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Powertrain Malfunction/ Reduced Power

republicoftexas1836

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2023 ER Lightning Lariat, have never had a single problem with the truck, until.......

Last night charging fault warning on the app but truck charged to target of 90% at home. I tried to drive it this morning and although truck is charged to 90% I have the Powertrain Malfunction/ Reduced Power warning on both the truck and the app. Also included is a High Voltage battery warning. The truck will only drive with power to 20%.

I drove to a dealer and they said it would be 2-4 before anyone could even plug it in to look at it. I called around to other dealers in DFW and they were all worse, quoting 7-14 days before anyone could look at it and encouraged me to keep the 2-4 days appt.

Well, I didn't notice a problem with the truck, driving, except it doesn't accelerate with only 20% power so I limped into the dealer like I was driving on a spare tire. Since I don't think it's functional enough to drive, I just left it at the dealer and got a courtesy shuttle back to my house. No rental. I will have to share my wife's hybrid for awhile until we find out what is wrong with it.

From talking to several Ford service depts today, I learned Ford is short a LOT of mechanics as confirmed by the article posted on this forum. Also-- specifically EV technicians. Most dealers only have one and the lightnings are backed up according to their schedule. One service manager said, "Yeah we have a lot of lightnings right now we are trying to schedule." Sales manager said they can't sell them and "nobody wants to buy them."

I hope it's something easy to fix.

Reading other posts in this forum, I agree, this is my favorite vehicle of all time to drive, hands down. I use it as a truck regularly and there's no way I'm ever going back to an ICE vehicle or truck. If the vehicle will be a problem going forward, my options are Rivian, GMC and Tesla. It sounds to me like GMC is also backing out of the EV game and their trucks are very expensive. I don't trust Rivian in terms of long term reliability. That really leaves the Cybertruck. Even though it's really ugly, I do trust Tesla to be at the forefront of EV technology and trust their product and long term outlook with EVs. I traded my Model Y for the lightning when I needed a truck. It seems in the US, others are still trying to catch them. In my opinion, right now, if you want a truck and want EV, tesla has the most reliable long term outlook. I hope I'm wrong bc I'm not a fan of the cyber truck and my lightning is honestly the best vehicle I've ever driven.

I will keep anyone posted who is interested.

Day 1
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Heliian

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20% available power is a new one for me. A lot of battery cell faults reduce the power to just above 50% but it could still be a battery fault or something else. "powertrain fault" is essentially the check engine light for the lightning, could be anything.

The service advisors should be able to pull telemetry codes to start and at least give you an idea of what may be happening.
 

TaxmanHog

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Watching the thread, please keep us posted as things develop.
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