New to this Forum. I have had my 2015 FFE for almost 4 months, let me reword that, I had my 2015 FFE for 3 months and the dealer service department has had it for almost a month. Long post, but guaranteed interesting read!
As I was preparing to pull into a parking lot, the car started to shudder similar to the way it feels when the ABS kicks in under hard braking, except I was driving slow but not breaking. As I entered the lot everything was fine and I was doing around 5 MPH about 100 yards into the lot. Suddenly it appeared as if the brakes locked up and it came to a screeching stop. The car left skidmarks approximately 18" long. The car would not move and the tires would not roll, ignition still on but nothing could make the car move. Tried turning it off and on, nothing! Turned it off and sat for 5 minutes and tried again, still nothing. Called Ford roadside assistance for a tow and sat back while I backed up traffic in the lot. After waiting an hour and 20 minutes, the tow truck arrived. When I told him the tires would not roll, he asked me to get in the car and he rocked it back and forth several times and we heard a loud snap and the car could suddenly move under it's own power. He loaded it onto his flatbed and we were off to the dealer. This happened on June 17th.
We got to the dealer and unloaded the car. I had previously showed them that the headliner was separating from the hatch area and they ordered a new one. They would install this then try to figure what was wrong with the locking up. About a week later, with a new headliner installed, they said they think it may be in the "gearbox" (they claimed that Ford does not call it a transmission) and that they would have a Ford FFE specialist check it out. Another week went by and I called back to have them say that they were still trying to figure things out. I decided to call the dealership GM and left a message. The next day a gentleman who announced himself as the service manager, called me. I told him of the problem and wondered why it was taking so long. He said they had been driving it and got it to lock up as well but were waiting on the Ford FFE specialist to tell them what to do. I mentioned to him that Ford has this wonderful app called "myFORDmobile" and that I can actually track where the car is on a map and it tells me the charge status and the number of miles driven. I also added that for the almost 3 weeks it had been in for service, that it had not recorded a mile having been driven, in fact because it is fairly accurate, I was able to see that it had been pretty much been sitting on their lot in the same place for most of the 3 weeks. He promised to find out the progress and keep me posted (and he has been calling me with regular updates since.)
on July 1st he left a message that they were going to take the FFE on a little 30 mile trip to see if it was still acting up. I called him back the next day and he said that they again had experienced the lock up and were just waiting for Ford. I mentioned that "...I guess you didn't get a chance to take it on that little trip..." his initial response was "...yes the technician took it out yesterday!" He paused and then said, "OH, you've got that app, don't you?" I answered "yes I do." Then he asked if it indicated that they did in fact take the trip and I replied "not according to the app." He said he would call me right back and he did, explaining that it was not necessary because it was locking up regularly now.
I waited till Monday the 6th and got in touch with Ford directly and opened a case number. The representative on the phone showed that the dealer had been in touch with them on the issue, but it did not start until after my call to the dealer GM. On Wednesday the 8th, I was informed that indeed there had been a catastrophic failure in the gearbox and pieces of metal were contaminating it. They ordered a new drive moter and gearbox and would try to get it done as soon as possible. They are thinking it may be done next week, about a month after this all happened.
BTW I had only put 1600 miles on the FFE when this all happened. Will let you all know what happens next week.
