Stop Safely Now Warning

[MermaidHair]

Add me to the list of SSN sufferers. I have a 2014 FFE with 45,000 on it. My car has been at the dealership since 7/5/19 and they still do not know what is wrong with it. Here are some relevant details:
- The wiring harness was replaced before I took delivery of the car back in 2014.
- I had one SSN incident in the first couple of weeks that was solved by reseating all of the connections.
- Next SSN error happened in April 2019. It was a one off and I thought nothing of it.
- I did experience the issue where my level 1 charge cord fried my home electrical outlet. Got a replacement cord but no assistance for the electrical repair at home from ford
- On 7/3/19 my teenage daughter was driving the car and started getting SSN errors. My phone was lighting up with texts from the car so I was able to tell her to stay off freeways and be aware. It happened 8 times over the course of about 10 miles of surface street driving. I had the car towed to the dealer (nearest one is about 20 miles freeway driving away) on 7/5
- At some point in the past month they offered us a loaner since it was taking so long. I thought this was because it was covered under the extended warranty. Not so sure about that now.
- On 8/1 we went to pick up the car. At that time they had 15 hours of labor on the car, replaced the charging ring, some other connectors and reprogrammed "9 out of 15 modules" in the car. All should be good and they will work with Ford to reduce the cost of my bill (you BET they will! 15 hours of labor is exorbitant. Tells me they don't know how to diagnose the car).
- Drove away. Daughter driving again. Got 4 miles from dealership and were going about 70 MPH on freeway when SSN pops up again. This time it was VERY DANGEROUS.
- Pulled over, restarted the car and took surface streets back to the dealer where the car is today. They are still diagnosing it. The tech wants to put in a new battery but Ford has not approved that yet.

Meanwhile, I am driving a brand new Fusion Hybrid (had 6 miles when they loaned it to me). This car is not to shabby but I want my car back.

Wanted to post an update. After my dealership got my car back and did a reassessment they confirmed that I never formally approved any work so all of the work they had done prior to 8/1 which should have cost me around $1400, is on them. That's the only good news I have. Since then they continued to diagnose and recommend to Ford that the battery be replaced. Ford came back with a wiring harness needs replacing. after much back and forth between me, the dealership and Ford, I finally approved the wiring harness replacement. Ford will pay $1100 of it, I get to pay $2400. THEN, my worst fears were realized. After the harness was replaced the errors the dealership were getting on the high voltage battery were still coming through so now they are to replace that. And I am under the distinct impression that the wiring harness was never at fault. The dealership is trying to get Ford to pay for all of the repairs now but I am disgusted by this pennywise, pound foolish, stick it to the consumer approach. I will have a hard time trusting this car, or any Ford vehicle, after this debacle. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that Ford does the right thing and covers all the expenses.

Meanwhile I am starting month 4 without my car.

[tinilk]

Wanted to post an update. After my dealership got my car back and did a reassessment they confirmed that I never formally approved any work so all of the work they had done prior to 8/1 which should have cost me around $1400, is on them. That's the only good news I have. Since then they continued to diagnose and recommend to Ford that the battery be replaced. Ford came back with a wiring harness needs replacing. after much back and forth between me, the dealership and Ford, I finally approved the wiring harness replacement. Ford will pay $1100 of it, I get to pay $2400. THEN, my worst fears were realized. After the harness was replaced the errors the dealership were getting on the high voltage battery were still coming through so now they are to replace that. And I am under the distinct impression that the wiring harness was never at fault. The dealership is trying to get Ford to pay for all of the repairs now but I am disgusted by this pennywise, pound foolish, stick it to the consumer approach. I will have a hard time trusting this car, or any Ford vehicle, after this debacle. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that Ford does the right thing and covers all the expenses.

Meanwhile I am starting month 4 without my car.

Mermaidhair I feel your pain. I got my 2014 FFE back in May after the 2nd dealer that I took it to finally replaced the HV battery. This was after having it towed 5 times and it sitting at dealerships for a cumulative total of 15 (!) months since the first SSN. During that time I was thankfully only charged $135 for a plastic splash guard that the 1st dealer suggested at one point (needless to say it did not fix the problem).

Keep in mind that if/when they finally do replace your HV battery it will likely be a remanufactured 23 kWh pack, rather than the 33.5 kWh pack from the 2017/2018 model which Ford had been providing for warranty battery replacements on older FFEs until about May 2019. Mine was apparently replaced just past the date when they stopped sending out the larger packs for older cars.

[thanhdaica1985]

So my car has been back to the dealership again. This time I didn't get the dreaded SSN, but I got a yellow wrench. They have replaced the harnesses 3 times. I don't know if it was the same harness or different one. The adviser told me that he's going to try to push Ford to replace the battery this time. To be honest, I don't really care whether I get a new battery or not, just fix it so I don't have to worry about it and keep taking time off to drop it off at the dealership. This debacle has been going since June this year. Good thing is that I have extended warranty until March 2020. I'll trade it in as soon as the warranty is over. And I'll never buy a Ford electric car. My friends are buying the Model 3 and I've never heard a single one of them complaining about the Model 3. One of them has driven over 75,000 miles and has only changed 2 sets of tires and a couple air filters. Meanwhile I'm stuck with this tin box that is so unreliable and the Ford's mechanics can't fix it. I will give an update of my situation once they call me about the car. And I don't know how long that will take.

[westhamfan]

Has anyone had Ford cover the coolant leak problem once the car is outside of warranty? I'm beyond frustrated with this issue which arose after the 8 year mark. Car only has 58k miles. Might tow it back from Ford dealer and try to get it to reset long enough to sell it back to CarMax.

[J in TX]

First (and maybe last) post here.

My 2013 FFE with 52K mi and no prior issues gave SSN message last weekend and wouldn't move. Towed it to dealer. Service advisor initially argued with me saying Ford never made an electric version of the Focus(!).

Service advisor said after investigation they found a wire that had rubbed against a panel and needed repair. $430 later they said it was fixed. One stop and 15 min after driving it off the dealer's lot got another SSN and wouldn't move. Dealer towed it back in.

Two days later dealer says upper and lower battery packs are out of tolerance for voltage and internal resistance, need to be replaced. Parts and labor $14K. Parts backordered, no way to know when they will be available.

So FFE we loved you wile we had you, but you died an untimely death and the family is grieving. Off you go to the great parking lot in the sky. Your spot in the driveway is now occupied by an ICE Toyota. Unlikely that I'll look at an EV (esp. from Ford) again.

[Heima]

Your Dealer is full of shit. The service advisor is an arrogant prick. If Ford never made an electric Focus, then what the fuck just got towed into the service center? Sorry for the swearing, I just get pissed off at dealers that try to scam people.
For the batteries to get out of tolerance (because only now is the service advisor reading up on EVs and learned that cells get balanced, and so made that the reason for the problem) is highly unlikely to give a SSN message. If you could drive the vehicle off the lot for 15 minutes, then there is probably a simple reason why you got the SSN. If there is an HVIL problem (me thinking that a wire was loose, that there was some truth in the dealer's lies), then an independent shop that does Hybrids should be able to fix.

[Anti_Climax]

Any option to pull codes and check them?

[J in TX]

Keep in mind this is a "Ford EV Certified" service department. So it's funny in a sad way that the service advisor had no clue the FFE even exists. He didn't believe me until he looked up the VIN. And then tried to play it off by claiming he didn't know because Ford only made the FFE for one year(!). When I told him not true he gave me a look like I was crazy.

At that point I knew I should probably have walked out, but I also knew I was screwed for lack of support options. I'm not aware of any independent EV shops near me in Dallas. There's another "Ford EV Certified" dealer 4 miles away, but when I'd taken my car there for a small issue before they were openly anti-EV, putting me at the end of the line of F-150s that came after me, making wisecracks about the car and then giving me an inspection report with maintenance items for ICE vehicles. So I wasn't going to tow it there for what would likely be a worse situation.

I suspect the reason the car drove off the dealer's lot after the failed repair was because they cleared whatever codes were causing the SSN, and then when my son tried to restart it those codes reappeared causing the second SSN. I get that possibly the dealer is wrong about the battery failure, and maybe I could have pushed them to check other things. But at the end of the day how much more time and money do I want to pour into this, and how willing am I to let my family drive around a car that dies suddenly?

Today I picked up the key at the dealership and saw my FFE off on its ride to get scrapped. I used a company called Peddle and they gave me $2,250 for it. I'm waiting to hear back from the dealer service manager on reimbursing me for the failed repair. Frankly I think it's ridiculous that they didn't do that without me asking. If they don't they'll see me in court. I'm done with EVs for a while and with Ford forever.

[Anti_Climax]

J, if you are willing, could you please DM me the VIN of that car?

I'm having someone see if they can try to program the LTE TCU and make it work with much older models and they need a VIN to "experiment" with.

[jghall00]

Today I picked up the key at the dealership and saw my FFE off on its ride to get scrapped. I used a company called Peddle and they gave me $2,250 for it. I'm waiting to hear back from the dealer service manager on reimbursing me for the failed repair. Frankly I think it's ridiculous that they didn't do that without me asking. If they don't they'll see me in court. I'm done with EVs for a while and with Ford forever.

Sorry for the issues you experienced. I think this may be more of a Ford issue rather than electrification. At 116K, my Expedition needed a $4,000 head gasket repair. I picked it up after several weeks and the turbos wouldn't spool. Ford charged me another $300 to replace the recirculating valve. Now my turbo manifold is leaking. Those quotes are coming in around $800. Driving Fords is hit or miss. Some people have no issues, other people have nothing but. My plan was always to rotate between used EVs that have a battery warranty.