Folks, I'm at a loss and could use some pointers. Bought a '16 Expedition about 6 months ago, and we absolutely love the truck. It replaced my old '97 F250 7.3L PSD I gifted my sister; it was a sad day saying goodbye (I put almost 300k on her) but she's serving the family well out on the farm now. Having kids changes your priorities and your needs

The problem: Periodically (about twice a week or so) the front climate control system (which I'll abbreviate to CCS) shuts off and is completely unresponsive to both the physical buttons on the console as well as the touchscreen controls. The rear CCS has been working with no issues (both touchscreen control and physical rear control), even during times when the front CCS is not working. Sometimes the truck starts up with the front CCS not working, and a few minutes after start it will all of a sudden come on without user input; sometimes the opposite happens, works immediately at startup and then cuts out. Sometimes it will sporadically come on for 1-3 seconds and shutoff. It's different every time, quite unpredictable.

It's under warranty, so I took it to the local dealer to have them take a look at it. The first time I brought it to them, the CCS was working. They ran the codes and said there was absolutely nothing wrong with the truck, there were no active maintenance faults and nothing in the stored memory. So they sent me away with the truck. The problem continued happening, so I took it back. This time, I waited to give it to them during a failed CCS state. They said it was a faulty CCS blower motor. I didn't think that made sense because 70-80% of the time the CCS works OK with good cool temps and good flow. It sure seems like some kind of control issue to me. But since I paid the 100 dollar warranty fee, I thought might as well just let them replace the blower motor; no skin off my back. And surprise surprise, the problem still exists. I'm in the military, newly stationed in the remote CA desert, and don't know of any good technicians yet in this small town.

Has anyone seen anything like this in their vehicle? Any thoughts on where to begin troubleshooting? I've ensured SYNC is up to date, and all the fuses look fine. Any help or discussion on the topic would be greatly appreciated. It's already 105 degF...gotta get this solved before the real heat of the summer kicks in here.

Thanks for the help,
Erik

 

Went through the exact same thing a month ago on my 15'. 1st time they said it needed an update, week later it quit again. Rear A/C worked fine but front would not respond to anything. 2nd time in they said the pigtail for the blower motor had shorted and melted so they replaced the wiring and blower motor. Worked for 2 weeks then same thing again. Now I was pissed, 3rd time in a month with the same problem, I told them this was their last chance before I switch all my business to a new dealer. They gave me a loaner vehicle for my troubles. They had it for 3 days because when they took it back to work on it everything worked fine. Then they said it was a bad connection somewhere in the steering column that caused all the problems from the start ?????????????? That was a week ago so we'll see. Through all this I still only paid my extended warranty deductable once so that's good but I still don't feel like they are 100% certain what the problem is or if it will show up again. And Iive in the Phoenix area so no A/C in the summer is not an option with kids and the amount of money I paid for this vehicle.

 

Sounds like the exact same problem. Loose connection in the steering column?? No clue how to troubleshoot that. Any chance you have any more specific details? Thank you for the response. Unless there's some more wisdom out there, it sounds like I'll be giving the vehicle back to the dealer, hopefully they'll honor the warranty payment I've already made, too.

 

This is from my wife picking it up the last time and she was told they were just checking all connections while everything was running because they couldn't find the problem. This connection in the steering column was hot and they said it shared some wiring with the HVAC system so they said that was it. I plan on going back and asking for more info too because I'm not 100% satisfied that they found the problem.

 

 

I just went through this problem on my 17 Expy EL. The problem sits with the climate control wiring harness. They have known loose connections. They used to make a pigtail specifically to fix issues but quit making it in 2016. So now the entire harness for the climate control has to be replaced and they are back-ordered... gee I wonder why?!? Hopefully, this is the issue you have as it is an easy fix once the part is available.

 

Interesting. Do you know how to troubleshoot the wiring harness? I.e. how to definitively determine if the climate control wiring harness is, in fact, the culprit?

For months, the issue went away. Just a couple days ago, the fan stopped blowing again. This time with heat selected, but I don't think instinctively think the temp setting (hot or cold) has anything to do with the problem.

Thanks again for the conversation and info!

 

Blower control module. Yep, mine's the dual zone climate control via thermostat. Thanks for the input!

 

I had a weird problem pop up with my 2015 Ford Expedition Platinum, was driving 70mph, AC was on with recirculation punched on, suddenly I see the recirculation light go off then Auto light flashed on, then recirculating button light came on, at the same time transmission went to 4th gear and engine re'vd to 4000 rpms, pulled over put in park. Took off and never saw the problem again. Any ideas what would cause this hiccup?

 

Well it looks like we have a transmission problem, dealer says it was just a fluke when I touched the A/C controls the vehicle downshifted, it happened again last week, going 30 MPH it downshifted from 3rd to 1st, weird thing is again I was adjusting the flow of air button. But seeing a bunch of problems like this with 2013 F150s and some 11-13 Expeditions with trans downshifting so we'll see what the dealer says next week, dropping it off.