Battery failure issue: 2 battery cells need to be replaced

[Piquette]

This is a sobering battery module failure report. One would think that after 113k miles without a battery module failure that the modules would be good for the remaining life of the truck. Apparently that is not the case. Modules can fail at any time and at any mileage. I wonder if Ford knew this when it limited the battery warranty to 10 years or 100,000 miles.

Sponsored

 

[TwentyTwentyThree]

This is a sobering battery module failure report. One would think that after 113k miles without a battery module failure that the modules would be good for the remaining life of the truck. Apparently that is not the case. Modules can fail at any time and at any mileage. I wonder if Ford knew this when it limited the battery warranty to 10 years or 100,000 miles.

I like speculating as much as anyone, but, this is a single and only post by this user. Let’s not speculate and see an update on this.

 

[chl]

Unless the OP left the car sitting at 100% HVB SOC for several weeks while on a cruise, it seems highly unlikely this is an actual HVB cells/modules failure.

 

[WXman]

This is a very unfortunate reality with EVs. There is a fairly decent probability that once it's out of warranty, ALL of the money saved by not needing maintenance and fuel is suddenly wiped away by very expensive repairs. We've seen guys at 150k miles and no issues. We've also seen guys with 150k miles and five-figure repairs. It's a roll of the dice.

And that's why I have always advocated for LEASING these EVs. Never go into EV ownership with the idea that it's a 20-year investment, unless your pockets are really really deep.

 

[MountainAlive]

This is a very unfortunate reality with EVs. There is a fairly decent probability that once it's out of warranty, ALL of the money saved by not needing maintenance and fuel is suddenly wiped away by very expensive repairs. We've seen guys at 150k miles and no issues. We've also seen guys with 150k miles and five-figure repairs. It's a roll of the dice.

And that's why I have always advocated for LEASING these EVs. Never go into EV ownership with the idea that it's a 20-year investment, unless your pockets are really really deep.

Far fewer parts to fail though which gives me hope. It’s mainly the battery pack we’re all concerned about. And with time my expectation is that a.) more used battery packs will be available b.) more independent EV repair shops will sprout up. We recently saw how inexpensively (and easily thanks to Fords design) someone had their entire battery pack swapped from a standard range to a used extended range by an independent shop (for less $ than the OP here was quoted for just two modules). We all know dealer repair pricing has always been insane from our ICE days. Still true for EVs as well.

 

[Maquis]

I wonder if Ford knew this when it limited the battery warranty to 10 years or 100,000 miles.

EV battery warranty is mandated by government regulation to be a minimum of 8 years (not 10) and 100K miles. That’s why Ford (and every other manufacturer of EVs sold in the U.S.) chose that duration. It’s not a conspiracy (this time).

 

[chl]

This is a very unfortunate reality with EVs. There is a fairly decent probability that once it's out of warranty, ALL of the money saved by not needing maintenance and fuel is suddenly wiped away by very expensive repairs. We've seen guys at 150k miles and no issues. We've also seen guys with 150k miles and five-figure repairs. It's a roll of the dice.

And that's why I have always advocated for LEASING these EVs. Never go into EV ownership with the idea that it's a 20-year investment, unless your pockets are really really deep.

We don't yet know for sure that it's really a bad HVB.

I've had my 2012 Nissan Leaf since Dec 2011 and never had a problem with anything. The battery has shown the expected average of about 1.4% capacity loss per year due to aging.

I have had ICE vehicles that lasted 20years or more, but much more expensive to maintain, repair and operate than an EV.

My calculations have usually shown that a lease ends up being much more expensive than ownership, depending on various terms in the lease and the purchase price of the vehicle.

If you lease all the time, you pretty much guarantee you will be paying more in the 'long run' versus owning the vehicle for that period of time. Of course if you buy a lemon, or a high maintenance vehicle, the opposite is true.

Since EV have low operating costs and most should have almost zero repair or maintenance costs, ownership made more sense to me.

I have seen complaints from some Tesla owners about all the repairs they had to cover.

Before I bought the Lightning, I read about all the issues they had on the forums, news articles etc. and I did buy an extended warranty. It did not seem like a 'lemon' - so far so good.

I also waited for the price to settle down and the tax credit to be an up front discount on the purchase before buying. My target was under $50k.

150K miles is probably at least ten times the mileage in a 3 year lease, so there will be some overage fees.

Everybody's financial calculation will be different.
But I don't think fear of battery failure is a reason to lease and avoid ownership.

The HVB failure rate from one study (of 10k vehicles world wide) was under 0.5% so there is really no data that suggests battery failure is a reason not to buy an EV.

Do we have statistics about the failure rate of Lightning HVBs? Haven't seen any.

So really the HVB should last (be 80% capacity) 15-20 years or more depending on use and abuse, and manufacturing care.

For my purposes, even if the HVB in the Lightning only had 50% capacity after 20 yrs it would still be useful.

Lots of studies suggest EV batteries will outlast the typical vehicle's service life:

https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/

 

[GoodSam]

Do we have statistics about the failure rate of Lightning HVBs? Haven't seen any.

Ford claimed 4% of 2022-2023 Lightnings would need replacement modules. That was before the recall for 950 vehicles that potentially had misaligned cells (my 22 had 3 of the 9 modules replaced). So I think the Ford Lightning failure rate might be a bit higher than 4%. Hopefully the 24-25 models have a lower fail rate.

 

[chapba]

Ford claimed 4% of 2022-2023 Lightnings would need replacement modules. That was before the recall for 950 vehicles that potentially had misaligned cells (my 22 had 3 of the 9 modules replaced). So I think the Ford Lightning failure rate might be a bit higher than 4%. Hopefully the 24-25 models have a lower fail rate.

Yeah I have a ‘24 and was still researching the issue for peace of mind but didn’t see many mentions of 24/25 models being affected.

 

[TwentyTwentyThree]

And that's why I have always advocated for LEASING these EVs. Never go into EV ownership with the idea that it's a 20-year investment, unless your pockets are really really deep.

This is a zero sense / logic response. OP is in a 4+ year old car, with 113k - thats 28k/annually, or double the normally allotted lease mileage, and roughly 1 year past the normal lease term. With this brilliant logic, they owe just shy of $20,000 in mileage fees assuming 25 cents per mile and some type of late return fee.

 

[RickLightning]

Ford claimed 4% of 2022-2023 Lightnings would need replacement modules. That was before the recall for 950 vehicles that potentially had misaligned cells (my 22 had 3 of the 9 modules replaced). So I think the Ford Lightning failure rate might be a bit higher than 4%. Hopefully the 24-25 models have a lower fail rate.

That's totally out of context.

Ford never said that 4% of 2022 - 2023 Lightnings would need replacement modules over their lifetime. Back in September 2023 they issued a CSP (23B57) related to failing modules in 2022 and 2023s and that 4% of the vehicles produced would have the specific identified failure.

 

[wescravinshocker]

They probably mean modules, not cells.

As I understand it, if one cell in a module goes out of spec, the entire module is off limits to prevent catastrophic failure (like a battery fire). Power and charging are reduced to help protect the reduced capacity of the rest of the battery.

I have never seen anyone report two modules going bad at the same time. However, it is not unheard of for two modules within the same original pack to go bad. This is also the first time someone has reported a bad module outside of the battery warranty (which ended at 100k miles). I seem to recall past reports that a module replacement would have been around $5500 so the quote for 2 seems in the ball park.

I'm really sorry to hear this is happening to you. If the dealer ran a battery health test and two modules came back bad, there aren't many options that I can think of.

I had battery module 1 and 2 fail at only 8,000 miles on the odometer, and left me with 66% power and would only charge to 66%. Luckily when it failed, which was while it was slow charging and was caused somehow by stopping the charge with the app, when I had 90% charge, and I had a 130 mile drive from up North in Michigan, in December. On the plus side, I have had no problems since they were changed. I have 28,000 miles now, and it is running great. It was all under warranty and they gave me a brand new 2025 ICE F-150 to drive for the 2 weeks it took to fix it. Mine is a 2023 XLT SR.

Sponsored