was applied to the metal plate where the high voltage connectors mount on the lower battery. .

Interesting, looks like Ford at least did something at the factory for late-2016 thru '18 models to get that connector sealed up. ....... Nice to have tar or paint on a new clean part. Mine is dirty with a lot of exposure to the elements.

I'm thinking about getting a toothbrush to clean off the aluminum-connector interface and spray some Flex Seal in there. I don't want to take the connector off (dangerous, & too much trouble) so I'll look at just spraying a little on there. The Splash Shield should suffice by itself really.

Got the water shield and will put it on soon and change over the winter tires to summer ones while it's jacked up:
It's 18 inches long & covers the 350 volt area.

 

[Heima]

Way to go Electrons!
How much did the shield set you back?
Be careful when removing them clips, cause they can get fragile.
While you can use a flatblade screwdriver, a set of plastic trim tools might be a useful investment.
I'm glad I bought mine.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...rim-removal-tool/w80648/4614535?q=body+&pos=2
I use the three on the right all the time.
Let us know how the installation goes.

 

[electrons]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I installed the water shield, along with winter tire change out.

It was indeed easy to put in. $147 with shipping. I didn't see the cheaper ebay one soon enough that Heima found, so others can get it cheaper.
I cleaned the area where the metal plate attaches the connector to the big lower battery with a toothbrush (no water or soap!) and I guess I did a reasonable job of getting rid of some dirt. Then black rubber tar spray-can undercoating got sprayed on.

I do think there was a small gap where water may have gotten in, so the tar gooey stuff might help a little. Just having the shield installed should be good enough by itself. Pictures in the TSB 20-2004 are better than anything I could take of it, so refer to the TSB (link is above in this thread).

After taking off the rear winter tire on the passenger side, I noticed a Tyco orange high-voltage part exposed to lots of road water spray.
It probably doesn't have the water vulnerability like the driver side rear tire area I would assume.
Picture of the passenger side rear tire area with the Tyco part out there "enjoying the weather":

 

[triangles]

On the passenger side, that is the emergency disconnect plug or whatever it is called that is used to disable the battery.

 

[electrons]

I have a Ford case number, from @Ford twitter conversations.
The old Service Advisor called me and still doesn't seem to understand how TSB 20-2004 fixes it.

I called the Service Manager, and she agreed with me! ..... Surprising they aren't just circling the wagons against me.

Since I already bought & installed the water shield, she is asking Ford to reimburse me for the part cost. I doubt if Ford will do anything like that, but we'll try I suppose. It's not a big deal, only around $150 lost. Interesting to see what the corporate dynamic here is. I could ask her to have the dealership reimburse me, but she wants Ford to do it.

 

[Heima]

Service Advisors aren't guaranteed to know how things work, just how to up-sell products and services.

I took my Toyota Matrix into a dealer, because they had an oil change special that was cheaper than if I did it myself.
They did their damnedest to up-sell me on some overpriced maintenance package.

The Service Advisor punched up the car into the computer and said: "We see from our records that the vehicle is dangerously overdue for its 30,000 mile maintenance, we can do that today and have you safely back on the road for only $537."
Note the colorful language to persuade me to comply.

I retorted: "Yeah, what you don't see from your records, is that I did the maintenance myself. The car is fine. I'm here to have the oil changed, and that will be sufficient."

Undaunted, they took the car around back, out of sight, and then came back with some anti-freeze on their finger, stating this was dripping from the water pump, and that they could not in good conscience allow me to leave without the vehicle being properly repaired.

I didn't bite. I said, "So you're going to tell me that a Toyota Corolla (what the Matrix is, a Corolla wagon) needs its water pump replaced at 36,000 miles? A Toyota. Needing a water pump? At 36,000 miles??? Just change the f@cking oil!"

That car now has just shy of 100,000 miles. Still runs great and its bone dry.

 

[Heima]

GOOD NEWS FLASH!
If you read through this thread, you saw how Electrons and myself installed a water shield for the HV battery connectors. Just the part itself was about $150 and was not much trouble to install. Still $150 for a piece of very crude plastic.

Well, if you wanted to do the installation, but the cost was holding you back, I have some good news for you!

That part, CM5Z-9916A315-A, is now averaging $5 to $10 from dealerships.
But if you buy online, check shipping first. I am seeing normal shipping ranging from $22 to $70. Which is ridiculous.

Hmm...
fordpartsdepot.ca has it for $7.52 CAD, and shipping is $2 CAD. That shipping seems too cheap.

fordpartsgiant.com has it for $5 USD, and $17 shipping.

parts.lakelandford.com has it for $6 USD and $10 shipping.

fastoemparts.com has it for $5 USD and $7 shipping.

So there you go!