SSM 49672 – Front Luggage Compartment Closing Effort

breeves002

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SSM 49672 - March 17, 2021 - 2021 Mustang Mach-E – Front Luggage Compartment Closing Effort

Some 2021 Mustang Mach-E vehicles may exhibit a concern where the front luggagecompartment hood is hard to close. As the hood is closed, air becomes trapped in the front luggage compartment, increasing the closing effort. To properly close the hood, apply closing force as the hood is lowered. Then verify the hood is fully closed. Allowing the hood to close on its own weight may not be enough effort to properly latch the front luggage compartment hood. No additional adjustments are required for the hood / latch.

END SSM

I guess this makes sense. I'm surprised this doesn't vent out of the bottom drain plug? I guess this means Ford doesn't care and it is just designed to be hard to close.

Edit: I went out and looked under my hood. Did Ford think this SSM through? Theres no way air is becoming trapped because there is a drain plug and also vents at the rear of the sealed luggage compartment. Is there something I'm missing?
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SSM 49672 - March 17, 2021 - 2021 Mustang Mach-E – Front Luggage Compartment Closing Effort

Some 2021 Mustang Mach-E vehicles may exhibit a concern where the front luggagecompartment hood is hard to close. As the hood is closed, air becomes trapped in the front luggage compartment, increasing the closing effort. To properly close the hood, apply closing force as the hood is lowered. Then verify the hood is fully closed. Allowing the hood to close on its own weight may not be enough effort to properly latch the front luggage compartment hood. No additional adjustments are required for the hood / latch.

END SSM

I guess this makes sense. I'm surprised this doesn't vent out of the bottom drain plug? I guess this means Ford doesn't care and it is just designed to be hard to close.

Edit: I went out and looked under my hood. Did Ford think this SSM through? Theres no way air is becoming trapped because there is a drain plug and also vents at the rear of the sealed luggage compartment. Is there something I'm missing?
The drain plug is less than an inch in diameter and the surface area of the hood over the storage compartment is at least 5 square feet.
 
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breeves002

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The drain plug is less than an inch in diameter and the surface area of the hood over the storage compartment is at least 5 square feet.
Keep in mind the vents at the rear of the luggage compartment. Those are quite large.
 

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The drain plug is less than an inch in diameter and the surface area of the hood over the storage compartment is at least 5 square feet.
You are correct... the volume of air needed to be pushed from the frunk area is quite large, the close time of the hood is short, and the hood is very light. To make things worse, you have a nice seal between the hood and frunk to keep dirt from the road out. You would likely need to cut out the entire bottom of the frunk in order for it to latch just by dropping the hood (using gravity).
 

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You are correct... the volume of air needed to be pushed from the frunk area is quite large, the close time of the hood is short, and the hood is very light. To make things worse, you have a nice seal between the hood and frunk to keep dirt from the road out. You would likely need to cut out the entire bottom of the frunk in order for it to latch just by dropping the hood (using gravity).
I'm really hoping that when they enable the electronic latching system on the frunk this won't matter anymore and is just an unfortunate side effect of a last minute change to disable it.

I'm Hoping its like any other trunk release and you just have to get it to catch, and the electronics will pull it fully closed.
 


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breeves002

breeves002

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I'm really hoping that when they enable the electronic latching system on the frunk this won't matter anymore and is just an unfortunate side effect of a last minute change to disable it.

I'm Hoping its like any other trunk release and you just have to get it to catch, and the electronics will pull it fully closed.
I'm not sure if the frunk can latch itself. It may only be able to unlatch itself.
 

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I'm not sure if the frunk can latch itself. It may only be able to unlatch itself.
Yeah I know we don't know how it works. But when you manually open the frunk you can hear it's manually moving an electronic motor on both pulls. This is why I'm thinking it may have a motor to pull it down.
 
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breeves002

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Yeah I know we don't know how it works. But when you manually open the frunk you can hear it's manually moving an electronic motor on both pulls. This is why I'm thinking it may have a motor to pull it down.
It does have an electronic motor but I'm pretty sure it is just to release the latch and doesn't have the power to pull it down. Though I wish it did.

Here's what the WSM says about it...for some reason it repeats itself but I just left it in:
Front Trunk Luggage Compartment

NOTE:
People should Never climb inside the front trunk luggage compartment. Never shut the front trunk luggage compartment when a person inside.

The front trunk release module (GFM) provides power to the electronic latch release actuator for the front trunk luggage compartment. The actuator consists of a single motor unit capable of performing two consecutive release operations. The first operation releases the primary latch, and the second operation releases the secondary latch. When vehicle speed is less than 2 mph(3 km/h), both release pulses will be delivered by the module to release primary and secondary latch positions. When vehicle speed is greater than or equal to 2 mph (3 km/h), the module will only deliver the power signal to release the primary latch. Latch positions will be manually reset when the user applies downward force to the hood of the front trunk to place it back into closed position.

The actuator consists of a single motor unit performing two consecutive release operations. The first operation releases the primary latch, and the second operation releases the secondary latch. When vehicle speed is less than 2 mph (3 km/h), both release pulses will be delivered by the module to release primary and secondary latch positions. When vehicle speed is greater than or equal to 2 mph (3 km/h), the module will only deliver the power signal to release the primary latch. Latch positions will be manually reset when the user applies downward force to the hood of the front trunk to place it back into closed position.

The front trunk release module GFM is activated by the BCM to open the front trunk when signal from any of the following inputs are used: the APIM, Phone as a Key, keyless entry keypad, RKE transmitter. The front truck emergency release switch communicates hood open requests directly to the front trunk release module GFM. The external battery jump port can provide external 12-volt power, through front trunk release relay module, to the hood release latch actuator when the 12-volt battery State-of-Charge (SOC) is less than the allowable threshold.

The front trunk release module GFM provides the BCM with the release status.
 

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It does have an electronic motor but I'm pretty sure it is just to release the latch and doesn't have the power to pull it down. Though I wish it did.

Here's what the WSM says about it...for some reason it repeats itself but I just left it in:
Front Trunk Luggage Compartment

NOTE:
People should Never climb inside the front trunk luggage compartment. Never shut the front trunk luggage compartment when a person inside.

The front trunk release module (GFM) provides power to the electronic latch release actuator for the front trunk luggage compartment. The actuator consists of a single motor unit capable of performing two consecutive release operations. The first operation releases the primary latch, and the second operation releases the secondary latch. When vehicle speed is less than 2 mph(3 km/h), both release pulses will be delivered by the module to release primary and secondary latch positions. When vehicle speed is greater than or equal to 2 mph (3 km/h), the module will only deliver the power signal to release the primary latch. Latch positions will be manually reset when the user applies downward force to the hood of the front trunk to place it back into closed position.

The actuator consists of a single motor unit performing two consecutive release operations. The first operation releases the primary latch, and the second operation releases the secondary latch. When vehicle speed is less than 2 mph (3 km/h), both release pulses will be delivered by the module to release primary and secondary latch positions. When vehicle speed is greater than or equal to 2 mph (3 km/h), the module will only deliver the power signal to release the primary latch. Latch positions will be manually reset when the user applies downward force to the hood of the front trunk to place it back into closed position.

The front trunk release module GFM is activated by the BCM to open the front trunk when signal from any of the following inputs are used: the APIM, Phone as a Key, keyless entry keypad, RKE transmitter. The front truck emergency release switch communicates hood open requests directly to the front trunk release module GFM. The external battery jump port can provide external 12-volt power, through front trunk release relay module, to the hood release latch actuator when the 12-volt battery State-of-Charge (SOC) is less than the allowable threshold.

The front trunk release module GFM provides the BCM with the release status.
Thanks for all the detail!

I'm wondering if any aftermarket solutions will be created for the MME simar to the Teslas. There is an entire aftermarket kit to automate the opening and closing of the frunk on the Model 3.

I'm not too worried about auto raising and lowering like the back lift gate, but auto unlatch/open and (once down) auto close/latch would be very cool!
 

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It does have an electronic motor but I'm pretty sure it is just to release the latch and doesn't have the power to pull it down. Though I wish it did.

Here's what the WSM says about it...for some reason it repeats itself but I just left it in:
Front Trunk Luggage Compartment

NOTE:
People should Never climb inside the front trunk luggage compartment. Never shut the front trunk luggage compartment when a person inside.

The front trunk release module (GFM) provides power to the electronic latch release actuator for the front trunk luggage compartment. The actuator consists of a single motor unit capable of performing two consecutive release operations. The first operation releases the primary latch, and the second operation releases the secondary latch. When vehicle speed is less than 2 mph(3 km/h), both release pulses will be delivered by the module to release primary and secondary latch positions. When vehicle speed is greater than or equal to 2 mph (3 km/h), the module will only deliver the power signal to release the primary latch. Latch positions will be manually reset when the user applies downward force to the hood of the front trunk to place it back into closed position.

The actuator consists of a single motor unit performing two consecutive release operations. The first operation releases the primary latch, and the second operation releases the secondary latch. When vehicle speed is less than 2 mph (3 km/h), both release pulses will be delivered by the module to release primary and secondary latch positions. When vehicle speed is greater than or equal to 2 mph (3 km/h), the module will only deliver the power signal to release the primary latch. Latch positions will be manually reset when the user applies downward force to the hood of the front trunk to place it back into closed position.

The front trunk release module GFM is activated by the BCM to open the front trunk when signal from any of the following inputs are used: the APIM, Phone as a Key, keyless entry keypad, RKE transmitter. The front truck emergency release switch communicates hood open requests directly to the front trunk release module GFM. The external battery jump port can provide external 12-volt power, through front trunk release relay module, to the hood release latch actuator when the 12-volt battery State-of-Charge (SOC) is less than the allowable threshold.

The front trunk release module GFM provides the BCM with the release status.
Curious that it wouldn't just inhibit all frunk actuator power requests when the shifter isn't in "Park" but rather they determined the maximum safe speed to do full unlatch or partial unlatch. Fascinating.

The frunk is definitely not that easy to close, or at least mine isn't. Definitely discourages using it regularly.
 
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breeves002

breeves002

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Curious that it wouldn't just inhibit all frunk actuator power requests when the shifter isn't in "Park" but rather they determined the maximum safe speed to do full unlatch or partial unlatch. Fascinating.

The frunk is definitely not that easy to close, or at least mine isn't. Definitely discourages using it regularly.
My guess is if the car isn't in park it won't even give you the option on your phone or the touchscreen to open the frunk. That is just kind of a failsafe in case somehow it is told to open it - then it won't.
 

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You are correct... the volume of air needed to be pushed from the frunk area is quite large, the close time of the hood is short, and the hood is very light. To make things worse, you have a nice seal between the hood and frunk to keep dirt from the road out. You would likely need to cut out the entire bottom of the frunk in order for it to latch just by dropping the hood (using gravity).
I don't think the issue is related to the air trapped in the frunk at all actually based on @dtbaker61 completely removing the panels and it was still hard to close...

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-e-frunk-divider-diy-writeup.3953/post-132028
 

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I don't think the issue is related to the air trapped in the frunk at all actually based on @dtbaker61 completely removing the panels and it was still hard to close...

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-e-frunk-divider-diy-writeup.3953/post-132028

I can verify, the hood cover+seal to frunk has nothing to do with Latch resistance.
That front latch I think has some STIFF springs in there, and the Latch/catch interface is pretty 'flat' instead of a slanted lead-in.... not sure what it's going to take to improve that, but is likely to be a mechanical design change not within the scope of DIY.

I have found that 'with a little practice', closing the hood is not that hard..... you basically can't just drop the hood, you have to *shut firmly* with steady speed followthru. Not too soft, not too hard.
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