2023 F-150 Lightning: battery hit 419°F with zero warning, zero fault code, zero shutdown

[TaxmanHog]

If anyone from Ford @Ford Motor Company — engineering, EV team, customer relations, anyone — happens to see this: I'd genuinely welcome the chance to talk this through directly.

I hope you receive contact from those folks, they have been tremendously helpful to forum members in recent months, great to see you back active here after a couple year hiatus.

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[I <3 My Lightning]

Maybe I missed the obvious, but was hoping to read that someone took an actual thermometer/thermal imaging camera, of any type, and checked the temp of the coolant, battery housing, connectors, motor housing, ect. This would easily show it's not reaching those reported temps.

 

[chl]

One more thing - it could be a wiring issue causing the sensor glitch. There have been some cases of problems with the wiring harnesses. If the connection was severed, it would look like an open circuit/high impedance...
you'd think the FDRS system could check for things like that, but I don't know...

 

[MaintGrl]

Maybe I missed the obvious, but was hoping to read that someone took an actual thermometer/thermal imaging camera, of any type, and checked the temp of the coolant, battery housing, connectors, motor housing, ect. This would easily show it's not reaching those reported temps.

Probably because by the time someone was able to look at it, it had already cooled down, I believe they were looking at stored reports of the preceding events of High Temp.

 

[Free Charging]

Probably because by the time someone was able to look at it, it had already cooled down, I believe they were looking at stored reports of the preceding events of High Temp.

The reported sensor value was reproduced by the dealership service manager.

But not the actual temperature. The car would've been melting, spewing noxious gasses as the coolant lines ruptured from vaporized coolant, then it would all have burst violently in flames if it was real. The temp is not real.

 

[chl]

Probably because by the time someone was able to look at it, it had already cooled down, I believe they were looking at stored reports of the preceding events of High Temp.

Yes, but they could have done that when they recreated the allegedly high temps which I think he said they did.
Just not great problem solving skills going on at the dealership it appears, but maybe they aren't telling the OP everything they have tried?

After 8 weeks you'd think they'd have figured something out if they really wanted to...

 

[Free Charging]

After 8 weeks you'd think they'd have figured something out if they really wanted to...

He drops the truck off on June 13 and flies out of state back home, and by June 20 certified letters are going to the CEO and two division presidents. Then preservation demands follow shortly after. From Ford's side, is this is this a customer working a warranty repair or someone building a legal case? (Answer is stated pretty plainly on his website)

 

[chl]

He drops the truck off on June 13 and flies out of state back home, and by June 20 certified letters are going to the CEO and two division presidents. Then preservation demands follow shortly after. From Ford's side, is this is this a customer working a warranty repair or someone building a legal case? (Answer is stated pretty plainly on his website)

What difference does that make?
Are you implying that Ford decided NOT to repair his vehicle because he sent letters?
That would be stupid and bad for business.

Why he sent letters I don't know, do you?
Maybe the OP was not happy with what the dealership was or was not telling him...maybe he had past experiences getting the runaround?

Just because a customer sends letters is no reason NOT to fix the problem.

And it does not explain what is going on inside his truck that led to the wildly high temp readings or why Ford can't figure it out.

That's what I want to know should it ever happen to me.

 

[Free Charging]

What difference does that make?
Are you implying that Ford decided NOT to repair his vehicle because he sent letters?
That would be stupid and bad for business.

Why he sent letters I don't know, do you?
Maybe the OP was not happy with what the dealership was or was not telling him...maybe he had past experiences getting the runaround?

Just because a customer sends letters is no reason NOT to fix the problem.

And it does not explain what is going on inside his truck that led to the wildly high temp readings or why Ford can't figure it out.

That's what I want to know should it ever happen to me.

We know only the data provided and that it's an artifact obviously made by Claude with multiple iterations.

Did the dealership do nothing for 25 days? Why was this escalated 5 business days after initial intake? What is a dealership supposed to do when they get a demand to preserve sensor data, original parts? (Can they continue working on it?)

How long is reasonable for Ford engineering to look into a sensor fault they don't have an explanation for? How similar is it to the TSB for a coolant loop sensor fault?

The owner clearly wants to paint this as an imminent fire risk that they're blowing the whistle on, has taken some initial legal escalation steps. If I'm Ford (and maybe he's truly just been ignored) I'm going to tread lightly and carefully.

 

[Grumpy2]

If I'm Ford (and maybe he's truly just been ignored) I'm going to tread lightly and carefully.

Your points are valid. However, if FORD wants this settled, they need to find the issue and get it fixed before more time/damages occur.

 

[PreservedSwine]

I understand the frustration, but I also understand the author is intentionally misleading readers with his thread title.
No part of the vehicle ever reached anywhere near 400 degrees, any reasonable person understands this fact.
Intentionally misleading thread title is poor form. Just state your case.

I wish the op the best of luck.

 

[swajames]

It's not just the thread title that's misleading. I had sympathy for the OP when reading the post, we're all owners and we all want Ford to do the right thing because it might be one of us next. The website, however, is off the charts misleading. It misrepresents that those temperatures actually happened despite clear evidence to the contrary, it goes into detail about the impact on the battery reaching those kind of temperatures, even though it never did, and it is basically an attempted shakedown. Again, Ford has NOT handled this at all well, but things have moved beyond what was a legitimate complaint and morphed into a lemon law grift, IMO.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

Ford has NOT handled this at all well

I will just say, that's all based off one side of the story

 

[thorndike]

It's not just the thread title that's misleading. I had sympathy for the OP when reading the post, we're all owners and we all want Ford to do the right thing because it might be one of us next. The website, however, is off the charts misleading. It misrepresents that those temperatures actually happened despite clear evidence to the contrary, it goes into detail about the impact on the battery reaching those kind of temperatures, even though it never did, and it is basically an attempted shakedown. Again, Ford has NOT handled this at all well, but things have moved beyond what was a legitimate complaint and morphed into a lemon law grift, IMO.

You can think what you want. The temps and everything displayed on the Ford Diagnostics is represented here and on my website the way the Service Manager relayed it to me. I have all the texts and everything else. It is NOT my position to assume anything, but to take what the FORD experts tell me.

 

[thorndike]

I will just say, that's all based off one side of the story

Think what you want, but everything I have said and represented here and on the website is backed by receipts. Every email, every text and every picture is documented and preserved. I make no assumptions, I am just relaying what the FORD experts tell me.

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