Auto hold problems

[Botus]

21 hours ago, CallMeSteven said:

I've had it happen once on mine. Happened at traffic lights..my brother said the car is going backwards!! (very slowly). The Autobrake light was off, but was On for 95 % of the 60 mile trip. Because I had the car only a few weeks I didn't trust the Autobrake so looked down at times to make sure it was on.

 

not saying its the issue picked up by many here - but food for thought.  My sisters Mk3 seems to have been updated with Hill Hold assist... and or it got enabled when it had the clutch slip software.  Oddly having experienced the disaster that it is, I went to disable it and found it was already unticked so have to tolerate a random (and in my mind thus dangerous) bit of help. 

The way it works on hers, some of the time is very much like an auto handbrake.  If the gradient you are on is just enough for the car to notice, it automatically holds the car still.  So you think its an automatic handbrake that's quite useful.  But if the slope is a gnats ***** less it just rolls down the road.  As the three occasions where I first experienced it operate all just happened to be the tiny slopes.... I just assumed the car had auto handbrake.  Only to discover on the level or down hill the car wandered off on it own as you look out the window.

as hers came with a real handbrake where I don't need to abuse the clutch to pull away, its a redundant and stupidly dangerous feature !!!

[Gilli]

2 hours ago, cdp2911 said:

HI, i have the same problem handbrake not activating on engine stop.Ford dont seem to be bothered and just told me to leave in gear think they may listen when someone is hurt.I have told them i wont be held responsible if anything happens which nearly did at a petrol station by good luck the car started rolling while i was filling so managed to stop it.Ford should be ashamed and fix this issue ASAP

Well, at least I know this is not just me. But it is a huge worry and a safety issue too. These are big issues when they affect the braking system. It needs a proper drains  up. And they need to properly road test these cars. Not release them and expect the buyers to beta test them. If I’m doing that,  I want it half price! But that’s what it feels like we are all doing. It’s my own fault for breaking my rule of never buying a new model at the beginning. 

[Gilli]

34 minutes ago, Botus said:

not saying its the issue picked up by many here - but food for thought.  My sisters Mk3 seems to have been updated with Hill Hold assist... and or it got enabled when it had the clutch slip software.  Oddly having experienced the disaster that it is, I went to disable it and found it was already unticked so have to tolerate a random (and in my mind thus dangerous) bit of help. 

The way it works on hers, some of the time is very much like an auto handbrake.  If the gradient you are on is just enough for the car to notice, it automatically holds the car still.  So you think its an automatic handbrake that's quite useful.  But if the slope is a gnats ***** less it just rolls down the road.  As the three occasions where I first experienced it operate all just happened to be the tiny slopes.... I just assumed the car had auto handbrake.  Only to discover on the level or down hill the car wandered off on it own as you look out the window.

as hers came with a real handbrake where I don't need to abuse the clutch to pull away, its a redundant and stupidly dangerous feature !!!

Very dangerous. And you are right, it is random at times. Sometimes it won’t work  the way it is supposed to. Gradient of hill is material. Little slopes at junctions etc and it rolls back. Very disconcerting. 

[Comares2001]

I think some people are confusing 2 features here .On the MK4  ,autohold is not an auto handbrake as such. It operates and holds on the footbrakes much the same as hill start assist except on any level. Its easy enough to make sure its operated as there is an icon that should light on dashboard display. If it is disabled for some reason this icon is greyed out. Additionally on manual transmission vehicles ,if the autohold  switch is turned on then when the engine is switched off the handbrake will automatically engage ( if this has not already been done with handbrake switch,) When the handbrake engages, a warning on the screen informs you this has happened.

 

[Alex.S]

Is your SS working? Maybe a connection..

[Tizer]

2 hours ago, Comares2001 said:

I think some people are confusing 2 features here .On the MK4  ,autohold is not an auto handbrake as such. It operates and holds on the footbrakes much the same as hill start assist except on any level. Its easy enough to make sure its operated as there is an icon that should light on dashboard display. If it is disabled for some reason this icon is greyed out. Additionally on manual transmission vehicles ,if the autohold  switch is turned on then when the engine is switched off the handbrake will automatically engage ( if this has not already been done with handbrake switch,) When the handbrake engages, a warning on the screen informs you this has happened.

 

That is my understanding too, additionally Hill Start Assist is only meant to hold the car for about 2 seconds when you put it in gear and take you foot off the Brake.

The only times that my Auto Hold has switched itself off were the few times that my battery was getting a bit low because I had not had a chance to take the car for a proper run on those weeks. That may be coincidence or maybe not. Mine is a petrol car and I always disable Start/Stop.

[Alex.S]

14 minutes ago, Tizer said:

That is my understanding too, additionally Hill Start Assist is only meant to hold the car for about 2 seconds when you put it in gear and take you foot off the Brake.

The only times that my Auto Hold has switched itself off were the few times that my Battery was getting a bit low because I had not had a chance to take the car for a proper run on those weeks. That may be coincidence or maybe not. Mine is a petrol car and I always disable Start/Stop.

27 years of owning cars . This is the first car I’ve known to need “a proper run” to charge the battery to make it all work. I had a week or so of SS not working. I took it proper runs ..made no difference. 

I only do short journeys, SS etc work every time. 

 

...for now

[Tizer]

On 1/25/2020 at 5:18 PM, Gilli said:

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 
Just to emphasise. Auto hold switches off during normal driving conditions on normal commuting conditions. It works for half a day or sometimes less if more- it’s completely random- then suddenly turns off. It frequently needs to be turned on again the next time I drive  the car. Along with this, parking brake fails to come on automatically. This coincides with when auto hold has turned off just beforehand. Not what I expect from a £25000 car. ☹️

I don't know what your commute is like and whether you have Stop/Start activated, but if you do then you could try to deactivate it for a couple of weeks to see if the problems you are having go away.

If your battery is not getting charged enough on these runs it may take some time for it to get up to its design capacity. Also if you have a dashcam then it would be a good idea to ditch that as well while you are testing.

[cdp2911]

9 hours ago, Tizer said:

That is my understanding too, additionally Hill Start Assist is only meant to hold the car for about 2 seconds when you put it in gear and take you foot off the Brake.

The only times that my Auto Hold has switched itself off were the few times that my Battery was getting a bit low because I had not had a chance to take the car for a proper run on those weeks. That may be coincidence or maybe not. Mine is a petrol car and I always disable Start/Stop.

My car has is a manual when you stop at a junction or traffic lights and press the brake firmly  a green light comes on this means the auto brake has activated and does not come off till you move.I can be stood for several minutes.My issue is the auto handbrake not coming on when switching ignition off.

[cdp2911]

13 hours ago, Gilli said:

Well, at least I know this is not just me. But it is a huge worry and a safety issue too. These are big issues when they affect the braking system. It needs a proper drains  up. And they need to properly road test these cars. Not release them and expect the buyers to beta test them. If I’m doing that,  I want it half price! But that’s what it feels like we are all doing. It’s my own fault for breaking my rule of never buying a new model at the beginning. 

Its good to see that i am not the only but also a worry as i am sure there will be more with the same fault.Ford charged me £20 for a loan car just to tell me the car is fine when its not.If they don`t start taking me seriously i will seek advice from trading standards.

[Mark-UK]

Just a note to those that may be a little confused,  auto hold and hill start assist are not the same thing, and you can't have them both active at the same time, it's one or the other..

 

[Gilli]

14 hours ago, Comares2001 said:

I think some people are confusing 2 features here .On the MK4  ,autohold is not an auto handbrake as such. It operates and holds on the footbrakes much the same as hill start assist except on any level. Its easy enough to make sure its operated as there is an icon that should light on dashboard display. If it is disabled for some reason this icon is greyed out. Additionally on manual transmission vehicles ,if the autohold  switch is turned on then when the engine is switched off the handbrake will automatically engage ( if this has not already been done with handbrake switch,) When the handbrake engages, a warning on the screen informs you this has happened.

 

Hi. Thank you for your input. The greyed our icon appears in circumstances when auto hold is not available,  although the feature is switched on and operating. These occasions are set out in the handbook. When auto hold is switched on and available at a stop, it is clear it is operating by the little green A. When it switches itself off, the light on the button goes off and nothing appears in the display. So for me it is not a ‘I am switched on but under the current circumstances I am not available ‘ issue. Once you return to the recognised driving parameters it is once more available. This is a ‘ you switched me on but I have decided to turn myself off without telling you’ issue. It won’t work again until you hit the auto hold button. 
i understand that hiil start assist is a very short hold on a hill for pulling away purposes. I had this feature on my previous car. It is not a permanent hill hold feature. But auto hold is. When working,  it will hold you until you pull away. 
The parking brake should operate automatically on switch off of engine. I think what we are saying is that sometimes it doesn’t because auto hold has switched itself off without permission and you have to apply it manually using the electronic hand brake. My car is manual not an automatic. I wonder if the system does not work so well in a manual car. 
Everything about driving these high tech cars becomes more complicated with the need to read many instructions becoming more important. You would need a day of instruction to properly take in all the features. I’m still discovering some! But there is only so much time you can actually spend sitting on the drive going through every little feature and watching You tube videos of how to do stuff.  
But  how the different braking works together is important. And it should function as designed. 
and I fully admit that there were times I didn’t depress the brake pedal enough to trigger the auto hold and I had to make sure I did so. But this is not that problem either. 
Everything you said is absolutely correct, and I wish that it was just a misunderstanding that I could rectify . But unfortunately, auto hold switching itself off is a fault on my car.  That is what  is causing the problems. 

 

[Gilli]

33 minutes ago, Mark-UK said:

Just a note to those that may be a little confused,  auto hold and hill start assist are not the same thing, and you can't have them both active at the same time, it's one or the other..

 

Yes that makes sense. So if you didn’t have auto hold operating and you were holding the car on the foot brake and then pulling off without doing a traditional hill start. That is, not holding the brake on until you find the bite, replicating a handbrake hill start. That was how it worked on my 2015 car. 

[Gilli]

22 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

The main problem is the dealers will not update any/all the software, just the modules they absolutely have to. I think it has to do with the fact that Ford won't pay them.

Yes, autohold is mainly controlled by the ABS module but also controlled by the BCM and the IPC (instrument cluster) and I believe the PCM, if all the software levels are different it can cause more problems once you have updated. The dealers don't seem to grasp this at all.

Plug the bl00dy car in and update????

I would say the only way to ensure it gets done is to ask to see the ETIS screen when you take the car in.

Ask them if they are going to update ALL the modules and then look at ETIS again when you pick it up to see if it has been done.

If not phone Ford customer relations and get them to tell them to do it

Hi Dave. What we all need is cars that work. Not a computer on wheels. Lol. 
What you say makes sense. My car was in last week for nearly two days. They said they had updated all the modules. I’m gathering myself to go back to Ford again with a complaint. It’s all becoming very wearisome. I think the dealers are struggling to keep up themselves with the rate of innovation. 

[DaveT70]

2 hours ago, Gilli said:

Hi Dave. What we all need is cars that work. Not a computer on wheels. Lol. 
What you say makes sense. My car was in last week for nearly two days. They said they had updated all the modules. I’m gathering myself to go back to Ford again with a complaint. It’s all becoming very wearisome. I think the dealers are struggling to keep up themselves with the rate of innovation. 

Hi Gilli,

What's wrong with yours?

[rayferry]

I have had similar problems with the Auto Hold system as the original poster, I have never been able to find the sequence of events that turn it off I continually had to turn it back on.

I must say my vehicle has been a disaster from the day I drove it from the dealership.

Here is the problems I have had;

3 November 2018 -  vehicle delivered
November 2018 - Sync 3 issues reported and Park Assist first failures
December 2018 - Park Assist failures
January 2019 - Park Assist Failures
February 2019 - Map and Automatic Headlight issues found
February 2019 - Parking Sensors failure, Telematics module failure, vehicle in the dealer’s workshop for a week.
May 2019 - Sync 3 update installed, Entertainment system fixed, Map updated to version F7 but still out of date regarding the Queensferry crossing.
May 2019 - Vehicle in workshop for updates that can be applied now, Automatic headlights now function as they should, Park Assist no failures in a week.
May 2019 - Warning messages, ESC service Due, Auto Collision not available. Dealer clears message and sends report to Ford technical. This is a known problem that an applied update has caused!!!
June 2019 -  Climate control system failure, No warm air is delivered to the driver side of the vehicle. 
Dealer applies climate control update to cure the problem.
July 2019, - Fully functioning 2019 Ford Focus no park Assist failures for 30 days.

December 2019 USB playback is unreliable and still no map updates from F7 version

Today January 28th Both front and rear heated screens not working.

Phoned the dealer to book it in and go back again for the above fault. I found a similar post on this site for a Fiesta regarding the heated screens and the dealer changed the battery to cure the fault.

As you can see from the post below the dealer gave me a quick fix for the park assist failures, as they were fed up resetting for me.

During all these problems I was in constant email and phone contact with customer services who to put it mildly were absolutely useless, I even wrote a letter of complaint to the CEO of Ford in the US but they just passed it back to the UK. I was offered a free service by Ford but I declined the offer.

As you can imagine I am really p*****d off with this vehicle and Ford.

 

 

 

[Gilli]

14 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

Hi Gilli,

What's wrong with yours?

A catalogue of intermittent software issues and failures. Here goes. 
SYNCH 3 NAVIGATION CRASH

Live update has never worked properly. I never get a live update to my navigation. 

The first serious problem occurred on February 21st during a drive to London, when the Navigation system completely froze and left us without direction in an unfamiliar  city. Driving on busy London roads, we were unable to know what to do with the system to start it functioning again.  We did eventually arrive at the hotel and had to leave the car with the navigation screen still frozen and the system unable to shut down. It remained like that for much of the evening, but by the next morning had reset itself. Fortunately, on this occasion, I was driving with my husband and we were able to get to our destination as a team, without the car navigation system.  I was able to use my phone to help us find the hotel.

The navigation and screen freezing continued over a period of several weeks and I had to go back to the dealer who tried to reset it in some way. It continued to happen periodically until during a further visit a dealer update was installed. However, in the meantime, there were several occasions when the navigation system let me down and left me without direction in an unfamiliar location. These were occasions when I was driving alone and were, as you can understand, unnerving and problematic.

BRAKING SYSTEM FAILURE

Apart from the difficulties with the navigation system, there were frequent error messages about Auto Hold and Hill Start Assist which meant they failed to function as designed. Sometimes there were no error messages, just a failure to function.

The way this manifested itself was as follows. The auto hold system frequently turned itself off completely randomly and the car failed to hold on steep hills unexpectedly. This meant I was actively avoiding any steep junctions I was so worried the brakes would not operate as expected. When you tried to pull away in such circumstances the car would roll back as hill start assist would not operate either and I had to learn to use the electronic handbrake as an alternative. This involved much reading of the handbook and experimentation on a less steep and busy hill near my house until I felt confident to be able to do a manual type hill start using an electronic brake instead of a handbrake, a manoeuvre I carried out frequently on my regular drives as where I live is situated on top of hills which ever way you travel. 

At this point I decided to revert to only using the handbrake manually.I had problems visiting my son in Newquay as he lives in a very hilly area and his drive is quite steep. I could park on it but it was incredibly difficult to drive off it as auto hold  would often not be available and so the car would roll before you could do the pedals to pull away. Again, I had to hold on the electronic brake for performing a safe hill start. It is described in the manual how to do this.  

PARK PILOT

Park pilot malfunctioned frequently. Many random messages to say it was not available. To be honest, I really don’t use this as it doesn’t seem to be a very efficient way of parking in a busy car park and I am pretty confident to manually park. I think by the time the car would perform this function, other car park users would be irate! 

 ADDRESSING THESE INITIAL ISSUES

The car went in for work for a whole day. Eventually the Synch stopped freezing after the second attempt. However, it unexpectedly failed again in October. See later point in this letter.

oil CHANGE REQUIRed 

After 3000 miles there was a message to say the car needed to have an oil change. It went in again for this to be carried out. 3000 miles??? I was told by the service desk that this was not an isolated incident, but that they had been instructed by Ford to change the oil under the warranty.

After a further 3000 miles, the oil warning came on again and the car had to spend another day at the service department while they changed the oil.  They asked me the usual questions about short journeys etc and I reassured them that in fact the car is used for making longer journeys and for short about town journeys we use my husband's car.  By this time the car had travelled to Cornwall and back (about 700 miles) and up and down to Sheffield for three days (90 miles per day) In addition the car does three regular journeys a week, a round trip of over 20 miles.  So they agreed with me that the distances were acceptable for a diesel car. However, on both occasions when the oil needed to be changed, they said that the oil was degraded.  

there was a recall on this and it was allegedly fixed last week  

BONNET PAINT FLAW

There was a flaw in the bonnet paint at delivery and it was in for three days being re-sprayed at the paint shop. It appeared to be damaged caused during manufacture that had not been picked up or that something had damaged the paintwork after completion. It was admittedly a small blemish, but I was concerned that if it was not addressed, it could invalidate the warranty for the paintwork overall.  The Ford assessor said that it needed to have a full bonnet respray. 

CONTINUED ERROR MESSAGES AND COMPUTER GLITCHES

The error messages and computer glitches continued. Auto hold and hill start continued to fail. Now, they were not just messages, the whole system needed to be rebooted by stopping the car, cutting the ignition, exiting the car and going away for a little while, or a long while, to reset the system.  The car went in again. Things improved

EMERGENCY CALL FAILURE

Just when I was beginning to relax, the emergency call system failed. It said it required a service. It took me some time to reset it and it required that I pull in, stop the car. Get out of the car, wait, get back in the car and restart the engine. It then functioned again. But during the period of driving before I was able to stop, I did not have the benefit of this very essential function. And yes, I drove cars for years without it, but if I buy a car that advertises this as a great feature, I don’t want it to fail on me.This failure has happened three times in total while I have been driving alone. I have been in the mitirway and it wouldn’t reset until I stopped and the car was left overnight.

PRE COLLISION ASSIST

The next thing that started to happen was the message that pre-collision assist had failed. I had this error message several times. Again, the whole system needed a long reboot to go away. 

ESC SERVICE REQUIRED

The 'car' also told me it needed an ESC service.

It took several attempts to get rid of this error message. Again, an overnight stop was needed before it stopped popping up.  

FURTHER ISSUES WITH AUTO HOLD AND HILL START

The auto hold and hill start had been briefly fixed. But during the last month or so they are randomly turning off again. Sometimes I get the error message rotgut  auto hold has malfunctioned.  It can only be reset by stopping the car. Turning off the engine and opening the door. On their occasions I find that I pull up and brake (firmly) , but the auto hold is not functioning. This is particularly troublesome when parking on a slight incline as the parking brake also fails to function as designed and the car will roll. I can never rely on it properly working so am constantly on edge and checking for the little green icon before I release the foot brake. But this is not how the car was designed to work. Auto hold shouldn’t just turn itself off, along with the park brake function. Recently, I pulled up to park in  at my son’s house. There is a slight fall towards his garden fence. I stopped the car as normal and the park brake failed to engage as it should do, and I had to swiftly use the foot brake to stop the car rolling. I noticed that the auto hold light had also gone out. 

I never know when a system I use and have purchased the car for, will fail. Some can be reset, but not while you are driving down the motorway!!

MAJOR DISCONCERTING FAILURE

On 25/10/19 things came to a head when the navigation failed again during a lone journey to Cornwall on the M5 and my speed info told me I should be driving at 20 mph!! I stopped at Gloucester to try and reset, but the navigation system continued to be frozen and completely non-functioning. The speed limiter continued to register 20mph all the way to my son's home in Newquay, despite another stop before I got there. I was also unable to use Apple Car Play as an alternative as the console was completely unresponsive to any input.

That system did not return to normal until the car had been standing overnight.  During the rest of the drive, my speed sign recognition no longer functioned either, it was greyed out, and so I couldn’t use the intelligent speed limiter. I do use this frequently in unknown areas in order not to be caught out by frequent changes of limit.  A downside is that they pick up 20mph signs from side roads and suddenly try to bring your limit down from 50mph. It also frequently fails to pick up the variable speed limits from the overhead gantries on the SMART motorways. This is despite the fact that Ford advertising says that it does pick these signs uP 

Again, I don’t rely on this. The car in these circumstances does not replace driver awareness and I understand it has limitations. However, complete failure to recognise any signs or limits on a long journey is NOT acceptable 

FAILURE OF APPLE CAR PLAY AND RECOGNITION OF DEVICES

I am also experiencing problems with the unit recognising my iPod and iPhone. This means that it toggles in and out of carplay when I am using their navigation systems and leaves me with a screen going between the Ford screen and the Apple car play screen. On several occasions it just does not see the iPod or the iPhone and the whole system again has to be restarted and the devices resynched. Or it gives the error message that the device is not available for the whole drive. But as this can happen during a drive, again it is inconvenient and dangerous for it to keep happening. If I am using this system to listen to BBC Sounds or Waze to navigate, I am left high and dry or toggling in and out of car play if I retune to DAB using the centre console. One minute I have the car play screen and then I am in the Ford screen listening to the radio. Incredibly frustrating and difficult when I am again, on my own, using navigation systems.

At the moment I have to frequently unpair and re-pair the phone and the bluetooth to maintain a connection that I can use properly hands free using the eye level mini screen in front of me.  But frequently the car does not pick up the iPod or the iPhone automatically. I have given up now on Apple car play as it just does not function reliably at all. 

AUTO START AND STOP SYSTEM

My previous car was a 2015 Ford Focus Titanium, it is still being driven by my son, and it is functioning well.  I am used to engaging the auto stop function when pulled up for longer than 3 seconds. 

In this new car, the function only happens occasionally. So, for example, during the 350 mile drive to Cornwall, it did not turn off the engine during the whole drive, despite motorway driving.(There are often traffic stoppages on the M5 when you would expect the system to kick in) When I toggled to the info screen it said it was off due to charging taking place.  But one would have assumed this would have happened during a 350 mile drive.  It functioned briefly on the return journey when I had to take a detour around Gloucester due to a motorway closure. But then it stopped functioning again for at least two weeks. On this occasion the message on the info screen said the function was operating normally. In any given month, the auto stop function might work for parts of about 3 drives in total during that month. But sometimes it isn't working due to battery charging, but most often it is on normal function but not operating.  In the summer I thought it was when I was using air con now and again, but I don't use it at this time of year. I rarely use the heated seats, and all other functions are normal. So I am wondering if there is something wrong with this system as well.  This car rarely turns off in queueing traffic which seems to be really strange, seeing as I bought it to be environmentally friendly. I wonder if the battery is not charging efficiently.

PRE COLLISION ASSIST

Most recently I have had problems with the pre-collision assist suddenly activating when I have been in normal driving conditions and not near, or in danger of colliding, with other vehicles or pedestrians on the road. This is quite a scary thing to happen as it certainly is loud and visual. So I am assuming this system is also malfunctioning.  This has happened unexpectedly in total three times in perfectly normal driving conditions with no other vehicles even near to me, or I to them. 

NO KEY DETECTED

On Sunday, had the very unsettling experience of getting into the car and the car being unable to ‘see’ the key in order to start, despite the fact that this was located on the front seat. It just kept flagging ‘No key detected’. I got out of the car and tried it with the locks etc and the car opened with the key activated and also locked by touch and unlocked again by touch. I got back into the vehicle and it just said again that no key was detected. In the end I had to go into the house and find the spare key and then car worked just fine. 

I now know about the secret place for the key in these circumstances  it would have been a useful thing to know on delivery  

TIME WITHOUT THE CAR

The car has been in for a total of ten days, and things are partially corrected on each visit, but it is not long before another error appears.

It feels like I am driving a faulty computer, and not a car. I can reboot my PC or my iPad without too much inconvenience, but not a car that I am driving at 70mph on the motorway, or in busy city traffic

the car was in last week for nearly two days and they updated many systems. Unfortunately it also knocked out the heat from the driver side blowers, so I had to go back and have these re-set and recalibrated so I don’t freeze! 

Auto hold still not working and auto start stop worked until Friday,  but now it is not working again  

I wanted the car taken back but it looks like there is no chance of that  

So that is the story. A really lovely car to drive ruined by failing to function as advertised.

Sorry it is such a long account but you did ask!

Gillian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gilli]

8 hours ago, rayferry said:

I have had similar problems with the Auto Hold system as the original poster, I have never been able to find the sequence of events that turn it off I continually had to turn it back on.

I must say my vehicle has been a disaster from the day I drove it from the dealership.

Here is the problems I have had;

3 November 2018 -  vehicle delivered
November 2018 - Sync 3 issues reported and Park Assist first failures
December 2018 - Park Assist failures
January 2019 - Park Assist Failures
February 2019 - Map and Automatic Headlight issues found
February 2019 - Parking Sensors failure, Telematics module failure, vehicle in the dealer’s workshop for a week.
May 2019 - Sync 3 update installed, Entertainment system fixed, Map updated to version F7 but still out of date regarding the Queensferry crossing.
May 2019 - Vehicle in workshop for updates that can be applied now, Automatic headlights now function as they should, Park Assist no failures in a week.
May 2019 - Warning messages, ESC Service Due, Auto Collision not available. Dealer clears message and sends report to Ford technical. This is a known problem that an applied update has caused!!!
June 2019 -  Climate control system failure, No warm air is delivered to the driver side of the vehicle. 
Dealer applies climate control update to cure the problem.
July 2019, - Fully functioning 2019 Ford Focus no park Assist failures for 30 days.

December 2019 USB playback is unreliable and still no map updates from F7 version

Today January 28th Both front and rear heated screens not working.

Phoned the dealer to book it in and go back again for the above fault. I found a similar post on this site for a Fiesta regarding the heated screens and the dealer changed the battery to cure the fault.

As you can see from the post below the dealer gave me a quick fix for the park assist failures, as they were fed up resetting for me.

During all these problems I was in constant email and phone contact with customer services who to put it mildly were absolutely useless, I even wrote a letter of complaint to the CEO of Ford in the US but they just passed it back to the UK. I was offered a free service by Ford but I declined the offer.

As you can imagine I am really p*****d off with this vehicle and Ford.

 

 

 

Hi Ray

i have listed all my problems on a reply to Dave. 
seems we have had a similar experience. I noticed my USB update didn’t update my map either. However it told me it is up to date. 
it is so disappointing as I love everything else about my car,  but have already decided this Is one we are not buying at the end of the three years as we have done with the previous two. Still in the family,  trouble free. 2011 and 2015 models.  
 

[Guy Heaton]

The oil change required thing is a con

How can Ford quote official service intervals of 18k/2years if the oil counter does a completely different thing?

[DaveT70]

Hi Gilli,

I can't help with most of your issues other than when you take the car in next ask them to show you the ETIS screen which shows the software updates available for your car.

Then demand/request that they update ALL the modules and check on the ETIS screen when you pick the vehicle up that they have been done.

Camera faults can pop up when the Wiper Blades are not clearing the sensor area correctly, check and replace the Wiper Blades and see if this helps. The passenger wiper blade wipes the sensors.

oil life warning:

Just go into the menu on your instrument cluster and "Reset oil life", just ignore the warnings, the oil is changed every 10,000 on the diesels anyway.

Sync 3 crashes:

Buy yourself a decent USB stick and format it to "EXFAT" and call it SYNC

Go onto the ford website (Google Sync 3 updates UK) and follow the instructions of how to download, extract and install the update for your system and update it yourself.

Make sure "automatic updates" is switched on in your sync settings before inserting the USB and try to perform the update when you are going on a longish journey as it can take up to 30 mins and must be completed in one go.

When it has finished it will say "Update Complete, please remove USB" on a bar at the top of the screen. DO NOT remove the USB until you have powered down the car, open and closed the door and restarted. Once you restart it will show "UPDATING SOFTWARE" again for a few seconds while the system is writing the XML file onto the stick. Now you can remove it when it says so.

Put the stick back in your PC enter your VIN again and click that you have updated, the PC will search for the XML file on the stick and upload it to the Ford servers so that they Know your Sync has been updated.

Re format your stick ready for the next time.

Now go back into your Sync settings and turn Wi-Fi off and automatic updates off and it will be trouble free.

Flashing car play:

I had this issue too, it is to do with the latest IOS, you MUST use a genuine Apple cable only and make sure you haven't got a "fluffy hole" on your iPhone. It doesn't matter how expensive the cable is your use, if it's not a genuine Apple cable you will get issues.

Hope this helps

[Mark-UK]

2 hours ago, Guy Heaton said:

The oil change required thing is a con

How can Ford quote official service intervals of 18k/2years if the oil counter does a completely different thing?

This is due to oil dilution on a diesel according to my dealer. To clean the DPF the engine pushes more fuel in to get a hotter exhaust to burn off the DPF, if all the fuel is not used it goes down the valves and dilutes the oil. Personally I smell a bit of bull crap here, but there has now been a software update that fixes this message.

[rayferry]

11 hours ago, Gilli said:

Hi Ray

i have listed all my problems on a reply to Dave. 
seems we have had a similar experience. I noticed my USB update didn’t update my map either. However it told me it is up to date. 
it is so disappointing as I love everything else about my car,  but have already decided this Is one we are not buying at the end of the three years as we have done with the previous two. Still in the family,  trouble free. 2011 and 2015 models.  
 

You seem to have had all the problems I have had and possibly more, as you say it a great car but totally let down by the software which is full of bugs.

40 years of Ford ownership the last 15 months have been a total disaster!!!!!!

[Gilli]

6 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

Hi Gilli,

I can't help with most of your issues other than when you take the car in next ask them to show you the ETIS screen which shows the software updates available for your car.

Then demand/request that they update ALL the modules and check on the ETIS screen when you pick the vehicle up that they have been done.

Camera faults can pop up when the wiper blades are not clearing the sensor area correctly, check and replace the wiper blades and see if this helps. The passenger wiper blade wipes the sensors.

Oil life warning:

Just go into the menu on your instrument cluster and "Reset oil life", just ignore the warnings, the oil is changed every 10,000 on the diesels anyway.

Sync 3 crashes:

Buy yourself a decent USB stick and format it to "EXFAT" and call it SYNC

Go onto the ford website (Google Sync 3 updates UK) and follow the instructions of how to download, extract and install the update for your system and update it yourself.

Make sure "automatic updates" is switched on in your sync settings before inserting the USB and try to perform the update when you are going on a longish journey as it can take up to 30 mins and must be completed in one go.

When it has finished it will say "Update Complete, please remove USB" on a bar at the top of the screen. DO NOT remove the USB until you have powered down the car, open and closed the door and restarted. Once you restart it will show "UPDATING SOFTWARE" again for a few seconds while the system is writing the XML file onto the stick. Now you can remove it when it says so.

Put the stick back in your PC enter your VIN again and click that you have updated, the PC will search for the XML file on the stick and upload it to the Ford servers so that they Know your Sync has been updated.

Re format your stick ready for the next time.

Now go back into your Sync settings and turn Wi-Fi off and automatic updates off and it will be trouble free.

Flashing car play:

I had this issue too, it is to do with the latest IOS, you MUST use a genuine Apple cable only and make sure you haven't got a "fluffy hole" on your iPhone. It doesn't matter how expensive the cable is your use, if it's not a genuine Apple cable you will get issues.

Hope this helps

Thank you, Dave. Especially info on the Apple lead. I swapped it for a genuine Apple one - I had a fancy gold braided one-  and it now works fine just now in my journey.
the oil life was reset by the dealer and last week they carried out an oil degradation recall update. Didn’t even know about it. They are hoping this will fix the problem. 
I will take on board the ETIS suggestion when I go back to the dealer. Thank you. 
Hopefully, Ford will start to take notice and fix all the other bugs. 
 

[Alex.S]

I gave up on Apple CarPlay. Is it possible it was CarPlay that caused sync to crash? Only thing I used CarPlay for was music, also had to use google or Apple maps (which often froze) when I prefer Ford Navigation. I now turned off Apple CarPlay and use Apple music thru bluetooth, lets me use Ford Nav at same time. 

Have you turned pre collision avoidance onto low? 

Sorry I can’t help with the other issues...

[Carlord01]

On 1/27/2020 at 11:37 AM, DaveT70 said:

The main problem is the dealers will not update any/all the software, just the modules they absolutely have to. I think it has to do with the fact that Ford won't pay them.

Yes, autohold is mainly controlled by the ABS module but also controlled by the BCM and the IPC (instrument cluster) and I believe the PCM, if all the software levels are different it can cause more problems once you have updated. The dealers don't seem to grasp this at all.

Plug the bl00dy car in and update????

I would say the only way to ensure it gets done is to ask to see the ETIS screen when you take the car in.

Ask them if they are going to update ALL the modules and then look at ETIS again when you pick it up to see if it has been done.

If not phone Ford customer relations and get them to tell them to do it

I think I will mention this to my dealer, thanks. I have a Focus Vignale, got it in July 2019. The handbrake was really bad when I first got it, and always seemed to switch off when the Ford Sync would crash. I then put it in the garage and it was fixed...for a while. A software update/compatibility issue makes sense to me
It randomly switched itself off today (again, and its always at the least convenient time) 
Also had a ping for the Tyre pressure sensor for the back right tyre, saying theres a malfunction. First Ford I have ever had issues with...its a shame, cos the vignale is like driving a yacht.