Modem “disabled”

[zhackwyatt]

Took about 24 hours before I got the prompt in the car. I did not do any resets or anything

Sponsored

 

[mixduptransistor]

Anyone who is interested, my dealer got with Ford and they are replacing the "antenna" on the top of the car. When the tech plugs into the car they can't communicate with the LTE module at all. I assume the LTE modem/radio is in the antenna housing. They should have it Monday, but the service manager said it is marked Paint to Match so he may have to paint it, or, he's not sure if the cover comes off the old one

On top of this they have a charging system issue to diagnose and resolve so I may not have the vehicle back Monday

The new "antenna" didn't fix the problem--I think maybe it was actually just the antenna they replaced, which doesn't give me a lot of confidence in whoever at Ford is working with my dealer. It's very obviously an issue with the LTE module. So, the dealer is waiting to hear back from Ford and has asked that I not escalate or push any buttons to try to get special coverage on this from Ford's side yet, which is really hard to do since I need the car for a road trip Sunday

And, no word on my charging issue

 

[ROBOHOBO]

The new "antenna" didn't fix the problem[...]

Thanks for the update. I'm surprised they singled out the antenna when you were getting three bars of signal.

FWIW, my money's on some kind of registration problem at the factory. However they are identifying the vehicles to push out messages, it's going to the wrong place. Messages from my car seem to get to Ford just fine - I even got the OTA over the weekend. The problem for me is only when they try to push messages out from the server side.

 

[mixduptransistor]

Thanks for the update. I'm surprised they singled out the antenna when you were getting three bars of signal.

FWIW, my money's on some kind of registration problem at the factory. However they are identifying the vehicles to push out messages, it's going to the wrong place. Messages from my car seem to get to Ford just fine - I even got the OTA over the weekend. The problem for me is only when they try to push messages out from the server side.

When I originally called Ford Pass support the lady on the phone said the car was not talking to Ford at all. She could see where it had communicated with the Ford Pass servers back in October when the car was built, but hadn't since then. The service dept can't communicate with the LTE module when they plug into a scan tool/diagnostic computer in the shop

In the car, in the Hotspot section of settings it says the Hotspot Feature Has Been Disabled in This Vehicle which I take to mean the car itself is having trouble communicating with the LTE radio. I'm not sure what modules are involved, if there's a "main" computer/module, or what, but I think the key to my issue is getting the LTE module communicating with the car. Given that it is getting an LTE signal I suspect it is actually registering itself to the AT&T network

I can also connect to wifi (it will join my wifi network and pull an IP address) and *some* communication is happening of some kind because when I'm at home on wifi the SiriusXM online functionality works (on-demand shows and subscription info page loads). It turns out the SXM activation error I described in an earlier post was a problem on SiriusXM's side. I was able to transfer my subscription to the car and activate SXM just fine. But I am guessing FordPass will only communicate over LTE, not wifi

I also think my charging issue is not related to the LTE issue, because the car ended up throwing the equivalent of a check engine light when I tried to use an EVgo charger, and it wouldn't charge on any DCFC charger, regardless of whether it was EVgo or Electrify America, so it wasn't a plug-and-charge communication fault causing the issue. I thought possibly plug-and-charge required the car to communicate back to Ford over LTE for some reason but I'm convinced either that isn't the case or it isn't what's causing my DCFC failures

 

[mixduptransistor]

Just to update this saga, after reporting back to Ford engineering that the new antenna didn't fix my connectivity issue, Ford is having the dealer re-flash basically all of the modules on the car. He hasn't really dug into my charging issue yet but he thinks (and I agree) that reflashing all the modules has a good chance of fixing that

 

[mixduptransistor]

Reflashing the modem module didn't fix the issue, dealer service dept is still going back and forth with Ford. Not sure at what point Ford decides to send someone out, but we're now at 7 days out of service.

 

[mixduptransistor]

Update #whatever:
Dealer is replacing the TCU (telematics control unit) which Ford did have in stock so it will be here tomorrow. Ford believes this will fix the connectivity AND level 3 charging failures, so we shall see....

 

[ROBOHOBO]

Update #whatever:
Dealer is replacing the TCU (telematics control unit) which Ford did have in stock so it will be here tomorrow. Ford believes this will fix the connectivity AND level 3 charging failures, so we shall see....

Thanks for all of the updates. I'm just waiting to tell my dealer to try whatever works for you, so the info (good and bad) is all appreciated.

 

[mixduptransistor]

The fedex guy didn't arrive at my dealer until 5:05PM today so no update until tomorrow...

For the record today at 5PM is when we crossed over 7 calendar days since I dropped the car off at service

 

[pixelshiker]

So, the dealer is waiting to hear back from Ford and has asked that I not escalate or push any buttons to try to get special coverage on this from Ford's side yet, which is really hard to do since I need the car for a road trip Sunday

This seems weird to me. The dealership I have been working with has encouraged me to try to follow up with Ford since they're not getting good responses.

Thank you though for the updates, gives a good direction to at least to point to for the rest of us!

 

[mixduptransistor]

This seems weird to me. The dealership I have been working with has encouraged me to try to follow up with Ford since they're not getting good responses.

Thank you though for the updates, gives a good direction to at least to point to for the rest of us!

I am starting to push those buttons as of tonight. I'm poking Mike Levine on Twitter, and if I don't have good news from the dealer by noon tomorrow I'm going nuclear with all the contact info I can dig up for people with an office in Dearborn

 

[mixduptransistor]

She's breathing! They put in the new TCU and programmed it this morning and FordPass authorized!

Now to see if DCFC works.....

 

[methorian]

She's breathing! They put in the new TCU and programmed it this morning and FordPass authorized!

Now to see if DCFC works.....

Glad things are looking up, really surprised the TCU isn't the first thing they would have replaced.

 

[mixduptransistor]

I was able to activate my Ford Pass charging trial online, still waiting to hear back from the dealer if DCFC is working but I'm sure they're still just trying to re-assemble the car. No idea where the TCU is but he said they had the car "taken apart" earlier in the week

 

[mixduptransistor]

Glad things are looking up, really surprised the TCU isn't the first thing they would have replaced.

that was my thought. I don't like to be the "I work in IT, I know how this works" guy and I'm not an automotive engineer, but I was pretty sure with the three bars of signal showing up on the screen and the weird "disabled" message it was not an antenna problem, but I let them do their thing. Just extraordinarily frustrating that we had to waste 4 days on that

Sponsored