21 Powerboost Dash Dimmer Not Working - Solved

[Liv2Ryd]

Recently purchased a 21 Powerboost Platinum with 30K miles. Already discovered I'm stuck in OTA purgatory with no updates likely since new. 1st drive at nite yesterday and I noticed my inst cluster dimmer does not work in any of the headlight modes. It only works with the lights turned off. As soon as I rotate the headlight switch to any of the on positions, the instrument cluster starts dimming to the lowest setting. If I try using the dimmer switch located next to the steering wheel, the dim setting remains stuck in the lowest setting. Anyone else had this issue and figured out a solution?

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[Snakebitten]

Does touching the dimmer buttons trigger the progress bar on the instrument cluster to pop up at all?

 

[Liv2Ryd]

Yes, the bar displays for each headlight position i select but it only works when the lights are in the off position. When I switch to any of the 3 on positions, the dash slowly dims to the min brightness setting and the dimmer bar is frozen

 

[Snakebitten]

I think there's been reports of a malfunctioning headlight switch, but the symptoms are headlights coming on by themselves and/or staying on for 10 minutes after the truck shutdowns. And I don't think it's a mechanical malfunction but an electronic/software incompatibility with the Body Control Module.

(if I understand it correctly)

I wonder if you are describing an additional symptom of the same problem? Supposedly Ford is coming out with a new headlight switch (and programming?) to address it.

I will say that I don't remember hearing your description in any other post though.

 

[Liv2Ryd]

So I've done some more digging. Turns out the ambient light screen on my dash is missing, not sure if it is related to my dimming dash issue but it appears both issues have surfaced at the same time. My ambient lights still work but there is no screen and no utility to turn them on/off or dim

 

[Snakebitten]

I'm guessing that some Forscan edits may have been applied to the truck by the previous owner?

You might have to do some more digging and perhaps get the AsBuilt data from the appropriate module(s) from a similarly equipped truck. Then compare your AsBuilt with the other truck.

Although you might get lucky and one of the Forscan gurus will already suspect where the problem lies.

Post a brief description in the Forscan thread.

 

[Liv2Ryd]

I'm guessing that some Forscan edits may have been applied to the truck by the previous owner?

You might have to do some more digging and perhaps get the AsBuilt data from the appropriate module(s) from a similarly equipped truck. Then compare your AsBuilt with the other truck.

Although you might get lucky and one of the Forscan gurus will already suspect where the problem lies.

Post a brief description in the Forscan thread.

I found this data on the ford website for my truck https://www.motorcraftservice.com/AsBuilt/Details

The only problem is there are 9 million lines of code and I'm not sure what to look for. I'll keep digging for more info but thank you again for helping out.

 

[Snakebitten]

But that download is just a synced copy of the AsBuilt data in your truck.

Unlike previous years when the truck didn't have an OTA/AsBuilt LTE Sync relationship, the data in the cloud is now no longer guaranteed to be the original AsBuilt data. (at the time the truck was manufactured)

Or to put it another way, with these new "connected" trucks, if you make Forscan edits to your trucks AsBuilt, at some point in time the truck and the cloud communicate and the truck updates the AsBuilt records in the cloud to that which is in the truck.

In the past you could do what you are thinking though and download the AsBuilt and have an original literal "AsBuilt" record.

 

[Snakebitten]

Oh, and yes, that's a huge download of all the AsBuilt for all the modules.

Odds are, IF you are dealing with an AsBuilt issue, it will be very few records that need to be altered. And probably only one or two modules.

If you download the Forscan Spreadsheet and look at the various tabs for each module, you will quickly realize that you can look at those records you saw earlier and determine which module the line applies to.

It's a bit overwhelming at first glance, but it will suddenly click and make sense.

The Forscan gurus are amazing on this forum. If you get lucky, one of them will see your issue and point you in the right direction.

 

[Liv2Ryd]

I think you may by have nailed it. I'll post up the results of my findings. Based on your previous comments about my truck being on Sync 20301 which is bad software from 2020 known to brake the OTA process, I wonder if it's ever been updated?

 

[Liv2Ryd]

Dimmer Problem solved. Downloaded my factory "as built" data from here https://www.motorcraftservice.com/AsBuilt/Details and went thru each line of BdyCM code using forscan. Found several lines of code which didn't match. Made the edits and voila, dimmer works now.

726-18-01 0101 0101 014B edited to 0101 0101 004A
726-37-01 0000 1E1E 00A1 edited to 0100 1E1E 00A2
726-47-01 0001 0C0C 0C9A edited to 0000 0C0C 0C99
726-50-02 1107 5064 044F edited to 1107 5064 004B

 

[Snakebitten]

That's great news

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