Battery went from 7% to 0 and left me stranded 6 miles from charger.

[YellowstoneLightning]

On a road trip to New Mexico, driving from Pueblo, CO to Wagon Mound, NM, all was going great. There was a brisk head wind so my efficiency was pretty bad, but by all indications I was going to make it to my charger with some range to spare. Then, all of a sudden, at 7% battery with 6 miles to the charger, the battery dropped to 0% and we were stranded. Had to call a tow truck which took over two hours and cost $250 to take us to the charger. I’m quite confused as to why the SOC dropped as if the BMS had been wrong. Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

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[Zaptor]

I like your screen name, my family has some Ystone-front land in Miner, right on the other side of the (currently missing) Carbella bridge from the highway, live anywhere near there? Beautiful area out there in the Paradise Valley.

Shame that happened to you, definitely following this thread and hope you get answers!

Cheers
-Zap

 

[Maquis]

Did you use Ford roadside? Should have been no cost to take you to the nearest charger.

 

[AZT9]

Okay. Strangely a very similar thing just happened to me TODAY driving home from work (work is 200 miles from home). Exited the freeway and slowed to a stop with 6%soc and at about 85% power. Suddenly while sitting at the light the power meter began dropping 80-65-40-15-13-2 pressing the accelerator did nothing. Threw on the hazards, shut the truck off and back on. Back to 85% power I drive thru the intersection and it again tapers back to 2% power and I lose all throttle response. Get it towed 1 mile home. Plug it in and now there seems to be no issue. I’ve taken the truck to 8-10% soc several times over the past two years without issue. Guess anything less than 5% soc is a no go

 

[YellowstoneLightning]

I like your screen name, my family has some Ystone-front land in Miner, right on the other side of the (currently missing) Carbella bridge from the highway, live anywhere near there? Beautiful area out there in the Paradise Valley.

Shame that happened to you, definitely following this thread and hope you get answers!

Cheers
-Zap

Hey Zap,
Yep, I’m quite familiar with that area. I live just up the road in Livingston!

 

[YellowstoneLightning]

Did you use Ford roadside? Should have been no cost to take you to the nearest charger.

I didn’t know about that. Thanks for the tip. I’ll definitely (hopefully not have to) use that next time!

 

[YellowstoneLightning]

Okay. Strangely a very similar thing just happened to me TODAY driving home from work (work is 200 miles from home). Exited the freeway and slowed to a stop with 6%soc and at about 85% power. Suddenly while sitting at the light the power meter began dropping 80-65-40-15-13-2 pressing the accelerator did nothing. Threw on the hazards, shut the truck off and back on. Back to 85% power I drive thru the intersection and it again tapers back to 2% power and I lose all throttle response. Get it towed 1 mile home. Plug it in and now there seems to be no issue. I’ve taken the truck to 8-10% soc several times over the past two years without issue. Guess anything less than 5% soc is a no go

That’s exactly what was happening to me. I don’t know if it’s related, but the navigation software wasn’t working well yesterday or today. Yesterday, however, we pulled into a charging stop at 7% and nothing like this happened. I was starting to get comfortable pushing it between stops, but this six hour endeavor is definitely going to have me being a lot more conservative for some time. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[AZT9]

Maybe just a software glitch? But I agree. I’m a little hesitant to push it past 10%. But 2 years and 55k miles without incident until today

 

[AZT9]

If by navigation, you’re referring to Apple Maps, mine acted up too. Giving bizarre charge levels on arrival. Mmmm are we on to something?

 

[YellowstoneLightning]

I was mostly having trouble with the native ford navigation yesterday, thinking the destinations were 10 hrs away when they were two hours away.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

On a road trip to New Mexico, driving from Pueblo, CO to Wagon Mound, NM, all was going great. There was a brisk head wind so my efficiency was pretty bad, but by all indications I was going to make it to my charger with some range to spare. Then, all of a sudden, at 7% battery with 6 miles to the charger, the battery dropped to 0% and we were stranded. Had to call a tow truck which took over two hours and cost $250 to take us to the charger. I’m quite confused as to why the SOC dropped as if the BMS had been wrong. Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

It’s a BMS problem. The truck struggles with repeated charging / road tripping. It’s not a consistent thing, which makes it even worse.

The Out Of Spec guys had this happen to them twice as well when road tripping. Ford confirmed the BMS issue. The truck needs a resting period (IIRC 20-30min before charging) for the BMS to be accurate again.

I used to run mine down to 1-2%, but I’ve had this happen to me and now I don’t go under 10%….I also stopped taking my truck on long trips (500mi+), which sucks because it’s so such a perfect vehicle for it.

 

[02Reaper]

It’s a BMS problem. The truck struggles with repeated charging / road tripping. It’s not a consistent thing, which makes it even worse.

The Out Of Spec guys had this happen to them twice as well when road tripping. Ford confirmed the BMS issue. The truck needs a resting period (IIRC 20-30min before charging) for the BMS to be accurate again.

I used to run mine down to 1-2%, but I’ve had this happen to me and now I don’t go under 10%….I also stopped taking my truck on long trips (500mi+), which sucks because it’s so such a perfect vehicle for it.

I was going to post the same about Out Of Spec having an issue. Do other electric vehicles have this issue? If not then Ford needs to fix this on their end.

 

[Toby57]

It’s a BMS problem. The truck struggles with repeated charging / road tripping. It’s not a consistent thing, which makes it even worse.

The Out Of Spec guys had this happen to them twice as well when road tripping. Ford confirmed the BMS issue. The truck needs a resting period (IIRC 20-30min before charging) for the BMS to be accurate again.

I used to run mine down to 1-2%, but I’ve had this happen to me and now I don’t go under 10%….I also
stopped taking my truck on long trips (500mi+), which sucks because it’s so such a perfect vehicle for it.

Struggles with repeated charging.
Truck needs a thirty minute resting period.
Stopped taking truck on long trips.
To finicky to get to far from home?

 

[Yellow Buddy]

I was going to post the same about Out Of Spec having an issue. Do other electric vehicles have this issue? If not then Ford needs to fix this on their end.

This is the only EV I have ever had issues with. Owned over a dozen, over a million miles on EVs and I have never run out of juice except on the Lightning.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

Struggles with repeated charging.
Truck needs a thirty minute resting period.
Stopped taking truck on long trips.
To finicky to get to far from home?

I wouldn’t go that far…I’ve done plenty of road trips with the Lightning. It’s a phenomenal long distance truck. The most I’ve done is 1200 miles in the span of 48 hours.

I would not hesitate to do that trip again.

I would just do it differently. Instead of running it to less than 5% I would stop between 10-15% to charge. Unfortunately on a long trip like that it adds a good amount of time, which is my primary reason for no longer taking it.

As long as you stop before going under 10%, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, and I’m not sure a lot of folks push it as close as I do.

For reference, just a couple weeks ago I drove my Model X for 18 miles AFTER it hit 0% and 0mi remaining. I stopped after 18 miles to charge. So stopping early isn’t in my DNA.

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