Unable to Activate Vehicle - SOLVED

[06VistaGT]

So, check out my thread I linked. The dealer and Ford were able to fix my car and I can activate it in FordPass, PaaK works, and DCFC is working. They ended up needing to replace the TCU, which is the module that handles communication as well as re-flashing the firmware on several charging related modules. I highly suggest you take your car to the service department at your dealer and have them open a ticket with Ford. Feel free to send them my thread and maybe that will give them some ideas of what to try. It's very unlikely that it's going to just start working and it's very unlikely that you opening a ticket with FordPass support will do any good. Someone is going to need to get into the car's systems

Thanks. I asked the Ford support person if I should go to my dealer for service and she recommended I wait to hear back on my ticket. 12 days and counting, so I think I will follow up on your recommendation.

On soapbox...

I don't work in a customer service function, but I do have customers. When they are waiting on me for something, I learned early in my career to overcommunicate. This goes double for times when I provide an estimated or commitment date for things to be done. Most customers are pretty reasonable. If I tell them I will have something done for them this week, I make it a point to either a) get it done or b) tell them that an issue came up and I now am targetting day X for completion. With that simple approach, I rarely have issues with my customers. And I don't always get things done on time.

Why is it that customer service desks (or similar) seem to specialize at NOT communicating with their customers? They told me 3-5 days to hear back. I didn't request that timeline. It's been 12 days now. Just call or send me a note saying "sorry, we have been really busy, hoping to get to you in X days." I just don't understand why it is so hard to do that. Maybe someone who works in customer service on this board can enlighten me. And I know others have had better experiences, but I have now called twice and gotten the "I escalated it for you" canned response from the first level person.

I truly believe most people want to be good at their job. So I am left to believe that either their system is poor or they purposely train their folks not to reach out and communicate. Very disappointing.

...off soapbox.

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[06VistaGT]

As a follow up...

I received an email from a FordPass Advanced Guide (level 2?) today telling me that Ford engineers have been working on my case, but haven't yet identified the issue. She recommended that I hold off on contacting the dealer until the engineers complete their assessment. Finally, she expects to hear back in the next few days.

This is what I was looking for. Even though my issue is unchanged from yesterday, knowing that I haven't been forgotten and someone is working on it provides me with a satisfied feeling. Also having a path to directly contact someone familiar with my issue is comforting.

So thanks to Ford for following up with me. I will post an update once I hear back again.

 

[06VistaGT]

Got word today from Ford that the engineers have confirmed the issue is with my...TCU modem.

Congrats to @mixduptransistor for winning this episode of "guess my issue".

Now let's see how long it takes the dealership to fix it. They have the car now to fix the dent it got during transit from Mexico, so at least no extra trip...

 

[06VistaGT]

Update to help anyone else who may have similar issues:

The dealer did the following in a (failed) attempt to fix the connectivity issue:
- Performed a reset on the TCU
- Perform SSM 49625, including APIM configuration after completing the reboot

Unfortunately, it didn't change anything. Still no prompt in the car when trying to activate, and an "authentication failed" message in Fordpass a few minutes later.

The FordPass expert at the dealership sat with me and tried a few times as well. He is going to call Ford and see if what to do next. I suspect they will eventually have to replace the TCU, but seems like they have to check off other items first. At least I have the car back while they figure out next steps.

Interestingly, it seems like the TCU reset fixed my autofold mirror issue (the mirrors never moved previously), as the dealer service notes attest. So something got fixed!

 

[06VistaGT]

Ok, Forum experts. Looking to see if the most recent feedback from the dealer service center makes sense.

Today, the dealer is telling me that the region setting in my "cpu" is likely mis-coded to Europe instead of USA. They think that is preventing Fordpass from connecting to the car. Apparently, a small number of cars have this issue.

I have tried searching the forum to see if this has come up before. I know someone mentioned that some TCU modems were not activated at the plant, and another thread poked at the possibility of sending a US spec model to Europe, but haven't found this exact situation.

What do you think? Does this pass the smell test?

 

[ROBOHOBO]

Today, the dealer is telling me that the region setting in my "cpu" is likely mis-coded to Europe instead of USA. They think that is preventing Fordpass from connecting to the car. Apparently, a small number of cars have this issue.

Sure - I don't think it would've been my first guess, but it sounds plausible if they've found some evidence of that being the case. Coming from IT, terms like "CPU" don't mean much to non-technical people and become a catch-all for all kinds of things. He probably doesn't literally mean the "central processing unit", but just one of the computer modules. I could easily see those having a region setting the same way that phones, DVD players, WiFI routers, and just about everything else these days do. It might be used to provide default settings, configure data carriers, or restrict available radio frequencies, for example. It's a lot cheaper to change in software than to have a separate manufacturing line for each region you plan to do business in.

 

[pixelshiker]

The dealer did the following in a (failed) attempt to fix the connectivity issue:
- Performed a reset on the TCU
- Perform SSM 49625, including APIM configuration after completing the reboot

Just saw this thread and I should note the dealer I'm working with had done this as well (at the instructions of Ford to no luck as well). Mine is activated now so slightly different but I'm skeptical how much these TCU resets actually work.

Today, the dealer is telling me that the region setting in my "cpu" is likely mis-coded to Europe instead of USA. They think that is preventing Fordpass from connecting to the car. Apparently, a small number of cars have this issue.

FWIW, there's a post at https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ota-updates-technical-info.4923/ which list all the modules and CPU is not one of them. I'm skeptical on how the dealer would reach this unless if they're talking to FordPass engineering, since the dealer does not have that access (as far as I can tell). If FordPass engineering is telling them this, I would take their word at it since they do have the ability to see the signals being sent to and received from the car.

That said, Ford is very adverse towards replacing modules, so my bet would be this is the next thing to try. If you look through the forums, you will see that they throw a bunch of solutions at the wall until 1 works (or they finally give in to needing to replace the TCU).

 

[06VistaGT]

***ISSUE RESOLVED***

I hope this is the final update on this issue. Took it to the dealer today to have them work on the tcu "region setting issue" I described above. Apparently, some of the vehicles are region locked, amd mine was conveniently set to...Germany.

It took a couple hours, but they were able to resolve the problem. Once done, I attempted to activate and the prompt in the car showed up instantaneously.

Setting up PAAK and then resetting up Android Auto took a bit of resilience. But I was able to get it working.

I can finally set my home location, charging schedules, see the car in FordPass, etc. Almost seems like a new car again!

My take-aways:
1. New cars are hard.
2. Beta testers are free (actually, they pay for the right to be beta testers)
3. The Ford engineering team is committed, but overwhelmed.
4. The dealerships need guidance from the mothership. Most mean well, but they are no better educated than us.
5. Patience is a virtue, but letting off steam (virtually at least) is also encouraged to help keep your sanity.

I hope this experience helps others who may have similar issues. Feel free to PM if you have any questions.

 

[Carsinmyblood]

***ISSUE RESOLVED***



My take-aways:

3. The Ford engineering team is committed, but overwhelmed.
4. The dealerships need guidance from the mothership. Most mean well, but they are no better educated than us.

They don't have the networking capabilities that we do. They deal with thousands of different situations and have a handful of people. It's just the opposite here. We have one or two problems at a time, and hundreds of people and the ability to diagnose a problem in CT and have the cure pop up in CA is invaluable. No Ford tech can bring the depth of experience we can to a problem.

It's not Ford's fault. It would be Ford's fault if they discounted the help when offered.

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