Here's a link to the thread bandaid mentioned. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ont-start.html

 

If you think about it the tow driver probably set the emergency brake when he loaded your truck and released it to take it off. At least, I know that is what mine did. So it may be the vibration in the connector from the emergency brake that projectnitemare found that is causing your problem. His video shows you exactly where he thinks the issue is.

Up until recently I set my parking brake every time I parked my truck and released it likes gorilla-just pulling on the handle and letting the pedal slam up. I've stopped doing that and so far, so good. When I get home from this trip I am going to isolate the connector from the parking brake bracket.

Crystal did get in touch with the regional guys for me and I did hear from a couple of different people when my truck was in the dealership. It is great having Ford representation on the forum.

If I have any frustration it is that every dealer seems to be under the impression that this is an isolated issue when obviously, it is not. I am surprised there is not a dealer accessible data base the service manager can access to help them with these troublesome hard to diagnose issues.

Bandguy

 

The dealer replaced the wiring harness, stating that they found "open circuits in harness 12A581 pins". They replaced the 12A581 front vehicle harness, which involved removing the radiator, headlamps, fender liners, batteries, battery trays, transmission cooler, sway bar, coolant hoses, and charge air cooler.

The harness replacement seems to have created a new problem.

The truck will intermittently make a couple of hard shifts sitting in idle with the transmission in Drive. It does the same thing backing into parking spaces at idle speeds and it feels as though I backed into something. It might be the torque converter locking up, but I don't know enough to tell.

The truck is back at the dealer for them to figure out the new problem that started when they replaced the harness. It's been in the shop for 11 of the past 17 business days.

 

Crystal also followed up with me, making sure the regional manager was involved and that an engineering case had been opened. It's great to have that kind of support.

I agree that it's both frustrating and disturbing to learn that every dealer has to go through an isolated discovery process on what is obviously a trending problem.

 

That's doesn't sound promising. Thankfully I haven't had much issue recently but then again I don't drive the truck very often. Only problem is when I do drive it I'm going some distance when I need reliability. One more strike and my truck is gone

 

Sorry to hear about your additional problems. I hope the dealer finds the issue and that it it resolved quickly.

I have not had a problem since isolating the connector from the brake bracket. I have been driving every day and towing from Vermont to Virginia.

 

Thanks for the kind words, Po6ept! Be sure to let me know if you need any additional assistance from my neck of the woods. I'm always just a PM away.

Crystal

 

As I mentioned before, with the harness replacement came a new intermittent problem where the truck will do a harsh shift (or something) when idling in R or D. The dealership can't duplicate the new problem on demand, so they and the Ford engineers want me to take the truck back and "let the problem develop".

In the two days they had it last week, the dealership scratched the truck in 3 places and tore the pinstripes in another, so it's now in their body shop to fix those problems. Thank goodness I walked around the truck with the service adviser and took good photos when I dropped it off!

To cap it all off, the sales manager cornered me to let me know what a great deal he'd give me to trade up since my truck's been in the shop so much...

I'm trying not to be discouraged, but it's been in the shop for 15 of the past 27 business days, I don't know if the original problem is fixed, it has a new problem, and they scratched up an otherwise unblemished truck.

 

Po6ept,

Man, nobody could blame you for your frustration. It seems they are being extremely patient. Great forethought to take to take those pictures! You know when the truck is at the dealers for that many days it is sitting more than being works on. I'd bet they are driving it and all but you know they have a lot of other vehicles to work on.

If their solution is for you to drive it until it breaks and they will fix it then I'd probably go for it.

Good luck.

Bandguy

 

That sale manager has ***** the size of cantaloupes! All that time in the shop (plus damaged!!), why would you want another?? Especially from that dealer. I'd tell 'em it only has to run long enough to make it to the Dodge or Chevy dealer at this point.

The 13 I drive has been acting up like this for the past 3 months off & on. It never starts acting up after parking brake use like most do, its always rolling down the road 15 minutes or so after starting out. Last Friday it was going crazy off & on for an hour until I was able to get off the highway. Wiggling the connector seems to have stopped it, at some point I'll wire tie the connector up like others have done.

Best of luck to you Po6ept, I hope it works out for the best soon.

 

Popping off the connector and wire tying the connector up takes about as long as a gas fill-up so do not hesitate to do it.

Since your connection seems to be marginal regardless of bracket vibration you might want to open the connector take a look at the pins and use a little dielectric grease when resembling.

Good luck.

 

I appreciate the idea, but I am reluctant to try anything that would put me in the loop as far as getting to the root cause. The truck has 18K miles and Ford should be able to identify what is causing the problem and actually fix it. So far, it has been a series of, "hey, lets try this and see what happens" repair attempts. This does not generate a lot of confidence and even replacing the harness was done more on speculation than on actually identifying a specific problem.

I will keep fighting this battle until the warranty runs out and they can tell me to get lost. At that point I will be forced to do what others have done and try the home-grown solutions.

I appreciate the support from the forum. At least I know I am not alone in this.

 

I hear you re. holding Ford and their dealership accountable for their product. While my dealership tried they were just going off what I had found on the forum. I had already canceled two RV trips, really the only reason I have a 250, so I decided to follow Projectnitemare's fix myself. So far, so good.

Thanks for keeping us posted. Good luck.

Bandguy.

 

I went through this about a year ago. Total PITA- random failures, no useful codes, sometimes the truck would recover itself, sometimes it would stay dead. It would happen on start-up, when driving down the road, when sitting in park, pretty much whenever it wanted to. One of the instances, I drove it home from its two-week stay at the dealer (about 1.5 miles), parked it, woke up the next morning and it was dead.

Dealer finally got it, and I'm quoting here, "remove driver's inner fender well to access C1010 as directed by hotline... problem resolved while taking fender well out..."

The problem was "resolved" because, as my service rep put it, "the wiring harness fell out into the tech's hand" when he removed the fender liner. So, for the first 20k miles I was driving down the road working the harness loose with every bump. Quality.

They also adjusted connector C210 and found a loose pin fit on circuit VDB05. I wish I could tell you what these things are in english, but I'm sure somebody can.

Problem hasn't returned since the dealer plugged everything in.

Now if I could just get rid of the door rattles.

 

I also have this problem with a 2014 f-350 . It has done it twice. The dealer seems stumped so I will show them this. This is not the only problem I've had with the electrical connectors on these trucks.

Number one the connectors themselves are junk. The last two trucks a 2006 and 2002 had quality grease filled connectors you didn't have to use a screwdriver to separate.

I got a wrench light after unplugging an ABS sensor on the front wheel. Turned out it was corroded green. I greased it scraped it and all good. ( how did water get in it if it was weathertight. I'm in Ohio with salty winter roads so not good)

Next my rear parking aid has been out for awhile. I paid Ford $500 to replace a sensor because it was in an aftermarket bumper. It worked for two or three days. Recently I took the plugs apart and put dielectric grease in them. Wow it worked for about a week!

Then my wife's truck started going crazy with the instrument cluster. Oil pressure, advance trac,engine overheat,tire sensor plus every dummy light on. Gauges read zero and low power. Would not start after stopping the engine but still said low pressure and overheat. So my $55,000 truck gets towed to the dealer and starts after they get it there. Can't replicate the problem. They are replacing the instrument panel.

I am seriously worried about what this computer based truck will do after the warranty runs out. Things corrode worse over time and I think that these connectors are faulty and aren't going to KEEP a good contact no matter how much dielectric grease I put.

I owned the 6.0 truck and let them pacify me out of warranty . I have spent almost $200,000 dollars on four ford trucks in my lifetime. The 7.3 stole me from Chevy. I will probably be going back!

Hey Ford ,... Help!!!!!

By the way Ford,... the only thing keeping your electrical connectors weathertight before was the grease inside. Why isn't there any in these trucks???????