Keyless + Welcome lights + traction control issues

[arisxama]

Hi fellow mach e owners, I own a 2021 AWD Premium ER and ve been struggling with keyless entry, welcome lights (pony lights) for as long as i remember owning the car.

I was told from Ford Motor Company here to go to local dealership and this is what i did in December 2024, so… after almost a year back and forth, seems that this will never end.

My problems are that

- welcome lights, ponies and door buttons dont light up to recognize me when approaching and

- while being next to doors, pressing the door buttons on driver side (both front and rear) work when from passenger side, the doors dont open unless i unlock from fob/paak.

- I cant disable the traction control of the car to stay in off position, meaning that after clicking screen to disable the option gets back on.

Local dealership, initially updated modules in January but didnt work.

After a few months of waiting i went to replace a BCM and that didnt work out either.

After replacing the BCM, PaaK stopped working and was getting errors while trying to complete setup Paak procedure.

After a few months passed, they replaced door antennas but all problems remained

In Oct 2nd 2025 i received a GWM module update (was only visible in Vehicle Software in Ford Service Info) and finally the keyless entry and ponies lights worked for the first time. Also at the same time PaaK was able to complete so that was fixed too.

These happy moments ended almost 5 days after as keyless and welcome lights stopped working again but the PaaK problems have been fixed for good.

Can anybody give me any hint or direction what i can possibly do?

I live in Europe, at the capital of Greece, Athens, and had gone to two different dealerships (Velmar and Ford Car Center).

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[SeattleMachE]

I had my 12V battery replaced while my car was at the dealership for recall work. Since then, it’s dramatically improved the issues I’d faced with the car not recognizing me walking up to it, keyless entry not working.

 

[arisxama]

Forgot to note that replacing the 12v battery, was actually the first thing that the 2nd service shop did in Jan 2025. Currently 12v SoC is 92% and remains at these healthy levels.

 

[ReverendPete]

It sounds like you have other issues, but a couple of things to note:

There was apparently a TSB for the traction control issue about a year ago. Here's a link to a post that shows it: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/how-do-you-keep-the-traction-control-off.33160/post-862073 That whole thread might be of interest to you.

Also, are your mirrors set to auto-fold in? The welcome lights won't light up if the mirrors aren't folded in, since they project from the bottom of the mirrors.

 

[arisxama]

Thanks for your time.

The mirrors yes, are in auto-fold and they do fold upon locking. I really saw it working (without changing anything) for the first time on October 3rd 2025. The modules updates incidate ford pushed an update over the air on GWM module. This have made the keyless to work for a few days until it stopped again.

Regarding Traction Control, I think TSB is not relevant to the vehicle anymore as all modules have been updated after that TSB came out.

The snapshot of the hw modules and their update stattes is as seen below

At this point i believe there might be a problem in the GWM module that after it was updated or checked (i can only be sure that it was last checked on Oct 2nd, can't realize if it was actually updated cause i don't have previous state, and OTA doesn't indicate any update)

 

[EMachE]

I’ve had the rocker panel sensor not fully plugged in causing the welcome lights to not work.

 

[arisxama]

I’ve had the rocker panel sensor not fully plugged in causing the welcome lights to not work.

Thanks for this info, however i am not sure i get which part is the rocker panel sensor? Could you elaborate a bit on where to find that and make a check on the sensor?

Are you referring to this panel?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/374205540802

Why this panel has a sensor clip at first point..

 

[EMachE]

The black flat part when you open the door. There is sensors/antennas on them.

 

[arisxama]

Information noted, i will first try to see if it disassemblies easily so i can check my own, otherwise i ll pass this info over to the service shop as i am going to leave the car next week.

When I bought the car (it was a ford approved 9k klm car) the small fender on the right side was a bit off position, so maybe related.

However, shouldn't we had a related DTC error for this?

 

[EMachE]

You just need to check the connections at the bottom of the door when open, you may have to move the sound insulator out of the way to see it.

 

[arisxama]

I definitely worth checking out.

My only concern that this could be a software issue is that it was fixed on the same day after the GWM module was checked/updated by Ford remotely.

Maybe some buffer filled up during the next days until it stopped functioning again. A module reset would also be worth checking but i am not sure how to achieve that (not sure if plugging it's fuse out or unplugging the 12V battery would do this)

 

[EMachE]

Unhooking the battery will be ok for a reset but you said that it was replaced. Unless that was prior to this issue

 

[arisxama]

This was literally the first time it started working... until a few days that stopped again (both welcome lights and keyless entry). I was so happy that i took a picture at that moment.

 

[EMachE]

Welcome lighting and keyless entry require antennas so it sounds like you’re having an antenna issue. It should have a code for and antenna fault

 

[arisxama]

Hey there guys,

i am sharing a small update.

I dropped the car to Athens local repair shop, after Ford instructed them to check some cabling.
The inspection didn't provide anything new so they are waiting for more instructions.

The good thing here, is that they did a 12V recall, and updated all available module updates (IPC, and 2 more) which fixed the issue that Traction Control couldn't get disabled. Fun fact, The IPC update one came OTA just the same day going to the repair shop.

I’ve had the rocker panel sensor not fully plugged in causing the welcome lights to not work.

I informed them about this, and they ve already ordered a right side sensor (even there was no DTC errors). They told me that the part is only on the right side of the car. Is that true? Can I check the parts of the car with my VIN number? I can't believe the antenna is only on the right side.

Last but not least, i asked the repair shop to check/change these antennas/sensors, and if nothing happen maybe check the GWA to be faulty and replace if needed...

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