Problems that I'm having that Ford won't fix

[klpeake]

Purchased car last March.  Have had the car into the dealer 6 times for these problems,.  They say that the car is throwing a fault code (which is directly related to these systems) but because they cannot get the problem to repeat when it is in their posession, they cannot do anything about it.    I have taken videos, but they will not accept that.  I told them to keep the car for a week and have the service mgr drive it to and from work every day. They said they would, but only had him drive it one day and then returned it to me because he could find nothing wrong.  Ford Motor Company assigned a person to my "case" and then my dealership was sold a month later and she never contacted me again and doesn't respond to my voicemails.  

 

I have a failure in one of these two systems about every 3-4 days.  (the other system is the automatic intellegent door locks)   I keep a log in my phone and try to note each failure when it happens but know that I'm not catching everything.  My kids, my friends, my husband all have seen these problems.  

 

The Rear backup and rear side sensors do not beep when car is in reverse and there is a moving object directly behind or off to the side of the car (another car sitting a few feet behind mine or a child that ran right behind my car).

Front sensor does not go off when a car pulls out directly in front of me from a driveway.  Also during a repeated event (ie. a wall at the end of a freeway exit that I take all the time)  It sees the wall as an obstical about 80% of the time.    36 failures have been noted.

 

The collision avoidance system is harder to note failures in because you have to know when it "should" be going off to know that it failed to do so. 

 

I would like to know if anyone else is having any problems with these?  Maybe you are, but just haven't really paid attention to it or you just don't realize how often it is happening? 

Edited April 16, 2015 at 06:45 PM by klpeake

[larryh]

The system sensors have many limitations.  They are going to give false alarms or fail to detect various conditions.  This if from the manual. 

 

Due to the nature of radar technology,
there may be certain instances where
vehicles do not provide a collision warning.
These include:
• Stationary vehicles or vehicles moving
below 6 mph (10 km/h).
• Pedestrians or objects in the roadway.
• Oncoming vehicles in the same lane.
• Severe weather conditions (see
blocked sensor section).
• Debris build-up on the grille near the
headlamps (see blocked sensor
section).
• Small distance to vehicle ahead.
• Steering wheel and pedal movements
are large (very active driving style).
 

Because the way radar works, if the relative motion between the car and the object is less than about 6 mph, the object will go undetected.   The radar uses doppler (relative motion between the car and an object) to distinguish between the background and objects of interest.  They would have to add a great deal more intelligence to the detection algorithms in order to be significantly more accurate.

Edited April 15, 2015 at 09:40 PM by larryh

[openair]

I had identical issues with my intelligent access for awhile.  Changed the batteries in the 6 month (from the build date of the vehicle) old key fob and haven't had an intelligent access issue since. 

[Hybridbear]

Purchased car last March.  Have had the car into the dealer 6 times for these problems,.  They say that the car is throwing a fault code (which is directly related to these systems) but because they cannot get the problem to repeat when it is in their posession, they cannot do anything about it.    I have taken videos, but they will not accept that.  I told them to keep the car for a week and have the service mgr drive it to and from work every day. They said they would, but only had him drive it one day and then returned it to me because he could find nothing wrong.  Ford Motor Company assigned a person to my "case" and then my dealership was sold a month later and she never contacted me again and doesn't respond to my voicemails. 

Contact our Forum Ford Rep (user FordService) for assistance. Some dealers are worthless. Sounds like you had a bad one. Have you tried another dealer?

[klpeake]

I don't expect the system to be 100% perfect but when it cannot alert me to one of the exact situations in which I think it was probably designed for which is a 4 year old child who took off running across a parking lot and bolted behind my car as I'm backing up (his father screaming was what alerted me, not the backup sensor), even as I watched him run behind my car in the camera screen, the sensor still did not go off.   Another time I had someone who was in a hurry, cut me off while I was backing up;  just took off around the back of my car assuming that I would stop for him.  No backup sensor warning of him coming or the entire time that his car was going around behind mine.   Another time I had a pull out of a parking lot and cut straight across my path.  I had to slam on my brakes to keep from hitting him, so I was not moving at all and he was moving parallel across the front of my car.   The sensor finally went off when his rear bumper was clearing the front of my car.

 

My last 3 cars have been Ford vehicles which have the backup sensors, so, as for that rear sensor, I'm well aware of what they can generally see and not see.  Unless they have changed the technology to one that is far more unreliable, there is something wrong with this car. 

 

I have taken the car to two different dealers.  One felt that they just needed to teach me how to use the car, then after a half hour of him explaining to me everything that I already knew, I showed him my error log and told him of the incidents that I had had and he agreed that the sensor should have gone off but it all boils down to "we can't get it to repeat the problem, so we can't do anything about it"

 

I have also noticed that once I have a failure in one system, that I will many times have a 2nd one in another system within the same driving session.  As soon as the car is turned off and back on, it clears things out. 

[Hybridbear]

I have taken the car to two different dealers.  One felt that they just needed to teach me how to use the car, then after a half hour of him explaining to me everything that I already knew, I showed him my error log and told him of the incidents that I had had and he agreed that the sensor should have gone off but it all boils down to "we can't get it to repeat the problem, so we can't do anything about it"

We haven't had the unrepeatable problem issue. It's up to the dealer to push it with Ford to approve a repair. Get our local Ford Service reps involved to get some resolution.

[FordService]

 

Purchased car last March.  Have had the car into the dealer 6 times for these problems,.  They say that the car is throwing a fault code (which is directly related to these systems) but because they cannot get the problem to repeat when it is in their posession, they cannot do anything about it.    I have taken videos, but they will not accept that.  I told them to keep the car for a week and have the service mgr drive it to and from work every day. They said they would, but only had him drive it one day and then returned it to me because he could find nothing wrong.  Ford Motor Company assigned a person to my "case" and then my dealership was sold a month later and she never contacted me again and doesn't respond to my voicemails.  

 

I have a failure in one of these two systems about every 3-4 days.  (the other system is the automatic intellegent door locks)   I keep a log in my phone and try to note each failure when it happens but know that I'm not catching everything.  My kids, my friends, my husband all have seen these problems.  

 

The Rear backup and rear side sensors do not beep when car is in reverse and there is a moving object directly behind or off to the side of the car (another car sitting a few feet behind mine or a child that ran right behind my car).

Front sensor does not go off when a car pulls out directly in front of me from a driveway.  Also during a repeated event (ie. a wall at the end of a freeway exit that I take all the time)  It sees the wall as an obstical about 80% of the time.    36 failures have been noted.

 

The collision avoidance system is harder to note failures in because you have to know when it "should" be going off to know that it failed to do so. 

 

I would like to know if anyone else is having any problems with these?  Maybe you are, but just haven't really paid attention to it or you just don't realize how often it is happening? 

 

I see you mentioned a case having been set up for you. I'll be happy to check into it. Just send me the case number (or your VIN) via PM, and I'll take a look.

 

Contact our Forum Ford Rep (user FordService) for assistance. Some dealers are worthless. Sounds like you had a bad one. Have you tried another dealer?

Thanks!

 

Meagan

[SpenceJT]

I am having similar issues and my 2013 Ford Fusion Energi is currently at my local Ford Service Center in Middleton WI.

I have been able to capture videos, which range from a simple "blind spot sensor fault", to the dashboard lighting up like a Christmas tree, and eventually powering off while driving!  These all began to manifest within five days of having brought it home.

Videos are here;
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNSgS-qqf6h_zpZfXDHV-I4ETmKebZiWe

The sad thing is that this is my first Ford in well over two decades, and I purchased it just two weeks ago with only 8,300 miles on it.

Someone please tell me that this can be corrected easily, so I can get back behind the wheel of my dream car?

[Timewellspent]

Wow, sorry to hear of your issues.  Nice video's of the problems you are having as proof.  Was the car purchased from private party or dealer?

[Russael]

This sounds like the main wiring harness may have a chafe in it.  Some wires in that harness are shorting out intermittently against something metallic and turning corners seems to be able to get it to make that contact, causing all of that weird behavior.

 

I don't see the TSB for it (I think there is one), but I know a few people who had to have a harness replaced.

[Markn455]

Most of the time when Ford gets involved its nothing more than lip service. They got involved with one of mine which was repeatable problems and the car was in the shop multiple times for the same "repeatable" problem. At the and of the day, Fords customer service involvement was nothing but BS and huge waste of my time. Certainly not the Ford company it use to be.