Will Forscan work the same on an S-Max?

[mjt]

I know I could ask this on the Mondeo/S-Max forum but I don't frequent them and I'm sure the experts on here can answer my queries.

My son runs a 2013 S-Max Titanium 2.0L diesel. He's just told me that his n/s rear passenger door won't unlock. He returned from a week's holiday yesterday to find his battery too low to start the car. Breakdown got it started and it held up overnight and he's been running it without problem today.

We were wondering whether the locking problem could be due to a faulty door control module which had kept the canbus alive while he was on holiday. I've offered to use Forscan to check for codes but then wondered if it'll work the same on a Mondeo-based vehicle. For example does the Mondeo also have two different bus speeds?

[TomsFocus]

Yes.

[mjt]

Thanks for that very concise reply Tom

A bit more information has now come to light. It turns out that when the breakdown guy was trying to get a good connection to jump-start the car the central locking went mad. I'd already suggested that the jump start might have glitched the system (I didn't think of it until after I'd started this thread) and that it might be a good idea to disconnect the battery for 10 minutes to reboot the systems. Tomorrow I'm going to check for codes and then try a battery disconnect after which I'll report back.

If this turns out to be the fix it'll still leave the question of what flattened the battery over a week, though, unless the DTC's show something.

[unofix]

Central locking is confused.

Before disconnecting the battery negative lead make sure to have the drivers window fully open, at least if the locking goes crazy you can still get in.

Disconnect the negative lead and wait 10 minutes. Reconnect and wait 5 minutes and the locking will have reset.

FORScan works on almost every Ford from around 2001 onwards (not the Fiat derived KA). For vehicles 2013 onwards the use of the new vLinker FS cable is recommend instead of the older ELM327 cable.

[mjt]

Thanks for the advice @unofix. I'll report back tomorrow.

[mjt]

Ok, update. The battery disconnect fixed the central locking problem but a child lock error that had popped up beforehand is still present. The disconnect also upset the one-touch windows and global opening/closing as expected but my son has managed to reset that.

I must admit I made a bit of a hash of reading the DTCs because I use Forscan so infrequently that I forget how to do things. There were, unsurprisingly, a lot of them when I checked before disconnecting the battery. I thought I had cleared them but I only cleared the log (after having saved it), so when I checked again after reconnecting there were still a lot present which must have been hangovers. I saved the log again and this time properly cleared the codes. However the child lock error is still present even after several ignition cycles. Has anyone any ideas about this?

Edit: I've just been advised the error has cleared by itself so all is good now.

[unofix]

2 hours ago, mjt said:

However the child lock error is still present even after several ignition cycles. Has anyone any ideas about this?

For some reason best known to Ford, the child locks don't complete a reset cycle until the vehicle has been driven a few miles after power is restored. I've seen this happen before on an Ecosport.

Glad you are all sorted now and everything is working normally again.

[mjt]

I'm back for some more help. My son has reported problems with the audio turning off, needing him to get out of the car, lock it and then get in again to reset it. If I've understood him correctly the radio doesn't power down, the audio just seems to mute. I seem to remember at least one other thread on here about something very similar to this but don't know where to find it or if there was ever a resolution so any pointers would be gratefully accepted.

The problem has been around since the jump-start and the battery disconnect didn't solve it.

[mjt]

Bump.

[unofix]

Just to remind anyone reading this thread, it is about a 2013 S-Max Titanium 2.0L diesel.

It sounds like some module has a bit of a software glitch since the jump start incident. I would be surprised if this is an actual hardware issue since some of the time things work.

You could use FORScan and run self tests on the BCM, APIM, IPC and see if any errors occur.

[mjt]

Maybe I should have started a new thread about this in the S-Max forum but as it was associated with the original problem I described in this thread I thought I could resurrect it. Also the symptoms seemed to match what I remembered reading in a thread elsewhere on this Focus forum so I was hoping that if it had been resolved the same might apply to the radio in the S-Max.

I've only ever used Forscan for reading and clearing DTCs so performing tests will be a learning curve. Time to RTFM .

[mjt]

Well, this problem hasn't been fixed so I'm back for more.

I'm convinced I've seen this reported elsewhere but I can't find anything using the Forum search function. I've even tried a general web search (using DuckDuckGo rather than Google) and that didn't turn anything up either. It's quite frustrating.

I've checked for new DTCs and all are clear apart from these two:

===ACM DTC U0140:00-28===
Code: U0140 - Lost Communication With Body Control Module

Status:
 - Previously Set DTC - Not Present at Time of Request
 - Malfunction Indicator Lamp is Off for this DTC

Module: Audio Control Module

===END ACM DTC U0140:00-28===

===IPC DTC B1A84:51-2B===
Code: B1A84 - Car Configuration Data

Additional Fault Symptom:
 - Not Programmed

Status:
 - DTC Present at Time of Request
 - Malfunction Indicator Lamp is Off for this DTC

Module: Instrument Panel Control Module

===END IPC DTC B1A84:51-2B===

I've also run the tests on the ACM and it reported no issues found. I'm now wondering if it needs to have it's asbuilt data reloaded. Do you think that would work?

I asked my son to describe exactly what's happening and this is his reply:

"When the radio is on, you’ll hear a loud pop, and the sound stops completely. The radio remains on and fully active so you can switch channels etc but no sound comes out of the Speakers. The only way I’ve found to clear the issue is to turn off the engine, lock and immediately unlock the car. When you restart the dash** and engine, the issue has cleared.

So for whatever reason the locking and unlocking process seems to reset things.

If you just turn off the dash** or the radio, the reset doesn’t occur.

Curiously I’ve discovered that the bluetooth phone system is not affected by this if you're on a call. But once the issue occurs, the phone system works but sometimes no sound comes from the Speakers.

 

From what I can see, our head unit is a Sony CD DAB.

There were 3 specs ( 6000cd, Sony cd, Sony cd dab) and ours is the top one."

 

** I'm presuming by 'dash' he means ignition.

He also said it will go for several weeks without faulting then do it several times in one journey. His journeys are almost exclusively an hour or more extra-urban.

[unofix]

So just to clarify the issue:

The fault is that randomly the Audio stops working, but everything including the radio seems to remain powered up and working. Is that correct ?

Switching off the car and locking the doors causes all modules to shut down and reboot when the car is opened up. This would force the Audio Control Module to reload and restart, so would suggest that it has a glitch in the software/firmware probably caused by the vehicle being jump started.

Personally at this point, I'd look at getting a used ACM, as the safest option.

[DaveT70]

I think the IPC needs it's asbuilt data reloading.

You are getting comms and config issues

I suggest also updating the firmware in the ACM and possibly IPC also

But you could still, also have low voltage from your battery, unless it's new

[mjt]

I'm inclined to agree. It does seem most likely that the jump start glitched something in one or more modules but I don't feel confident with trying to reload the asbuilt myself. I think I'll have to suggest he gets it done at a dealer and swallows the cost.

[mjt]

Just to add an update: I visited my son over the Bank Holiday and took the opportunity to re-check the DTCs. This time I remembered to try to clear them. The one related to the ACM cleared ok but the IPC one won't clear. It would be interesting to see if the ACM one reappears next time the radio misbehaves but it may be a while before I get the chance to check.

There were no new codes anywhere else.

I've given him a copy of the log file and left it with him. As I don't feel confident with trying to re-install the asbuilt data for the IPC I've told him if he wants it done he'll have to go to a Ford dealership and take the hit.

It does seem odd, though, that it's such a random fault. If there's a firmware corruption somewhere why isn't it more repeatable?

[unofix]

4 hours ago, mjt said:

If there's a firmware corruption somewhere why isn't it more repeatable?

A good question and if you find an answer let me know. Some days my laptop will crash 3 times in the day with blue screen of death, and then it will be fine for a week with no issues 🤔

[mjt]

That's Windows for you .

Since sfc obviously didn't cure your problem the only other thing I can suggest is to allow MSE or Windows Defender (can't remember if you said which version of Windows you were using) to do a full scan. This can take quite a while, possibly several hours, but you can continue working while it does it's thing in the background.

Defender also has an 'offline' mode that can catch things that install themselves during boot-up so once your full scan has completed and you've dealt with anything that's been flagged up it's worth doing the offline scan as well.

[unofix]

2 hours ago, mjt said:

Windows Defender

 

[TomsFocus]

Have you been looking at those dirty websites again?

Vauxhall Official Site™ | New Cars | Used Cars | Vans

Official Lexus Website | Luxury & Hybrid Cars | Lexus UK

[mjt]

Your screenshot shows it's only done a Quick Scan. You need to set it to do a Full Scan. I did a Full Scan yesterday on my desktop machine (using MSE on Windows 7) that I'm using for this post and it found a serious threat (a trojan) that it hadn't found on the normal Quick Scan that it does on a scheduled basis.

A Full Scan using Windows Defender on my laptop (Windows 10) found multiple threats that had escaped the normal scheduled scans.

[unofix]

2 hours ago, mjt said:

A Full Scan using Windows Defender on my laptop

Nothing found after a full scan 🤔

[mjt]

That's good. One less thing to worry about. There's always the Defender offline scan to try but it probably won't find anything.

I'm pretty much out of ideas, then, so you'll need someone with deeper computer knowledge than me. I'm assuming that Windows will detect faulty disk sectors and map them out dynamically but don't know if that's really how it works. Possibly a failing memory chip. You probably need to get some diagnostics done (FORScan for Windows? ).