Spontaneous Remote Start: troubleshooting suggestions?

[luckie]

I did not find prior threads where this was common. Last night, around 9 pm, I went to plug in my new 2025 Mach-E, and to my surprise, it was ON, running, pre-conditioning its cabin, unexpectedly. Now I'm soliciting troubleshooting suggestions as well as ways to detect if this happens again.

What I saw/did: I entered the garage and the car's headlights were ON, taillights were ON, HVAC was ON (fans making noise), and the Instrument cluster screen had a message about "Push Button to Start Vehicle". I then entered the car, it was definitely blowing cool air, and I turn ON the car by pressing the start button. Then after that turned it OFF. Got out, locked it, plugged in the charger plug, and departed.

Thus, it seemed to be behaving just as it would when I sent a "remote start" (i.e. remotely activated the HVAC) from Ford Pass, or if I had a "Departure Time" set with cabin preconditioning and that process was occurring.

I later checked Ford Pass and no Departure times are set, then I went into the car and checked the SYNC screen Charge settings app and confirmed there too, there were no Departure times set in the car either. Today I will try to pull codes.

Thoughts, ideas, what would you recommend?

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[RickMachE]

Is it at all possible that you somehow pushed the climate button on FordPass, i.e. "pocket dial"?

 

[luckie]

Is it at all possible that you somehow pushed the climate button on FordPass, i.e. "pocket dial"?

Thanks for the prompt response Rick.

Yep. It is possible that Ford Pass sent a remote start request, which, to me, is the best scenario. It makes this a one-off event. That is my favorite scenario. And the simplest explanation, Occam's razor.

I did glance at Ford Pass to check if the car was already plugged in, looked at the vehicle screen and then the Energy screen, prior to heading outside. It's possible, particularly since the "fan" button no longer has a "are you sure" type of extra step.

Right now, before posting my reply, as a test, I just intentionally used Ford Pass to press the big fan button and it worked like it should and I went out and the car was behaving exactly the same.

 

[luckie]

The only Diagnostic Trouble Codes found via CarScanner was:

"U0140(87) Archive(inactive)
Control unit: BCMC/BJB
Data bus, body control module (BCM) - no communication
Status: Confirmed"

This was a DTC I regularly saw in my prior, 2021 Mach-E, feels bit generic.

 

[Mach-Lee]

You might have accidentally triggered it, I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again. I've had it happen a couple times in the past too, but I wasn't sure if I somehow caused it.

 

[luckie]

Thanks, Rick & Lee, for ideas and reassurance. I'm going to just consider this a fluke one-off event, somehow initiated by Ford Pass when I looked at it before walking to the garage.

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