My FEH is at the dealership right now. I hope to know what the issue is in the next few hours. I will let you all know what they say. I hope they are able to retrieve the code.

 

Well, as I suspected, the service advisor at my local Ford dealership did not know what he was talking about, and the dealership from which I purchased my FEH, which is one-hour (40-miles) away, was unable to retrieve a code. I purchased a 3-year/36,000-mile "mechanical failure" warranty (with $100 deductible), and it is supposedly good at many authorized service centers, but they recommend going back to where it was purchased. That is what I did, and I took it all that way for nothing. I hope this is not a sign of things to come with my FEH and makes me regret purchasing my first used vehicle.

 

Was the light on and the vehicle NOT turned off before he tried to read the code?

 

Last Tuesday, the light came on when me and the family were running errands. We had to stop what we were doing and take a detour to our local Ford dealership to see if they could diagnose the problem while the light was still on...Based on what I read here, I did not turn the vehicle off knowing that other people have done so and the dealership not be able to diagnose the problem. The dealership was too busy to look at it that day. The service advisor said it would store a code, and they would be able to retrieve it with an advanced code scanner...He assured me of this. The light came on again (twice) on Sunday. Since it seems to be occurring more and more often, we decided to just take it back to the dealership from which we purchased it, which is one-hour away. Even though I clearly stated on the night drop envelope that it was the wrench and "Service Soon" message, they thought it was the "Check Engine" light. These dealerships' service departments seem clueless about the wrench and "Service Soon" message. Is this unique to the FEH or does the gas-only version have it? Since this is an intermittent problem, it is going to be hard to get diagnosed. We will have to hope the light comes on one day when we can stop what we are doing and take it to a nearby dealership and hope they can look at it right then.

 

As thr original poster, I thought I'd relay my findings. The light was on when I arrived at the dealer @ 8am, but since they couldn't look at it immediately, they moved and shut off the car. Dealer called later and said the code showed that the hybrid battery fan wasn't working and could cause the battery to overheat. (As memory serves, the previous 3 wrench lights occured when I was running on battery power for a few miles) The dealer stated that I shouldn't drive it with that condition and kept it overnight. Got it back and its running fine except for the few greasy hands prints in the back ,,,

 

Good luck.... I do wish you the best and feel you are going to have to convince them to read it with the light on and the engine running, unfortunately.

I've always beleived the codes were stored as well... I'd never heard of one that clears itself on the very next restart without a trace, but its what happened to me so it seems that this car, at least, has this happen sometimes.

At least with the light on and the engine running you can look at them and say, "well theres the light... want to explain how you can't read a diagnostic from your own vehicle?"

It doesn't take long to read a code (nor a lot of training). Even if all the techs are busy, its a five minute procedure and the code reader is a handheld unit... they don't even have to pull it into a stall! All I can say is don't take "We are too busy as an excuse and insist that they read it with the light on because you've already messed around with turning the car off and are **** tired of coming back"

 

For those of you with a scangauge that have gotten the wrench light and service soon message, try adding this xgauge and see what it displays:

TXD: 0745220200
RXF: 046205020600
RXD: 3008
MTH: 000100010000
NAM: BTC

This will display the number of stored and pending DTC's for the HV Battery. It should always read zero, but when I got the wrench light it went to 1 and has stayed there. I was able to painfully figure out with the SG that the DTC was B1239, blend door driver circuit failure. There is a TSB for this, but my wrench light went away and I haven't replaced the actuator yet. I hope to develop a simple method to get the non-uniform DTC's with the SG, but perhaps LinearLogic will do this on their own.

 

I took my FEH to the dealer, and the tech said the computer indicated a misfire. He asked if it has exhibited any problems while driving, and I told him no. He updated the computer and said to bring it back if the problem occurs again, and they can hook-up something that I can press when the light comes on, and it will monitor what is going on. The light came on the very next day, and it has as recently as this morning when I first started it up. Since the dealer is about one-hours away, I am going to have the local Midas check it out tomorrow. Maybe it just needs new spark plugs or wires, but I am doubtful of the dealer's diagnosis of misfiring.

 

I almost hate to say it, but I've been lucky and after that seems like just 1 week of the wrench on a few times, I haven't seen it again (please don't come on again light!) but DD, I'll program that into my SC, but am I looking for a 1 or 0 display, or an actual code like 1325, 1084, etc.. if it does come on again?

 

Thats the failure I had way back. They can read the code at Ford... but the light still has to be on, and it clears on the next restart. And I'm not sure the "standard" reader will read it.... As I recall my service advisor had to go grab a different codereader to get it to spill its secret.