Car died at intersection - "parking brake fault"

[JGMavGuy]

I stopped the car at the light, the car shut off from the auto start / stop. Pressed the gas, then got a message about a parking brake fault and nothing worked. No power to anything, couldn't get it into neutral, nothing.

So I used the Ford app and requested roadside assistance. I indicated that I was blocking traffic and needed assistance ASAP. They came back with 60 - 90 minutes. What a joke. Police officer pulled up, said he needed to get the car out of the road (I agreed), he called a tow truck, they charged me $135 cash only. Officer was nice enough to drive me to an ATM and the dealership. In my frustration I forgot to get a receipt from the tow truck driver.

Checking into the Ford dealership service, they asked how many miles are on the car, I say somewhere between 36k and 37k. They tell me that since it's past 36k miles I will likely be on the hook for repairs.

I'm going to refrain from using language which I really REALLY want to use, but suffice it to say that I am done with Ford, and done with all this modern technology BS in vehicles. I'm sure I just sound like an angry boomer, but being stranded with literally no way to move my vehicle off the road is one of the worst feelings there is. I know enough about cars that I can service everything in, say, a 1975 pickup. So that's going to be my next move. I'll gladly sacrifice some gas mileage in exchange for being able to quickly diagnose and fix (or at least temporarily address) a problem.

And Ford roadside assistance is useless. Guess I'll be getting AAA.

Rant over.

Sponsored

 

[Darnon]

'22 EcoBoost. Did it have a flooded cell battery?

 

[JGMavGuy]

'22 EcoBoost. Did it have a flooded cell battery?

No idea, dealership said they likely won't be able to get to it today, maybe tomorrow.

 

[Ron Neal]

Cant argue your thinking about tech stuff. I am a tech dinosaur and don't plan on changing but I have used AAA for over 30 years and even they might tell you 9 minutes or 90 minutes.

 

[Cherokee]

AT’s exactly why I bought the extended warranty out to 100,000 miles.
I will trade it for a new one before I hit that number.

IMHO These new fangled vehicles are far too complex to not keep them under warranty.
$2,000 was mighty cheap insurance when I spread it out over my 15,000 miles a year driving.
Works out to about $25.25 a month. Yeah I’ll pay that for a little piece of mind.

 

[HeyBales]

That is exactly the scenario for what the EB battery recall is about.

Prior recall on the BMS system also involved a situation like that.

Curious if you had the prior recall done?

 

[Jelvismc]

Agreed Ford Roadside Non-Assistance is useless….their motto”we will be there eventually” and not be able to assist

 

[JGMavGuy]

That is exactly the scenario for what the EB battery recall is about.

Prior recall on the BMS system also involved a situation like that.

Curious if you had the prior recall done?

I had seen the recall on the app last year but the status was "remedy not yet available" (on either that recall or a different one) so I was waiting on that, guess I lost track. But reading the recall notice it does sound like a very possible culprit. I do like how the remedy for the battery recall is "not yet available."

 

[MavMeister25]

AT’s exactly why I bought the extended warranty out to 100,000 miles.
I will trade it for a new one before I hit that number.

IMHO These new fangled vehicles are far too complex to not keep them under warranty.
$2,000 was mighty cheap insurance when I spread it out over my 15,000 miles a year driving.
Works out to about $25.25 a month. Yeah I’ll pay that for a little piece of mind.

I was debating getting extended warranty but chose not to. The biggest potential cost for failure or defect would be the hybrid battery, which is covered for 8 years, and I’ll probably own another vehicle by that time. Any of the other components like computers think I could cover costs if they fail.

 

[JGMavGuy]

I was debating getting extended warranty but chose not to. The biggest potential cost for failure or defect would be the hybrid battery, which is covered for 8 years, and I’ll probably own another vehicle by that time. Any of the other components like computers think I could cover costs if they fail.

That was kind of my thought process too, the cost isn't really the issue so much as the stuff failing at the worst possible time. If this had happened in my driveway that would be one thing, but I was about 50 miles from home in another state. Personally I'm just going to reduce as many potential failure points as possible.

 

[jeffrol48197]

Keep ALL your receipts, try and get your tow receipt -- IF it is related to the upcoming recall, the dealer MAY be able to get it covered right off, but make them aware you have other expenses related to it...

 

[Meeka]

I stopped the car at the light, the car shut off from the auto start / stop. Pressed the gas, then got a message about a parking brake fault and nothing worked. No power to anything, couldn't get it into neutral, nothing.

So I used the Ford app and requested roadside assistance. I indicated that I was blocking traffic and needed assistance ASAP. They came back with 60 - 90 minutes. What a joke. Police officer pulled up, said he needed to get the car out of the road (I agreed), he called a tow truck, they charged me $135 cash only. Officer was nice enough to drive me to an ATM and the dealership. In my frustration I forgot to get a receipt from the tow truck driver.

Checking into the Ford dealership service, they asked how many miles are on the car, I say somewhere between 36k and 37k. They tell me that since it's past 36k miles I will likely be on the hook for repairs.

I'm going to refrain from using language which I really REALLY want to use, but suffice it to say that I am done with Ford, and done with all this modern technology BS in vehicles. I'm sure I just sound like an angry boomer, but being stranded with literally no way to move my vehicle off the road is one of the worst feelings there is. I know enough about cars that I can service everything in, say, a 1975 pickup. So that's going to be my next move. I'll gladly sacrifice some gas mileage in exchange for being able to quickly diagnose and fix (or at least temporarily address) a problem.

And Ford roadside assistance is useless. Guess I'll be getting AAA.

Rant over.

I feel what you’re going through. Been there, done that. This is my first Ford, always had GM cars and trucks. Thought ‘ found on road dead’ would have changed by now “2025”, guess not! Like someone mentioned previously, “Quality is Job1 ! “ HaHaHa! ‘Job….’ You fill in the blanks! Retired now and thought I made the right choice, not so sure anymore. Somebody please convince me I’m wrong!

 

[oysterville]

Ford's roadside assistance and AAA are going to be similarly impacted by the number of available tow trucks in the area at the time of your need.

Being mad about it is not limited by such factors. Only increased it seems.

 

[JGMavGuy]

Ford's roadside assistance and AAA are going to be similarly impacted by the number of available tow trucks in the area at the time of your need.

Being mad about it is not limited by such factors. Only increased it seems.

Yeah I'm not sure how any of that works. My main gripe was that the Ford service was going to take 60 - 90 minutes but the cop was able to get a truck there in 5 minutes that gladly charged me $135. There were trucks available in the area, just not trucks available to the service I was using... which makes the service useless lol.

 

[JGMavGuy]

I feel what you’re going through. Been there, done that. This is my first Ford, always had GM cars and trucks. Thought ‘ found on road dead’ would have changed by now “2025”, guess not! Like someone mentioned previously, “Quality is Job1 ! “ HaHaHa! ‘Job….’ You fill in the blanks! Retired now and thought I made the right choice, not so sure anymore. Somebody please convince me I’m wrong!

Honestly I'm not even sure this is limited to Ford, but I've never seen this amount of recalls on any other vehicles I've owned. One of the biggest issues is that for every single recall I need to take time out of my schedule to bring the car in. There is no remote software push which is insane since the majority of these recalls are software-related. It's similar to how video games are nowadays... release a product that is ~85% complete, then patch it later. It's absurd.

Sponsored