HELP - Multiple fault warnings after latest OTA

[Michael MM]

Hello fellow Mach E owners.

I need some urgent advice and help.

I was away for two weeks in the beginning of April. Upon my return I found that and OTA had taken place "successfully".
And then:

• when I start the car, a red warning appeared "door malfunction. service required". I cleared it with the OK button. and then:
• as soon as I put the can in Drive, and amber warning "transmission not in Park" appeared . I cleared it with the OK button again. then I noticed:
• the auto hold (hill assist) was disengaged and could not be engaged at all, giving an amber warning.

on top of these, last summer and "electrical system drain. service required" started appearing after I powered on the car. I took it for a diagnostic test and paid £180 for that. They said they tightened something and it should be OK. It was not. The fault stayed. I checked the 12V battery last week after the car had rested over 24hrs. It was 12.57V.

Yesterday I took the car with these (and possibly others that I have not uncovered) faults to a Ford approved garage. They did diagnostics again. This is what they reported now:

1. on account of the electrical system drain, there needed a "pig tail" to be installed/replaced to the low voltage battery. Why was that not found 6 months ago when they did supposedly the same diagnostics? Don't know. I remember one of the compulsory recalls was related to something similar (if not the same) regarding the connections of/from/to the 12V batter and the main battery and charging system. Is this related? Don't know.
2. on account of all other faults they said that there was an electronic component on one of the doors that had gone faulty and that supposedly triggered the car into thinking the door was still open which cascaded into the the rest of the warnings and faults. This sounds like guesswork to me. The car can be locked both from the inside and outside. If any door were open, that would have not been possible. Never tried driving off with an open door, so I don't know what warnings could be there if at all driving off would be possible.

So the "diagnosis" contains findings that do not seem to stack up.

I am left with the feeling that a mandatory recall work was not done adequately which resulted in the "electrical system drain" issue.
Further, the inconsistencies in the diagnostic results, do not inspire any confidence that the findings on this occasion are correct.
Lastly, the main issues were 100% triggered by Ford's OTA update, which is neither a wear-and-tear result, not anything I had control over.

So I am stopping ANY OTA updates. Right now I am facing a potential bill of over £1200 "parts and labour". NOT HAPPY!
I have spoken to Ford and specifically to the Mach E support team. They were polite, courteous, constructive, understanding but non-committal.

If anyone has any ideas what may be causing these, what diag to do and how to do it - please share.

Many thanks!
M

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[ChuckUK]

No idea about your specific faults but what was the OTA that installed? My last OTA had a warning about possible service vehicle soon messages after the update. For me it went smoothly and I had no such messages.

 

[MikeC]

Sorry to hear of your recent problems. I am getting the same “door malfunction, service required’ etc. It seems on my car (2021 Ex AWD) that the driver door is where the fault is coming from. I have run FORscan tests on all the doors and it is the driver door that fails the test. I sometimes have a problem to open the door, repeatedly pressing the button does nothing so have to put the windows down via the key fob and open the door from the inside handle. When you want to drive away, the car thinks that a door is open (even though all are physically closed) and when you move it out of Park, it thinks you will drive off with a door open, hence the message ‘transmission not in Park’ and Auto off/on handbrake not working.

I’ll take the door panel off this coming weekend and have a look. Maybe it is a door module fault, bad earth, bad connection (hopefully something easy to fix). If you search the forum there are lots of other posts about this. Someone even suggested disconnecting the 12V battery for a while.

You mention that you believe these problems were caused by a recent OTA. Which OTA? Having only had one OTA a few weeks ago (after complaining to Ford due to no OTAs for at least 6 months), was when my faults appeared. My last OTA was OBCC-AS.AU (updating your vehicles Plug & Charge functionality etc).

 

[rugedraw]

The issue(s) are not related to the OTA. That OTA was for the on-board charging controller which has nothing to do with your driver assist systems. Your car was reporting this internal electronic failure code intermitently since before you got the update sent:

You also show this code in the BCM citing a bus/message signal failure between the BCM and the rain sensor:

This morning, these are the codes the car reported when you say the warnings on the dash. While it is difficult to diagnose these things remotely, it seems like the issue is tied in to the ABS module being faulty or needing an update. The TSB referfenced by the IPMA U0415 is attached and does say an ABS module update is needed to address the problem.

Your car is also intermittently reporting this code citing a short circuit to door control module F.

 

[Michael MM]

Sorry to hear of your recent problems. I am getting the same “door malfunction, service required’ etc. It seems on my car (2021 Ex AWD) that the driver door is where the fault is coming from. I have run FORscan tests on all the doors and it is the driver door that fails the test. I sometimes have a problem to open the door, repeatedly pressing the button does nothing so have to put the windows down via the key fob and open the door from the inside handle. When you want to drive away, the car thinks that a door is open (even though all are physically closed) and when you move it out of Park, it thinks you will drive off with a door open, hence the message ‘transmission not in Park’ and Auto off/on handbrake not working.

I’ll take the door panel off this coming weekend and have a look. Maybe it is a door module fault, bad earth, bad connection (hopefully something easy to fix). If you search the forum there are lots of other posts about this. Someone even suggested disconnecting the 12V battery for a while.

You mention that you believe these problems were caused by a recent OTA. Which OTA? Having only had one OTA a few weeks ago (after complaining to Ford due to no OTAs for at least 6 months), was when my faults appeared. My last OTA was OBCC-AS.AU (updating your vehicles Plug & Charge functionality etc).

Hi Mike,
Thank you for thew prompt response.
I had a talk with the engineer in Ford garage. He pretty much said what you are saying: The electronic module/sensor on the driver door is faulty. It gives an "door open" signal which causes the failure of the auto hold (hill assist) and the "transmission not in park" warning. So these three (the door falls and the other two) are linked to that sensor. He advised that the sensor is attached to the mechanical latch so although the mechanical part work just fine, the whole assembly needs replacing. Needless to say, this is expensive.

The other fails ("electrical drain detected. service required") is apparently due to a sensor attached to the 12V battery. The wire was (they say) previously loose and is now broken so needs replacing. This is to say - nothing is actually draining the electricity, but the module that monitors it cannot measure properly the 12V battery. The wire is £49. Labour is £280. Not Happy.

So if you find the sensor on the driver door is just loose and that is the actual problem, please let me know. If my issue is the same then reattaching it properly may save me £800.

 

[Keytone]

If anyone has any ideas what may be causing these, what diag to do and how to do it - please share.

I don't like submitting guesses, but with odd errors like these, a physical cause can sometimes be to blame - mice and wiring harnesses?

 

[Michael MM]

The issue(s) are not related to the OTA. That OTA was for the on-board charging controller which has nothing to do with your driver assist systems. Your car was reporting this internal electronic failure code intermitently since before you got the update sent:

You also show this code in the BCM citing a bus/message signal failure between the BCM and the rain sensor:

This morning, these are the codes the car reported when you say the warnings on the dash. While it is difficult to diagnose these things remotely, it seems like the issue is tied in to the ABS module being faulty or needing an update. The TSB referfenced by the IPMA U0415 is attached and does say an ABS module update is needed to address the problem.

Your car is also intermittently reporting this code citing a short circuit to door control module F.

@rugedraw
Thank you for this!
These are two separate issues. One relates to the 12V monitoring module. Its connection to the battery has a broken wire (apparently it was just loose before, but now it is broken). This module, unable to get the right info, reports amber warning "Electrical system drain. Service required.".
All other faults appeared after the OTA and I was advised by the engineer in the garage that are caused by a fault driver-door sensor.
Now I do appreciate that coincidences do happen. It is nevertheless strange that all that occurred without the car being in sue for over two weeks in the middle of which an OTA was installed.
For some reason, no-one mentioned the ABS at all at the garage.
When I went to get my car today, they said they had completely detached the 12V battery to examine the problems. I saw the BLIS, collision and other similar alerts when I got behind the wheel to drive home. All these disappeared soon. I believe they were just triggered by the power-reset due to the 12V battery being disconnected and then connected. if the time you see is the East coast time, then that would be about the time I got the car from the service garage.
Again, thank you for the information and your help.

 

[rugedraw]

@rugedraw
Thank you for this!
These are two separate issues. One relates to the 12V monitoring module. Its connection to the battery has a broken wire (apparently it was just loose before, but now it is broken). This module, unable to get the right info, reports amber warning "Electrical system drain. Service required.".
All other faults appeared after the OTA and I was advised by the engineer in the garage that are caused by a fault driver-door sensor.
Now I do appreciate that coincidences do happen. It is nevertheless strange that all that occurred without the car being in sue for over two weeks in the middle of which an OTA was installed.
For some reason, no-one mentioned the ABS at all at the garage.
When I went to get my car today, they said they had completely detached the 12V battery to examine the problems. I saw the BLIS, collision and other similar alerts when I got behind the wheel to drive home. All these disappeared soon. I believe they were just triggered by the power-reset due to the 12V battery being disconnected and then connected. if the time you see is the East coast time, then that would be about the time I got the car from the service garage.
Again, thank you for the information and your help.

Hopefully it is all related to the bad wire.

 

[MikeC]

Hi Michael

DCMF is the drivers door (UK right hand door), which is where my fault code is coming from. DCME (left front door), DCMH (right rear door) and DCMG (left rear door), basically E,F,G,H from left to right. I’ll certainly let you know how I get on. I believe the module is JX7T-14B533-BC

Can I suggest you wait for a while with the Electrical Drain problem, assuming the car works perfectly well after OK’ing all faults. Certainly search this forum for info and you might gather enough info to fix it yourself. £800 to fix sounds like a time consuming job (5 hrs?) and does seem expensive but complexity of the job may require several hours. Taking all the panels etc out of the Frunk does expose a lot of space.

 

[MikeC]

Hi Michael (@Michael MM)
Took the door driver door panel off today and the internal panel. Couldn’t see anything physically wrong. Took the door control module off and removed the internal card, nothing appeared to be blown. Cleaned the contacts and put everything back together. Run FORscan but same faults indicating a problem with the door control module DCMF. Bought a second hand one online (£59) via a scrappy and will fit once it arrives .
It is a little strange as the writing on the module indicates it is for a LH door. Picture attached.

 

[rugedraw]

Hi Michael (@Michael MM)
Took the door driver door panel off today and the internal panel. Couldn’t see anything physically wrong. Took the door control module off and removed the internal card, nothing appeared to be blown. Cleaned the contacts and put everything back together. Run FORscan but same faults indicating a problem with the door control module DCMF. Bought a second hand one online (£59) via a scrappy and will fit once it arrives .
It is a little strange as the writing on the module indicates it is for a LH door. Picture attached.

Does the part number match the one that is in your car?

 

[Michael MM]

Hi Michael (@Michael MM)
Took the door driver door panel off today and the internal panel. Couldn’t see anything physically wrong. Took the door control module off and removed the internal card, nothing appeared to be blown. Cleaned the contacts and put everything back together. Run FORscan but same faults indicating a problem with the door control module DCMF. Bought a second hand one online (£59) via a scrappy and will fit once it arrives .
It is a little strange as the writing on the module indicates it is for a LH door. Picture attached.

Hi Mike(@MikeC)

Thank you for the update!
It is a pity that you couldn't resolve it, but on the other hand it is encouraging that it wasn't careless assembly and loose parts that were causing it.

Please do keep us posted on progress. I am holding back any action for the time being.

On the matter of the module being for the left front door, I seem to remember reading somewhere that what matters with these things (other modules and components too) was whether it is a drivers's door those would go into, i.e. it doesn't matter left or right. Obviously for other countries the LH door is the driver's one. However, the controls for the four windows, master lock, child lock, mirror control etc. are all on the driver's door. Similarly, the blind spot indicator also cares if it is the driver's door because of the viewing angle. I have no idea why these things are hard-coded into modules and are nor programmable.

In any event, I would think that you have ordered the correct driver's door module regardless of whether it is on the left or right .

 

[MikeC]

Does the part number match the one that is in your car?

The photo is the module from my car. Hopefully the module from the scrappy will be the same (I uploaded the photo to the scrappy website so the one they send should be the same, I so hope so )

 

[Michael MM]

I checked that part number and there were a few offers on eBay, same exact picture for Mach E

 

[rugedraw]

The photo is the module from my car. Hopefully the module from the scrappy will be the same (I uploaded the photo to the scrappy website so the one they send should be the same, I so hope so )

I have an FDRS license good through tomorrow. Once I am done doing what I need to do with it, I will get you the files in case you need to program it. Hopefully it doesn't ban my account before I get a chance to grab them.

Edit: I got the files. If the module is not on the AM strategy when you put it in, you should update it to the current version that the one that is in your car now is on. If that's the case, lmk and I'll walk you through it. You would need FORScan.

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