Nightmare ECU Problem

[MegaZone]

Hello All,

  I have a 2015 Transit Connect LWB van that I use to haul my Suzuki track day bike around in.  Anyway last month  I was returning to Central Texas after a week spent driving in California and Nevada when my van developed a problem just outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. About 30 miles west of Albuquerque, there was a bad wreck on I-40 east, the result of which backed up traffic for 10 miles. We must have creeped for 90 minutes or so. It was a warm day in the desert, though not that bad, low 90's with low humidity. Just to be safe, I shut off the A/C and rolled down the windows while we creeped making it easy on the van. The temp gauge never budged from it's normal position, about the halfway point. 
  Finally reached the location of the accident where the highway patrol let everyone return to normal speed. It was then that something went very wrong with my van. I had rolled up the windows and turned the A/C back on and as I accelerated to cruising speed, I noticed almost right away that the air coming out of the vents wasn't getting any cooler and the instrument cluster went nuts. All the needles, on the tach, the speedo, the temp gauge, even the gas gauge, went to zero. Every little warning indicator light came on and in the little display between the tach and speedo, "Engine malfunction- Check engine now" or words to that effect were glaring at me. Still, the van seemed to drive fine. It hadn't lost any power, it steered fine and if I wasn't looking at the instruments, the only way I knew something was wrong was the heat in the cockpit. 
  I pulled off the interstate and with the engine running poked around under the hood. Everything seemed perfectly normal. Then I made the mistake of switching off the engine. Tried to restart, no dice. "ENGINE FAULT" appeared on the display and it would not even by turn over. I called the nearest Ford dealer and they told me to have it towed in to the dealership. Luckily I have AAA and we were able to get it there just as the service department closed. I rushed in and gave the person locking up, my key and phone number and they promised to get one of the service advisors to look into the problem the next morning.
  This happened on a Thursday and the dealership didn’t get to look at it until that Saturday. Saturday afternoon they called to inquire if I had a spare key. It seems that in order to reload the master program into the ECU, you need a second key. That fact should be in big bold letters at the front of the owner’s manual! So anyway I delivered it to the service department where I was told that the technicians were really puzzled. They’d never seen this problem before and were going to reload the master program and see what happens. Monday the dealership loaned me a car and I drove the 700 plus miles home. They said they would continue to troubleshoot and enlist the help of the Ford corporate engineering. They called me three days later and said that Ford corporate was no help but that they had reloaded the program, road tested the vehicle and everything seemed to be hunky dory. No clue why it happened originally.

 . So I drove up that Friday, dropped off the loaner and drove the van home Saturday. Everything seems to be fine. The van is still under warranty and Ford picked up the tab as well as the loaner car I had for 5 days, but no one seems to have a clue why it happened.  Is there anybody else out there having the experience of an ECU going nuts?

Mark K.

Pflugerville, TX

[DonShockley]

Nothing with the ECU, but I do notice that radio programming gets confused a lot. I use the Aux input frequently and it seems to mix up the Line In and USB with random effects. Listening on Line in and display shows USB, or just switches from Line In to USB by itself. Last night was a new one, told me Line In couldn't be used while USB was in use. Not sure of the cause and no apparent commonality of occurence. But using button controls to switch to radio and then Sync voice command to get back to Line In or USB has worked each time so far.

With new cars being esentially small computer networks on wheels with seperate modules for each function, I'm sure we'll see more and more of these random glitch type of failures. Hopefully, car makers will take a page out of the computer makers playbook and add some kind of protected program image. Rather than be stranded like you were and having a week long repair, at least you could attempt a "Restore and Reboot" when a major program fault is detected.

[Trackar]

The same thing happened to my 2014 Transit Connect. Everything went to zero, worked fine until I tried to turn it on. It’s cheaper for me to throw a new ECU in then to take it to the dealer. Are the ECU’s coded to the key fob and ignition cylinder? Or can I throw in another ECU and not have to do any coding.

[Don Ridley]

There are several main computer modules. The Body Control Module BCM and Power Control Module are the main ones. You must load any module with firmware and a configuration file specific to your VIN. Your only hope to avoid the dealer is to find a used module from a vehicle that is virtually identical. But there is a possibility this may not work either.

[Fifty150]

The easy part would be to swap the unit.  In older cars, it was fairly easy to buy a new control module and install it.  Unplug, unbolt, bot, and plug back in.  But if you have to load firmware and/or software, or program, that is not so easy.  I haven't tried it myself.  But I suspect it's not as easy as saving your vehicle profile with FORScan, then reloading it.  This does not sound like such an easy DIY job.  But there are independent shops who can do it.  The only reason that most shops can't is because they have not invested into the computer hardware, software, and training.  Just about anything a dealership tech can do, a small shop should be able to do.  Or you can order the IDS system yourself, and try to do it at home.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Fifty150