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Anyone else had problems with their mobile charger throwing a fault? Mine has intermittently begun charging but then faulted and shown an amber light. If I disconnect it from the truck or unplug it and then reconnect, it will begin charging again but then throw the fault. I have been able to repeat this behavior with two other outlets, but at other times I also have had no problems charging from any of these three outlets.
I don’t feel that I yet have enough data to be sure of the cause, but the several times I have observed this the charger has been probably between 15 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit. I have an insulated but unheated garage, and the temperature there is usually 15-25 degrees warmer than outside ambient temp in our northern Minnesota winters. Every time it has been frigid outside and the garage is colder than usual, I’ve had this problem. If I store the charger inside the house and bring it into a similarly cold garage, it works. If the garage is 30 degrees or so, it works. If the charger is cold and faults, and I then bring it inside, it might fault a time or two but seems to work as it warms up. Finally, if I reset the charger several times after faults, it sometimes will start working consistently even at temps cold enough to have caused it to fault. (My hypothesis here is that the charger creates some internal heat, and after operating long enough and being forced to reset, it has warmed up enough internally to work consistently.
I called Ford to document all this and they seemed flummoxed. Wanted to troubleshoot it with me, but of course I couldn’t reproduce it at that time—it was probably 40 degrees in my garage when I called. They asked if I would call back while experiencing the fault in the future. (It is supposed to drop to below zero again at the beginning of next week, fingers crossed!) They also said that for a problem like this they would typically refer me to my dealership. Right now my salesman is asking around to see if anyone there has heard of a similar issue.
I don’t feel that I yet have enough data to be sure of the cause, but the several times I have observed this the charger has been probably between 15 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit. I have an insulated but unheated garage, and the temperature there is usually 15-25 degrees warmer than outside ambient temp in our northern Minnesota winters. Every time it has been frigid outside and the garage is colder than usual, I’ve had this problem. If I store the charger inside the house and bring it into a similarly cold garage, it works. If the garage is 30 degrees or so, it works. If the charger is cold and faults, and I then bring it inside, it might fault a time or two but seems to work as it warms up. Finally, if I reset the charger several times after faults, it sometimes will start working consistently even at temps cold enough to have caused it to fault. (My hypothesis here is that the charger creates some internal heat, and after operating long enough and being forced to reset, it has warmed up enough internally to work consistently.
I called Ford to document all this and they seemed flummoxed. Wanted to troubleshoot it with me, but of course I couldn’t reproduce it at that time—it was probably 40 degrees in my garage when I called. They asked if I would call back while experiencing the fault in the future. (It is supposed to drop to below zero again at the beginning of next week, fingers crossed!) They also said that for a problem like this they would typically refer me to my dealership. Right now my salesman is asking around to see if anyone there has heard of a similar issue.