Roadie103
Member
- First Name
- Tom
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2023
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 10
- Location
- Humboldt, CA
- Vehicles
- '23 Lightning XLT ER
- Thread starter
- #1
This past Friday our truck lost power while driving. My wife, with toddler also in the truck, was pulling onto a highway on-ramp when the driving power cut out. She still had power steering and was able to coast downhill to a safe spot to pull off the road. A message briefly popped up saying something along the lines of 'front motor: no power', or something like that. She was more focused on getting the truck off the road and couldn't capture the exact message. Fortunately this was just a few miles from home, and I was able to drive over and swap vehicles with her. By the time I arrived the truck was just displaying the "stop safely now" alert and would not turn on. As I waited for a tow truck I tried disconnecting the 12v battery to reset the truck, but no luck. Accessory power was still available and I was able to open/close the frunk and keep the dash/lights on. I had to use the emergency tow procedure to get the truck into neutral to load onto the flatbed tow truck.
Very scary situation to have it completely cut out like that while driving, and I'm very grateful it did not occur in a more dangerous spot. We regularly drive on remote rural highways here in northern California, and we could have been really stranded had this happened in an area without cell service hours away from a dealership.
The dealership was able to run diagnostics before they closed on Friday and determined that the BECM needed to be replaced. The part is currently expected to arrive tomorrow. They say it will take two days to do the repair since they have to drop the battery.
Sad to say my local dealership doesn't have a loaner vehicle program, and the rental car place they partner with was closed for the weekend by the time the truck was diagnosed. I am disappointed by my dealership's nonchalant attitude regarding such a catastrophic failure. I had to actively question what little information I have out of them. They didn't even bring up any kind of rental car offer until I asked about it hours after the vehicle arrived dead on a tow truck. I feel fortunate to have a friend who had a vehicle I could borrow for the week. I did hear from Ford customer service. The woman on the phone was much more sympathetic to the situation and is waiting to get a more compete diagnostic report from my dealership to better understand what happened. She didn't really have anything to offer.
Truck is a 2023 XLT ER with ~28,500 miles. My favorite vehicle I've owned. Hoping I will be able to trust it to go on road trips again.
Very scary situation to have it completely cut out like that while driving, and I'm very grateful it did not occur in a more dangerous spot. We regularly drive on remote rural highways here in northern California, and we could have been really stranded had this happened in an area without cell service hours away from a dealership.
The dealership was able to run diagnostics before they closed on Friday and determined that the BECM needed to be replaced. The part is currently expected to arrive tomorrow. They say it will take two days to do the repair since they have to drop the battery.
Sad to say my local dealership doesn't have a loaner vehicle program, and the rental car place they partner with was closed for the weekend by the time the truck was diagnosed. I am disappointed by my dealership's nonchalant attitude regarding such a catastrophic failure. I had to actively question what little information I have out of them. They didn't even bring up any kind of rental car offer until I asked about it hours after the vehicle arrived dead on a tow truck. I feel fortunate to have a friend who had a vehicle I could borrow for the week. I did hear from Ford customer service. The woman on the phone was much more sympathetic to the situation and is waiting to get a more compete diagnostic report from my dealership to better understand what happened. She didn't really have anything to offer.
Truck is a 2023 XLT ER with ~28,500 miles. My favorite vehicle I've owned. Hoping I will be able to trust it to go on road trips again.
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