Charge Fault - won't charge

[TexaCali]

Hey Gang,

My 2014 FFE has been relatively trouble free, but now it won't take a charge. I've tried both the factory Level 1 charger and a Level 2 charger with the same result. Car is set to "charge now", after the usual relay clicking and hearing some fluids move around, the entire charge ring flashes on and off. Turning the car on and looking at the charging page it just says "Fault".

I've checked the fuses under the hood. Is there any sort of simple "reset" procedure that might clear the fault? I'm going to take it in, but there is only 25% on the battery and I'd like to at least get some more charge into it so I don't have to have it towed.

Thanks,
Mark

[jmueller065]

Can you pull codes? Do you have an OBDII interface & Forscan? That will likely tell you what is going on.

[triangles]

Unhooking the 12V battery will reset the computer but you need a tool connected to the ODBII port to clear any codes. If you are lucky your battery has failed and you will get a free upgrade to the 33.5 kWh battery. If not and it is your charge port you may be in for a big repair bill. Not sure about the port itself but I was told that the LED ring which I believe is a part of the charge port is not covered by the EV component warranty... Good luck and let us know what they find out.

[TexaCali]

Thanks guys.

I don't have a OBDII scanner, so can't pull any codes. I should probably get one though....

I did try placing the 12V battery on a charger just to make sure a low 12V wasn't causing a fault, but no dice.

Drove the car to the dealership this morning and dropped it off with only a few miles of charge to spare. They said it would take a day or two before their electric car specialist could get to it. So now I wait. Fortunately I have another vehicle to drive.....Keeping my fingers crossed for a free 33.5 kWh battery upgrade!!!

I'll post updates as I hear more.

[TexaCali]

Well, I got a call from Ford this morning. They say the SOBDM module had failed, covered under warranty. He also mentioned some other module that failed, but I couldn't quite make out what it was. And then he told me to be compatible they also had to replace the battery. I thought I had won the lottery for a minute, until he told me it wasn't covered under warranty and would be $169, at which point I realized it was the 12V battery. Oh well. Car is 4.5 years old, not gonna complain too much about updating the silly lead acid battery that they shouldn't have used in the first place (was not even sealed, required adding water and you had to unbolt stuff to get to the fill ports.....who thought of this? Why not a small LiPo? Heck something from a computer laptop would have worked better and probably been cheaper).

Won't be fixed until Friday as they are waiting on parts....so I'll be driving my truck a bit more.

[WhiteFFE]

Yeah, the sobdm is basically the charger, so it makes sense that it was causing the no charge issue. Mine was replaced under warranty also. I hope it works out well.

[triangles]

Lithium is a poor choice for a starter battery if you live where it gets below freezing. A sub freezing lithium battery puts out next to nothing and is damaged if charged (ie car is turned on) while the battery is cold soaked at sub freezing temps. So until they change the design so that a 12V system is not required or design the car such that the traction battery won't be drained just sitting doing nothing. We are stuck with the necessity of a 12V lead acid battery.

[TexaCali]

Well the car is still at the dealer. They claim the part didn't come in until Friday and it came in on a palate - Ford apparently sent them a very large sub assembly that contains the high voltage battery cage and they had to pull the high voltage battery to install the new module. Service manager claims they are going to re-install my high voltage battery and not a new one (bummer). I'm hopeful they will discover an incompatibility between the old battery and the new battery cage....we will see.

It has been almost two weeks since I dropped the car off for repair. Driving my diesel Excursion around town is starting to get tiring and expensive. I really miss my FFE. I also realize now what is going to kill this car one day.....it probably won't be the battery, but some electronic component (like the charging module) that fails after the car is out of warranty. I'm guessing the cost of such a repair would exceed the value of a 10+ year old FFE.

[carbuff]

Interesting. When my sobdm got replaced, it was a fairly quick procedure. They certainly didnt have to remove the battery. And my dealer really hasnt a clue with these cars. The motor, well that was another story. A whole month for that. But I agree totally on what will be the end of this car. Some module will go bad out of warranty and will cost more than the car is worth.

[TexaCali]

Yeah, I bet most dealers (mine included) are pretty clueless on these cars.

When I made the decision to purchase this car the math was pretty easy - at $20k after rebates and incentives, and ~$0.03/mile for electricity, the total cost of ownership is $0.23/mile (plus tires and vehicle registration, insurance, etc), IF you drive the car 100k miles and then scrap it at zero value. Scraping the car at zero (or near) zero value at the end of life seems pretty likely at this point...but the 100k mile figure may have been optimistic. My car is ~4.5 years old and only has ~35k miles. I know the battery warranty is 10 years/100k miles, not sure if that applies to the rest of the electrical drive system. But even if it does, looks like 10 years is going to come before 100k miles in my case.