Recall 24S79 tells me not to plug your vehicle in to charge the high voltage battery.

Only drive in "Auto EV" if not a high voltage battery cell internal short circuit could happen.

The remedy is anticipated in the second quarter of 2025.

Why did I but a Ford Kuga PHEV that I can't charge.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4 minutes ago, Graham Jaggard said:

Why did I but a Ford Kuga PHEV that I can't charge

To save the planet ? 🤣🤣

Im sorry, but my opinion is that anyone who gets suckered into wasting their money on these garbage vehicles are only getting what they deserve. The technology in them is crap, they cant be recycled when they are done, probably around 10 years life ? People need to wake up and see the wood from the trees, they are being lied to by the governments and the a large part of the auto industry. Call me a sceptic if you like but I for one wouldnt be buying an EV even if it meant me having no vehicle. Just my ramblings and is NOT intended to be a personal attack on you, its just the way i feel.

Why did you buy a Ford at all?

They could never get automatic transmission right, so I wouldn't be trusting them with EV or part EV

8 minutes ago, Delboy777 said:

The technology in them is crap,

Toyota seem to be doing ok

Been telling Ford since last October there is a problem with the EV battery charging, mainly because it flattens the 12v but there must be an internal fault with it.

Was all booked in for remedial work today, until the letter turned up yesterday telling me 'if the warning light comes on, stop get out and run away' maybe not in so many words but that's the gist.

Warranty runs out TODAY but no remedy till second quarter of the year, May/June......

They are going to fix it with a reprogram, but if it's that easy why wasn't it sorted out long ago? because Ford were in denial there was any issue with the charging circuit.

As soon as it's sorted the cars going, be the last Ford I ever buy.....

Also found out recently just how many Fords have a wet cambelt, Daughter bought a 1.5 Kuga 5 years old with 45000 miles and belt broke after 2 weeks ownership, got a full refund from dealer fortunately as local dealer said over 2 grand for a belt replacement, but not sure if that was including head work.

So sceptics amongst us beware the EVs are not the only issues with the blue oval.

5 minutes ago, plumb crazy said:

Also found out recently just how many Fords have a wet cambelt, Daughter bought a 1.5 Kuga 5 years old with 45000 miles and belt broke after 2 weeks ownership, got a full refund from dealer fortunately as local dealer said over 2 grand for a belt replacement, but not sure if that was including head work.

So sceptics amongst us beware the EVs are not the only issues with the blue oval.

Only the pre-2019 1.0 EcoBoost and 2.0 EcoBlue engines have a wet cambelt. 

The 3 cylinder 1.5 EcoBoost has a camchain but uses a small wetbelt for the oil pump - these almost never fail so would be interested to know if it was one of those.

The 1.5 EcoBlue has a dry cambelt, but has a small chain for the cams which breaks regularly.

2 hours ago, plumb crazy said:

Been telling Ford since last October there is a problem with the EV battery charging, mainly because it flattens the 12v but there must be an internal fault with it.

 

I am disappointed with this issue that Plumcrazy mentions, as that sole problem put me off buying one last year. All the people I know who own a Kuga like them. The non-PHEV ones seem to be very well built and reliable. Such a shame that Ford don't seem to be able to successfully copy Toyota/Lexus/Mitsubishi technology. It should have been the perfect car for me.

 Unlike Delboy I like PHEVs. What's not to like about (local) pollution-free driving at 3-4p per mile for 3/4 of the miles that you do. Admittedly 15p instead of 12p per mile for the other 1/4, perhaps. But with no range-anxiety,

Smooth, quick, quiet when on electric - all the things I want from a car. No annoying stop/start mechanism.

I may be wrong, but my guess is that Delboy has never driven one 😉

23 hours ago, plumb crazy said:

Been telling Ford since last October there is a problem with the EV battery charging, mainly because it flattens the 12v but there must be an internal fault with it.

This is a known issue, but was never an official recall, which annoys me. I'm fed up of talking about it on the other Kuga specific forum, which I hope is OK to link to;

12v battery death - cause; effect; cure. | Ford Kuga Owners Club Forums

On 3/12/2025 at 1:41 PM, TomsFocus said:

Only the pre-2019 1.0 EcoBoost and 2.0 EcoBlue engines have a wet cambelt. 

The 3 cylinder 1.5 EcoBoost has a camchain but uses a small wetbelt for the oil pump - these almost never fail so would be interested to know if it was one of those.

The 1.5 EcoBlue has a dry cambelt, but has a small chain for the cams which breaks regularly.

All I know for sure is that it was a 1.5 and when cranking the cam shaft wasn't turning viewed through the oil filler, which can't really be anything else than the cam belt and there was certainly no noise of a chain threshing about loose, so if your facts are correct it was well rid of as a wrong un.

22 hours ago, alanfp said:

 

I am disappointed with this issue that Plumcrazy mentions, as that sole problem put me off buying one last year. All the people I know who own a Kuga like them. The non-PHEV ones seem to be very well built and reliable. Such a shame that Ford don't seem to be able to successfully copy Toyota/Lexus/Mitsubishi technology. It should have been the perfect car for me.

 Unlike Delboy I like PHEVs. What's not to like about (local) pollution-free driving at 3-4p per mile for 3/4 of the miles that you do. Admittedly 15p instead of 12p per mile for the other 1/4, perhaps. But with no range-anxiety,

Smooth, quick, quiet when on electric - all the things I want from a car. No annoying stop/start mechanism.

I may be wrong, but my guess is that Delboy has never driven one 😉

You are correct, i havent and never will. Im afraid im "old school" and all this technology is just more to go wrong in the long run,as your post points out,  so its not for me, ever ! My current car is more than tech enough for me im afraid.

I too am the owner of a 2022 Kuga st line X and have had the recall. The car when it is not in electric mode is heavy aand not overly pleasant to drive. We have also had increased costs in petrol that we rarely use normally. Ford's offer of £100 goodwill is insulting. They could not care less about their customers and blame the dealers! We now have to wait another month for repair as the dealer is so booked up with recalls! You could not make it up! We will never buy another Ford again as their contempt for their customers ia shocking 

On 5/23/2025 at 12:59 PM, hollymum said:

We have also had increased costs in petrol that we rarely use normally.

Look on the bright side, think of how much electricity you've saved !

Well here's a strange thing, Nothing from Ford since the first recall letter, they have ignored my mails that include all the details with the case number, but got a phone call from dealer who remembered me, and booked car in for the recall fix.

Car duly collected on Tuesday and told fix was carried out within about 3 hours, but they also remembered the problem with charging, the EV was making the 12v battery go flat so they kept it overnight to charge it and sure enough Weds morning dead flat 12v battery.

They discovered whilst charging the indicators would flash and it would unlock and lock often, hence the flat battery.

Despite a technician spending most of the morning trying to sort it, no go, it needs an EV specialist to look at it but they dont have one for at least a month.

Apparently there is an EMF light on the dash but if they delete it so the car can be used for a month, it might delete files from the ECU which would then give Ford the opportunity to deny paying for the repair.......

They are now trying to get a car from Ford as courtesy so my car can be left at the workshop.

Been complaining to Ford since last November about the issue and the warranty ran out on 17th March......

So thats at least two of us that will never buy another Ford, and my contempt for them now matches theirs for me.

3 hours ago, plumb crazy said:

and my contempt for them now matches theirs for me.

I doubt it. Have you seen how big the contempt Ford have for their customers is ? 🤣

A hire car turned up yesterday, interesting it comes from a non ford company and is a Skoda maybe their mistake because it is quite a nice car and a possible replacement for the Kuga.

It also took 25 mins to fill in the forms on line and then 15 mins phone call to be asked all the questions just filled in on line.

Then a repeat of all that again with the hire company, but Ford are paying for it and insure it.

Dont really care how long it takes to fix the pig of a thing now.😁

Just an update, car has been with Evans Halshaw a month now, and it apparently needs an EV specialist to repair it, but the dealer only has access to one EV person and he is off sick and will be for another 4 weeks and theres no telling he will be back to work then, spoke to Ford direct and they dont have any engineers available for these particular situations, their take is 'the dealer sold me the car so its their problem to solve'.

It is only a nuisance due to the comment made by Graham previously, why did I buy a hybrid I cant charge!!!!!!

There is no guarantee it can be fixed either because nobody knows whats wrong with it yet.........

The dealer will know what's wrong with it. If an Ev trained tech is required, then the HV battery has failed the test after an update to the becm and needs replacing. 

Really poor to only have 1 qualified EV tech onsite. Other dealer groups have all there techs trained to EV standards. Your unlucky in that respect. 

Hi Ian

It hasnt just happened due to the update, its been a problem for over 18 months, but between the dealer and Ford it has been hard work to get someone to recognise the issue.

Charging the EV in their workshop the indicators kept flashing and the doors lock and unlock, which is obviously the reason the 12volt goes flat, the root of the problem as raised with Ford.

You are probably right the EV battery needs changing but it is now 8 weeks its been in the dealers and they are now thinking about moving it to another branch for that EV engineer to look at it, but hes fully booked til the end of August.

Ford just do not seem that bothered about customer service, yes, they have given me a hire car for the duration but insist they do not have any mobile engineers that can come out, hard to believe for an organisation of their size.

Given the amount of Hybrid and fully electric vehicles out there now, it amazes me there are so few people capable of fixing them.

Many years ago during a bad winter some plumbers where charging (no pun intended) a small fotune to repair leaks, it resulted in 100s of people training to be a plumber...

Dave

Bit of an update, from a phone call from the same Ford person that phones me every week....

Told me last week the car is booked into an alternative branch of Evans Halshaw for the 17th October, just the full five months after it was taken in, and then dropped the fact that Ford have a specialist team of people dealing with only Hybrid Kugas and Pumas!!!

Asked why this info had not been imparted ten months ago when Ford were first brought into this farce, all I got was a jumble of excuses to pick one from.

The phone call this week he tells me again the car is booked in for the 17th but then explains he is trying to organise the Ford team to visit the dealer to investigate but not sure when that is, could be days later apparently.

You really could not make this up......

Dave

Car finally returned to me, and after a conversation with the EV engineer he told me the Ford man's first comment was 'why hasn't the 12v battery been changed?' He didn't get an answer apparently because the EV man didn't know.

Change the battery and reprogamme the ECU and that should sort it out was the instruction, which was done and all is right with the car now.

Only took them 5 months to do this..............

Well for five months car hire Ford apparently paid £1200 a month!!!

They have also paid me £300 goodwill gesture and the garage have offered the next service FOC.

Car seems to work fine now, seen big 3 figure fuel consumption figures when ev fully charged, maybe might keep it a little while longer!

On 12/1/2025 at 2:36 PM, plumb crazy said:

Well for five months car hire Ford apparently paid £1200 a month!!!

They have also paid me £300 goodwill gesture and the garage have offered the next service FOC.

Car seems to work fine now, seen big 3 figure fuel consumption figures when ev fully charged, maybe might keep it a little while longer!

Hi Plumb, I've juts taken ownership of a PHEV Mk3 Kuga and reading through some of your comments has left me a bit concerned.

One thing I didn't notice was that I only got around 15 miles on a full charger with the only thing going extra was the heater. Does this sound normal for this time of the year?

Is it true that the battery only charges to 80%

I bought the car from Evans Halshaw and wa surprised they gave me 2 years road assistance and 2 years warranty, could the battery issue be the reason why?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Paul, thought I had replied to this via my phone but it doesnt seem to be here so will try again, might be completely different response cos cant remember exactly what I wrote......

Thinking on it too, maybe someone has restricted the charge limit to 80 % due to the current recall, depends how long ago you collected the car.

When I was able to charge the thing to 100% it would show about mid 20s miles in the winter which reduced at much more than 1 mile / 1 mile, when driven within 5 miles it would be down to mid teens and motor would run anyway due to heater, seats, steering wheel and usually wipers all running.

Summer use much better with late 30s from charge and have seen 130+ mpg on a journey but about 80+ on the return when charge all gone.

The current recall is almost the same as last year except now they say it can be charged to 80%, last year was no charge, but the advice is the same, if the warning light comes on get out and run away.

I did ask Ford that in that case who do I contact, Ford? no, your own breakdown service and get the car recovered to a Ford agent!!!

The other issue I had last year has pretty much been resolved but as it is really my wifes car she has lost all confidence with it and wants rid, just before Christmas didnt seem the right time to be selling/buying a car so waited a while, whilst thinking car wasnt so bad! all the right toys, being able to press start on my phone and going out to a car warming up, seats on, wheel heating and widscreen defrosted seemed great but then this recall arrived and took us right back to wanting rid of it, but now stuck waiting for recall to be fixed, which seems Ford are saying mid 26 before that happens.

Meanwhile the value of the car is decaying at hyperspeed and now looking at less than half what we paid for it 3 years ago.

Will never buy another hybrid of any type or full electric, and certainly not a Ford, looking at premium brands to replace it when we can, but something more than 5 years old to avoid the absurd road tax penalty applied to cars more than £40000 when new.

Also found out the EV batteries are made by Samsung, got a thought in my head that quite few years ago samsung phones had a battery problem too.

Dave (plumb crazy)