Hi everyone.

I'm new here. We own a 2006 Eddie Bauer Ford Expedition (90,00 miles). We bought it used two years ago. We love the car. It saved our life six months later when we were hit from behind by a distracted driver. He didn't brake. The car was fixed by our local Ford dealer. We also unfortunately hit a deer last fall but again, the car was fixed (body shop this time). Everything has been great until this past Sunday.

When my husband started it up, two error messages appeared - door sensor data error and tire pressure monitor fault. The ac also didn't blow cold air. He drove it anyway and about 20 minutes later the problem went away. It concerned us enough that we made an appointment with our dealer. Sure enough, it happened again on the way over. They've had the car for two days and have no answers for us. It's not showing the errors anymore. They basically said to come get it.

Any ideas? We did recently replace all four tires at Big Ten tires. We also do have an after market satellite radio/GPS but it's been in there since a week after we purchased the car.

That's all the clues I have. Any ideas? We purchased a pretty comprehensive warranty from Ford and they've said they would fix it - if they knew what it was.

Thanks for any help and I apologize that this is my first post.

 

There is a battery in each tire valve that powers the wireless pressure monitor. The battery has a lifespan of about 10-years. Guess how old they are in your 2006?

The tire company should have recommend you change them when the new tires were put on.

The door sensor could just been that the door wasn't latched all the way.

The A/C could just need a some refrigerant added to it.

 

I'm flabbergasted that the dealer was not able to pinpoint the issue with the tire sensors! They could just connect their scanner computer and check the readout in 5 minutes, and have an answer! I have the same issue on mine, the dealer was able to tell me that 3 of 4 sensors were dead, so I ordered 4 new OEM sensors on ebay for 80 bucks shipped. Rockauto also has a couple of options:

Original OEM Motorcraft:
More Information for MOTORCRAFT TPMS33

Original OEM Schrader, Schrader is the one who manufactures sensors for Motorcraft, so it's an identical sensor made on the same factory, just different color:
More Information for SCHRADER AUTOMOTIVE 20135

For the door sensor, Alloro has answered that one already, let us know if it still appears.

For the AC: If the temperature blending, i.e. making it blow hot or ambient temperature works, then the issue with the AC is either the compressor clutch or it's low on refrigerant. If it's low on refrigerant, you most likely have a leak somewhere and adding new refrigerant will not work for long. I'm sure there's an AC shop somewhere near that can check for leaks.

 

Thanks everyone for the quick replies.

The puzzling thing is that all three events happen at the exact time and go away at exactly the same time. The sensor messages appear and the ac stops blowing cold air. Then a few minutes later, the sensor messages disappear and the ac starts blowing cold air again. That sequence (sensor messages appear, ac stops blowing cold air, sensor messages disappear, ac starts blowing cold air again) has happened twice. It happened Sunday morning and again at the dealer this week.

Any ideas how those three things could somehow be connected?

Thanks again for any help.

 

Well, it could be a problem with the communications. The tire pressure sensors and door sensors are controlled by the VSM, Vehicle Security Module inside the kick panel on the passenger side, over the fuse box. The AC is controlled by the panel mounted in the dash, and I think the PCM is responsible for engaging the AC compressor clutch when the AC module demands it. Not sure if all these use the same network bus, but it's not impossible. If there's a communication problem, the dealer should be able to see this with their scanner tool.

 

Since it's intermittent and your AC blows cold again, we can at least rule out AC leaks so that's good. The compressor clutch can still have an issue though. But if it only happens when the tire and door sensor error messages appears, then I think the issue is electrical.

 

About the only thing you can try at home at this point is to remove fuses 5 and 13, make sure they're good and their contacts are clean. If that doesn't solve the problem then it very well could be the computer failing.

 

Well, depends on how technically inclined you are. It's not impossible to troubleshoot this at home with a workshop manual handy and a Ford VCM, but it's not the easiest thing to do of course. Depending on what you can find with a Ford VCM, you can isolate if it's a network communication fault, i.e. the wires for the network bus either shorting or breaking intermittently, or if it's indeed a module that is failing and causing errors on the bus. Some people (mainly electrical engineers) love this kind of work, others despise it.

 

With no offense intended to the original poster, their first step was to make an appointment with the dealer, not seek help in repairing it themselves. This tends to mean their technical inclination tips to the lower end of the scale and that they are not the type to troubleshoot such an issue on their own. It's important to recognize this in people so as to not intimidate, overwhelm, or make appear foolish on a public forum.

 

No offense taken. We're both math professors and know practically nothing about cars. We leave everything to the professionals. Unfortunately, that hasn't worked in this case. This particular dealership really put the Expedition back together when we were hit from behind (the damage was in excess of $10,000). I'm just rather stunned that they can't seem to figure this out.

 

That figures!
(Betcha never heard that one before.)

 

I am having the EXACT same problem and symptoms you are, did you figure out what the problem was?

Thanks,
Bob

 

We actually did not figure out the problem. The dealer was of NO help at all. It actually quit happening and the dealer felt like it had resolved itself (and perhaps it had). Unfortunately, my husband was involved in ANOTHER serious accident involving ANOTHER distracted driver just weeks after I wrote my original post. A young driver blew through a red light and hit him broadside. The Expedition flipped twice. Fortunately, he was fine but the car was a total loss. We are very grateful that he was able to walk away. Expeditions are TOUGH cars. To see the absolute damage to the vehicle and then to see him okay ...

So unfortunately, we'll never know what the problem was.

 

That's a small price to pay, to walk away!

 

One of the reasons I chose to buy a big SUV like my Expedition, they usually have better chances in the event of a crash. I'm happy that he walked away from it without any injury.