MaineFusion in the shop for failed restraint control module

[MaineFusion]

So I was driving home the other night on my 50mi commute from work when part way through the trip my dash lit up with more popup alerts than an infected Windows computer. I'd clear them and they'd keep coming back. Adding to the concern factor were lots of yellow icons that I normally only seen when starting the car. I stopped at the next service plaza and shut off the car thinking a reboot might resolve the issue. It was to no avail. It took me some time to figure out what all I lost, but it was apparent most of my advanced driver assist technologies were on the fritz.

 

Here's what I lost:

• cruise control
• collision avoidance
• lane keeping
• hill start assist
• back up assist
• advanced trak
• air bags

Just about the only advanced features I had still operating was BLIS and the backup camera. the hill start assist was the most annoying alert because it alarmed every single time the engine kicked in, which on a road with rolling hills is very frequently.

 

Although I lost the systems this past Thursday, today (Thursday) was the earliest I that the dealer had an availability and I had the ability to bring the car in. When I took the car in this morning the service representative took one look at my dash lights and said I'd need a loaner. When I asked if it was just for a day or two she gave me that "you wish" look. Without even plugging in any diagnostic device she said she was pretty sure my restraint control module had failed. She then said they had seen this issue quite a few times on Fusions and some other models recently and that it must be a pretty systemic problem because the modules are constantly on back order. When I asked how long the wait was she said sometimes a month or longer.

 

A few hours later she called to confirm that it was the restraint control module that had failed and that they would try to get one as quickly as possible, but was not overly optimistic about the time frame.

 

This means I've gone from driving my awesome 2013 FFH that is consistently getting me around 52 mpg on my 100mi round trip commute to a 2011 Fusion SE that is getting 29mpg and has none of the advance driving and comfort features I've become so used to.

 

At least this happened while I was under the full warrentee. But I am very bummed because I'm only about one tank of gas away from finally achieving a lifetime fuel economy rating of 47MPG. If I lose use of my FFH for a month, we will be into October and I will be running out of high MPG driving days before the coldness of fall sets in hard and my MPG starts dropping dramatically. Of course this is assuming that something doesn't happen to cause my lifetime MPG to get reset as part of the fix. I did take pictures of my dash, and could get an approximate lifetime by comparing the pre and post RCM transplant averages, but this wouldn't be the same as finally getting to see the big 47.0 appear for the full lifetime MPG after 30,000 miles of very careful driving.

[hybridbear]

That stinks!! I hope the part comes quickly. PM Crystal to get your CSM involved. They might be able to expedite the part.

[GrySql]

Waiting a month for a part is not a good plan. Do as HB says, get Crystal on the job so she can do her magic.

 

(BTW, I gave your Post a 'like' for the last paragraph. The rest was not so nice for you and I feel your pain)

[acdii]

Just curious, were you getting any random cross traffic faults?

[kbailey990]

I had to have the same replacement of the restraint module a few months ago. Same symptoms that mainefusion had of every warning light flashing at once. I was worried that it would cost a small fortune, since I was well over 45,000 miles by then. My service adviser called me back with good news: "safety systems are covered for 5 years, with no mileage override." I didn't question him further, but I was very happy that Ford stepped up and fixed it.

[MaineFusion]

Just curious, were you getting any random cross traffic faults?

 

I didn't order the active park assist package so I don't have front cross traffic, I only have rear cross traffic. It seems to be working fine, but is not as sensitive as I'd like.

 

I had to have the same replacement of the restraint module a few months ago. Same symptoms that mainefusion had of every warning light flashing at once. I was worried that it would cost a small fortune, since I was well over 45,000 miles by then. My service adviser called me back with good news: "safety systems are covered for 5 years, with no mileage override." I didn't question him further, but I was very happy that Ford stepped up and fixed it.

 

It is good to know these things are covered for five years unlimited mileage.

 

It is quite disorienting and distracting when all the alarms first go off at once isn't it? Maybe Ford should work on the way the alarms trigger so that a massive system failure doesn't cause a mess of alarms from becoming a major driving distraction.

 

When the alarms did go off I stopped at a service plaza and triggered a vehicle health report thinking they get sent to my dealer. I was pretty disappointed that these don't go to my dealer. It seems like them getting the reports before I could get the car into the shop could give them an opportunity to pre-order parts that would be needed saving time. I didn't need the VHR in my owner.ford.com profile to tell me something was seriously wrong; the car was doing a good enough job of this itself. The car was pretty obsessive about reminding me that the hill start assist was out of service (like every 30 seconds to couple minutes at most).

Edited September 12, 2014 by MaineFusion

[GrySql]

 

triggered a vehicle health report thinking they get sent to my dealer. I was pretty disappointed that these don't go to my dealer. It seems like them getting the reports before I could get the car into the shop could give them an opportunity to pre-order parts that would be needed saving time. I didn't need the VHR in my owner.ford.com profile to tell me something was seriously wrong; the car was doing a good enough job of this itself.

The reason I send a VHR is so I can print it out at home and take it with me to the Dealer, justifying my complaint. A hard copy works wonders at the SA's desk.

[acdii]

I have my dealers Email, so I can forward it to them. Helps if there is a big issue, but thankfully have not had any.

[MaineFusion]

The reason I send a VHR is so I can print it out at home and take it with me to the Dealer, justifying my complaint. A hard copy works wonders at the SA's desk.

Well in this case, having the throw popups like an infected copy of Windowns was all the service agent needed to see. She told me I had to have a loaner after looking at the dash for five seconds. Apparently they had seen enough of these blown RCMs to know the light and popup combination could only mean one thing and it wasn't good.

 

So far I've never gotten a VHR that didn't tell me what I already knew or could see from the dash.

 

The problems I can't justify to my dealer don't show up on the VHR:

• I still can't figure out why I blew white smoke a couple months back when accelerating hard and couldn't reproduce the behavior with the service tech riding along.
• A passenger side mirror that will randomly go off in some odd direction every now and then when I start the car.
• A driver side window that sometimes doesn't go down.

I figure I'm just stuck with those issues until they can be reproduced at the right time to diagnose the issue.

[GrySql]

You might get lucky and have the mirror and side window be cured by replacing the RCM. I hope so.

The white smoke is very odd.

 

Reproducing random repairs when a tech aboard is hard, they carry some voodoo box along that makes everything quit misbehaving.

Last Tuesday I finally asked them to fix the rattle in my rear door that has been there for almost two years.

The shop foreman got in back, I drove around until I was blue in the face - no rattle. Of course it rattled on the way home.

[lolder]

I think you can have the VHR automatically sent to a dealer of your choice.

[acdii]

You might get lucky and have the mirror and side window be cured by replacing the RCM. I hope so.

The white smoke is very odd.

 

Reproducing random repairs when a tech aboard is hard, they carry some voodoo box along that makes everything quit misbehaving.

Last Tuesday I finally asked them to fix the rattle in my rear door that has been there for almost two years.

The shop foreman got in back, I drove around until I was blue in the face - no rattle. Of course it rattled on the way home.

 

Same thing happened to me, I had some really loud rattles and clunks driving home one day, so I stopped at the dealer, it made a horrible noise turning in, got a tech to ride along. Not a SOUND!

[kbailey990]

My service advisor was partly wrong. The coverage for the airbag system is 5 years, or 60,000 miles, not "unlimited" miles. I was at 45,000 so that's why I was covered. Here's a link to the 2013 warranty guide:

 

http://www.ford.com/resources/ford/general/pdf/2013HybridWarranty.pdf

 

Page 7 shows the coverage level, but the image wouldn't paste easily here.

[ptjones]

Well in this case, having the throw popups like an infected copy of Windowns was all the service agent needed to see. She told me I had to have a loaner after looking at the dash for five seconds. Apparently they had seen enough of these blown RCMs to know the light and popup combination could only mean one thing and it wasn't good.

 

So far I've never gotten a VHR that didn't tell me what I already knew or could see from the dash.

 

The problems I can't justify to my dealer don't show up on the VHR:

• I still can't figure out why I blew white smoke a couple months back when accelerating hard and couldn't reproduce the behavior with the service tech riding along.
• A passenger side mirror that will randomly go off in some odd direction every now and then when I start the car.
• A driver side window that sometimes doesn't go down.

I figure I'm just stuck with those issues until they can be reproduced at the right time to diagnose the issue.

I have had the white smoke happen to me twice and in both cases I slammed on the brakes to avoid from hitting something (car, deer) and then flooring it to keep someone from hitting me on the FWY. Scarey but no ill effects. Have you been using your Grill Covers? Your Fuelly looks real good! My LifeTime is at 46.8mpg(128 fillups) and hoping to get 47mpg before Winter. :)

 

Paul

[MaineFusion]

I have had the white smoke happen to me twice and in both cases I slammed on the brakes to avoid from hitting something (car, deer) and then flooring it to keep someone from hitting me on the FWY. Scarey but no ill effects. Have you been using your Grill Covers? Your Fuelly looks real good! My LifeTime is at 46.8mpg(128 fillups) and hoping to get 47mpg before Winter. :)

 

Paul

I took the grille cover off for the summer. I mostly plan to use it in the winter. I've had an insanely busy summer so I haven't yet modified the extra grille cover blocks I got from you. It is somewhere on my to-do list once I get my car back.

 

I've been running my tire pressure at 37psi, which helps quite a bit. I haven't notice any unusual tire wear.

 

I forgot to mention that my daily commute also has a whole mess of construction zones that have lowered speed limits for much of the summer. This has also helped boost fuel economy.

Edited September 16, 2014 by MaineFusion

[ptjones]

I would raise tire pressure to 50psi as I didn't have any tire wear problems. 65K before replaced them. Did you have any temp problems running Grill Cover this Summer before you took them off? On the CMAX I'm able to run center Grill Cover all year long and remove bottom one when I need too. :)

 

Paul

[GrySql]

This Topic was moved to the appropriate Forum.

[MaineFusion]

I am happy to report that I got my FFH back this evening. The service adviser said she's been seeing about one failed RCM per week for the past three months and mine was the fastest one they had received from Ford so it would seem sending a PM to Crystal really did the trick.

 

The Ford representative who called me today to follow up said that the RCM has had a high failure rate and it had to be redesigned, which caused a backlog while the redesigned part got the necessary approvals.

The dealer's service adviser thought that Ford could end up having to issue a recall on the part given the failure rate. Hopefully her hunch is right so that the bad module can be replaced out proactively rather than it failing on people at really inconvenient times leaving people with unsafe cars that have to be at least driven home and then to a shop.

 

If you have a 2013 Fusion or other similar model, and your advanced safety systems all go bad at once like mine did, get your car into the shop right away.

[hybridbear]

I am happy to report that I got my FFH back this evening. The service adviser said she's been seeing about one failed RCM per week for the past three months and mine was the fastest one they had received from Ford so it would seem sending a PM to Crystal really did the trick.

 

The Ford representative who called me today to follow up said that the RCM has had a high failure rate and it had to be redesigned, which caused a backlog while the redesigned part got the necessary approvals.

The dealer's service adviser thought that Ford could end up having to issue a recall on the part given the failure rate. Hopefully her hunch is right so that the bad module can be replaced out proactively rather than it failing on people at really inconvenient times leaving people with unsafe cars that have to be at least driven home and then to a shop.

 

If you have a 2013 Fusion or other similar model, and your advanced safety systems all go bad at once like mine did, get your car into the shop right away.

I'm glad that yours has moved quickly. There's an Energi owner who has been without his car for 2 months now because of a failed RCM because the dealer has not been able to get the part. He also has been working with Crystal but he says that the CSM has not been helpful.

[FordService]

I am happy to report that I got my FFH back this evening. The service adviser said she's been seeing about one failed RCM per week for the past three months and mine was the fastest one they had received from Ford so it would seem sending a PM to Crystal really did the trick...

 

Fantastic, MaineFusion; I'm glad I was able to help! :)

 

Crystal

[acdii]

Is the cross traffic system tied into it? I probably asked before, but reason for asking is mine faults a lot, then clears. I also get a lot of false alarms.

[Waldo]

Nope, the BLIS/Cross traffic system doesn't tie into the RCM in any way.

[GrySql]

The Ford representative who called me today to follow up said that the RCM has had a high failure rate and it had to be redesigned, which caused a backlog while the redesigned part got the necessary approvals.

The dealer's service adviser thought that Ford could end up having to issue a recall on the part given the failure rate. Hopefully her hunch is right so that the bad module can be replaced out proactively rather than it failing on people at really inconvenient times leaving people with unsafe cars that have to be at least driven home and then to a shop.

You were correct, there is now a FSA on this, look here, 14S21 - RESTRAINTS CONTROL MODULE REPLACEMENT.

[MaineFusion]

I'm glad that yours has moved quickly. There's an Energi owner who has been without his car for 2 months now because of a failed RCM because the dealer has not been able to get the part. He also has been working with Crystal but he says that the CSM has not been helpful.

 

I got the impression that because of the redesign of the part people with early failures had to wait while the new part was approved and manufactured. Hopefully production has ramped up enough for everyone to start getting the part in a more expedient fashion.

[hybridbear]

I got the impression that because of the redesign of the part people with early failures had to wait while the new part was approved and manufactured. Hopefully production has ramped up enough for everyone to start getting the part in a more expedient fashion.

Did you get confirmation that you got the redesigned part?