Going on a interesting adventure....

[divertwig]

In August I got a 2014 FFE Titanium with about 23k miles on it. I have absolutely loved this car. The mileage (considering it's at least 70 miles round trip to work each day), the bells, the whistles. It's the best car I've ever owned. 

 

A few weeks ago I got a notice saying they'll replace the modem because the network is being shut off for the current one. Ok, I knew to expect that from reading through various parts of this forum. So I called to have them get the new modem, and once it's arrived I set up the appointment for 9am today. So far everything is going well. 

 

Then the issues began. Maybe the car new it was going into the dealership or something, I dunno. 

 

Tuesday while my girlfriend has the car to go to/from work, she tells me the check engine light came on. No blinking, just on steady. Car is still running fine so I'm worried but not really concerned. I check through myford mobile and notice that it's been seeing 12v battery low warnings for a few weeks. So maybe that's the problem (and given what's happened since, I really hope so). She finishes her day, drives home, CEL is still on, but no issues other than that. 

 

Yesterday, I needed the car so I went to drive her to work, but in the morning, the car won't start. Ok, dead battery, it makes sense. I wait a few minutes, make sure the headlights are turned off and there's nothing that would put any extra load on the battery, and try again, and it starts with no problem. CEL light still on, but drives with no noticeable problems. I call the dealership after dropping her off and ask if they can get me in. The guy says sure, come in. When I get there they explain that they'd need to keep the car all day and probably overnight. This is no good because I need the car. So he wishes me good luck (nicely, I wasn't upset at any of this really) and I go throughout the day. Day goes fine, no further problems. Car starts, drives, everything is fine (CEL still on though).

 

This morning things got really weird. Go out, car doesn't start. No big deal I think, I'll do what I did yesterday, and yup, it works. Car starts, but now I've got a bunch of more warnings. A wrench light that means "Check Manual", A warning that says "Service AdvanceTrac", another one that says "Hill start assist unavailable" and some traction control lights. But... the car is running, and I need to drop my girlfriend off. So I start driving, and it accelerates a bit sluggishly but nothing dangerous, so I drive the 1/4 mile to get onto the freeway. While going up the freeway on-ramp I realized that whatever I was doing to the gas pedal doesn't matter at all. I floor it, car goes sluggishly. I take my foot off the gas pedal, the car keeps accelerating. Once the car hit 35 mph it stayed there. I floor the gas, nothing. I press the brake, it slows down, but when I take my foot off the brake it goes back to 35 and stays there. So I put on my hazards and drive on the shoulder to the next exit and pull to the side of the street. I'm hoping that this was all because of low 12v battery voltage, and now that it's had some time to charge off the HVB a bit, it might be ok. So I turn the car off, and wait a minute or two, turn the car back on. Yup. Everything is better now. Well, everything except that the CEL was still on and so was the "check manual" wrench. But it's on, it accelerates like normal, and runs with no real functional problems. 

 

Some slightly annoying, but also kind of amusing issues came along though. The sirius radio works fine. Sounds fine. Goes through stations and presets fine. Except for the notice on the middle of the screen that says "No signal". Except I'm listening to that signal, so I'm not sure why the radio thought there wasn't one. 

Also, can't turn on cruise control. Yesterday with the CEL light on, the cruise control worked fine. Today, nothing. Can't even try to set it, because it won't turn on. 

 

So the car is now at the dealership, and they agreed fixing these problems is more important than the modem and they will work on these first. But I'm still just really hoping that it's just the 12v battery being dead, so replace that, maybe reprogram the computer a bit, and everything will be happy. After that, then I'll worry about the modem. 

 

To be continued.....

[kzoojason76]

Sounds like the 12V battery may have a dead cell.   Look in the forums for 12V battery.  There are a bunch of posts about it.

[divertwig]

Yeah, that's what I've been thinking too. I just hadn't seen anyone mention getting stuck at 35 mph before so we'll see if everything is just due to a screwy computer because of low voltage. Really hoping it is just that, but in case it isn't, I wanted to start sharing my experience and adventure.