Dearborn, we have a problem.
After happily driving my Mach E for a couple months, and having gas pumps, oil changes, ‘maintenance’ and other relics of my vehicle past drift gracefully into the recesses of my brain, I was smacked upside the head back to reality with a dreaded ‘Service Vehicle Soon’ warning light on my dashboard.
Immediately – naturally – I thought ‘WTF is this?’ and quickly headed to the amazing ‘Mach E Forum‘ to see a) what this could mean and b) if any other poor suckers have recently been struck by this amber nightmare.
Of course – despite how much I have come to love and rely on those forums – nothing quite seemed to match what I was experiencing. Results were all over the place from people saying it’s related to charging issues, others saying they had this light show up, only for it to go away on it’s own on the next start, to others saying it’s a precursor to the dreaded ‘Stop Safely Now’ warning, or the HVBJB battery issue. So, after hoping that after a few starts this warning would just resolve itself (hey, it’s A plan, ok?), I headed to the dealership.
Not surprisingly, nobody at the dealership seemed concerned about my warning light, and told me the earliest they could see me was a week later. Being the Christmas Holidays, I somewhat understood and didn’t really want to be dealing with a vehicle issue anyway, so I took the appointment and went merrily on my way.
I should add that at no time prior to the light coming on, or in the week I drove around with it on, did I notice any issues with my vehicle at all. Everything seemed perfectly in order. I hoped that the light was maybe something to do with a Software Update that couldn’t be pushed out, or maybe something else extremely minor that the car was being over cautious about reporting to me. I was frustrated though at the lack of information in the app – my ‘Vehicle Status’ section showed ‘No Alerts’ and there was nothing at all to indicate that there was any issue. For a ‘computer on wheels’ – I find the lack of information / transparency about the vehicle status to be no better than the ICE age.
Anyway, this brings me to Thursday when I was finally able to bring the vehicle in to the dealership to be diagnosed. After a few hours of waiting, I finally received a call with the bad news: my vehicle has some sort of coolant leak. It’s ‘minor’ (at this point) I was assured, but that ‘Ford engineers’ are ‘aware of and interested’ in this situation. There is apparently some sort of gasket flaw that ‘is not a recall’, but ‘probably will be’. An engineering or part flaw that I guess is not widespread but could be? And, the kicker on top of it all – the part is back-ordered and there’s no timeframe of when it may be available. Regardless, it’s not safe and/or recommended to drive the vehicle.
Uhh…what?
I understand vehicles have issues, and with this being a fairly new model, it’s not surprising that things can and do go wrong. However, I wasn’t expecting to hear that I wouldn’t be able to drive my vehicle for ‘days or maybe even months’. The good news – I suppose – is that I will be getting a replacement Mach E as a loaner (more about that later) that is ‘the same as the one you have’. Of course, everything is covered under warranty, so I won’t have to pay for any of this, other than the inconvenience.
So – as of now, I am vehicle-less and the future of my Mach E is unknown. It will (un)happily sit at the dealership until this mystical part or parts come in and that’s about all I know right now.
I am of two minds – 1) clearly frustrated and full of ‘why me?’ feelings. This just should not happen with a new vehicle, that I was loving and excited about. At the same time, 2) everyone so far at the dealership has been good and they do seem very sympathetic and want to make sure I am taken care of with a loaner vehicle and whatnot. The fact that this ‘issue’ is being taken seriously and addressed now before it really becomes a problem is good in my opinion and I’m happy that – at least for now – it seems to being handled well.