kinshi wrote:Well looks I just joined this illustrious group of "Stop Safely Now" people. I bought a used FFE 2013 w/ 35k miles on it from a local deal about 2 months ago, and it has already spent a month back at the dealer. So far they have not actually "fixed" a thing other than replace its original battery, and keep claiming they cannot reproduce the problem once it has been in the shop for a while (they confirm the fault once it is there, but then it goes away and they seem helpless to troubleshoot past that point).
My symptoms did not start with the SSN, it was simply I would get in the car, press the brake down, push the button, but no green "ready to drive light". They have re-flashed the cars software 3 times now, but the issue keeps coming back but for the first time now I am seeing the "Stop Safely Now" error on some attempts to start the car (never seen ti while driving)
I looked around under the hood, and under the car, and do not see any evidence of the fixes I have seen under the recall (this car was not from the areas listed). The dealer was under the impression this car has no recalls, but I see plenty here to say that is (and like others I have found the Ford dealer to be virtually clueless as to this car, their troubleshooting techniques thus far have no even been slightly out of the box, I even told them about this forums, but I get a sense they did not look).
Oddly enough, so far this issue only comes up for me after it has been plugged in at home using the L1 charger that came with it (plugged into a 110v outlet in my garage). At the dealer, they are always using a L2 charger, and whenever I made long trips with it, I was also stopping at L2 charge stations and charging up for 20 mins or so.
So this last time I got the car back from the dealer, I drove it home the ran some errands, then the next day drove it to work and back, then I was on the ferry dock in Seattle, and "eek no green light" but after letting people go around me and doing the open/closer door dance, I got it started, and then did not turn it off once on the ferry, but when I got home, turned it off, it would turn on again. Frustrated, I plugged it back into the charger at home, then went away for the weekend, and came back yesterday afternoon (car had now been on the charger for over 48 hours straight), I unplug, hop in, and it started right up, so I turn off again (not trusting that), and it started again, so I ran to the convenience store, came home, and all seemed well.
Note, when I came back from my trip, this was the first time I had ever seen the "Charge Complete" display show on the dash, and it showed 75 Mile range.
This morning, I hop in to try again, and nope, no start, and no "Charge Complete" display and the range sitting at 74 Miles this time (and the lights on the charger indicating no charging was taking place).
I then went ahead and disconnected the 12v battery, see if I could "reboot" the car, but that did not change anything, still no start after hooking it back up however I did measure the voltage on the 12v battery and it was showing just a hair above 12v with the car off, I have not tested with the car on, with accessories going, but I am suspecting based on others experiences that the 12v battery does not quite have enough juice to engage. (when I do try to start, I hear a loud whirr/humm but no start.)
Right now I have a charger on the 12v battery, it indicated that the 12v was at 90% charge when I started and am waiting on it to get to 100% then will try again.
I was wondering if my L1 charger is somehow simply not providing enough juice to replenish the main batteries, and the 12v battery (I got the impression from when I left it sit for the 48 hours on the charger, that it seemed like my 12v battery was not getting charged until the main battery was full.) I am going to get a L2 charger, as so far it has seemed when the car was on L2 chargers this simple was not happening.
Good news is the car is under warranty. I will update again once the 12v battery is topped off again. I am not quite ready to take it to the dealer again, as I also want to test my theory about the L1 home charger that the car came with vs a L2 charger/public charge station.
UPDATE:
Well the car is at the dealer for the THIRD time now, and they are finally replacing parts. According to the dealer tech, the motor is going to have to be replaced, as he identified some module up inside the motor that has to be replaced but its design such that only replacing the whole motor will do.
However, its been 28 days they have had the car so far, with at least another 3 weeks ahead, and the delay is all on Ford, as they keep requiring the dealer to jump though every intermediate troubleshooting step (aka all the cheaper for them potential fixes), despite the fact the dealer tech knows where the problem is. So, no choice but to wait on that process to wind its way through thanks to Ford bean counters insisting on following a checklist and ignoring the advice of both the dealer techs and their own engineers assisting the dealer techs. its really absurd.
I cannot help think if this is how Ford handles warranty problems with its passenger cars, its a good thing they are quitting the passenger car market.
I really do like the car (what little time I have gotten to spend behind the wheel)
The one upside in this 3rd service round, is I was able to force the car to star producing the error codes/Stop Safely Now warning all the time following my previous troubleshooting efforts (the service techs appear to be helpless w/o the codes, and given the nature of the Ford bean counters, they won't approve anything w/o being able to check the box that says "error code produced)
Anyway, if I am lucky, I will get to drive the car again in early August. In the mean time I have started with some calls into Ford to complain about this process, and maybe see about getting some compensation for car payments for a car that I have barely driven since I took possession. Who woulda thought that winding through the Tesla Model 3 wait list might have resulted in me having a drivrable EV car faster.
My saving grace here is I did not pay much for the Focus EV, and the dealer has me in a loaner Focus (gas), with unlimited milage for the duration (and oh yea i am racking the miles up on the loaner lol)