Charge fault issue, car no longer charges.

Ford Focus Electric Forum

Help Support Ford Focus Electric Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Moolelo

Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2015
Messages
22
I had a few charge fault issues early on, but they slowly got worse till the point that this past week I could not even charge the car at any public, personal, or ford supplied EVSE. Car is at dealer now for 3rd day with no resolution. The dealer electric mechanic found nothing wrong and no error being thrown (they did not tell me what the error code from yellow wrench was). They are waiting on ford mechanics to see what to do next. Has anyone else experienced this and had it resolved? My vehicle health data collection never worked also if that matters. There are a few threads but no clear resolutions. On Cmax and Fusion plugin forums the 12 V battery seemed to be the culprit somehow throwing off all the advanced systems of this car by just being slightly low in voltage...
Help!!
 
My vehicle health collection has never worked, always says I need to drive 200 or whatever miles,gave up on it.

Can you describe symptoms of charge fault???
 
Moolelo said:
I had a few charge fault issues early on, but they slowly got worse till the point that this past week I could not even charge the car at any public, personal, or ford supplied EVSE. Car is at dealer now for 3rd day with no resolution. The dealer electric mechanic found nothing wrong and no error being thrown (they did not tell me what the error code from yellow wrench was). They are waiting on ford mechanics to see what to do next. Has anyone else experienced this and had it resolved? My vehicle health data collection never worked also if that matters. There are a few threads but no clear resolutions. On Cmax and Fusion plugin forums the 12 V battery seemed to be the culprit somehow throwing off all the advanced systems of this car by just being slightly low in voltage...
Help!!
Have they replaced the GFM? The GFM is the charge port and surrounding hardware. The SOBDM may also be the culprit. This is the module which actually controls the charging. Otherwise, the issue could stem from a bad battery harness which has caused the SSN issues.

Do you have access to a Bluetooth OBDII scanner? With that you could read the Ford proprietary fault codes with FORScan. Then you could see what's causing the fault code. If you know what codes are being recorded I can look them up in the workshop manual.
 
The faults occur when plugging in at both L1 and L2 EVSE, the ring will circle around once or twice and then flash solid for a few then go dark and Myford Mobile and the car dash will show charge fault and yellow wrench. The EVSE does no detect any of this only showing connected and beginning to charge and then stops, no fault indicator on that end. These happened infrequently, sometimes near the end of a charge and sometimes right when I started (there seemed to be a pattern with public EVSEs that did not work at first). Then the past few charges prior to taking car in it happened near the end of each at locations that always worked before. The following day I tried again with different public ones, the work EVSE, and the ford supplied and none would do anything but have the car fault and not charge the car. At the ford mechanic they also had the same thing occurring every time they plugged it in. I shouldn't say the battery wouldn't charge because it used regen charge just fine the whole way to the mechanic, but won't accept from a plug.
I only thought that if my Vehicle health report data collecting module was faulty that could funk with the whole computer systems. There has been issues with the accessory control module in other ford plugins of 2015.
I wanted to try the DIY and just pull my 12V and see if resetting master computer does anything or if my 12V was low on voltage (apparently these cars are really sensitive to voltage of the accessory battery due to all the computers running when HVB is off). The dealer has not checked either as far as I know and definitely tried resetting everything (MyFord mobile still works). They are waiting to hear from a Ford engineer and haven't returned my call from yesterday. While I really don't want to be that guy, if everything else works according to them and the car passes all scans and this will fix it, I want to ask them to try.
The GFM makes sense, the rest though probably not as the regen charge was fine and no SSN.
 
mines is a battery issue...


Recently My Focus EV started giving trouble. This is a 2015 model Focus EV and the trouble started last week. When I open the door, on the screen a messege shows up " System off to Save Battery". Now when this messge shows up and if you try to start the Car it will not start. I am uploading a video situation is little much bad now then when i made the video. Below are the Situaion Steps from beinin to current

1) Opened door the Messge of "System off to save Battery" if I try to start the car when the msg shows up it will not start, then like 30 to 40 sec later, EV will turn on but no drive mode, I had to hit the breaks and start again for drive mode.
video https://goo.gl/photos/Ez7ifxsXVDHiMLRB8

2) Same as above except this time when I hit Break and Start, it will not start and I would here clicking sound under the hood and in rear near the main battery, and it will not stop. I had to connect the charger which brough power to the display and started to car without the drive mode, I unplugged the charger and hit Break/Start to get Drive mode.

3) Today I when I started the car in the Morning, Situation (1) happened, then when I made it to work approx 25 miles. I turned the EV off and try to re start it, Situation (2) happened (partialy) but I didnt connect the charger (Level 1), what I noticed once I pressed Break/Start the EV didnt turn the clickin sound happened, and when I tried to STOP nothing happened, I tried to lock the car from inside it didnt lock, tried using the key to unlock the trunk or lock the EV didnt happen, but was able to unlock the trunk using the button in the car. So I took out the Level 1 charger and pluged it in then the EV started up.

FYI: couple of time the Yellow wrench came up, and most of the time it will display " System start fault"

To me it looks like my 12 volt battery has gone bad. I will take it to dealership today.

What do you think
 
adnan1980 said:
To me it looks like my 12 volt battery has gone bad. I will take it to dealership today.

What do you think
Correct. The message you see about saving battery indicates that the 12V battery SOC is low and thus the car is going into Load Shedding Mode.
 
hybridbear said:
adnan1980 said:
To me it looks like my 12 volt battery has gone bad. I will take it to dealership today.

What do you think
Correct. The message you see about saving battery indicates that the 12V battery SOC is low and thus the car is going into Load Shedding Mode.

Thanks... This sucks.. this is a new vehicle, I dont have much technical knowledge I assumed the 12V battery would recharge when we drive like the ICE vehicle.
 
adnan1980 said:
hybridbear said:
adnan1980 said:
To me it looks like my 12 volt battery has gone bad. I will take it to dealership today.

What do you think
Correct. The message you see about saving battery indicates that the 12V battery SOC is low and thus the car is going into Load Shedding Mode.

Thanks... This sucks.. this is a new vehicle, I dont have much technical knowledge I assumed the 12V battery would recharge when we drive like the ICE vehicle.
The 12V battery is charged when the car is on via the DCDC converter. It is also charged when you are connected to the EVSE as the car sees fit. Charging the 12V battery while connected to the EVSE is regulated by the SOBDM. It measures the 12V SOC when the EVSE is first connected and then decides how much charging it needs. It appears that you have have received a defective 12V battery from the factory. Hopefully you have a competent dealer who will take care of this repair quickly for you & without hassle.
 
Update: Apparently the first thing they checked was the 12V for same reason I thought it would be easy fix. Since there was nothing apparently wrong or diagnostically wrong with charging modules, they are in contact with Ford and working through a flow chart of each and every electric system part to test each and find the culprit. So this could be much longer, but on the plus side if there is anything faulty in my high voltage system they will find it now and I'll be done with that.
Huge downside is Hawaii isn't included in rental reimbursements for warranty fixes and the dealer doesn't do loaners so I am amassing a large rental car bill. What should I do? Shouldn't Ford be paying this since it was faulty from factory and I am currently paying the lease on the car I can't drive and this rental bill?!?!
 
Moolelo said:
Update: Apparently the first thing they checked was the 12V for same reason I thought it would be easy fix. Since there was nothing apparently wrong or diagnostically wrong with charging modules, they are in contact with Ford and working through a flow chart of each and every electric system part to test each and find the culprit. So this could be much longer, but on the plus side if there is anything faulty in my high voltage system they will find it now and I'll be done with that.
Huge downside is Hawaii isn't included in rental reimbursements for warranty fixes and the dealer doesn't do loaners so I am amassing a large rental car bill. What should I do? Shouldn't Ford be paying this since it was faulty from factory and I am currently paying the lease on the car I can't drive and this rental bill?!?!
Don't rent a car unless someone else is paying. Find a different dealer if your dealer won't provide you with a loaner or a rental car. You can contact Ford Corporate about getting some coverage of your lease payment while the car is in the shop. Unfortunately, the only way to currently get better service is to buy a Tesla.
 
adnan1980 said:
mines is a battery issue...


Recently My Focus EV started giving trouble. This is a 2015 model Focus EV and the trouble started last week. When I open the door, on the screen a messege shows up " System off to Save Battery". Now when this messge shows up and if you try to start the Car it will not start. I am uploading a video situation is little much bad now then when i made the video. Below are the Situaion Steps from beinin to current

1) Opened door the Messge of "System off to save Battery" if I try to start the car when the msg shows up it will not start, then like 30 to 40 sec later, EV will turn on but no drive mode, I had to hit the breaks and start again for drive mode.
video https://goo.gl/photos/Ez7ifxsXVDHiMLRB8

2) Same as above except this time when I hit Break and Start, it will not start and I would here clicking sound under the hood and in rear near the main battery, and it will not stop. I had to connect the charger which brough power to the display and started to car without the drive mode, I unplugged the charger and hit Break/Start to get Drive mode.

3) Today I when I started the car in the Morning, Situation (1) happened, then when I made it to work approx 25 miles. I turned the EV off and try to re start it, Situation (2) happened (partialy) but I didnt connect the charger (Level 1), what I noticed once I pressed Break/Start the EV didnt turn the clickin sound happened, and when I tried to STOP nothing happened, I tried to lock the car from inside it didnt lock, tried using the key to unlock the trunk or lock the EV didnt happen, but was able to unlock the trunk using the button in the car. So I took out the Level 1 charger and pluged it in then the EV started up.

FYI: couple of time the Yellow wrench came up, and most of the time it will display " System start fault"

To me it looks like my 12 volt battery has gone bad. I will take it to dealership today.

What do you think

Any update on this from anyone? I have this exact problem (#2) and I'm at the dealer now. They think it's the key fob, but I don't think they know what they are doing. Any hints/tips are appreciated. I have a 2015 FFE with 3k miles.
 
system off to save battery is your 12V battery going dead. The car needs the 12v battery to run the charge circuitry. You can pop the hood and hook up another 12v battery like you're going to "jump start" it and then plug the car into a charge station. The car should start to charge the main HV battery. When you have the opportunity, the 12v battery should be put on a charger or diagnosed to see if it has gone bad. Just charging the car may not put enough juice back in a dead 12V battery.
 
One thing I do to avoid this happening is put the 12v battery on a battery MINDer if I'm going to be away from the car for many days. I do it once a week as well to get the 12v battery to 100% SOC. Keep in mind when charging the 12v battery use an automatic charger (battery MINDer brand trickle charger recommended - charges at 1.5a) that you must have the power directly to the + positive on the battery and the - must go to a chassis ground. If you put it directly on the - negative to the battery the current monitor will not be able to monitor charging and will think the battery is at the same SOC that it was before even with the voltage change. You will have to let the car sit for 8 hours without being touched for it to figure out the SOC properly again.

Amazing how the 12v battery is so problematic on an electric car :)
 
breeves002 said:
Amazing how the 12v battery is so problematic on an electric car :)

Yep and it would be so easy for Ford to update the firmware to periodically monitor the 12v battery charge level when the car is sitting off and charge it up if needed from the HV battery to keep it from getting to low to start up the car.

Without that, I keep for emergencies a small 12v battery jumper unit based on a LiIon chargeable battery that can jump start the 12v battery if needed. I also have a 12v volt meter accessory plugged into the accessory port so I can see if the 12v battery level is starting to drop too much in the garage. I also have an good Sears external 12v battery charger in my garage I can use if I notice the 12v battery level drops too low.

I only had issues with the 12v battery for the first month I had my FFE, but no more issues the rest of this past year. But I am prepared in any case.
 
I only had a problem once with the 12v battery. I was out of town for a few weeks and got several 12v battery low texts. This was a couple months after I got my FFE. I think the 12v battery went dead because of a flaky charge station that was having false GFI trips. Not sure exactly what happened but I believe when the car was expecting electricity from the EVSE but not getting it, the TMS started the coolant pump that apparently runs off the 12v battery. This ran the battery down . All I know is that when I got back I couldn't charge the battery because the coolant pump was still trying to run. I ended up having to unhook the 12v battery to charge it back up. When I hooked it back up to the car it sparked pretty good and the coolant pump ran for a couple seconds before stopping.
 
Sorry about not replying until now. The issue was with the pins for the charge equipment wearing out (corroding, etc.). They have to replace the entire unit. Of course had to be ordered and took forever, but install is quick. Longest part is to come to that conclusion for some reason, Ford requires them to send diagnostics for all related electric parts/cables before they send replacement. This takes forever also! Not too long after with some heavy rain part of my charge ring stopped lighting up (leds fried) and you can see some of the moisture in there. So they apparently didn't seal it well enough and now I will have to get a huge chunk replaced again. Here and there I still get charge faults, but nothing continuous if I change plugs and prevents me from charging. If this happens to you, tell them you want them to run a charge unit diagnostic and then they can order the entire unit from ford when it comes back either faulty or inconclusive.
 
Back
Top