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

[Dahveed]

Is it possible that the battery never actually reached these temps and the problem could be a faulty temp sensor?

That's the direction I'm leaning as well. There is zero chance that that battery is hitting 400+ degrees and the truck is still intact. Either a coolant sensor has failed, or there is a damaged wire/ground that is causing the truck to misinterpret the sensor.

Sponsored

 

[Warp Asylum]

I realize and appreciate that the first instinct is to try and figure out the problem (particularly as an engineer, that is my first instinct as well), but I think the bigger issue here is that the dealer has reproduced the issue multiple times and corporate is stonewalling rather than constructively moving forward. Not a good look, Ford.

 

[swajames]

Is it possible that the battery never actually reached these temps and the problem could be a faulty temp sensor?

Not only is it possible, it's highly probable.

 

[Free Charging]

The AI generated timeline and root cause speculation is doing more harm than help for you IMO.

Anyway, physics says the reported temp is a sensor glitch, whole coolant loop would’ve violently exploded as the coolant vaporized into steam well become the temps you’re reporting. And what was the source of heat? If it was the battery it would have been on fire…

Still needs to be fixed of course.

https://www.motorcraft.com/content/...Yellow_Concentrated_Antifreeze/us200142us.pdf

 

[RickLightning]

I am outside of Colorado's lemon law, so FORD is using that to deny my claim. Even with all my data, they refuse. There is more info on the website lightningproblems.com . I am hoping that public exposure might help. I kept quiet hoping that FORD would do the right thing, but they keep not doing it.

I skimmed your website and am very impressed.

 

[bmwhitetx]

First off, sorry for your problems. Ford has definitely done you wrong.

IMO I don’t think your battery hit 400+. The module reporting the high temps is the SOBDMC. This is one of the drive motor inverter modules that converts the battery DC to AC for the drive motor. It is cooled by the coolant loop. The other drive motor controller (SOBDMB) didn’t show up that I could tell. That is why I think it was a sensor glitch (or maybe the drive motor has an issue). Other sensors on the coolant loop aren’t reporting high temps. The dash indicator going yellow does indicate increased temp. I don't know which sensor that is but likely not the SOBDMC 400F one. The battery temp should be from the BECM.

The slow DCFC sounds like a charge port issue as reported by others IIRC. Not being able to charge above 85% has been a battery module failure for many of us. Have them do a Battery Health check.

Ford doesn’t have to provide rental (unless you have ESP but then it‘s only 10 days technically). But they really should for this mess and have done so for others. When my second module failed the dealer got Ford to agree to a rental for more than 10 days (I have ESP). On my first module failure (different dealer), they had their own rental fleet and put me in a MachE.

 

[RickLightning]

One of the challenges big corporations have is in being able to reach the right person, resolve the situation, and affect change in the corporation in the future to avoid this happening again. Ford should easily be able to resolve situations like this, or the laughable $100 valve failure that prompted a buyback offer. Yet they continue to fail at it.

Many years ago, I worked at a company selling women's clothing. No internet, no email. We had a tiny group of 3 people whose job it was to ensure 100% customer satisfaction. They were empowered to do so. We had people make ridiculous demands, such as returning all the product their now deceased spouse had purchased under our 100% guarantee. This department came up with a solution - photograph every piece of product, which we then verified with our records, then donate 100% of it to charity, with itemized records, and then we wrote a check. This happened a handful of times a year. Had a person ruin a piece of furniture by wearing the product while sweaty on a white couch. We bought her a new couch.

I am dealing with two companies right now that can't get out of their own way. One, a cable company, has a new low priced service. I selected it. Never was told I would lose my 25 year benefits of access to a channel, or all my stored movies earned in their rewards program, nor my half of a referral benefit. Even up to the Office of the CEO this never came up... Now, I hate them more than ever.

Another company had a recent promo deal. My cart showed the correct price, but when I got to checkout it rose $20. Multiple reps came up with wrong answers. Supervisor finally agreed it was broken, and promised both resolution and the right price, even if credited after order, with 48 hours. Got a case number. 48 hours later, crickets. 96 hours later crickets, sent email, crickets. System fixed a week later, ordered. Still crickets. Company brass has no idea of the issue, nor the poor service, nor do they care.

I once believed that Ford could cut through the BS when it had to. Then my HVBJB failed on day 2 of a 2 week trip. I had a contact who promised to have the car shipped home and fixed locally, and a free loaner. Ultimately, they failed to follow through and offered repair by a dealership where the failure occurred (which had done one repair and was uncomfortable), and made the dealership find the rental. Impossible to find the rental for a multi-thousand mile trip for $40 a day with a Ford or Lincoln vehicle. So, we drove the trip, fast charging at 41kW and wasting 12+ hours charging as compared to a working HVBJB (the engineers limited fast charging speed as a way of keeping the vehicle driveable, but failed to informed the contacts in BEV). I now believe that Mach-E HVBJBs will eventually fail over time, at least the ones on 21 - 23 (or whenever the design of the system changed, if it ever did). That, coupled with the failure to step up, and other things (poor paint jobs on more recent years, continued recalls even on newer years, cancelation of Lightning, 3rd row EV, T3) has very much changed my outlook on the brand.

 

[The Weatherman]

Ford seems to be handling EV customer issues so well maybe you should just standby to purchase their new Fathom Ev Truck offering. I’m sure they will do you right then. /s

 

[TwentyTwentyThree]

Ford seems to be handling EV customer issues so well maybe you should just standby to purchase their new Fathom Ev Truck offering. I’m sure they will do you right then. /s

That is unfathomable.

 

[Lytning]

OP, have you filed a formal Safety Complaint at NHTSA?

 

[Lytning]

Did it ever smell hot? My heat pump hot water heater has the sensors go out regularly and it reports crazy high temps like that. At 400F I‘m pretty sure stuff would smell hot, there is a unique smell to melting wire insulation or even high temperature insulation that is approaching the limit. This is over 200C, the upper end of ‘normal’ wires can handle up to 90C.

If it were truly getting that hot I’d think that they would not want to have the vehicle in the shop. I’d then suspect a short and you don’t want an improvised heater element on top of a lithium NMC battery.

Especially given all the plastic fittings and hoses in the cooling system.

 

[MaintGrl]

I hope they are parking THAT truck away from any building, vehicles, or landscaping, never can tell when . . . .whoosh! there it goes,

 

[swajames]

The only thing we can be sure of is that those reported temps were never hit. if they were they wouldn't be any truck left, never mind the battery. OP, I hope you get your truck fixed, but let's dispense with the notion that those temps actually happened. It demonstrably did not as you still have a truck. So much of what is on your website, candidly, is bullshit. You're trying to get a new truck, and while Ford hasn't showered themselves in glory here, you're posting stuff you know can't possibly be accurate.

 

[ScottC]

I think no one at Ford Corporate would want to see your lawyers posting the inevitable iphone video of your truck incinerating. You have every right to turn up the heat (see what I did there) on Ford. Social Media, etc. Wonder what Car and Driver might think?

Ford has seen this movie before. https://www.autosafety.org/ford-pinto-fuel-tank/

 

[chl]

I agree with the 'consensus' that there is a sensor or sensor processing error, and nothing ever really got that hot, for obvious reasons. Because of the erroneous temp data, the charging throttles back under the command of the BECM.

Here's one issue that may be at the bottom of Ford's reticence to resolve it in my opinion

The temp sensors are all over the battery pack/modules and they are inside them!

So, Ford would be looking at replacing all the modules if they can't find the one with the bad sensor.

Ford doesn't repair modules at dealerships as far as I can tell, and opening up the modules to replace bad sensors is not something the dealership techs can do either I suspect.

So if they can't figure out which sensor is bad, and whether it is in the battery or in the cooling loop elsewhere, then they are looking at replacing the whole 9 battery modules and maybe all the other temp sensors.

There should be a way to find a bad temp sensor, or narrow it down to a particular part of the cooling system, but could Ford not have ever encountered this type of failure before or anticipated it?

If so that is surprising...FDRS ought to have a way to find a bad temp sensor!

Hopefully the Ford techs have realized like we have that this is a bad sensor - maybe they are hoping it is the sensor monitoring software/firmware? That would be a less costly fix.

This is clearly a battery warranty issue and eventually, Ford will have to honor their warranty.

That they are taking their time should be disturbing to all of us, and to any future customers of Ford.

Even without lemon law coverage, there are things a lawyer might be able to do if Ford doesn't come through.

Sponsored