Power Train Malfunction Alert: Fix Post #8

[ScottC]

Anyone else receive this? Driving this morning - everything fine - and alert on drivers screen Pull Over Safely and Stop.
My app says “power train malfunction. You can drive until you stop vehicle but then won’t start. Contact Ford and have your vehicle towed to facility of your choice”

I called a local Ford service and told him. He looked up my VIn and said it’s just a recall / APM software update. He also said I can keep driving and just schedule an appt.

Given the dramatic alert in the truck that seems odd. Anyone else getting this?

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[The Weatherman]

That is likely a failed battery module. Note the power output has been reduced to 3% with a battery showing 92% SOC.

 

[chriserx]

The update may be available, but like Dean suggested, there is a more serious problem. An update shouldn't be causing that outside of recall territory.

 

[ScottC]

Truck is getting towed to Ford. I’ll let the channel know what develops.

 

[IdeaOfTheDayCom]

I've had similar warnings. The first time involved waiting about a month for the dealer to get the tools needed to swap a power module.

It happened a couple of times a year later, but the warnings I got didn't say that I couldn't re-start, so I stopped and started and didn't see the messages again.

If it dropped your power to 3%, it's definitely something related to the high voltage battery. Hopefully your dealer has the parts and tools and they can get you on the road a lot quicker than mine.

 

[ScottC]

Got truck back. Related to 12v battery. Once it dropped below spec on charge things go haywire. Ford tech didn't have an answer for why this happens, but you know these are vehicles out in the wild and sh*t does happen. The High Voltage battery system converts to 12v to keep the aux battery charged, and so it's a bit of an infinite loop. Once the battery dropped below spec they got warnings about various modules. So the tech first charged up the 12v for a half a day and the other warnings cleared up.

Food for thought. I also have a couple 4 runners and i'm often using my battery charger to top those off. So if this happens again my first move will be that.

I will say that Ford experience was pretty solid. Used the app to call road side. They first sent just a typical tow truck, but then resent a flat bed. Once it arrived at the Ford Dealer I got contacted by Ford corporate with a liason to keep an eye on the progress. Everything was as smooth as it could be and i'm back driving.

12volt is the first place to look IMO. Get that back up to spec output and see if you still have issues.

 

[elizarrj]

This looks pretty close to what happened to me yesterday. I did not get the message I could not start the truck again though. The truck did go into limp mode. We had to drive it 1/2 mile or so to safely stop. Turned off truck. Waited about 5 minutes and the truck started normally. I drove the truck home and charged the 12V battery. Today I have no issues. But I still opened an appointment with my ford dealer to look at this, since it is still under warranty.

 

[ScottC]

And here is the report on my invoice ($0.00 for the fix, $226 for 20K inspection)

 

[The Weatherman]

. Holy Cow!! That’s highest 20k inspection fee I’ve ever seen.

 

[Zprime29]

And here is the report on my invoice ($0.00 for the fix, $226 for 20K inspection)

That's a joke, hahahaha...right??? Please tell us that's a typo or something. I think I paid $15 for tire rotation and inspection. They charged me $80 to swap the cabin air filter. I called them out as ridiculous and they lost my business for regular check ups. I can't imagine a $226 bill for rotation and cabin air filter. I'd have lost my cool.

 

[ScottC]

The Internet never disappoints. Nope not a joke. I didn’t even feel it as I was just happy to get my truck back in a timely manner. I have a friend who’s got a VW golf electric in her car has a similar symptom – it’s been in the shop for 2+ weeks and all she heard is wow there’s a lot of wires to check out

 

[ScottC]

ROUND 2 - Drove about 20 miles on Wed after picking up from the Ford dealer who worked on it.

FRIDAY Jan 16 5:30pm Driving up to the Sierras for the weekend with the family. On the road for about 85 miles... Everything running as it should. Parked to get some coffee, walk dogs etc. Came back to the truck and same warnings as last week.

Stop! Get Service soon etc. Screen functioning but not able to get into gear. Called the Ford service and after 3 attempts got to the service tech. He said he hadn't changed out the battery because it "charged up to spec" - but he connected to the truck and saw that the voltage was on the way down. And as i'm now 85 miles up the road I would need to take it to a closer Ford.

Called a Ford Dealer just a couple miles up in Dixon - literally at closing. They sent a flatbed by 645. By this time the truck was DOA. Tower found the mechanical release for the Frunk hood and put a Noco on the battery. Was able to get it boosted enough to put it in neutral...and then it all died.

So now it's at another Ford. They called and will look at it next week. Seems like whether it's the battery or not - we're not getting a charge to keep that going.

 

[PJnc284]

Maybe the dc-dc converter took a dump if the 12v isn't getting charged.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Maybe the dc-dc converter took a dump if the 12v isn't getting charged.

Very possible, or it's intermittent, I would hope the technicians who have already worked on the truck confirmed the DC/DC converter is actually pushing out charging current to the LVB.

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