What the heck happened to my Ranger?!

[CraigR209]

I’ve had the same thing happen to me, one time in six months. It would not respond to key fob. Manually unlocked and turned the key and it came to life. Nothing special done on previous trip and was parked in garage as usual.
I think it was OTA update and needed a reboot to wake up.

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[VegasRanger]

Is there a way to check when the last time it did a OTA update? Would be curious to see if that was it

 

[Dgc333]

I think it was OTA update and needed reboot to wake up.

Can't imagine that Ford would do OTA updates to the ECU, Sync yes but not to the ECU.

 

[KJRR]

Thinking about this...
Why do we accept odd, weird, gremlins in modern vehicles? Is it because we know there are computers in them and have accepted that our computers do this so it's OK for our cars to do this too?
If a car from the '70s had a similar issue, you knew something was going and would either wait for it to break, take it to the dealer or if you had the initiative, you could actually troubleshoot and track down the problem. Without youtube videos too, though a Chiltons may have been nearby.
Now we shrug it off and blame it on overly complicated systems that are in everything and have little hope of fixing. Hell, the dealers aren't able to help either, they just read tsb's, start swapping parts or upgrading software.
I know, it's so much 'better' with our safety and conveniences. But is it really?
Well this old man will stop reminiscing on a Sunday morning and go see if his truck is defrosted yet.

 

[NWRanger]

I had this happen a few times; I would go out thinking I had a dead battery, open and close the hood and bam. Truck would start fine.

Took it into service to get it checked out, they did a deep cycle test on the battery and tested fine. The only finding was one of the battery connection (can’t remember if it’s the positive or negative) was really loose…. Service tech said they tightened as much as it would go and was still not as snug as it should be. Told me if I keep having issues bring it back in and the they’ll replace it under warranty.

 

[MountainGoat]

I had this happen to me tonight. I open the ford app to call road side and I decided to try and start using the app and truck fired up. I think it was some sort of update.

I think I'm just going to never update Sync again. It works fine now and I don't want any changes or problems.

 

[Apples]

This is a no-no! "I do have my LED light bar and ham radio tapped directly into the battery,"

You need to read my wiring article: http://www.k0bg.com/wiring.html

 

[VTRanger]

Thinking about this...
Why do we accept odd, weird, gremlins in modern vehicles? Is it because we know there are computers in them and have accepted that our computers do this so it's OK for our cars to do this too?
If a car from the '70s had a similar issue, you knew something was going and would either wait for it to break, take it to the dealer or if you had the initiative, you could actually troubleshoot and track down the problem. Without youtube videos too, though a Chiltons may have been nearby.
Now we shrug it off and blame it on overly complicated systems that are in everything and have little hope of fixing. Hell, the dealers aren't able to help either, they just read tsb's, start swapping parts or upgrading software.
I know, it's so much 'better' with our safety and conveniences. But is it really?
Well this old man will stop reminiscing on a Sunday morning and go see if his truck is defrosted yet.

So true!

 

[JimJa]

Has anyone checked to see if a code popped up when this happens?

Have not had this happen on my Ranger, but did on my RS. It would start using my batter pack tho. A new battery fixed the problem (was traveling so...) but deep down I don't think that was the problem.

A good friend happens to be a Ford Tech and has been for 25 years. He said when a customer comes in with some unusual electrical problem with a code, he will erase the code and 95% of the time the problem never comes back. He said Ford engineers have told him it's because there is so much data going over the wires these days there is a once-in-awhile glitch that has no explanation and most times does not repeat itself.

 

[baybum10]

Had it happen once when the truck was two weeks old. It's now a year old and everything seems to be fine. Electric gremlins are why I won't trust self driving cars.

 

[mailbox4449]

Thinking about this...
Why do we accept odd, weird, gremlins in modern vehicles? Is it because we know there are computers in them and have accepted that our computers do this so it's OK for our cars to do this too?
If a car from the '70s had a similar issue, you knew something was going and would either wait for it to break, take it to the dealer or if you had the initiative, you could actually troubleshoot and track down the problem. Without youtube videos too, though a Chiltons may have been nearby.
Now we shrug it off and blame it on overly complicated systems that are in everything and have little hope of fixing. Hell, the dealers aren't able to help either, they just read tsb's, start swapping parts or upgrading software.
I know, it's so much 'better' with our safety and conveniences. But is it really?
Well this old man will stop reminiscing on a Sunday morning and go see if his truck is defrosted yet.

Amen!!

 

[GTGallop]

This is a no-no! "I do have my LED light bar and ham radio tapped directly into the battery,"

You need to read my wiring article: http://www.k0bg.com/wiring.html

How have I never seen your web page before? Bookmarked and Saved! Thanks!

 

[got3fords]

with such fine tolerances to voltages and currents on many computer driven components....consider a thrown code to be a very sensitive version of your electrical panel in your basement.
instead of requiring 5 to 10 amps above the rating to blow one....you only need milliamps or less to hiccup the flow of electrons and make that little computer monitoring all this stuff to wake up and throw a warning.
but just as fast as the hiccup came....it went.

I have a damn breaker in the basement that trips every once in a while. I have never figured out what causes it. It's not even loaded very much. I even put a new one in for yucks. Freakin' annoying.

 

[4x4AZ]

Dropping in to report an instance of this issue… went to dinner with a friend, came back out 45 mins later, truck wouldn’t unlock with keyfob. Assumed the fob battery was dead until I unlocked the truck and realize no lights were working. My truck is 6 months old, no way the battery was dead. Popped the hood, checked the battery cables, both were on perfectly tight. Still no power. Pulled the neg and positive terminals off, then put them back on and yep, just like nothing happened the truck came back to life. I did get a warning on the dash immediately telling me to put the key in to stop the alarm from going off? Not sure if that is relevant or just because I pulled the battery.

Pretty weird issue. I have no aftermarket electrical accessories whatsoever. Of course it would do this right before I leave on a 2000 mile road trip…. ??

 

[VegasRanger]

Dropping in to report an instance of this issue… went to dinner with a friend, came back out 45 mins later, truck wouldn’t unlock with keyfob. Assumed the fob battery was dead until I unlocked the truck and realize no lights were working. My truck is 6 months old, no way the battery was dead. Popped the hood, checked the battery cables, both were on perfectly tight. Still no power. Pulled the neg and positive terminals off, then put them back on and yep, just like nothing happened the truck came back to life. I did get a warning on the dash immediately telling me to put the key in to stop the alarm from going off? Not sure if that is relevant or just because I pulled the battery.

Pretty weird issue. I have no aftermarket electrical accessories whatsoever. Of course it would do this right before I leave on a 2000 mile road trip…. ??

Crazy. I still don’t know what caused it, but now I keep a 10mm wrench in my glovebox in case it does it again and I’m not at home. It hasn’t done it since though. I’d still like to figure out what caused it.

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