Powertrain Malfunction/Reduced Power, and will not charge

[Tom69876]

Well, my truck is a 2023 Lightning SR, with 18,440 miles. Yesterday took a trip to Disneyland, and hooked up to one of the type 2 chargers offered for the EV drivers. It charged to 80% without issue. I then decided to charge it up to 90%. Again no issue. Once charged, I got a charging error on my app. I figured, no biggie.

Then in the evening we jumped back into our truck, turned it on, and BOOM! POWERTRAIN MALFUNCTION/REDUCED POWER message appeared.

luckily was able to get my truck back home, driving at a reduced power of 53%.

Plugged in at home, and the rings around the lock button glowed with a solid red. Would not charge.

This morning I brought it into the service department, and they said they would not be able to take a look until Wednesday (48 hours from now).

I was hopeful for a quick fix. But have recently taken a deep dive into Google research, and the findings have been truly disturbing.

I have a bad feeling that I will be without my truck for a good duration of the next few months.

Up to this point, we’ve loved the Lightning Trucks. Truth be told, we own two of them (his & hers). Both are 2023 XLT models, and were purchased 2 months apart.

Now I’m in a position, hopeful this does not turn into a regretful future, with endless runs to the service department. My other Lightning has 16,887 miles on it, and I am terrified it will suffer the same fate.
We’ve stuck with all the recommended charge ranges, and have literally babied these vehicles.

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[TaxmanHog]

Welcome to the forum, hopefully they determine fix needed quickly, it could be one of several issues, some are easy & quick to fix if parts are available, other issues take longer.

 

[Tom69876]

Welcome to the forum, hopefully they determine fix needed quickly, it could be one of several issues, some are easy & quick to fix if parts are available, other issues take longer.

Thank you. I appreciate the addition. And yes, I am hopeful. Up to this point, I’ve loved every minute of these trucks.

I will keep the thread updated with all progress ahead.

 

[BlueLightning]

Well, my truck is a 2023 Lightning SR, with 18,440 miles.

Wow, happened to me seven times.

In the end the truck is one big circuit.

Although some components faults or breakdowns are more serious than others.

Can’t determine until they hook it to computer and check for errors on thousand’s of lines by line.

2021-2022 good truck,

2023 cut few corners.

2024-2025 guess cut more than they should….big recall!

 

[Tom69876]

Wow, happened to me seven times.

In the end the truck is one big circuit.

Although some components faults or breakdowns are more serious than others.

Can’t determine until they hook it to computer and check for errors on thousand’s of lines by line.

2021-2022 good truck,

2023 cut few corners.

2024-2025 guess cut more than they should….big recall!

That is truly concerning. As mentioned in my previous post, I bought two of the 2023s. I had traded in my beloved Diesel 2 months after my first, after falling in love with the Lightning I had got for my wife.
Overall, I’ve been extremely happy. Just very disappointed, knowing I have not even made the 20,000 mile point yet.

FORD Service has been amazing for me in the past. I wouldn’t expect anything less this time. Just having a little buyer remorse, knowing I’ve invested into two of these things, and am already hitting the unknown phase into the longevity realm.

 

[Tom69876]

Well, just heard back from Ford this morning. The issue ended up being my EV battery has failed. The good news, they are replacing it with a new battery, and it’s all completely covered under warranty (thankfully). So on a positive note, I will once again own an EV with a 100 SOH, as far as the battery is concerned. And it should be completed within a week.

on the negative side. This is concerning. I have followed all of the recommended practices (avoid superchargers when possible, maintain a charge of between 20% to 80% - which in reality I was keeping the vehicle between 70% & 80% daily, and leaving it on the charger when not in use).
But, knowing I have another one, that hasn’t seen issues yet, I will chalk it up as a fluke incident.

But as far as the service side of things, I am very satisfied Ford took the initiative to not make this situation a complete headache. They identified, acknowledged, and were happy to repair on their own dime. It’s hard to be negative over that type of service.

 

[chl]

Probably a manufacturing issue, nothing you could have done to prevent it.

I think it is reassuring that the truck warned you about the problem/failure before anything dangerous happened.

 

[GoodSam]

they are replacing it with a new battery, and it’s all completely covered under warranty (thankfully). So on a positive note, I will once again own an EV with a 100 SOH, as far as the battery is concerned

Most likely they are replacing one of the nine modules, so the State of Health most likely will not be back to 100%. I assume you have not been notified of being under the Safety Recall 25S18 HV Battery Electrode Misalignment? You can enter the poll on that thread. I will add your bad luck to my spreadsheet (in my signature) tracking the numerous PM/RP failures.

 

[Tom69876]

Most likely they are replacing one of the nine modules, so the State of Health most likely will not be back to 100%. I assume you have not been notified of being under the Safety Recall 25S18 HV Battery Electrode Misalignment? You can enter the poll on that thread. I will add your bad luck to my spreadsheet (in my signature) tracking the numerous PM/RP failures.

You could be correct. But from my end when the service rep had called me, I had asked what part of the battery they were replacing. He mentioned they are replacing the entire battery for a new one. Don’t get me wrong, what you’re saying makes a lot of sense. I’m just going off of what I had been told.
I will test the battery once it’s installed, and verify. 2 months ago the battery was at 98.5% SOH. Which honestly adds more confusion as to why this suddenly occurred.

 

[Tom69876]

Probably a manufacturing issue, nothing you could have done to prevent it.

I think it is reassuring that the truck warned you about the problem/failure before anything dangerous happened.

Yes absolutely. So far I am just chalking this up to being a simple malfunction that had occurred. Which happens on any new vehicle. However, if my other Lightning suffers the same fate in the near future, I may begin to worry a bit. But regardless, I could not be happier with the prompt acknowledgment from Ford, owning full responsibility of the issue found, and taking the actions to resolve it quickly. This makes Ford stand out as one of the very best vehicle manufacturers in my opinion. They’ve proven to me they truly stand by what’s promised on the sales floor.

 

[chl]

It could be a one-off battery manufacturing defect and the other XLT hopefully will not have the problem.

You might check and compare the dates on the driver's side door plates of the two trucks to see if the were manufactured around the same time.

There is a build date on them like this on mine:

I blanked out part of my VIN in the pic.

Sometimes the defects could affect more than one vehicle, like the misalignment of electrodes in a particular production run on the battery manufacturer that prompted a safety recall on 'potentially' 950 Lightnings (pdf attached).

Ford seems to know which vehicles by VIN number - we hope - and notified those owners.

Good luck!

 

[TaxmanHog]

There is a build date on them like this on mine:

A Friday the 13th truck..............1202310137138

 

[chl]

A Friday the 13th truck..............1202310137138

My lucky day, in my opinion!

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