Ford Mustang Mach-E Recalled Because Battery Can’t Handle Owners Flooring It

[UncleDave]

Probably not inside of the motor-inverter stack as @djb mentioned above.

It can still get mighty hot in the Rockies during the summer.

I know it up there my Dad and Grandparents are buried in Estes Park.

There's a reason the j2807 test is located at Davis Dam Cali and not Ike.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Probably not inside of the motor-inverter stack as @djb mentioned above.

It can still get mighty hot in the Rockies during the summer.

I doubt it’s even temperature, there is simply less air to do the cooling at high altitudes.

 

[Ws6]

Still waiting for the big boys to get in...

Repeated full throttle runs; probably fine for everyday driving.

Edit: Probably OK for a lot of everyday driving. But still an engineering failure.

Enjoying my Kia. No issues, here. Still waiting on Tesla to catch up with thermal management and an 800v architecture. Maybe up their build quality, too.

 

[PandaBear]

Yes, but the air is usually cooler there.

It is the steepness of the slope that hurt, not how high it is. If the steepness is not that bad, cooling system has plenty of time to cool things off and all would be fine just like a good ole fashion long distance drive.

 

[demarpaint]

It appears they can't get the EV right either. Not a surprise.

 

[zzyzzx]

At least the batteries aren't catching on fire so much.

 

[eljefino]

The Michigan State Police have a test for prospective cruisers, where they just hang out at top speed at WOT for ~20 miles. If a car can't hack it, it doesn't get to be a cop car.

You'd think Ford would know about this test.

 

[Vercingetorix]

The Michigan State Police have a test for prospective cruisers, where they just hang out at top speed at WOT for ~20 miles. If a car can't hack it, it doesn't get to be a cop car.

You'd think Ford would know about this test.

A Formula 1 car couldn’t pass this test.

 

[dogememe]

The Michigan State Police have a test for prospective cruisers, where they just hang out at top speed at WOT for ~20 miles. If a car can't hack it, it doesn't get to be a cop car.

You'd think Ford would know about this test.

Know about it, yes, but that doesn't really apply to the Mach-E... Most people that buy it aren't cops and/or don't get in high speed pursuits particularly often... Although being able to drive up the grapevine at highway speeds on a 100 degree day should be possible for any car without any issues at all.

 

[2005jettatdi]

Yesterday I had to run down to Lowes in Bullhead City. I took the Mach E since it is so much cheaper to run. Coming home means 12 miles up Union Pass with an average grade of 6%. The whole way up I expected my car to burst into flames at any moment. Surprisingly, I made it with no problems. I still charge it in the closed garage, no problems. What am I doing wrong?

 

[alarmguy]

I just checked my life long notes.
Vehicles of all brands and models have recalls to fix issues and POTENTIAL issues free of charge.

 

[zzyzzx]

Yesterday I had to run down to Lowes in Bullhead City. I took the Mach E since it is so much cheaper to run. Coming home means 12 miles up Union Pass with an average grade of 6%. The whole way up I expected my car to burst into flames at any moment. Surprisingly, I made it with no problems. I still charge it in the closed garage, no problems. What am I doing wrong?

Perhaps if you would have a Tesla, Hyundai/KIA, or Chinese made vehicle you would have a better chance of burning down your house with your EV?

 

[ecotourist]

Finding a problem with a new vehicle design is hardly surprising. That's what warranties are for.

 

[UncleDave]

Finding a problem with a new vehicle design is hardly surprising. That's what warranties are for.

Jalopniks sensationalism aside (thats their headline) Anyone can have a problem. Especially the first year. Stuff happens.

This is the second time Mach E has been recalled for a voltage / junction box, connector issue involving multiple year production runs.

The first "fix" was a software update (limit performance even more)

This was all supposed to be super easy though. Piece of cake - anyone can do it.

The mach e's trip time sustained charge performance was always off the leaderboard.

Ford will get it together.

 

[UncleDave]

The contactors (part of the High Voltage Junction box) has been a common failure for over a year. The part was backordered, resulting in multiple month repairs for some owners despite the factory continuing to build with the known-deficient part.

When a revised part was introduced for the factory, some warranty repairs apparently continued made with the old part design.

It's a complicated repair because the part is buried in the motor-inverter stack -- roughly equivalent to burying something in valley of a V engine under the intake manifold. It takes a few seconds to swap the part, after an hour of getting to it and two hours of carefully putting everything back.

The failure is not directly related to the five second full power limit, which is a simple software estimate of heat build-up in parts that aren't thermally monitored.

The news here is that it took this long for a drivetrain failure to be recall-worthy.

Charging and then jumping on it right after also seems an aggressor combo - so not surprising really.

 

[E365]

I never saw it explained. This is only for vehicles produced through May 24th, 2022. Does that mean cars made after this already have a better part that doesn’t have this issue?

 

[UncleDave]

I never saw it explained. This is only for vehicles produced through May 24th, 2022. Does that mean cars made after this already have a better part that doesn’t have this issue?

Pretty much but the lead up wasn't great.

My 34K feet take is it went a bit like this-

1. It was discovered a while ago, mainly with the "extended range" battery variants and has been fixed going forward.
2. A software update was released in an attempt to fix the hardware shortcoming but wasn't effective and or caused a general reduction in performance.
3. NHSTA / Ford? (its fuzzy) stepped and forced/ agreed to a hardware recall.

There are two main components that are in play the hardware junction box and a high voltage connector.

The Mach E forum has much better info and Im happy to get updated if it went a diff way or I have it wrong.

all in all a HW recall was the right thing to do for the owners.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

This is a good point. Failures are far more likely to occur as you approach the extremes.
In my programming career, I learned early on about "destructive testing" because users operate they way they operate, not the way you think they should. Users will fat finger the key, or just out in something stupid. Welcome to my world...

I believe the product testing crew should always be the dumbest people in the company. If not, random people who say really stupid things on the sidewalk interviews for TV…

 

[ecotourist]

I believe the product testing crew should always be the dumbest people in the company. If not, random people who say really stupid things on the sidewalk interviews for TV…

Good point.

Computers are one thing they're making easier to use. We're either getting better at this (doubtful) or they have a crew of fumble fingers testing their products. We just bought a new Dell desktop (our old one lasted 11 years) and it only took us this past weekend to get everything we use loaded and working! It would have worked right out of the box if we had been willing to use only the loaded software, pay monthly fees for word processing and spreadsheets, etc. But we have backup discs for many of the programs we use and bought a free standing DVD reader so we could load them all.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Good point.

Computers are one thing they're making easier to use. We're either getting better at this (doubtful) or they have a crew of fumble fingers testing their products. We just bought a new Dell desktop (our old one lasted 11 years) and it only took us this past weekend to get everything we use loaded and working! It would have worked right out of the box if we had been willing to use only the loaded software, pay monthly fees for word processing and spreadsheets, etc. But we have backup discs for many of the programs we use and bought a free standing DVD reader so we could load them all.

I’m currently cleaning a Core Duo E6500 in an HP computer that is from 2006 and still on original RAM & HDD. It’s so godawful slow, and with the crapware installed, it took 8 full minutes before the Windows login popped up. Profile is 275GB(!) and is just too much for a 17 year old processor, 8GB RAM, & 1TB 5400rpm disk to handle.

I’m currently cleaning the junk off, thinning the profile and then doing a mirror image to a Samsung 870 1TB. It will be quicker than it currently is, but she doesn’t have a lot of money. At least it will give a few more years of surfing…