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Old 12-29-2021, 06:45 PM   #1
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2018 F150 electrical issues

I took my 2018 F150 2.7 in for an oil change at the local Ford dealer this morning. I got their "Works" package - oil, check air pressure, rotate tires, inspect filters, brakes, etc. All good, or almost good. They managed to leave one tire about 4 lbs lower than the other three so maybe they didn't really check the air pressure. But it is cold here in Minnesota, about -2 when I pulled into the dealer this morning. They snagged me for about $30 to replace the air filter but it looked dirty and I am short and doing anything under the hood requires a step ladder, so I told them to go ahead. They did tell me the cabin filter was good. And I think that's a clue or the rest of this story.

This afternoon, helping my daughter and a friend move some furniture. I went to move the truck closer to the staging area and I noticed that the instrument panel only sort of lighted up. No speedo, no gear selector indication, no back up camera. But the truck did start, so I moved it into place and we loaded up. Then I took an inventory of what else wasn't working. HVAC controls no, front door windows no, rear door windows yes. Radio turned on and stations could be selected, but no volume control and couldn't shut if off. No turn signals. I managed to get the truck home by taking the back roads and avoiding traffic. Left the rear windows halfway down to prevent a total ice up of the windshield and side windows. Parked the truck and shut it down but the radio kept on playing even after I locked it up. I had to disconnect the battery.

My initial thought, because I don't believe in coincidences, is that when they check the cabin filter, they snagged a cable and pulled it loose. Does that sound plausible? The truck has about 58,000 miles on it and it has never exhibited any electrical gremlins before. If not that, what else might it be? I plan to reach out to the Ford garage tomorrow morning, but I would like to be armed with more info because this sounds like it could get expensive.
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Old 12-29-2021, 08:03 PM   #2
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Don’t have an F150, but this does sound suspicious. I would pull the cabin filter (usually in glove box. Lots of YouTube how to videos on it) and check for disconnected items as well as inspect the fuses, both under dash and under hood. If finding nothing, then I’d look under the hood and under the engine with a good flashlight or trouble light to look for any disconnected wires/cables. Good luck!
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Old 12-29-2021, 08:38 PM   #3
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I have a 2016 F150 and follow a lot of things about these new fangled vehicles and have never heard of this issue.

My guess is that the lost revenue of new vehicle sales has your dealer's service department pulling some BS. I would immediately report this to the dealership nd then to Ford (be sure to cc the dealer)

I'd bet by Monday you will no longer has an issue.
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Old 12-29-2021, 09:19 PM   #4
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I have a 2019 2.7 F150 and aside from a fuse issue when picking up my 21 it's been trouble free. Touch wood.

But I have done a few mods and when I was looking for information about certain items I went to the F150 Forum. They are very helpful and it'd be my guess that if you posted the same info there someone would be able to pinpoint the probable cause.

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Old 12-29-2021, 10:00 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Shearwater View Post
My initial thought, because I don't believe in coincidences, is that when they check the cabin filter, they snagged a cable and pulled it loose. Does that sound plausible?
That would be my guess and a great place to start. There are several harness plugs in where the cabin filter is that would be an easy check.
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Old 12-30-2021, 06:28 AM   #6
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Sorry to hear this has happened. As others have said, it’s easy to check the area where the cabin air filter resides for any loose connections. You don’t need to unplug anything to change it…but easy to check nonetheless. Fuses are an another easy check but if one or more are blown, there may be something else wrong. The F150 Forum is definitely a great source of information about these trucks.

Alternatively, it could be that one of your battery connectors is loose, or your battery is worn out. That can also cause lots of electrical issues as well.

The only other thing I can think of could be rodent damage which can cause anything electrical to malfunction.

Sometimes a code reader can be helpful but not always with electrical issues as many codes may appear when instruments don’t get power.

Good luck with getting it sorted with the dealer’s service department. Their diagnostic equipment and technicians should be able to figure it out. I can’t speak to the quality of service but really cant see any alternative with something this serious if it’s none of the easy things listed above by others.
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Old 12-30-2021, 08:44 AM   #7
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I called the Ford dealer this morning, hoping to get the truck in for a look. They didn't have any openings, but said bring it down and they would try to squeeze me in. So I went out and reconnected the battery...and everything is working fine. I have no idea what's going on but I called them back and told them I would wait for a warmer day and an official appointment to bring it in. If it happens again, I'll post an update.

I will say though that it does give me pause, driving today's modern vehicles/local area networks. I really do appreciate all of the modern conveniences and wouldn't give them up, but it's a little scary what can go wrong. There is a YouTube video about an guy diagnosing an F150 with electrical glitches that he traced back to a cracked tail light lens that allowed enough water in to short out some of the truck's electrics, similar to my experience.
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Old 12-30-2021, 10:57 AM   #8
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With all this computer chip shortage going on I've heard a few times that a typical vehicle would have 1,500 chips in it.
The days of troubleshooting with a 12 volt test light are long gone!
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Old 12-30-2021, 11:08 AM   #9
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Originally Posted by Shearwater View Post
I called the Ford dealer this morning, hoping to get the truck in for a look. They didn't have any openings, but said bring it down and they would try to squeeze me in. So I went out and reconnected the battery...and everything is working fine. I have no idea what's going on but I called them back and told them I would wait for a warmer day and an official appointment to bring it in. If it happens again, I'll post an update.

I will say though that it does give me pause, driving today's modern vehicles/local area networks. I really do appreciate all of the modern conveniences and wouldn't give them up, but it's a little scary what can go wrong. There is a YouTube video about an guy diagnosing an F150 with electrical glitches that he traced back to a cracked tail light lens that allowed enough water in to short out some of the truck's electrics, similar to my experience.
Appears you essentially rebooted the electrical system in the truck. My only speculation is that the lube tech caused a "bit flip" in one of the control circuits (i.e., static discharge) that caused the problem. Rebooting the system (just like your PC) appears to have solved the problem.

As a F150 owner, let us know if the problem reappears!
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Old 12-30-2021, 01:57 PM   #10
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The days of troubleshooting with a 12 volt test light are long gone!
You're right and I'm sort of unsettled by that. Since I was a teenager I could always trouble shoot a problem and get the car going. But those days have slipped away to the point that I now belong to BCAA because I know if the truck quits while on a trip my ability to get it going are slim.

Ah, for the old days. Electrical problem, no problem, run a battery jumper to the coil terminal and you were good to go. Starter wouldn't work, Jump the terminal with a screw driver and you were usually good to go.

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Old 12-30-2021, 02:44 PM   #11
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...
Rebooting the system (just like your PC) appears to have solved the problem.
Reboot the system, indeed!


A couple of camping seasons ago, in Devils Garden Campground, Arches NP, we parked for a number of weeks on sand near the host site. One morning I jumped in the 2018 Honda CRV for a drive and punched the "On" button. Well, the car started to make all kinds of noises, the seats moved up and down, the brake pedal pulsated, the dash light and info system flashed all kinds of warnings and colors and who knows what else. I popped the hood and found piles of twigs and rat poop. Screwed - the car is possessed by daemons, I said to my self and anyone who would listen.

Next morning after a tow into Moab, the repair guy said "dead battery - all fixed". I'm thinking (and saying) "Impossible, there is a nest of pack rats living in here." Turns out we were both right. I found the nest a couple of months later in the cabin air filter but the daemons never returned. All it took was fresh juice (battery) and an air filter...
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Old 12-30-2021, 04:32 PM   #12
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Last year the critters ate the wiring harness in my 2004 f150, 2200 dollars
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Old 12-30-2021, 05:00 PM   #13
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Reboot redux

In 10 years of ownership, a 2005 Honda CRV twice started running poorly while at highway speed. I pulled off, turned it off, popped the hood, checked fluids and a quick visual, jiggled battery cables...nothing amiss...and restarted it. All was fine, until some 5 years later, it happened again.

My speculation is there is some combination of inputs to the computer, outside temperature, RPM's, fuel usage, a sensor input, something....that's throws the computer for a loop, and turning the vehicle off does a reset. I dunno.

A 1996 Ranger pick-up I had would have the "Check Engine" light go on in one specific location, in calm, sub-zero mornings. I later learned a closed landfill nearby was emitting methane, and the sensors were picking that up as unburned fuel. Sensitive buggers, and vehicles are loaded with them.

I read some Mercedes car model has more computer lines of code programming than the International Space Station uses to control its functions. I'll byte on that one.
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Old 12-30-2021, 10:35 PM   #14
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...
Soooooo bad. I won't even repeat it.
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Old 12-30-2021, 10:43 PM   #15
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Ah, for the old days. Electrical problem, no problem, run a battery jumper to the coil terminal and you were good to go. Starter wouldn't work, Jump the terminal with a screw driver and you were usually good to go.

Ron
Grumpy Old Man SNL would agree: He doesn't like the way things are now vs. the way they used to be.
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Old 12-31-2021, 02:34 AM   #16
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While it's possible that, while checking the air filter, a clumsy tech bumped a cable connector or harness and popped a connector open, most connectors lock quite well so this unlikely. It would be stupid to do this intentionally to make work, as it would be so obvious. Given my experience with my Ford Focus, I would suspect a poorly terminated cable in which one or more wire connections failed when bumped... and that can be annoying to troubleshoot and expensive to repair.
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Old 12-31-2021, 04:05 AM   #17
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I have had half a dozen instances where different features associated with cameras on my car quit working. Turning the car off and back on never cleared the fault but turning it off and letting it sit overnight has always cleared the fault. There was one recall associated with this and I don't think I have had a problem since that recall was address at the next annual service. Point being, there may be a computer problem but the coincidence is bothersome.
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Old 12-31-2021, 09:02 AM   #18
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You haven't said but is your battery the original one? If so the first thing I would do is to go and get a new battery. This may not be the issue, but I would consider the purchase a $100 insurance policy. I just went through a set of random electrical gremlins this past year with my daughters car, 3X over several months the car wouldn't start, but it jumped off fine and the battery charged up normally. A few times dash lights came on randomly while she was driving it, but they turned back off and the car started normally. Each time it didn't start I would put my meter on the battery and it would be low like 10.8 - 11v. However the car jumped off fine, the battery charged up no problem and the car turned over strongly afterward. Twice in that period of time I pulled and cleaned the battery terminals and inspected the battery cables. I blamed it on her leaving her lights on, dome light on or electronics plugged into the 12v port overnight. She swore that wasn't it.

The last time it failed she had driven it for about 3 weeks with no troubles and then she got stranded at a drug store. She had only been out of the car for like 5 -10 min so I knew it wasn't something she left on. I stopped and bought a new Interstate battery at Costco and installed it. The car has been trouble free for nearly 6mos now.

Its the first time I've seen it in my 45yrs of maintaining my own and most of my immediate family's vehicles, but a battery can fail with intermittent and somewhat infrequent symptoms. My theory is that one of the plates inside this battery is cracked or loose somehow and intermittently shorting.
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Old 12-31-2021, 03:05 PM   #19
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As best I know

You are likely correct in your assumptions about an intermittent battery and causes. I've experienced the same and read somewhere that as a battery ages, flakes of the lead plates sluff off and settle at the bottom. Making a turn or stop can short out a cell briefly by the flakes settling into a circuit path at the bottom of the battery.
So I've heard.
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Old 01-01-2022, 10:00 AM   #20
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Since my 2019 Ram was new, the tail light circuit on the 7 pin connector works intermittently. The truck tail lights always work, it's just that line in the 7 pin wiring somewhere. I have tried bypassing the OEM 7 pin plug and that doesn't help, it's a gremlin in the wiring somewhere. Sometimes when I turn on the lights and the trailer is hooked up I'll see the lights on the trailer flash for a microsecond and then stay off. Other times they come on and work fine.

I'm guessing there is an intermittent short somewhere in that wiring....in the vast miles of wiring throughout the truck. I have been at the dealer several times to get it checked and, of course, at those times it worked fine. We've been on the road in dark, stormy conditions and wanted lights on the trailer and at those times it has not worked, so I just turn on the emergency flashers and at least have lights on the back of the trailer that way.

Maybe one day it will act up at the dealer and they will be able to troubleshoot it....not much they can do when it works fine for them. We never tow at night, and times during the day when we need running lights on the trailer are rare so I just live with it - part of the price of having all this complicated technology.
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