Stop Safely Now Warning

[davideos]

Today marks 7 weeks ago that my SSN message popped up and the car was towed to the dealer. It is still there! Ford says they are going to fix it. I think it may be unfixable. They are waiting on parts for the transmission repair currently. How about the rest of you who have been in for repair? Are you fixed?

I took my car in one week before the recall. They didn't do anything. They claimed that they hoped the previous recall would fix it...in other words, they didn't know what to do and hoped it wouldn't happen again. After the official recall came out, they updated the car in an hour and a half and I haven't had an issue yet.

It concerns me that you took it in for the SSN and they are about to replace the transmission. If your SSN issue is related to the bug fixed by 13S09 (I think that's the correct recall), then they have taken the wrong path. Maybe it is good of them to have tried, or there really is an issue with the transmission, but I find it hard to believe...but not impossible. If you car just powered down like the rest of us, then maybe you should suggest they have a review with the FFE engineering department. I would suggest having them replace the car....they've mucked with it too much in my opinion.

 

[Ken_mc3]

I have contacted Ford about a buy back or exchange. I was told that I "did not qualify " for a buy back. I am greatly concerned about the condition of the car. So far they have replaced the dc to dc converter, high voltage cables, some " modules ", and updated the software twice. The dealer said that they are in constant contact with Ford and are following their advice. The transmission has some bad " modules " and that is why they want to replace it. Only now there are none available so they are going to try to fix it. Of course one of the " modules " was on backorder too. This is the first Ford car I have owned since the 1980s. It will most likely be the last. I have owned 3 Honda Civics and 2 Honda Odysseys. We still own one Odyssey. My previous car was a Prius. I have had NO major problems with any of these! I should have bought the Leaf instead of the Focus.

 

[davideos]

...I should have bought the Leaf instead of the Focus.

I've owned 2 Hondas, a Toyota branded as a GM car, and the FFE is my 3rd Ford. I've never had any major issues with the Hondas (but quite a few annoyances), but I've had the best luck with Fords. The Toyota was horrible. Anyway, the buy back might not apply in their rule book, but who said you had to play by their rules? There has got to be some recourse for you. 7 weeks is ridiculous. Anyway, I hope they get it repaired for you soon and with good quality.

 

[jmueller065]

Hey I got a recall letter in the mail about this. It also includes a national recall number (Ford Safety Recall 13S09--we knew that but NHTSA Recall 13V523).

So this is no longer a "hidden recall".

Some pertinent documents:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM446812/RCAK-13V523-5059.pdf
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM445848/RCDNN-13V523-8515.pdf

 

[unplugged]

Hey I got a recall letter in the mail about this.

I found the second letter interesting because it sets out the timeline of Ford "discovering" the issue. The letter from Ford to the NHTSA states that not until mid August 2013 did Ford realize that there was a problem reported by 16 owners.

The "Critical Concern Review Group" really ought to start reading these forums.

 

[dmen]

So when those of us who experienced SSN in 2012 and early 2013 were told by our service depts that they were in direct contact with Ford engineers to troubleshoot the issue, those engineers didn't pass the information on to safety or quality control or anyone? How does that not happen? How did the cases in August 2013 didfer such that they finally triggered concern?

 

[unplugged]

So when those of us who experienced SSN in 2012 and early 2013 were told by our service depts that they were in direct contact with Ford engineers to troubleshoot the issue, those engineers didn't pass the information on to safety or quality control or anyone? How does that not happen?

I think Ford is being disingenuous when Ford claims that the SSN complaints didn't merit further investigation because there were so few complaints. I find it hard to believe that Ford doesn't even review the NHTSA complaint list to get an understanding of how many people are making official complaints. The NHTSA launched an investigation based upon the number of these complaints while Ford sat on its hands. I think the lack of Ford paying attention to SSN issues was a mere convenience.

How did the cases in August 2013 differ such that they finally triggered concern?

I think the numbers increased, not that the cases differed.

 

[jmueller065]

I think you are misreading the timeline. That August 15th date is when:

Engineering informed Ford's Critical Concern Review Group

Clearly Engineering knew about the issue prior to that date. I would even speculate that this date indicates when they had a solution to the problem, not when they started the investigation. By your reasoning: Ford started to investigate on August 15th and then released the SSN software update only a few weeks later? I find it far more likely that Ford has been investigating the issue for most of the year or more and only over this past summer figured out the issue and a fix for it. I know there are many of us on here who work in the software industry (myself included) but fixing the software in a car isn't as quick as you'd think. Its not just spend a day debugging the software and release the fix the next day. It takes time, a lot of it. Not to mention all the regulations you have to check and follow which adds time for simply testing the fix...

Another interesting note about that document: there are 2456 FFE's in the wild.

 

[Ken_mc3]

It is more than a software issue. Otherwise why would they be replacing items such as high voltage cables? Dc to Dc converters? "Modules " what ever they mean with that term! If it was strictly software my car would have been fixed weeks ago. I was told by the dealer service manager that various things have been going wrong with these cars.

 

[jmueller065]

It is more than a software issue.

Not the recall; it is only software. For many getting the recall performed has taken 30 minutes or less at the dealership. At the dealer they simply plug in IDS and reprogram the powertrain control module (the recall letter explicitly states this). Thus the recall is only software. In some cases the dealership botched the reprogram and, likely, bricked the PCM thus necessitating its replacement--that is the dealers issue.

This does not mean that some other SSN issues were not only software. There are many with bad batteries, transmissions, etc. Those SSN problems are likely not covered by this recall.

Many on this forum have felt that there is no one cause for SSN. The spreadsheet I made of the early SSN issues clearly showed that some were software glitches (most likely covered by this recall) and others were more serious including hardware replacement. (Also note that there was an earlier TSB that included reprogramming and possible module replacement covering the 12V battery.)

 

[Ken_mc3]

I hope all had a good Thanksgiving Day. Mine was pretty good, except my car is still not working. The dealer called Wednesday late afternoon to let me know that the latest attempt was a failure. They have replaced almost everything related to making it work. THEY want Ford to take it! I called the Regional customer service representative and left a message on his voice mail to contact the dealer. I would really like to have a working car.
How many people have had successful fixes? It would be good to know about the success stories.

 

[michael]

I had one SSN a few months back. Software upgrade accomplished a week ago no problem.

 

[az erik]

I got the SSN recall done, no SSN ever and hope to keep it that way. Car has 1800 miles on it. now.

 

[hcsharp]

We've got 4k miles on ours and never had SSN. We had a problem with the telematics that made myfordmobile quit working and nothing we could do to fix it. Then more problems when they moved the site. Finally we got one of the lead engineers working on our case and were able to get it working again. The dealer has been very supportive. We like the car.

 

[guruuno]

Please clarify:

"We had a problem with the telematics that made myfordmobile quit working"

Thanks

 

[hcsharp]

Please clarify:

"We had a problem with the telematics that made myfordmobile quit working"

Thanks

Myfordmobile.com was unable to ever contact the car. We were unable to set go times which was a real PITA when the weather got cold. It had nothing to do with SSN which is the subject of this thread.

 

[michael]

Sounds like the disease mine has. Ever since the site change. Can retrieve battery condition and location, but cannot set locations, charge status, anything that needs to "sync" with the car.

Have reported to Ford and they acknowledge it's a common problem but it's been many weeks and no fix

 

[Ken_mc3]

Myfordmobile.com was unable to ever contact the car. We were unable to set go times which was a real PITA when the weather got cold. It had nothing to do with SSN which is the subject of this thread.

Use the touch screen in the car to set your go times. That worked for me on my FFE and in my C - Max Energi. I don't even try to use
the Web based connection.

After 10 weeks in the shop, I finally got the FFE returned to me. I immediately drove it back to the dealer I bought it from and traded it in on a C - Max Energi. I didn't trust the FFE after so many attempts to fix it. Almost everything in the running gear was replaced including the motor and batteries!
I got screwed out of $10,000 on the deal and am planning on trying to get Ford to cover my losses.

 

[Astrand1]

Myfordmobile.com was unable to ever contact the car. We were unable to set go times which was a real PITA when the weather got cold. It had nothing to do with SSN which is the subject of this thread.

Use the touch screen in the car to set your go times. That worked for me on my FFE and in my C - Max Energi. I don't even try to use
the Web based connection.

After 10 weeks in the shop, I finally got the FFE returned to me. I immediately drove it back to the dealer I bought it from and traded it in on a C - Max Energi. I didn't trust the FFE after so many attempts to fix it. Almost everything in the running gear was replaced including the motor and batteries!
I got screwed out of $10,000 on the deal and am planning on trying to get Ford to cover my losses.

10 weeks in the shop!! Seems like that would have been a no brainer lemon law buyback? I'm assuming you checked into that? I wish you luck on getting ford to cover the 10k but after a bad experience a couple years ago with a diesel ford truck I would not hold my breath. Keep us posted on what they (ford) do or don't do for you.

 

[AndrewK]

Well my dealer apparently did not perform the PCM reprogram properly. The PCM is now bricked and they are ordering a new one. They expect the new one will be available in one week. How many others has this happened to and do you really think it will be available in one week?

I never personally experienced the SSN on my car but was interested in having it resolved if it ever occurred when my wife was driving it.

Andy