Electronic Tailgate lock Intermittent

[Kataphrakt]

Hey all, just started noticing this over the 4th of july weekend. Truck is at about 8000 miles, and my electronic tailgate lock has started intermittently getting stuck in locked or unlocked positions. Manually unlocking/locking it frees it up for a bit. The state of lock on the tailgate seems to switch "randomly" (after a drive i might go up to it and find it locked or unlocked).

At this point i'm fairly sure what the issue is -- the lock actuator. I've been troubleshooting a similar type of issue "lockup - startup" with a different actuator. This is usually something in the early stages of the actuator's geartrain sticking and stalling the motor before it moves enough to have the inertia to overcome the friction. It's incredibly fickle when i've seen it in outside mirrors -- one can take a mirror with a locked-up actuator and tap it causing it to free up. Sometimes disassembling and reassembling the actuator can solve the issue making the core issue infuriatingly hard to diagnose. Another possible root cause is powering the actuator at a lower voltage, causing it to wedge into position where once powered at normal voltages it will never move. I've seen powerfold actuators powered up at 4v wedge themselves in such that they wont continue their movement at even 16v.

I'll be taking my truck in next week to have it looked at, and i'm hoping they might just let me keep the actuator so i can poke around in it; however, i expect Ford will really want it back so it can end up on the desk of some rather unfortunate engineer...

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[Frenchy]

Hey all, just started noticing this over the 4th of july weekend. Truck is at about 8000 miles, and my electronic tailgate lock has started intermittently getting stuck in locked or unlocked positions. Manually unlocking/locking it frees it up for a bit. The state of lock on the tailgate seems to switch "randomly" (after a drive i might go up to it and find it locked or unlocked).

At this point i'm fairly sure what the issue is -- the lock actuator. I've been troubleshooting a similar type of issue "lockup - startup" with a different actuator. This is usually something in the early stages of the actuator's geartrain sticking and stalling the motor before it moves enough to have the inertia to overcome the friction. It's incredibly fickle when i've seen it in outside mirrors -- one can take a mirror with a locked-up actuator and tap it causing it to free up. Sometimes disassembling and reassembling the actuator can solve the issue making the core issue infuriatingly hard to diagnose. Another possible root cause is powering the actuator at a lower voltage, causing it to wedge into position where once powered at normal voltages it will never move. I've seen powerfold actuators powered up at 4v wedge themselves in such that they wont continue their movement at even 16v.

I'll be taking my truck in next week to have it looked at, and i'm hoping they might just let me keep the actuator so i can poke around in it; however, i expect Ford will really want it back so it can end up on the desk of some rather unfortunate engineer...

If you would like to keep the actuator I would suggest staying in contact with the parts manager. If I remember correctly they have to hold onto warranty parts for 60-90 days before they get rid of parts. If lucky they dont have to send it back and you can poke around in it later.