Had it happen once to me. Unfortunately I had my 5er in tow and punched a small hole in the belly door, but thankfully the Demco Autosalide moves it out when I turn or I would have ended up with half the tailgate in the belly door. Now it sports a sticker covering up the hole. To be fair though, the FOB was in my pocket and quite possible that I inadvertently released it after checking in at the office when I was putting my son in his car seat, or when I was getting in. Definitely a bad FOB design at a minimum.

 

Find the 2 connectors for the tailgate behind the spare tire, in front of the rear bumper. Most likely you have moisture in the connections. Use an air gun, blow them dry, then stuff each connector full of dilectric grease. Connect, disconnect, fill, repeat. My tailgate would drop in the middle of night, key fobs sitting in a drawer. This coincided with driving in the rain, sometimes not until a couple days after. The connectors would hold water that long.

 

Rob is correct. I would bet it is the moisture or corrosion in the harness.

 

 

Does anybody know if there is a forscan mod for this if it is indeed the remote. Maybe setting it to double click on the remote or a press longer than so many seconds?

 

To open the tailgate with the key fob remote control, the default already is to double-click the tailgate button.

 

Ok thanks for the heads up, when the new truck gets here I'll know how that works.

 

 

It is a real stupid design IMO, all of the cameras and sensors on the truck you would think Ford could have put a safety in place to not allow it to go down if there is something behind you, or simply putting a speed control on it.
I am not a fan of this tailgate and am waiting till it malfunctions

 

There are a few pix in this forum, but I don't have one handy. Basically, crawl under the rear of your truck and look up at the inboard side of the passenger-side frame rail, to the right right of and slightly aft of your spare tire. You'll see two electrical connectors up there and the large gray one is the suspect connector. May as well treat them both while you're at it.

 

 

A simple fix would be that if the truck is not in park, the tailgate is disabled electronically from opening.

 

That wont stop the tailgate from being opened by the remote and striking something behind it..
It is a STUPID and useless feature!!!!

 

Yes it would, if the truck is not in Park, the electronic motor would be disabled. So it does not matter if you hit it on the fob, the button on the dash or an electrical issue, there would be no power to the motor until it is in park. That would solve everything.