Unpleasant surprise from new Ford automobile

3/26/11 | Self

[OL Hickory]

bought the wife a brand new dodge...no owners manual..everything on disc now...

[PA Engineer]

And, if you read all the way through - the battery was not dead. It wasn’t even low.

Just some professional advice. All batteries sulfate, including AGM. Some may even appear to be fully charged, but will not be able to ultimately provide the "cranking amps" when needed. The best thing to do is to run the car at least weekly or install a battery minder.

I am surprised they did not include a relay to reset the software. It would be one more moving part, but better than running up the mileage on the flatbeds.

This is off topic, but useful to know. When cars have been tested during EMP studies they found that a surprising many were not affected. Some that were could be started by resetting the software. That simply means they disconnected the battery and reconnected it. On a unhappy note, many cars could not be restarted without extensive parts replacements.

[Felis_irritable]

bought the wife a brand new dodge...no owners manual..everything on disc now...

For our last few cars we got both, disc and printed. I still like to have the printed one in the glovebox, you never know.

[chickadee]

Thanks for your post. I learn something new every day on FR.

[Bob]

SOFTWARE! I hate those guys in software. They think they can just do anything they want with code.

You're putting the blame in the wrong place. I can virtually guarantee you that the programmers didn't dream this idea up on their own and implement it just because they could.

Whether the decision was right or wrong, this "feature" would have only been put into the code because it was specifically called out in the functional requirements document for the software.

[Svartalfiar]

Yep. I hate most new cars, all the excessive electronic ‘bonus’ stuff is just plain annoying. I like my manual. The only problem I do have is rolling the passenger side window up and down.. wish that one was electric. But otherwise, a ‘95 Mustang is good for me :)

[CharlesWayneCT]

The original U.S. Prius had a car battery that was so small, if you left the car sit more than 2 weeks, the drain from the security system would kill the battery, and you’d need a jump-start.

This even though there was a fully-charged 21kw battery source right in the car — which needed the 12-volt battery to start the computer that ran the inverter to use the big battery.

On the plus side, you can jumpstart that car with a 12-volt drill battery. All you need to do is boot the compiter, and then the 12volt power comes from the big battery.

Apparently, nobody in Japan would leave a car sit for 2 weeks, but it’s quite common here in the U.S.. Someone started selling an after-market power switch for the battery.

[SouthDixie]

Yuck, this creep cheats on his wife and acts like he doesn’t.

[Oztrich Boy]

The cure was simple, disconnect the negative lead for 30 seconds, reconnect and all was well.

Sound like the South Park ep where the Internet died

[SupplySider]

Glad to read that even Gussie Fink-Nottle is disapproving of the Newt. :)

I'm tempted to compare the Empress to one or two prominent ladies of the left, but better not.

[Oceander]

Sounds just like my ‘99 Grand Marquis - bought it at the end of 2005 and so far, never a breakdown. And upkeep is surprisingly low.

[gussiefinknottle]

then that is a very good deal!!!!

[Oceander]

Thank you; however, I have to say that it is par for the course for the Crown Vic/Grand Marquis line from Ford. Not to say there aren’t some bumps - they tinkered with the suspension in the 1999 redesign, which made the ride a little harsher than it needed to be - but these things are seriously old-school technology and since the basic vehicle is designed and built to be used and abused as taxis and police cruisers, they stand up quite well to piddling little civilian usage.

[eraser2005]

Late reply, but yes, it does....

My 97 Taurus had a fault in its climate control system once that caused it to go into a safe mode. Turns out that it does a self-calibration, and if it fails during the calibration for any reason, it goes to a safe mode to prevent damage.

I was wondering why it was only blowing hot air, then I found out a simple reboot sequence to send it through the calibration again.... passed with flying colors and never had a problem again.

[TheBattman]

I was just about to say - is the car’s computer Windows-based?