turn off or shorten duration lights are on

[Willygee]

MY ad....

[Bart Luther]

Found a sticky note in my van looks like ford TSB information the technician used. Tried to upload a picture of it the paper found  but got a error message file to large?  Anyway refers to TSB 12651D4 reprogram BEC module SSM 46321  test 9002 WF Dark mode . Maybe someone can decode this .how do you upload a simple picture off my cell phone to this message board?  Hope this helps 

[cynar]

Google has some background on "SSM 46321":

 

 

All these sites only offer that tidbit; the rest may be behind a paywall. Google will find these

 

"BEC module" probably refers to "Battery Energy Control Module (BECM)".

 

"Dark mode" as a term floats around when it comes to turning off this fanciness via the Ford diagnostics software.

 

"TSB 12651D4" - unclear

 

"test 9002 WF" - unclear

 

 

I'd very happy a solution, too.

 

[williaty]

I took this info to the closest dealer to me. They weren't even willing to look at the paper I handed them until I had paid them $120. If they didn't understand what was written or they couldn't find it in my van, they kept the money.

 

Christ, I wish I could get away with ripping my customers off like that! Well, no, actually I don't because I'm not a sleezeball.

[windguy]

@bart luther - you are awesome dude! Many thanks for finding that info. THE HOLY GRAIL has been discovered

 

@cynar - thanks for researching the Da Vinci Code

 

I think this is enough info to get my dealer to service my van and have this issue fixed before my 3 yr warranty ends in January.

I hope others have success and share what happens.

 

@williaty - is your van still under warranty? If so, this shouldn't be an issue getting fixed at no cost. Time to take it up a notch. Good luck!

 

[williaty]

23 minutes ago, windguy said:

@williaty - is your van still under warranty? If so, this shouldn't be an issue getting fixed at no cost. Time to take it up a notch. Good luck!

 

The van is at 3 years, 30,300mi so I think the original warranty is gone. I bought it as a Certified Pre Owned a month ago and the CPO warranty extension has a $100 deductible per visit.

 

 

EDIT: Well... I may need to explore this. The 2014 basic warranty was 3 years/36,000mi. Looking at the title history, even though it's a 2104, it didn't actually move off the lot to the first owner until June 25, 2015. That means it would still be covered under both terms of the basic warranty.

 

Does the original warranty transfer to the 2nd owner even if the van is bought as a CPO?

Edited November 3, 2017 by williaty

[Bart Luther]

My van was just under the 30000 mile mark and was still covered under the bumper to bumper warranty. The Ford dealer in my area covered this reprogramming of the module with no cost to me. Good luck everybody who would like to have their van put into dark mode I am going camping this weekend and won't be lit up like a Christmas tree

[windguy]

21 hours ago, williaty said:

The van is at 3 years, 30,300mi so I think the original warranty is gone. I bought it as a Certified Pre Owned a month ago and the CPO warranty extension has a $100 deductible per visit.

 

 

EDIT: Well... I may need to explore this. The 2014 basic warranty was 3 years/36,000mi. Looking at the title history, even though it's a 2104, it didn't actually move off the lot to the first owner until June 25, 2015. That means it would still be covered under both terms of the basic warranty.

 

Does the original warranty transfer to the 2nd owner even if the van is bought as a CPO?

I think the warranty period starts when the 1st owner takes possession (transfer of title). So your 3 year period would end 06/24/18, but it looks like you'll hit the 36K mark on mileage before the 3 year time period.

 

Per the 2015 Model Year Ford Warranty Guide (attached PDF below)

KNOW WHEN YOUR WARRANTY BEGINS
Your Warranty Start Date is the day you take delivery of your new
vehicle or the day it is first put into service (for example, as a dealer
demonstrator), whichever occurs first.

 

I also think the original warranty transfers to subsequent owners. I'm sure that's in some warranty info from Ford but didn't see it in the attached PDF but may have overlooked it. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

2015-Ford-Warranty-Guide-version-1_frdwa_EN-US_01_2014.pdf

Edited November 4, 2017 by windguy

[windguy]

10 hours ago, Bart Luther said:

My van was just under the 30000 mile mark and was still covered under the bumper to bumper warranty. The Ford dealer in my area covered this reprogramming of the module with no cost to me. Good luck everybody who would like to have their van put into dark mode I am going camping this weekend and won't be lit up like a Christmas tree

 

 

 

How do the rear parking sensors react to having that bike rack on your trailer hitch?

Enjoy your camping trip.

[G B L]

On 11/3/2017 at 2:33 AM, williaty said:

Does the original warranty transfer to the 2nd owner even if the van is bought as a CPO?

Absolutely  the warranty does follow the car.

[Mickster]

Just got this information from the Service Manager where I purchased my 2017 TC XL Cargo Van:

 

---------------------------------

 

SSM 46321 - 2014-2017 Transit Connect - Battery Drain Due to Frequent Door Openings and Approach Light Strategy

Some 2014-2017 Transit Connect vehicles may exhibit a condition that causes the battery to discharge. If normal battery drain diagnosis leads to no issues, it may be caused by the approach lights illuminating every time the body control module (BCM) receives a lock/unlock signal or opening any door. If the door remains open, the lights will remain illuminated for up to 10 minutes. If the vehicle was built on or before 11-Dec-2016, reprogram the BCM to the latest calibration using IDS release 103.05 and higher. Calibration files may also be obtained at www.motorcraft.com. For all vehicles, access the BCM Configuration Parameters. Select Module Programming, Programmable Parameters, Personality, Approach Light. Choose Disabled and follow the screen prompts to completion. Use causal part 14A068 and applicable labor operations in section 10 of the SLTS manual.

APPLICABLE VEHICLES
 2014 - 2017 CAR: HC V408 (EU)

 

---------------------------------

 

The fix was done at no cost, under my warranty.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

[windguy]

@mickster - many thanks for sharing the SSM info. This will be very helpful when I talk to my service advisor.

 

[Willygee]

Mickster...thanks!

[windguy]

I went to my local dealer today with the intent of making sure they can perform this SSM under my 3yr/36k bumper-to-bumper warranty and to give them a heads up if they want prepare with any downloads they need to perform to minimize the amount of time they will need my van in service. I gave the service advisor the attached doc below, he read it, and said they will do this under warranty if I'm having a battery issue. He gave me back the piece of paper, said this type of service is done by their 'electrical tech' and they will need the van for a few days, so make an appointment when I'm ready. Two days? Attitude aside, I'm glad they are willing to make this fix under warranty, I hope. Chapter two to follow. Stand by.

 

SSM 46321 Dark mode.pdf

[G B L]

Thanks for posting the Pdf everyone

Edited November 9, 2017 by G B L

[JoeMan]

I'm a happy camper now thanks to the info provided above. I was talking to someone and mentioned the problem I was having with the lights and whether I should call the dealer again. He told me to call a certain person to see if he could help as he deals with repairing Ford fleet vehicles. I brought the van to him and hooked it up. Initially we tried the steps outlined in the document without the BCM update and it did not work. We went to the BCM Programming and updated to the latest version of the BCM and he told me it was up to me to push the button to do the install as he didn't want to be the one to screw things up and me to blame him. Now I even have a greater knowledge of how the IDS software works and how much dealers will try to blow you off instead of getting the correct answers.  Thanks for that info it was spot on

[windguy]

On 11/8/2017 at 8:09 PM, windguy said:

I went to my local dealer today with the intent of making sure they can perform this SSM under my 3yr/36k bumper-to-bumper warranty and to give them a heads up if they want prepare with any downloads they need to perform to minimize the amount of time they will need my van in service. I gave the service advisor the attached doc below, he read it, and said they will do this under warranty if I'm having a battery issue. He gave me back the piece of paper, said this type of service is done by their 'electrical tech' and they will need the van for a few days, so make an appointment when I'm ready. Two days? Attitude aside, I'm glad they are willing to make this fix under warranty, I hope. Chapter two to follow. Stand by.

 

SSM 46321 Dark mode.pdf

Chapter 2 & 3 - The Good And The Bad

 

Chapter 2 - Brought my van into the dealer on Thursday to have SMM 46321 done. Gave the service advisor the printed out PDF with the helpful notes from Mickster. Two steps to perform, update the BCM and set the approach lights to dark mode. Should be easy peasy. I also asked that the headlights be adjusted higher since I've haven't gotten around to doing it myself. The headlight adjustment seems to be an improvement, that's the good news. The dark mode enabling didn't get done, that's the bad news. The tech updated the BCM, I was told, but when you open the slider, the front/rear lights come on and if you leave the door open they stay on for 10 min, same as before. I always leave my driver side slider open in the garage to air out the van plus it's easy to pop in/out if I need something. Cycling the high beam lever on/off still turns the lights off.

 

Chapter 3 - Back to the dealer this morning for another go at it. Again I give my service advisor the printed PDF, this time highlighting in yellow the second part about the programming. After about 15 minutes, the service advisor tells me they are having problems setting the dark mode. They can see the option in the programming, but it won't let the tech basically save the change or move out of that screen. May be either an operator issue or their programming device but probably not the van, but they need to consult with Ford IT to troubleshoot. Chapter 4 to follow. Stand by.

 

 

[JoeMan]

Windguy don't give up. If I could do it with no prior knowledge of IDS software an experienced service tech should be able to do it. The steps outlined in the document were spot on. I wondered if he updated the PCM and not the BCM? I bet that is what my original tech did when I brought it to the dealer and told him to do the update and because of that, that is exactly why I tried disabling without doing my BCM first and of course it didn't work because my TC was built prior to that 2016 date in the document. When the service writer said the lights couldn't be done. I wish I could of saw exactly the steps the tech took instead of sitting in the waiting room for over an hour hoping for the right outcome and then getting the brush off when they obviously didn't do what I told them about the update but I had no way of proving it at that time. It took me a little over 15 minutes from the time my guy plugged it in and when we had it all reprogrammed .

[windguy]

3 hours ago, JoeMan said:

Windguy don't give up. If I could do it with no prior knowledge of IDS software an experienced service tech should be able to do it. The steps outlined in the document were spot on. I wondered if he updated the PCM and not the BCM? I bet that is what my original tech did when I brought it to the dealer and told him to do the update and because of that, that is exactly why I tried disabling without doing my BCM first and of course it didn't work because my TC was built prior to that 2016 date in the document. When the service writer said the lights couldn't be done. I wish I could of saw exactly the steps the tech took instead of sitting in the waiting room for over an hour hoping for the right outcome and then getting the brush off when they obviously didn't do what I told them about the update but I had no way of proving it at that time. It took me a little over 15 minutes from the time my guy plugged it in and when we had it all reprogrammed .

Thanks Joeman. The dealer is close by but it's still a time sink. I would like them to get it right on my next visit.

You may be right about the tech not doing the right update to the BCM and that may explain why the programming tool wouldn't let them make the dark mode change. I'll bring that up if they get stuck. I too would like to be able to hang off the tech's shoulder and see what he's doing but there's a cloak of secrecy when they drive the van off to the service bay.

 

Edited November 19, 2017 by windguy

[windguy]

On 11/18/2017 at 12:50 PM, windguy said:

Chapter 2 & 3 - The Good And The Bad

 

Chapter 2 - Brought my van into the dealer on Thursday to have SMM 46321 done. Gave the service advisor the printed out PDF with the helpful notes from Mickster. Two steps to perform, update the BCM and set the approach lights to dark mode. Should be easy peasy. I also asked that the headlights be adjusted higher since I've haven't gotten around to doing it myself. The headlight adjustment seems to be an improvement, that's the good news. The dark mode enabling didn't get done, that's the bad news. The tech updated the BCM, I was told, but when you open the slider, the front/rear lights come on and if you leave the door open they stay on for 10 min, same as before. I always leave my driver side slider open in the garage to air out the van plus it's easy to pop in/out if I need something. Cycling the high beam lever on/off still turns the lights off.

 

Chapter 3 - Back to the dealer this morning for another go at it. Again I give my service advisor the printed PDF, this time highlighting in yellow the second part about the programming. After about 15 minutes, the service advisor tells me they are having problems setting the dark mode. They can see the option in the programming, but it won't let the tech basically save the change or move out of that screen. May be either an operator issue or their programming device but probably not the van, but they need to consult with Ford IT to troubleshoot. Chapter 4 to follow. Stand by.

 

 

 

Chapter 4 - Service Advisor (SA) called me back a week later and put the big kibash on making this change as a 'free' in warranty service. Instead of consulting with Ford to find out why they were unable to get dark mode enabled, where they last left off, SA told me Ford told them that there's no way the battery is going to depleted when continually opening the door. Ford says you have to do this more than 200 times before that's an issue. Hard to believe someone even tested doing that. The bottom line is that they will not do this change unless I pay for it and the estimate was $130. I asked if they figured out what's wrong with their programming tool. SA said they tried the dark mode programming on one of their vans and it worked okay. I told them that's because those are current vans that already have the BCM updated, which most likely means that the tech never updated the BCM correctly on my van, even though he said he did. This makes total sense and what poster JoeMan surmised to be the problem. I asked the SA if they could at least verify that the BCM has been updated correctly. Answer - NO. They basically don't want to touch the van unless they can make some money even though they first offered to do the service as a warranty fix and didn't complete the job after saying they did. They claim Ford told them they won't pay them to make this change. Am I disappointed? BIG TIME, but I don't want to make waves with my local service center over a non critical service issue. I thought of taking the van to another dealer, I have the option of three within a 20 mile radius, but I also wonder if my van (by VIN#) has been flagged in the Ford service database against making this change as a warranty fix. I don't think it's worth spending upwards of $130 to make the change since I can use the high beam lever to turn the ext lights off when I leave the side door open and I always leave the windows down as well when parked in the garage. If I shut all doors the ext lights will go out right away, no delay.

 

 

 

 

[JoeMan]

I'm sorry your still getting the run around it is such a simple fix with the right knowledge being handed to them. Why do they dealers risk making you go to someplace else or to another brand? I'm just glad I got mine done as I smile every time I open the doors and the lights don't come. To me it would be worth it any ways to spend the money to correct the problem because what I mainly want the van for is camping and astronomy pursuits and I hate any unnecessary lighting  anywhere period. With what I already spent on a roof rack and adding a battery and some other items that would be a small price in the grand scheme of the build . Speaking of builds maybe I better start a build thread when I get a chance.

 

 

[cynar]

On 12/6/2017 at 2:31 AM, windguy said:

 

Chapter 4 - 

...

which most likely means that the tech never updated the BCM correctly on my van, even though he said he did.

...

They basically don't want to touch the van unless they can make some money even though they first offered to do the service as a warranty fix

 

You can check the history of your vehicle at http://www.etis.ford.com/vehicle/softwareUpgrades.do -> Summary -> History (registration as an independent operator is mandatory - and free). I see log entries in my vehicle 

 

12-10-17 10:36

xxxxxx

G1582102

de

DE

Finished

Ford VCM II

Persisted Framework

12-10-17 09:34

xxxxxx

G1582102

de

DE

Starting

Ford VCM II

Persisted Framework

 

This perfectly matches up with when I had the vehicle serviced. This enables you to at least cross-check the claim that anything happened at all.

 

Unfortunately, I am unable to reliably interpret the information in the "Changes and Upgrades" at the above-mentioned URL. I can only  speculate that Ford internally tracks the version information per vehicle (VIN) and thus only displays a link to "Software Updates" only if there are in fact updates to the software. For my vehicle, no updates to the BCM are flagged, but instead I see updates available for other modules,  e.g.

 

Software Updates - Audio Front Control Module (ACM)

Module Programming

 

This application will update the Audio Control Module software to the latest level.

Prior to commencing programming it is important that the vehicle battery is connected to a suitable battery support unit.

20170320-G1820905-6

 

Perhaps, for your vehicle, this lists an update to the BCM being (still) available? This would  at least provide hope that with an updated BCM the dark mode setting could be applied.

 

 

[JackGrimshaw]

For those who have managed to disable approach lights,does this affect interior lights?My 2016 cargo light is unswitched and only comes on if a door is opened.

Edited December 7, 2017 by JackGrimshaw

[windguy]

On 9/19/2017 at 8:48 AM, Mickster said:

Windguy, "Dark Mode" in the Body Control Module does not affect the interior lights. For maximum stealth, I used the three-position switch to turn off the cabin light, so it doesn't come on with an opened door. I also disconnected the cargo area light, since it had no switch. I don't know if the firmware update allows you to set a shorter duration for the exterior lights.

 

4 hours ago, JackGrimshaw said:

For those who have managed to disable approach lights,does this affect interior lights?My 2016 cargo light is unswitched and only comes on if a door is opened.

 

See the post above from Mickster (found on page 1 of this thread) regarding interior lights, that aren't affected by this update. Only changes the exterior lights.

[windguy]

@cynar - thanks for posting that about FordEtis. I created a login and checked my VIN. See the below screen grab regarding Software Updates.
Those dates were the original mfg dates. Not sure how to interpret that.

I didn't see any other service info on my van as well but did see that I haven't had the sliding door latch recall done yet, so that part is correct.