I have a 2017 F450 King Ranch that has growing failures.
The adaptive cruise control will just stop working and produce an error Adaptive Cruise Control is no longer available.
The collision assist will also intermittently display a similar error that it is not available.
The tail gate will all of a sudden drop during a trip.
I use more DEF than fuel. Just kidding. In 7,000 miles I have used 17 gallons of DEF.
A Ford dealership has had the truck now for over a week, has been in contact with Ford factory and still no answer.
Tomorrow I pick up the truck, come home and attach my trailer and take it back.

Has anyone heard of failures like this?

 

 

Sounds to me like you have water in the connector at the rear of the truck, passenger side. There are 2 or 3 threads here about people with tail gates dropping and all sorts of other intermittent electrical problems and that's what the issue was.

 

Here are the threads detailing what I mentioned above. Hope this helps and isn't a red herring.

This is the most extensive thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ic-issues.html

And here's a more concise one:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ing-again.html

 

At least this thread doesn't involve a car wash.

 

Yep, god forbid we run our vehicle thru a car wash or some muddy ditches! Really?
I checked all the connectors near the rear bumper and they are all dry, no signs of water or corrosion. The camera connector has a rubber seal, but I really couldn't tell if the others did not not.

 

Mud's fine. But glue some connectors to a board and pressure wash them, you'll be startled. DDC, Cummins, Volvo, Mtu, all failed.

 

When I stated car wash, I'm not talking about taking a pressure wand under the truck and spraying 3000 psi on all the connectors, although I'd like to know how else you or most other people get all the heavy mud off a work vehicle, or the road salt, or the beach sand? Bucket and sponge?

I deal with industrial engines every day (Cat, Cummins, Duetz, Waukesha, Wartsilla) and I also design industrial electronics.
So you are correct, no matter what brand connector, even a properly designed one, can and will fail. This is where IP ratings are important and where placement is very important
The types of connectors, seals, contact material, conductor type all play an important role. Most of the issues are due to placement and connector style (no seal at all).
Taking a vehicle to a drive thru car wash should not cause an electric melt down! Again, placement is everything, but they don't teach that, engineers actually have to use their head!

It's kind of like running a wiring harness right next the the exhaust and turbo then putting some cheap foil insulation around it knowing in 3 years the foil will fall apart.
Now all the wiring is hard and brittle and it doesn't take much for it to fail, short out, cause problems or a fire. Again, it's about materials and placement and an engineer actually using their head!

Telling people they can't power wash an industrial engine or run their car thru a car wash isn't going to fly and for all those guys that go out and buy a 4x4 truck for a road queen and use a sponge on it every weekend, then more power to you. I bought mine to use. For me, it's tool. I use it, I take care of it, and I expect it to last and take care of me.

 

Thank you for such a quick reply. I have given the dealership the TSB # and they pulled it up and are pursuing it.

Thanks again,
Tom

 

I don't care if they like the idea or not. We're not allowed to pressure wash engines anymore. It's been an industry standard among techs for a decade now. We have to use a de-greaser, and hose. Simple green, a hose, and a rag work fine. (be aware, simple green does conduct electricity, expect false alarms if you don't rinse it off of sensors good enough)

4x4's can be washed by putting a simple sprinkler in the yard and park over it. Low pressure, more time. A little rubber seal can't withstand a thousand psi.

My bikes get plenty muddy, and they have to be hand washed. The engineers don't care, that's just a waste of breath.

 

No problem! Hope they get it figured out quickly, whatever the issue ends up being. Come back and let us know how it goes.

 

 

Yikes. Sorry to hear that. I'd still check every connector at the back of the truck. I just removed my tailgate on the F350 and found some green corrosion from moisture inside one of those connectors. I'd not used any dielectric grease last time I put the tailgate back on but you can bet your a$$ I will this time around. I also checked the connector that's been giving others problems but that one was clean.