24 Flash bricked at 4k

[Everett]

My 24 Flash with 4000 miles. suddenly with no warning showed a charging fault while parked in garage. Orange ring on port, then total failure of 12 v system. Truck had to be winched in Park onto a flatbed and is now at the dealer waiting for parts. Module failure and 12v battery failure. Truck has never been fast charged
or even parked outdoors. This is my 2nd LIghtning (23 XLT SR was a total dud). These trucks are ticking time bombs. A dream machine one minute and 5 ton brick the next. Most unreliable vehicle I have ever owned.

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[Jesse-Infotainment]

Go get you something more reliable.. Like a good ole GM 6.2 or a Toyota Tundra.. I hear they are great.

IM being a smart ass.. but shit happens and it isnt Ford alone. GM transmissions and engines are piling up.. Toyota engines are grenading despite the Toyota fanboys best efforts to make it sound like its the same guy posting about his engine blowing up every day.

It is frustrating I am sure and you are posting to vent but the Lightings are really good trucks. Perfect.. no. Not by a long shot but these days with all the terrible quality of ICE engines.. and Transmissions I dont know I would buy another Brand.

If I were FORCED to buy a new Truck it would be a FOrd. At least their engines arent dying and they seem to have fewer transmission issues.

 

[MountainAlive]

Wow 2nd Lightning that went brick on you? It does sound like a weak 12v battery issue. Got any aftermarket accessories using 12v power? Or doing short infrequent drives? Those two things can result in drained 12v battery.

 

[Everett]

Wow 2nd Lightning that went brick on you? It does sound like a weak 12v battery issue. Got any aftermarket accessories using 12v power? Or doing short infrequent drives? Those two things can result in drained 12v battery.

Short infrequent driving is an issue but the HVB module failure should not be affected by that

 

[Ford Motor Company]

My 24 Flash with 4000 miles. suddenly with no warning showed a charging fault while parked in garage. Orange ring on port, then total failure of 12 v system. Truck had to be winched in Park onto a flatbed and is now at the dealer waiting for parts. Module failure and 12v battery failure. Truck has never been fast charged
or even parked outdoors. This is my 2nd LIghtning (23 XLT SR was a total dud). These trucks are ticking time bombs. A dream machine one minute and 5 ton brick the next. Most unreliable vehicle I have ever owned.

This is painful to read, and I can only imagine how frustrating it was to watch your Flash get winched onto a flatbed. That is absolutely not the experience you signed up for, especially after getting another Lightning.

The "orange ring" combined with a total 12V failure is something we need to look at closely.

I want to get this in front of our team to investigate and ensure the dealer has the technical support they need to diagnose why that module failed.

Please send me a DM with your VIN and the name of the dealer you are working with. I'll escalate this on my end and keep an eye on the case.

 

[Heliian]

1) its not bricked

2)if your 12v is dead then you can boost it or charge it to get it into neutral.

 

[Mach Turtle]

Sorry you've had so many problems.

We had similar symptoms from our 2021 Mach-E recently, with the orange ring when attempting to charge, warnings to STOP SAFELY NOW (when parked in our garage), etc. After leaving the car for an hour or so, it came back to life, so I read the DTCs, printed them out along with a relevant TSB to show I was serious, made an appointment, and drove it to the dealer. They replaced the HVBJB (box of contactors for the main traction battery) under warranty and the car has been fine since then. I hope Ford takes care of you as well as they did for us in this case.

 

[chriserx]

Go get you something more reliable.. Like a good ole GM 6.2 or a Toyota Tundra.. I hear they are great.

IM being a smart ass.. but shit happens and it isnt Ford alone. GM transmissions and engines are piling up.. Toyota engines are grenading despite the Toyota fanboys best efforts to make it sound like its the same guy posting about his engine blowing up every day.

It is frustrating I am sure and you are posting to vent but the Lightings are really good trucks. Perfect.. no. Not by a long shot but these days with all the terrible quality of ICE engines.. and Transmissions I dont know I would buy another Brand.

If I were FORCED to buy a new Truck it would be a FOrd. At least their engines arent dying and they seem to have fewer transmission issues.

If I didn't get the lightning, my next pick woulda been an F450, this generation of 1500s has been abysmal. And I loved my 2008 Tundra.

My 24 Flash with 4000 miles. suddenly with no warning showed a charging fault while parked in garage. Orange ring on port, then total failure of 12 v system. Truck had to be winched in Park onto a flatbed and is now at the dealer waiting for parts. Module failure and 12v battery failure. Truck has never been fast charged
or even parked outdoors. This is my 2nd LIghtning (23 XLT SR was a total dud). These trucks are ticking time bombs. A dream machine one minute and 5 ton brick the next. Most unreliable vehicle I have ever owned.

Sorry that you had so many problems! What's your charge limit and routine? Do you ever full charge or get below 50%? How often? With so few miles on a 24, I suspect some insight can be gleaned into how these trucks should be charged.

 

[Everett]

If I didn't get the lightning, my next pick woulda been an F450, this generation of 1500s has been abysmal. And I loved my 2008 Tundra.


Sorry that you had so many problems! What's your charge limit and routine? Do you ever full charge or get below 50%? How often? With so few miles on a 24, I suspect some insight can be gleaned into how these trucks should be charged.

I charge at home level 2 to 80 or 90% .Only went below 50% a few times. I keep the charger plugged in in winter months. Do not drive much. mostly short errand runs which probably killed the 12v this winter but the truck threw drive train malfunction error message upon plugging in. with orange circle of death , also steering assist error and stop now error. Dealer diagnosed a module fault.
I have a 350 C/C dump 6.2 gas that gets about 8 mpg. . Gas will soon be 4-5 $
$200 to fill up and 25 miles RT to the nearest station. Don't need anymore ICE trucks

 

[chriserx]

I charge at home level 2 to 80 or 90% .Only went below 50% a few times. I keep the charger plugged in in winter months. Do not drive much. mostly short errand runs which probably killed the 12v this winter but the truck threw drive train malfunction error message upon plugging in. with orange circle of death , also steering assist error and stop now error. Dealer diagnosed a module fault.
I have a 350 C/C dump 6.2 gas that gets about 8 mpg. . Gas will soon be 4-5 $
$200 to fill up and 25 miles RT to the nearest station. Don't need anymore ICE trucks

I kinda wonder if it's actually that wiring problem behind the glove box tbh. The module issue (assuming here you mean battery module) was most likely due to the cells never getting balanced and sitting. When you do get her back I'd definitely recommend setting the charge rate at the lowest possible rate your evse accepts and occasionally allow a 100% charge. It's not really your fault the battery only balances at full charge but this should mitigate the issue in the future.

 

[FloridaMan655321]

When you do get her back I'd definitely recommend setting the charge rate at the lowest possible rate your evse accepts and occasionally allow a 100% charge. It's not really your fault the battery only balances at full charge but this should mitigate the issue in the future.

Curious, what is the consensus on how often you should charge to 100%? I think I've only done this twice thus far.

 

[chriserx]

Curious, what is the consensus on how often you should charge to 100%? I think I've only done this twice thus far.

As near as I can tell there isn't one, before the new evse, I settled once a month if I didn't roadtrip. Owning a Lightning is akin to following a religion, there a couple things you should and should not do, the rest is just how you perceive your experience.

 

[El Duderino]

As near as I can tell there isn't one, before the new evse, I settled once a month if I didn't roadtrip. Owning a Lightning is akin to following a religion, there a couple things you should and should not do, the rest is just how you perceive your experience.

Well said!

 

[Lightning Rod]

Curious, what is the consensus on how often you should charge to 100%? I think I've only done this twice thus far.

I wind up charging to 100 percent about once a month, right before a long trip. After reading some of these dreadful posts, I feel very fortunate that I haven't seen any of these symptoms.

*finds wood and knocks profusely*

 

[ZSC100]

I charge at home level 2 to 80 or 90% .Only went below 50% a few times. I keep the charger plugged in in winter months. Do not drive much. mostly short errand runs which probably killed the 12v this winter but the truck threw drive train malfunction error message upon plugging in. with orange circle of death , also steering assist error and stop now error. Dealer diagnosed a module fault.
I have a 350 C/C dump 6.2 gas that gets about 8 mpg. . Gas will soon be 4-5 $
$200 to fill up and 25 miles RT to the nearest station. Don't need anymore ICE trucks

"Keeping the charger plugged in" doesn't do anything for you. Once the truck is charged, everything goes to sleep and the 12V will die. This is a major design flaw in the Lightning and only affects a small amout of use cases. Some people put battery tenders on the 12V, it's a shame that's necessary, I've never had to, drive every day and I've got 3.5yrs and 140kmi on my 22 XLT with the original 12V battery, no problems at all.

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