[ColinD]

In February 2019 my dashboard began acting up, all warning messages would appear, warning chimes would sound and then dash would crash to nothing. Vehicle still ran as normal, local dealership looked at it and decided that the cluster was faulty and needed replacing. Cluster was replaced in March and all was good until September when the issue re-appeared, only this time a few extras were thrown in, battery would occasionally (now constantly) drain down to 9V or so over night requiring a jump start in the morning, door ajar/headlight warning chime would start and play until the dash cycled through its issues (one day it went on for 3 hours). Radio display and back-up camera will not work as well as turn signal indicators on dash. Initially no codes would show up when put on dealerships reader, but now there seems to be multiple codes, mostly to with communication. Ford replaced the BCM at the end of November, issue was back next day. Unfortunately going into Christmas is not the best time for a courier to deal with vehicle issues so I told the dealership that I would bring it back in January for them to deal with. Ford Canada is requesting that I bring it in without any external components installed (i.e GPS ect.) as they feel this could be causing the communication issues, ironically the only reason I run my GPS is to keep track of my speed when the dash crashes. They've said they don't want to keep replacing components but at the same time they refuse to look past codes and won't do any hands on diagnosing, so frustrating.

Short video of what happens

Colin

 

[ultane]

Carefully unplug the huge plug just above your ECU (drivers side) under the hood. Spray with electrical contact cleaner. Let dry. Apply dielectric grease. Put the plug together again.

 

[ColinD]

Carefully unplug the huge plug just above your ECU (drivers side) under the hood. Spray with electrical contact cleaner. Let dry. Apply dielectric grease. Put the plug together again.

Did that, following your advice a couple months ago, didn't help unfortunately.

I really believe that it is a short/ground issue especially with the battery draining down over night. Does anyone know what the electrical fitting attached to the right side of the under hood fuse box is for? To me it seems really loose, there's 4 wires coming from it, but not sure where they go. Basically I'm at the point where I'm just wiggling things to see what happens (more than what the service department is doing, or so it seems). I've taped it up trying to stabilize it a bit.

 

[[email protected]]

Make a suggestion to the dealer and Ford if you have contacted them directly through the 800 number that it might be best that they just replace your Transit with a NEW one. Tell them that over 17,000 interested Transit owners and buyers know about your Transit problems and with all of the problems you have been experiencing it might make the best goodwill to replace it. They can put it in their Ford Training Center and let the guys learning about the Transit figure out what is wrong with it and they may be able to fix it. It might be smart later on to let forum members know the VIN so they will no buy it later on if it gets back into the Ford dealer network as a used vehicle.

Send me your VIN via PM and I will see if I can find a similar 2019 model on a dealer lot. If you give them that information they may just go get it as a replacement Transit and then take yours back and use it through the Ford Training Center.

 

[ColinD]

Make a suggestion to the dealer and Ford if you have contacted them directly through the 800 number that it might be best that they just replace your Transit with a NEW one. Tell them that over 17,000 interested Transit owners and buyers know about your Transit problems and with all of the problems you have been experiencing it might make the best goodwill to replace it. They can put it in their Ford Training Center and let the guys learning about the Transit figure out what is wrong with it and they may be able to fix it. It might be smart later on to let forum members know the VIN so they will no buy it later on if it gets back into the Ford dealer network as a used vehicle.

Send me your VIN via PM and I will see if I can find a similar 2019 model on a dealer lot. If you give them that information they may just go get it as a replacement Transit and then take yours back and use it through the Ford Training Center.

Thanks I appreciate that, Ford Canada basically told me to 'go pound sand'. We don't have a 'Lemon Law' in Canada so we are stuck dealing with these issues. I'm into the van for $54K plus another 7K in out fitting that I will never re coup. I asked what my van is worth in its current condition and all I got was a blank stare and the sound of crickets in the back ground, not good.

 

[[email protected]]

Every time I had to take the van back to the dealer, I would call or email Ford of Canada and keep after them as long as you are having problems with your Transit. If it was in the USA, I have some connections I may be able to contact to get it gone through with some Ford engineers to look at it and diagnose what the problem could be.

I have had other Canadian Transit buyers contact me with some problems and they came back with a similar answer to yours. They thought I might have a connection to Ford of Canada and they have their own separate organization different from the USA.

 

[bicyclist]

Listen to the audio while you watch that D indicator. It sounds to me like a bump in the road just as it flickers. You can see it do it at around 25 seconds and then again where you've added your note. Makes me think there's an intermittent connection somewhere. I think you're on the right track wiggling things and you might try some thumping.

 

[ColinD]

Listen to the audio while you watch that D indicator. It sounds to me like a bump in the road just as it flickers. You can see it do it at around 25 seconds and then again where you've added your note. Makes me think there's an intermittent connection somewhere. I think you're on the right track wiggling things and you might try some thumping.

Oh yeah, I'm positive its a loose connection or ground issue, question is 'how much wiggling should I have to do'? Service techs don't seem to want to pursue this path. They are all 'check codes, change components'

 

[Mobileempire]

@ Colin
You need to shoot a much longer video , better lighting a mount the camera to were it's not shaking as much , also drive down some long bumpy roads , take sharp turns , fast stops , quick starts etc.
Drive at high speeds sometimes, drive at low speed others

 

[ColinD]

@ Colin
You need to shoot a much longer video , better lighting a mount the camera to were it's not shaking as much , also drive down some long bumpy roads take sharp turns , fast stops , quick starts etc.

I don't think that's necessary, I have longer video, this is just a short snip. Originally there was no real correlation between road conditions and the issue arising. Now it just seems to happen on every bump, fine when I start it, but will crash almost immediately upon moving. The video is actually after a crash I pulled over for a second and then it came on again, started driving and then crashes again. This is pretty much constant through out the day

 

[Mobileempire]

If it was mine i would have to disable the chimes , the chimes would drive me nuts.

 

[Mobileempire]

Can you get the problem to arise when its sitting at idle and you shake the vehicle?

 

[ColinD]

Can you get the problem to arise when its sitting at idle and you shake the vehicle?

Nope, haven't been able to do that. Think it needs to be in gear, reverse or drive.

 

[ColinD]

If it was mine i would have to disable the chimes , the chimes would drive me nuts.

oh they do to me as well, I've been tempted to turn into a pole on a few occasions

 

[GotDiesel?]

Definitely try CrewVanMan's suggestion of dealing directly with Ford and telling them about the 17,000 interested forum members that are looking at your problem. If that doesn't work, spread the word here and we will all go buy Sprinters.

 

[ColinD]

well a small update, van goes into a different dealer next week, hopefully a different tech can figure things out.

Something that I have noticed is that the issue only happens when the heat is on? If I run all day with the blower off the dash works fine, as soon as I turn it on within 3 to 5 minutes the cluster fails, hmm. To me it makes a lot of sense that it is related, cluster would always work first thing in the morning and always kick out at approx. the same point in my morning commute, as well I had no issues for the whole dry summer, only returning in the fall when the van needed to be defrosted in the mornings.

Colin

 

[ColinD]

5 days at the new service department and they can't get the dash to fault, Ugh! I'm losing my mind over this. Gonna leave it with them for another week to see what happens. They tell me they are doing everything possible, but until it faults and they can run diagnostics on it there's nothing they can do?

 

[Lou]

Hi Colin, where in Canada are you? I'm in Toronto, one of the ford dealers which I go seems pretty good.

 

[ColinD]

I'm on the West Coast

 

[Mobileempire]

If it were mine I would unhook the power connector from the blower motor , then bypass 12 volts to the blower motor to turn it on , if dash lights act up its probably heat related and you rule out hvac electronic control circuits.
Then go find what is acting up when it's getting warm.
If the dash lights don't act up you will know that your hvac circuit is wonky