Help needed, please. Charging issues.

[Bermudapilot]

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone in this community, perhaps even a Ford EV technician or someone with experience repairing Lightning battery packs, might be able to offer some advice.

I’ve wanted an F-150 Lightning ever since they were announced. I live in the UAE, and about a year ago I bought a 2023 Lightning XLT that had been imported from the US by its first owner. The truck was fantastic and trouble-free until January this year.

The issue started with the truck developing a charging fault. Initially it would charge normally but stop at around 60% state of charge and display a “Vehicle Charging Fault.” As time went on, the problem became progressively worse. By the time I finally took it to an independent EV repair company, it would only charge to around 49% before faulting.

Although the charging fault occurred consistently, the truck remained fully drivable.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Replaced the 12V battery (no change).
• Tried a different NACS/CCS charging adapter (no change).
• Verified my home charger is working correctly by charging my Tesla without any issues.
• The charging fault consistently occurred at roughly the same state of charge.
• The battery pack was removed by the repair shop, who have spent the last couple of months attempting to balance the pack.
• They have since advised that balancing was unsuccessful and are now recommending replacing the entire high-voltage battery.

The latest diagnostic report appears to show:

• Abnormal voltage readings associated with modules M6, M7 and M8.
• BECM DTCs including:
  • P0B54 – Hybrid/Electric Vehicle Battery Voltage Sense F Circuit
  • P0B59 – Hybrid/Electric Vehicle Battery Voltage Sense G Circuit
  • P0B5E – Hybrid/Electric Vehicle Battery Voltage Sense H Circuit
  • P0DE6 – Hybrid/EV Battery Pack Cell Voltage Low

I’ve attached the diagnostic reports (with the repair shop’s details removed).

One thing I’m struggling to understand is that I delivered the truck to the shop in a drivable condition, albeit with a charging fault. They are now telling me they cannot return the truck to me in a working condition and are recommending a complete battery replacement.

I’m genuinely trying to understand whether this is a reasonable conclusion based on the diagnostics, or whether it’s possible the repair is beyond the experience or equipment currently available to them. To be fair, there are only around six F-150 Lightnings in the in the country, so opportunities to diagnose and repair this model are understandably very limited.

My questions are:

1. Do these reports indicate failed battery modules, or could they point to a voltage sensing harness, battery monitoring electronics, or another issue?
2. If only M6, M7 and M8 are affected, would replacing the entire battery pack normally be recommended, or would module-level repair be a realistic option?
3. Has anyone experienced a Lightning that consistently stopped charging at roughly the same state of charge?
4. If this were your truck, what would your next diagnostic step be?
5. Does anything in these reports suggest the battery pack should not be reinstalled in the truck, considering it was still drivable when I brought it in.

I’m not looking to criticise the repair shop. I’m simply trying to make an informed decision before committing to what would be a very expensive repair, and I’m hoping to learn from people who have experience with these trucks.

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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[TaxmanHog]

Modules that are out of spec should be replaced, not the entire pack as a whole.

Module 9 is not reporting conditions on cells 3-8 which is odd, might be a data glitch??

 

[chl]

Bad modules can be replaced individually as others noted.
If in Dubai you have to order a whole battery pack to do the repair, that would be expensive, and maybe not worth it?
Might be cheaper to just replace the whole truck with a different one?

With bad cells in the modules, they won't balance, no point trying.
The imbalance will contribute to further deterioration.
There is the possibility of a fire if things get too bad due to short circuiting despite fail-safes.

EDIT:

NOTE: Apparently rebalancing an individual module is possible that has deviated from the pack. But the module has to be opened and the bad cell or cells isolated and slowly charged to match the rest of the module cells. Then the module is reassembled and put back into the truck.

See the thread linked in the next post:

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...f-one-cell-charging-no-longer-possible.33496/

However, if the cell or cells are damaged, shorted, etc., then the module should be replaced - the rebalancing above will not work.

I have not read about anyone replacing individual cells in a module.

 

[Zprime29]

You might reach out to the person in this thread:
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...f-one-cell-charging-no-longer-possible.33496/

They managed to open the module and balance the problem cell. The battery test report doesn't look promising, you've definitely got some bad modules. Your choices are replace the modules or attempt to balance the problem cells. I've only seen that one thread where balancing the problem cell was attempted. 99% just replace the module.

 

[chl]

You might reach out to the person in this thread:
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...f-one-cell-charging-no-longer-possible.33496/

They managed to open the module and balance the problem cell. The battery test report doesn't look promising, you've definitely got some bad modules. Your choices are replace the modules or attempt to balance the problem cells. I've only seen that one thread where balancing the problem cell was attempted. 99% just replace the module.

Very interesting - I've heard about Leaf owners removing and replacing bad cells, but never heard about isolating a module in the Leaf or Lightning and then rebalancing it to the weakest cell.

The module rebalancing adjusted the modules SOH to the weakest cell's level and then the overall SOH went from 99 to 97 sometime after the 'repair' which means the BMS detected that the battery has less capacity due to the weak cell in that replaced module and the BMS recalculated the SOH.

A lot better than having to replace the module, just running a rebalancing of the isolated module.

I wonder if it is still working with the 'repaired' module now almost 4 months later?

The Leaf has 48 modules in my 2012 generation each as in a sealed container that holds 4 individual pouch cells (configured as 2 in series and 2 in parallel). These modules are connected in series. So some repairs I have read about involved replacing pouch cells or modules.

Some Leaf have tried forcing rebalancing without removing the modules by running up to 100% and back down to 20% several times with limited success in acheiving a better SOH or range.

In this thread, the OP seems to have multiple cells in multiple modules (3) so a more complicated problem to removed and rebalance individual modules, but maybe not impossible?

I think if a cell or cells are too weak, rebalancing the module would not work or be worth the effort.

 

[Bermudapilot]

Modules that are out of spec should be replaced, not the entire pack as a whole.

Module 9 is not reporting conditions on cells 3-8 which is odd, might be a data glitch??

Thanks for the support. So module 9 is shot, are there others I need to replace?
The shop is still suggesting a full battery replacement, and I'm getting to the point due to their inexperience this is what they are going to continue to push.

 

[Zprime29]

Thanks for the support. So module 9 is shot, are there others I need to replace?
The shop is still suggesting a full battery replacement, and I'm getting to the point due to their inexperience this is what they are going to continue to push.

Are there any other shops you can take it to? Any module that has one or more cells with a voltage that significantly varies from the others is going to be out of commission. Module 9 is unkown, I would want the test run again to see if it's ok or not. The report shows 6, 7, and 8 with cells out of whack. If a second test is consistent, those for sure will need to be replaced or opened up and balanced manually. A few reports of a single truck having multiple failures, typically over time though. There might be one or two reports of multiple modules failing at the same time, but that is incredibly rare. Having 3 go bad at once (maybe 4) is some seriously bad luck.

I wonder if continuing to drive the truck is so hard on the other batteries that it's making them start to "fail" faster. Perhaps the BMS is not able to properly balance while one or more modules can't be used.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Are there any other shops you can take it to? Any module that has one or more cells with a voltage that significantly varies from the others is going to be out of commission. Module 9 is unkown, I would want the test run again to see if it's ok or not. The report shows 6, 7, and 8 with cells out of whack. If a second test is consistent, those for sure will need to be replaced or opened up and balanced manually. A few reports of a single truck having multiple failures, typically over time though. There might be one or two reports of multiple modules failing at the same time, but that is incredibly rare. Having 3 go bad at once (maybe 4) is some seriously bad luck.

I wonder if continuing to drive the truck is so hard on the other batteries that it's making them start to "fail" faster. Perhaps the BMS is not able to properly balance while one or more modules can't be used.

 

[GoodSam]

With bad cells in the modules, they won't balance, no point trying.

Hold it, was not the guy in Germany @Bernd able to take apart a module and re-balance one of the cells inside and put it back together and it is working fine?
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...f-one-cell-charging-no-longer-possible.33496/

 

[chl]

Hold it, was not the guy in Germany @Bernd able to take apart a module and re-balance one of the cells inside and put it back together and it is working fine?
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...f-one-cell-charging-no-longer-possible.33496/

Yes, but it wouldn't balance 'normally' during charging, it wouldn't charge at all in fact until he dropped the module opened it and re-balanced it then put it back. Also, there hasn't been an update about how long that lasted - he had a replacement module in case he needed it. After a few days (10?) the SOH of the battery as a whole dropped 2% from 99 to 97 if I remember correctly.

Also he just had 1 bad cell in one module a rather unique case I think?

 

[chl]

Yes, but it wouldn't balance 'normally' during charging, it wouldn't charge at all in fact until he dropped the module opened it and re-balanced it then put it back. Also, there hasn't been an update about how long that lasted - he had a replacement module in case he needed it. After a few days (10?) the SOH of the battery as a whole dropped 2% from 99 to 97 if I remember correctly.

Also he just had 1 bad cell in one module a rather unique case I think?

Still something to consider should there come a time when one's warranty has run out and there are no good replacement modules available anymore anyway.

Until I saw that post, I had never heard about anybody successfully 'repairing' a faulty module in a Lightning that way, but now I know!

I edited my post to reflect the method.

 

[Bermudapilot]

One thing I noticed is that the Autel report identifies the battery as 143.4 kWh, but the physical Ford label on the battery clearly states 107.6 kWh. Could this indicate the scan tool is using the wrong battery configuration?

 

[chl]

One thing I noticed is that the Autel report identifies the battery as 143.4 kWh, but the physical Ford label on the battery clearly states 107.6 kWh. Could this indicate the scan tool is using the wrong battery configuration?

143.4kWh is the actual battery size of the ER battery, the usable amount is 131kWh as I recall.
107kWh is the SR total, usable 98kWh.
So yes, something is funky.

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