My 2016 F350 had a big issue last Thursday and I'm hoping for some good insight. I have 74k on the truck and of course the CPO warranty expired at 72k. Anyhow, I was driving to work Thursday morning and suddenly the cabin started smelling like burning wires. It continued and started smoking to the point that I had to open the windows and sunroof to not choke on the fumes. Then the climate control system stopped working entirely. All the buttons on the panel were unlit and would not respond to any input. The smoke and smell subsided shortly after and the truck continued to run fine for about the next 30 minutes as I drove to work. I shut the truck off and started it again about 3 minutes later and the climate control system was back on and working fine. Throughout the rest of the day everything worked fine but I smelled the burning wires off and on. I took it to the dealer that afternoon and the tech found that the "Datalink" wiring harness is melted from "The front of the truck to the back of the truck." They have informed me that the warranty I over and that they are waiting for a tech at Ford corporate to respond as to what could have caused this. Meanwhile, they are going to take apart the dash and try to trace this to the source of the issue. They of course have mentioned rodent issues. I was told this is going to be at least a $2000 repair. My biggest question is with a meltdown as large as they are telling me it is did no fuse blow? I find it hard to believe that as important of a part this wiring harness plays that there is no overcurrent protection on it. My opinion is that Ford dropped the ball on this by not providing a method in place to prevent this extensive damage. I'm hoping someone here can shed light on this. Thanks.

 

I'm watching this thread with interest since I also have a '16 F350.

As far as fuses go, they have their limits in what they can protect. If as you indicate it is the data link conductors that have melted, that pair is a data circuit, not a power circuit and would not normally have fuses associated with it. Wire sizes (gauges) vary and a data circuit would be expected to be pretty thin wire, likely 20ga or so which can't handle a lot of current. If something like a mouse chewing or a harness rubbing caused a power circuit which might have something like a 20A or 30A fuse protecting it to short to the data circuit it could readily melt the light gauge data wiring without exceeding the 20A or 30A protection on the power circuit or harming the power circuit wiring which could be 12ga or heavier.