Powertrain Malfunction/ Reduced Power

[GoodSam]

Where can I check my VIN?

See the "safety recall 25S18 HV battery electrode misalignment" thread, there is a link that is for accessing your ford.com account. Should be https://www.ford.com/support/recalls/

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[Mike37]

See the battery electrode thread, there is a link that is for accessing your ford.com account. Should be https://www.ford.com/support/recalls/

I’m not showing any recalls at this time.

 

[Cadence]

Hey there, bought a 23 xlt er last April and have loved the truck overall/so far. Have put 27,000 miles on since. Two days ago the orange wrench showed up with powertrain malfunction, service soon. Call local dealer/shop where it was purchased, can't see it until April 6, then probably at least another month for parts(just guessing by reading all threads I could find)
No loaners. I called the 1-800 on ford pass to open up a claim and ask about rental reimbursement. They said yes, but has anyone on here been through this, I'm looking at potentially 3 months without my truck. How fast/slow is the reimbursement process, and now my faith in Ford is out the window.
I live in Montana, everything tech moves slow out here. Also, shop guy I spoke with told me to go ahead and keep driving until he can get me in next month. Noticed this morning that cabin heater does not work. Without the seat heaters It would be too cold inside to drive it. Any info would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

 

[GoodSam]

Hey there, bought a 23 xlt er last April and have loved the truck overall/so far. Have put 27,000 miles on since. Two days ago the orange wrench showed up with powertrain malfunction, service soon. Call local dealer/shop where it was purchased, can't see it until April 6, then probably at least another month for parts(just guessing by reading all threads I could find)
No loaners. I called the 1-800 on ford pass to open up a claim and ask about rental reimbursement. They said yes, but has anyone on here been through this, I'm looking at potentially 3 months without my truck. How fast/slow is the reimbursement process, and now my faith in Ford is out the window.
I live in Montana, everything tech moves slow out here. Also, shop guy I spoke with told me to go ahead and keep driving until he can get me in next month. Noticed this morning that cabin heater does not work. Without the seat heaters It would be too cold inside to drive it. Any info would be greatly appreciated

Hopefully not 3 months. Cannot Ford BEV or dealer tech see the DTC's set remotely for pre-planning? There have been some coolant problems, leaks, bad valving, so it might not be a battery module. Do you have any reduction in available power, like only 57% available? Check your coolant level. Get a plug-in 12Vdc or 120Vac heater for the cabin? Maybe a hair dryer for the defrosting! Watch out for cracking the windshield with temperature extremes!

 

[Cadence]

Thanks GoodSam,
I am going to check coolant levels, as this seems to be more of the problem? ...and i have a month to wait for service. The wrench turned off on my way home today, cabin heat came on. Completely lost any faith i had with Ford dealer/service etc. If it wasn't for this free forum and everyone in it, we would be screwed.
John

 

[Cadence]

Sorry to hear, hope yours is not as hard as they say. Thanks for the info, please update when you know.
Thanks a bunch,
John

 

[at1]

2024 Lariat ER, 9.3k miles with the standard symptoms. Don't have the build date at hand because the dealership has my truck (is it on the window sticker somewhere?)

• 2/21/25 came out in the morning to the truck having not pre-conditioned, battery not fully charged to my standard setting of 90%. SOC was mid 80s
• Started the truck, got the yellow wrench, service vehicle soon, powertrain malfunction/reduced power, and 57% power available
• Replugged the charger and got a charging fault, amber ring of death
• Tried a few DC fast chargers that night to see, faulted on each of those as well
• 2/24/25 dealer started running tests, believed that the battery modules just needed reprogramming, no loaner available, no ETA
• 2/25/25 further testing, dealer found the bad battery module, still no loaner available but they're working on it, ordering battery module

I'm taking careful notes for obvious reasons and I'm planning to call the @Ford Motor Company BEV team to get the ball rolling, mostly in case I need rental reimbursement or additional pressure on the loaner front.

I'm very thankful for all the info you guys have shared here. I certainly wouldn't be nearly as proactive about the situation if resources like this weren't available.

Call with the BEV team went well. Case opened, confirmed the scenario qualifies me for a loaner or for rental reimbursement.

If we go rental, it can be from anywhere but has to be a ford vehicle. They'll cover $45/day for a sedan or small SUV, or $60/day for a truck or larger SUV. No mention of limits. I'm responsible for any tax (weird but ok) and they'll cover gas, just keep all receipts.

My truck is still sitting in the dealer's back lot, day 15. Apparently it took them a week after diagnosis to even order the battery module. I was given an ETA of 2-3 weeks for the module to arrive. No update from the shop since.

While I'm paying for a truck I can't drive, there were no Ford rentals in the area to be had. I finally put the pressure on the BEV team who in turned pressured the dealership and I did get a mediocre Ford Escape as a loaner which obviously does nothing to replace what I'm currently out.

Additionally, the dealership where I bought the truck didn't register my VIN correctly for the federal clean vehicle credit despite providing signed paperwork and assurances indicating that they had, so I'm fighting that battle, too. They've made no progress to resolve it yet, so I'm in contact with my congressman hoping he can help on the IRS side.

Overall, fully dissatisfied with @Ford Motor Company at this point.

 

[Nomoregas]

well i'v been quiet here lately but yesterday go the wrench at 101,000 km. I decided to look at the 12 volt and it was corroding (here in Canada lots road salt) so I clean it all up and wrench gone until today after about 120km distance it came back on. all working normal no reduced power but funny thing is I stopped and started at a couple more stops today and after the second stop I noticed the wrench was gone and never came back in the last 50km home. waiting for tomorrows run

 

[Yammy5]

New owner of used 2022 Lightning Platinum and new member to this forum although I have been incredibly impressed with the knowledge on this site after following discussions. We are at almost 56K having put about 6K on the truck and our family has been thoroughly impressed...until our experience this past weekend. A month or so ago we got the 'powertrain malfunction' notification and duly took it to our Ford dealer for an assessment. I actually raised the idea that this could be a faulty HV module based on info from this forum but instead the dealer ran a couple updates and returned the truck. I wasn't really impressed with this assessment and felt they could have done a more thorough investigation based on everything we (and Ford) know about this issue. Last weekend we were out of town for a soccer tourney for our kids and got the same powertrain warning after charging up at a Tesla station. Not good. Shortly after I dropped off my family at the soccer field and as I looked for parking I got the dreaded 'park safely' notification. Having seen this discussed on the forum I knew what was coming and parked in a spot I could be easily towed from. Sure enough it wouldn't re-start. I called Ford roadside pretty quick and they wouldn't tow it to my location 2 hours away (or I pay $690) so I had to have it towed to the local Ford dealer and spent the next 2.5 hours arranging the tow and a rental car to get my family home. As I tried to get it into neutral for the tow the truck threw every code on the dash and wouldn't allow us to go into neutral for tow via the emergency tow screen. We ended up jumping the 12v just to get the truck into neutral. Missed my kids soccer game and the truck is on day 2 with Ford in a different town and no updates. What a disaster. No idea how this is going to be resolved. A tough start as a Lightning owner.

 

[Grumpy2]

What a disaster. No idea how this is going to be resolved. A tough start as a Lightning owner.

Good luck with the repairs, perhaps it was a failed LVB.

 

[Yammy5]

Hey thanks! Do you happen to know if the powertrain malfunction warning is ever related to a 12v battery issue? Or is it generally specific to the HVB? Tks

 

[TaxmanHog]

New owner of used 2022 Lightning Platinum and new member to this forum although I have been incredibly impressed with the knowledge on this site after following discussions.

'Welcome to the forum, I look forward to your trucking being fixed quickly and hearing what part(s) were replaced to resolve the situation.

 

[tedshred]

Hey there, bought a 23 xlt er last April and have loved the truck overall/so far. Have put 27,000 miles on since. Two days ago the orange wrench showed up with powertrain malfunction, service soon. Call local dealer/shop where it was purchased, can't see it until April 6, then probably at least another month for parts(just guessing by reading all threads I could find)
No loaners. I called the 1-800 on ford pass to open up a claim and ask about rental reimbursement. They said yes, but has anyone on here been through this, I'm looking at potentially 3 months without my truck. How fast/slow is the reimbursement process, and now my faith in Ford is out the window.
I live in Montana, everything tech moves slow out here. Also, shop guy I spoke with told me to go ahead and keep driving until he can get me in next month. Noticed this morning that cabin heater does not work. Without the seat heaters It would be too cold inside to drive it. Any info would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Just went through this. On Jan 17 truck threw the same codes. Dealer took it in on Jan 28. I rented a car in the time in between. Keep the receipt
They diagnosed the problem on Jan 30 and gave me a loaner car , returned the rental and gave them the receipt
Didn’t get the truck back till March 7 ! Was two bad battery modules.
hopefully your repair is quicker but they the dealer was saying there was an issue getting the battery modules
Dealer submitted my rental receipt and now I am awaiting that to get paid
Dealer was really great Hooked me up with a Mach E GT as a loaner. And kept me in the loop as much as possible

 

[Yammy5]

Just went through this. On Jan 17 truck threw the same codes. Dealer took it in on Jan 28. I rented a car in the time in between. Keep the receipt
They diagnosed the problem on Jan 30 and gave me a loaner car , returned the rental and gave them the receipt
Didn’t get the truck back till March 7 ! Was two bad battery modules.
hopefully your repair is quicker but they the dealer was saying there was an issue getting the battery modules
Dealer submitted my rental receipt and now I am awaiting that to get paid
Dealer was really great Hooked me up with a Mach E GT as a loaner. And kept me in the loop as much as possible

Well at least you got a dealer that was able to help with the rental and was able to diagnose the problem. Maybe it's different in Canada but we aren't getting any loaner or rental and they are estimating a week just to try and diagnose the source of the powertrain malfunction code. They replaced the 12V under warranty and ran some tests today but state that it's not the HVB causing the problem and will need to run a lot more tests to try and figure it out. They say they haven't seen anything quite like this before. Looks like this could be a while and no rental support.

 

[Yammy5]

Well took mine in for the fourth time for same fault…

they finally called today and said they found issue and have to replace electrical item under frunk that regulates power to the high voltage batteries. Major job so they say…

ANy updates you can share? Actually, if you have any further details as to the what the exact issue is I would really like to share this with the technician that is currently diagnosing my problem. Thanks!

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