Red Ring & a Long Tow Home

[KevinG011]

Last weekend, while driving my 2024 Flash from Dallas to Austin, I got the dreaded red ring while trying to DC fast charge at the Buc-ee’s in Temple, TX.

Before leaving Saturday around midday, I wasn’t able to fully charge to 100% because I was busy running around that morning but had about 85% when I departed from home in Austin. We got on the road and eventually stopped in Waco, where I DC fast charged at a Mercedes-Benz charger. After that, I made it to Dallas, spent the night, and got back on the road first thing Sunday morning to head home.

I stopped at an EVgo charger at a Target in Dallas with the plan to unplug once I had about a 50-mile buffer over what I needed to reach the Buc-ee’s in Temple. And that worked with no issue. As we were approaching Temple, I noticed I was cutting it much closer than expected. I had been going 80–85 mph the whole time, and the temperature was rising, but it still felt a little unusual. I moved to the right lane and slowed to 65 mph for the final stretch.

By the time I pulled in, I was at 3% battery. I plugged into one of the Mercedes-Benz chargers and got a solid red ring. I tried another charger—same result. Then I tried a Tesla charger, still the red ring. I let the truck sit for a bit and tried again: no luck. In total, I probably tried six different units over about 45 minutes, which was supposed to be a quick 20-minute stop.

Luckily, it was just my wife and me—my mom was taking care of the kids back home for the trip. I tried calling the Ford EV helpline, but it was closed since it was Sunday. Eventually, we decided she would Uber home, and I called AAA for a tow. It ended up being a 75-mile tow on a flatbed. The good news is I was able to drive it up onto the flatbed myself, so no concerns about damage pulling a nearly 7,000-pound truck up.

I finally got home after what turned into a pretty interesting road trip with the tow truck driver who used to ride bulls. I plugged into my Ford Charge Station Pro, and it started charging immediately. A few days later, I tried a Tesla DC charger again, and it worked with no issues.

So what should I chalk this up to? Should I avoid letting the battery drop below 10% on road trips? I’ve taken several trips between the major cities in Texas and never had this happen before—but I’ve also never let the battery get that low. Did I do anything else wrong? I just don’t want to feel hesitant about taking this truck on longer trips again.

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[TaxmanHog]

Welcome to the forum, how was the heat conditions that day, was the battery gauge above midpoint?

 

[KevinG011]

Thank you! Long time reader here, first time posting. Honestly not sure on the battery temp gauge. I wish I had paid more attention to anything else on the dash! I just kept looking at the miles remaining. I didn't get any warnings though besides the low range warning.

 

[abcut973]

Try to get an obdII dongle to use with carscanner and check for any fault codes stored. Might give you an idea of what might have happened. I'm frequently in Austin as my daughter studies at UT. As a matter of fact I had one of my HVB module replaced at Covert ford on research Blvd during one of my trips. I had the dreaded yellow wrench and it took almost a month to get the truck repaired. Anyways, hopefully your issue was just a one off.

 

[RickLightning]

You did nothing wrong. Likely a bad charger caused a fault, and it had to reset. Locking and walking away for 15 minutes sometimes works.

 

[Mach Turtle]

Try to get an obdII dongle to use with carscanner and check for any fault codes stored. Might give you an idea of what might have happened. I'm frequently in Austin as my daughter studies at UT. As a matter of fact I had one of my HVB module replaced at Covert ford on research Blvd during one of my trips. I had the dreaded yellow wrench and it took almost a month to get the truck repaired. Anyways, hopefully your issue was just a one off.

This is the best advice IMHO. I got the orange ring on my wife's Mach-E when charging at home; calling the local dealer and telling them the trouble codes made the necessary repair go as quickly as it could (a few days).

You might find from the codes that it was indeed a one-off, and that would be a really good feeling. Hope that's how it turns out.

 

[B177y]

So what should I chalk this up to?

Glitch in the Matrix.

 

[Adventureboy]

Should I avoid letting the battery drop below 10% on road trips?

^^^ I suggest this ^^^. I plan 80-25% on road trips if at all possible. More frequent, shorter stops seem to be better since it keeps the charge rates at their peak and reduce the risk of headwinds throwing a monkey wrench into the plans. I always plan an alternate charger within reach above the 10% as well, in case the planned station is offline (hangover from my aviation days). Road trips are not a good time to push the envelope - terribly inconvenient when things don't go as planned.
On the other side, it should have worked fine unless the chargers were offline or otherwise not working. Were there others charging at the facility? If so, perhaps @RickLightning suggestion of waiting 15 minutes may have given the battery time to cool or the chargers to come back online.
Frustrating for sure.

 

[RickLightning]

The 15 minutes is for the systems to reset, vehicle off, keys away from vehicle (and PaaK).

I have ABRP set to drop to 10% if needed between charging stops. 80 to 25% is 55% of your battery, vs. 70% going to 10%.

 

[MountainAlive]

Another thing that “might” have been an issue here is that the there is a small pin in the charge port (the DC charge pin) that can sometimes get stuck. If you’re in a hurry and don’t press the little “unlock” button when ending fast charging and/or not waiting until the station has stopped sending power and you try to yank the handle out l, this could happen. Not saying you did this, but it’s one way I can think of.

To reset the pin you’d pull the yellow tab hanging off the coolant container. This sometimes works when you keep getting red rings at multiple fast chargers. This post linked below describes the procedure for when you can’t get the charger handle out of the truck port, but you’d also do the same procedure if you suspect that little pin in the port is stuck.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...t-how-to-release-a-stuck-charger-cable.18921/

 

[Wattsgas]

I'd suggest checking the coolant level. It is hidden away and I have found mine to be low after battery module replacements.

 

[Zprime29]

Only other thing I would have tried is disconnect the 12V for a "hard" reset.

 

[chl]

I'd lean towards the high temps being the issue, I think that has been reported before, so the cooling down for a longer time suggestion is probably the fix.

The fact that the long ride on the flat bed probably cooled the truck down and the red ring went away seems to be a hint that it was battery temp.

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