[Pat Fahey]

OK, I recieved my Lightning Lariat in September and had driven it about 7,000 miles by December 22 when while leaving my driveway the lightning, very politely ask me to find a safe place to park because it was feeling poorly (My interpretation). I called ford roadside assistance and the nice forlks there arranged for the unit to be towed to a local dealer. I then found out that not all local tow companies would tow an EV. One was eventually found and my truck was picked up and taken to the dealership.

Well, this was just before Christmas, and I was informed that the local EV qualified technition was on vacation and it would be several weeks (3) until it can be looked at.

While this was an inconvienience, I still had my trusty 2018 Ford F150Xlt to drive so OK, let's let the system work out. I had considered sending it back under Oregon's Lemon Law but reconsidered. The nice folks at Ford even said that they would help with the paperwork.

So this week they started working on the Lightning and found a defective battery module. I have been warned that the battery costs in excess of $25,000 and that is true but there are 6 modules within the battery and only one was defective. The cost of the module would be something like $6,000.

I asked to see the truck while it was disassembled to see what it looked like. At the dealership I met with the technition who was a delight. He fully detailed the issue and showed how easy it was to perform the repair and this being his 1st actual Lightning repair was very pleased with the foresight that went into the design.

I should have my lightning back next week and I feel better about the while repair process. I am sure as more units are on the road and more technicians become trained the repair times will decrease.

I've been asked how I can be so calm about having such a failure on a relatively new truck. My response is that I have been a lifelong ford driver having own more than 6 F150s and I think each has failed within the first 10,000 mile for some problem or another but they ultimately prove trouble free for over 200,000. I'm hoping my luck holds out with this one.

I am looking forward to comments

 

[Fryballin]

Really glad you are sharing this experience on the forum here. If you don’t mind, can you provide some details into your charging and use history for your truck?
1. Do you typically charge your truck daily? Do you use the mobile charger the truck came with on 110 or 220? Or do you use the charge station pro with 80 amps of power?
2. Do you have a specific percentage you charge to daily?
3. How much DC fast charging have you done in the first 7k
4. Also do you precondition the battery by using a departure time daily? And have you done any significant amount of towing with your lightning?
5. Have you ever let the battery sit in very low state of charge or completely full state of charge?
6 Lastly, have you ran the battery all the way down or very low at any point or more than once while you owned the truck?

just curious if there’s anything different than what I typically do that may or may not affect battery health. I really don’t expect you could have done anything wrong in the first thousand miles that would warrant damage to the battery but would be helpful to know if this begins happening more frequently if there is any pattern between trucks and their use cases.

 

[Pat Fahey]

Really glad you are sharing this experience on the forum here. If you don’t mind, can you provide some details into your charging and use history for your truck?
1. Do you typically charge your truck daily? Do you use the mobile charger the truck came with on 110 or 220? Or do you use the charge station pro with 80 amps of power?
2. Do you have a specific percentage you charge to daily?
3. How much DC fast charging have you done in the first 7k
4. Also do you precondition the battery by using a departure time daily? And have you done any significant amount of towing with your lightning?
5. Have you ever let the battery sit in very low state of charge or completely full state of charge?
6 Lastly, have you ran the battery all the way down or very low at any point or more than once while you owned the truck?

just curious if there’s anything different than what I typically do that may or may not affect battery health. I really don’t expect you could have done anything wrong in the first thousand miles that would warrant damage to the battery but would be helpful to know if this begins happening more frequently if there is any pattern between trucks and their use cases.

Yes, I usually charge my truck at home with the provided charger
My daily target is 88%
I only fast charge when travelling. I've probably fast charged 10-20 times
My unusual schedule doesn't allow for a schedule departure
I've run below 50 miles probably 4 times in the 7,000 miles

A point, I recieved an air dam fault several times

I hope this helps

 

[Mr. Mazak]

Did the tech working on your truck say what could have caused this or did he say it's a common thing?

Also, it costs 6k to fix... I would think that that would be covered under warranty, being the truck not even 1 year old.

 

[GDN]

Did the tech working on your truck say what could have caused this or did he say it's a common thing?

Also, it costs 6k to fix... I would think that that would be covered under warranty, being the truck not even 1 year old.

The battery is covered for 8 years.

 

[KElkhorn]

Just wanted to give some Kudos to Pat for his composure through this. Most of us are fully aware that we have something that hasn't really been out there, and expect some hiccups along the way, as inconvenient as they may be. I think we all hope that we aren't out a vehicle for months, but I think in the back of our minds we all expect something at some point.
Sounds like Pat's dealer has communicated effectively through the process, which I'm certain helps quite a bit, but a good reminder that this could have been any one of us, and likely will be more than one of us at some point. We also need to remember that while dealer techs have gone through some training on EV's, most of them have still only even seen a few of them, let alone worked on them, as opposed to most of the ICE vehicles we are used to having them work on.

Thanks for your story Pat, I hope you are back in your truck soon!

 

[Pat Fahey]

Did the tech working on your truck say what could have caused this or did he say it's a common thing? Also, it costs 6k to fix... I would think that that would be covered under warranty, being the truck not even 1 year old.

yes it is covered under warranty. I was curious enough to ask

 

[Biobob]

OK, I recieved my Lightning Lariat in September and had driven it about 7,000 miles by December 22 when while leaving my driveway the lightning, very politely ask me to find a safe place to park because it was feeling poorly (My interpretation). I called ford roadside assistance and the nice forlks there arranged for the unit to be towed to a local dealer. I then found out that not all local tow companies would tow an EV. One was eventually found and my truck was picked up and taken to the dealership.

Well, this was just before Christmas, and I was informed that the local EV qualified technition was on vacation and it would be several weeks (3) until it can be looked at.

While this was an inconvienience, I still had my trusty 2018 Ford F150Xlt to drive so OK, let's let the system work out. I had considered sending it back under Oregon's Lemon Law but reconsidered. The nice folks at Ford even said that they would help with the paperwork.

So this week they started working on the Lightning and found a defective battery module. I have been warned that the battery costs in excess of $25,000 and that is true but there are 6 modules within the battery and only one was defective. The cost of the module would be something like $6,000.

I asked to see the truck while it was disassembled to see what it looked like. At the dealership I met with the technition who was a delight. He fully detailed the issue and showed how easy it was to perform the repair and this being his 1st actual Lightning repair was very pleased with the foresight that went into the design.

I should have my lightning back next week and I feel better about the while repair process. I am sure as more units are on the road and more technicians become trained the repair times will decrease.

I've been asked how I can be so calm about having such a failure on a relatively new truck. My response is that I have been a lifelong ford driver having own more than 6 F150s and I think each has failed within the first 10,000 mile for some problem or another but they ultimately prove trouble free for over 200,000. I'm hoping my luck holds out with this one.

I am looking forward to comments

Hi my name is Biobob
I have a 2022 Lariat with the ER battery
I have had it since last November and I have only had one down load problem that corrected itself in about a week.
Everything else has been great except for SunRuns
Billing and that has been a nightmare.
I also have a 2001 F150 that I got new with 8 miles on it. In the 21 years I have owned the truck I have only had 4 problems; 2 idler arms and 2 fuel pumps.
The truck is very modified and gets 19 miles per gallon and it is a 4x4 with a 5.4 v8. I have been told that I am a little over the top in my care of the truck.
As it is mistaken for new quite often and people ask me if they could buy it all the time.
I am not letting it go until I am sure that my Lightning is working 100%.
I am a Ford guy through and through although I have raced Chevrolet all my life.
I think this Lighting is quite a truck with it’s 0 to 60 times and I hope I avoid all the problems that I have seen in this forum but it is new technology!
Please continue with your thoughts and comments as they are very helpful and eye opening for me.

Thanks a lot!
Biobob

 

[Pat Fahey]

Hi my name is Biobob
I have a 2022 Lariat with the ER battery
I have had it since last November and I have only had one down load problem that corrected itself in about a week.
Everything else has been great except for SunRuns
Billing and that has been a nightmare.
I also have a 2001 F150 that I got new with 8 miles on it. In the 21 years I have owned the truck I have only had 4 problems; 2 idler arms and 2 fuel pumps.
The truck is very modified and gets 19 miles per gallon and it is a 4x4 with a 5.4 v8. I have been told that I am a little over the top in my care of the truck.
As it is mistaken for new quite often and people ask me if they could buy it all the time.
I am not letting it go until I am sure that my Lightning is working 100%.
I am a Ford guy through and through although I have raced Chevrolet all my life.
I think this Lighting is quite a truck with it’s 0 to 60 times and I hope I avoid all the problems that I have seen in this forum but it is new technology!
Please continue with your thoughts and comments as they are very helpful and eye opening for me.

Thanks a lot!
Biobob

Thanks Bob and I too am a Ford guy. I am giving Ford a little grace with the Lightning. I is a new truck with new technologies. I heard from the dealership that the 2nd replacement battery has arrived and I should have my vehicle back next week (after 50 days at the dealership).

I think I will probably keep the vehicle but if another episode happens. I might be forced to reconsider