Electrical Issues, what now?

A brief history on the electrical issues I've experienced with my Raptor, to illustrate the frustration and issues I'm currently still dealing with...

August -2011

I took my truck into service for an intermittent "Battery Warning" icon that would appear on the dash. Keep in mind, when this alarm comes in, the voltage is still fine, usually above 13.5v all the time. This would "usually" only come in when I was off road, never on a smooth surface. The alarm would come in... clear... come in... clear... very frustrating.

Dealer took a look, couldn't find anything of course. Said to report if it happens again. Well, each time I go off road it happens! When I ask the service advisor, they can NEVER seem to recreate it. Even if they could, how do you even BEGIN tracing a fault like that.

October - 2011

This damn alarm was coming in every 10 minutes when off road, and would clear after about 15 seconds. Then it gets worse. My iPod music first started cutting out randomly... USB wasn't recognizing the ipod, then it would be fine for a few hours... then not work, etc. VERY FRUSTRATING. Tried my iphone, same thing, so it's not the ipod.

Then it was getting MUCH worse over the couse of the same off road weekend. My entire climate control system would shut down. The Nav display would say "Climate OFF" and it would cut out for a good 15-20 seconds... then come on... then cut off... then come on... This, mixed with the voltage alarm, ipod cutting out, it was madness!!!

November - 2011

Problem persists. Installed an Optima battery, in case a dead cell in the battery was causing issues, or internal plates making contact under hard off roading. Also removed SCT tuner from truck, running bone stuck except intake at this point.

January - 2012

Problem persists, dealership agreed to replace alternator under warranty, as voltage was showing signs of peaks and valleys when fault would come in. They thought voltage regulator on alternator may be the cause.

During next off road trip, the alarm did NOT come in. Thought all was well.

August - 2012

Problem back again, same as before. Now truck at dealer for CEL and 2 shorted-out O2 sensors, and bad exhaust Y-pipe (Both cats siezed up).

While replacing both cats and o2 sensors under warranty, the dealer had a CEL they couldn't clear afterwards. They then replaced the PCM module under warranty as well, suspecting a short! Well... After the second PCM module, SAME CEL and faults, and another shorted PCM module!

So, they then decided to replace the wire loom that runs from the PCM to the transmission and a few other places, suspecting a short somewhere in the wire loom. Well, the finally found a problem!!! On the passenger side somewhere under the truck, they found a bolt that had been driven right through the center of the wire loom during assembly! When tugging on that section, the same battery warning light would appear!

All in all, truck was at dealer for 2 weeks, and received the following parts:

New exhaust Y-pipe with 2 cats
2 new O2 sensors
2 new PCM modules (original one and second one shorted, third PCM ok)
New transmission wire loom

Thinking it's all over... On the way home from the repair listed above, the battery alarm came in AGAIN... 4 times! That is very unusual, as it usually only comes in off-road! So in a way it seems worse.

Truck back at dealer at that point, and they perform a "Master Reset" or some BS, thinking the alarms are still in the memory cache or something?!?! Doesn't make sense, but that's what they do.

October - 2012

Land Rush 1000 event completed with alarm not coming in even once! Good sign so far.

November - 2012 thru March 2013

F*** ME. It's back. Instead of taking back in right away, I documented the times it came in by taking a picture of the fault with my camera, which also showed the mileage each time. Building a list of other small issues as well.

Coming in consistently, every time I go off road. (Very rarely comes in on street)

May -2013

So now my truck is in service once again. Same issue as described above STILL happening, and a few other things:

Battery Warning indication
Driver's side heated seat stopped working
Passenger "Airbag Off" warning always on, when somebody sitting in seat (regardless of weight)

Called me yesterday, said that everything electrically on the battery issue checked out ok (like usual) and that they have another call into Ford. Other issues are still being addressed.

What the hell should I do at this point? This is NOT something that is easy to fix, find, recreate, or even troubleshoot. This issue was happening when the truck was still fairly new, I'm at about 45K miles right now with a 100K mile premium extended warranty (thank god).

If they can't fix the problem, what should my next course of action be? This will SERIOUSLY affect the resale of my truck if not corrected, and I would have to fully discolse any existing issues to a potential buyer. Thankfully it doesn't seem to physically affect how the truck performs and drives... but the fault making the climate controls come on/off, and now other misc. electrical problems makes me think there's something seriously messed up that they can't find!

Ugh.

I would seriously have them replace all the electrical in the truck if they can't seem to find it or troubleshoot it them replace it all. I've had this problem a few times when working in helicopters we would chase wires and chase wires trying to figure out why the problem is and after about 3 weeks chasing wires we would replace the whole wire harness ad it would fix the issue seems like maybe the wire harness in te truck is bad an there's really no way of telling which one so replace them all!

i wonder if the lemon law would pertain to this? it seems that its the same problem more than 3 times and it hasnt been fixed.

I'd put it up for sale on the Taco forum.

"Like new Raptor. Never been off-road a d I have had zero issues since my purchase. I'm only selling to get a new '13 I can throw some badass Fox 3.0's on!!"

Feel free to use that

Seriously, electrical gremlins are the worst. The good side is that the truck has not left you stranded somewhere. Hopefully they can resolve the issue this time. If not, I would consider getting a new truck. Trade in is strong and I'm sure you can find a good deal out there on a new one. The dealer working on it might be willing to help you out since this has been such a struggle.

Order a 2013 and trade this one into the same dealership that can't fix it.

3 or more times for the same issue or 30 days at dealer repair for lemon law and this is what I would do now. The owners manual has the steps you need to go through to get this done, but does take a while. Since all vehicles do not have soldered connections they can get loose and it is so dam hard to find. The CrownVic had a big problem with loose wire connections at the junction box. To diagnose this would take lots of time and to me it sounds like weak connections somewhere. A wiggle test can find these sometimes but Ford dont want to pay the tech to look like they should. If this were me Id follow the steps in the owners manual and have it bought back. You can contact a lemon lawyer and he will tell you that Ford is very hard to deal with for getting a buyback but it can be done.
If ya lived near me I would look at it for ya and find the problem

Raptor911 said:

Order a 2013 and trade this one into the same dealership that can't fix it.

Click to expand...

In all fairness, the dealer I use is INCREDIBLE. I actually use one that is almost an hour drive from my house, even though there's about 6 others between here and there. They've been truly trying to resolve the issue, and given me loaners even during the last series of testing and wire harness replacements (A Jaguar XF loaner, too! haha).

I would absolutely buy another from this dealer.

Hockster said:

3 or more times for the same issue or 30 days at dealer repair for lemon law and this is what I would do now. The owners manual has the steps you need to go through to get this done, but does take a while. Since all vehicles do not have soldered connections they can get loose and it is so dam hard to find. The CrownVic had a big problem with loose wire connections at the junction box. To diagnose this would take lots of time and to me it sounds like weak connections somewhere. A wiggle test can find these sometimes but Ford dont want to pay the tech to look like they should. If this were me Id follow the steps in the owners manual and have it bought back. You can contact a lemon lawyer and he will tell you that Ford is very hard to deal with for getting a buyback but it can be done.
If ya lived near me I would look at it for ya and find the problem

Click to expand...

The last time it was in, and had the tranny->PCM harness replaced, they started by doing that. They went over every single connector and inch of harness they could access, trying to re-create it. No luck. That's when they decided to start replacing wire harnesses, and they started with the transmission wire harness. During that replacement, they found the bolt that had been drilled straight through the harness! At the time, we ALL thought that had to be the cause for sure!

It was sure a bummer when it came in again.

Is pursuing the Lemon Law worth contacting a lemon law lawyer, or trying to work directly with Ford, first?

---------- Post added at 08:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:17 AM ----------

bstoner59 said:

I'd put it up for sale on the Taco forum.

"Like new Raptor. Never been off-road a d I have had zero issues since my purchase. I'm only selling to get a new '13 I can throw some badass Fox 3.0's on!!"

Feel free to use that

Seriously, electrical gremlins are the worst. The good side is that the truck has not left you stranded somewhere. Hopefully they can resolve the issue this time. If not, I would consider getting a new truck. Trade in is strong and I'm sure you can find a good deal out there on a new one. The dealer working on it might be willing to help you out since this has been such a struggle.

Click to expand...

Ha, I'll tell them "Do you know who my friend WIZ is?" maybe I'll get some Ford street-cred points.

I wish I had advice for you, but I don't. I do want to hear how this turns out.

The lawyer will tell you to follow the instructions in the manual first. What I was told by them when I went through it. Ford is not easy to deal with when it comes to this. They will have a rep come out many times and try to discourage you. Really I have to disagree with what stoner said, it would be much better if it left you stranded. Well, better for the buyback not for you. ha ha ha

so let's say Ford buys it back. Considering this is a very used truck how much will the owner get? Would you get blue book?