Battery / APIM issue, now ACM issue.

[JDaleo]

My truck has been at the dealership now for almost 3 weeks. Went in for the radio acting up, rebooting itself often, battery going low by itself, and a few other small issues. The APIM was replaced after a few days, they couldn't find anything wrong, but did a master reset, then things started throwing errors and gps wouldn't work. The few small things were quickly fixed, but they can't find anything draining the battery, however it's dropping by ~.1v every 12 hours or so. After it hit 11.9v, they said they would charge it up. They charged it for a while and it got to 12.5v but said they couldn't replace because it's coming back as good, just a low SOC. It kept dropping while it was there and after I complained enough, they said they'd do a courtesy replacement and I could pick it up last Friday. After about an hour they called back and said they need to hang onto it because now with the new battery they're getting ACM errors all over the place. Anyone here have any thoughts on what might be wrong and why a new battery would throw ACM errors. They said they reset BMS with the battery, but also started complaining because I apparently "have a lot of things tapped in" aka the one light strip in the front attached to fuse 21. I had to tell them that the service guy told me that's okay to use because Ford doesn't really care about that stuff as long as it's on a switch or switched fuse, which this is, since I don't have upfitter switches. This is the second time I brought it in for the battery after getting the truck about 2 months ago, and I didn't even have the lights in place the first time I brought it in.

Wondering if anyone here might know something, or might be able to see into the system to see which code(s) my truck is throwing? They aren't giving me much details, and I'm curious what is actually going on here.

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[Ford Motor Company]

My truck has been at the dealership now for almost 3 weeks. Went in for the radio acting up, rebooting itself often, battery going low by itself, and a few other small issues. The APIM was replaced after a few days, they couldn't find anything wrong, but did a master reset, then things started throwing errors and gps wouldn't work. The few small things were quickly fixed, but they can't find anything draining the battery, however it's dropping by ~.1v every 12 hours or so. After it hit 11.9v, they said they would charge it up. They charged it for a while and it got to 12.5v but said they couldn't replace because it's coming back as good, just a low SOC. It kept dropping while it was there and after I complained enough, they said they'd do a courtesy replacement and I could pick it up last Friday. After about an hour they called back and said they need to hang onto it because now with the new battery they're getting ACM errors all over the place. Anyone here have any thoughts on what might be wrong and why a new battery would throw ACM errors. They said they reset BMS with the battery, but also started complaining because I apparently "have a lot of things tapped in" aka the one light strip in the front attached to fuse 21. I had to tell them that the service guy told me that's okay to use because Ford doesn't really care about that stuff as long as it's on a switch or switched fuse, which this is, since I don't have upfitter switches. This is the second time I brought it in for the battery after getting the truck about 2 months ago, and I didn't even have the lights in place the first time I brought it in.

Wondering if anyone here might know something, or might be able to see into the system to see which code(s) my truck is throwing? They aren't giving me much details, and I'm curious what is actually going on here.

Hey there! Can you please send over a message with your VIN and the name/location of your local Ford dealer? I would like to see what I can do to assist with your truck's repairs!

 

[JDaleo]

Hey there! Can you please send over a message with your VIN and the name/location of your local Ford dealer? I would like to see what I can do to assist with your truck's repairs!

I will send that information in a bit, need to locate my VIN (since I don't have the vehicle with me), but wanted to provide an update here as well.
I spoke with the service team yesterday, and they said they need to keep the truck another few days as it appears the new APIM they installed is also bad, as the radio turns itself on randomly while the vehicle is off. They need to order yet another APIM, so this will be the 3rd APIM in my truck in 2 weeks.

 

[JDaleo]

Today's update...
Truck has been there since May 3rd, and it's actually in worse condition than when I dropped it off. I'm not expecting a call from them until atleast next Wednesday due to the holiday, at which point the truck will have been there 4 weeks.
They installed the new APIM after the second one having GPS issues, which wasn't even an issue I had when I dropped it off, that started after they did a Master Reset. One of the things I dropped it off for was to fix the upper shoulder support that comes out, that the King Ranch has.. they first ordered the passenger side by accident, then the second one I believe was also wrong, then they just ordered a whole new seat, wrong one.. finally ordered another seat and that one was right!
They called me today to let me know the 3rd APIM was installed, the seat was installed and the truck was ready to go! I got up there, and the GPS doesn't work, Android Auto doesn't work because the GPS isn't working, Alexa errors out (I brought it in for that not working the same week i bought it, the trial is now up and it hasn't worked at all throughout my trial), and the FordPass app was linked to the service managers phone, and even after another Master Reset, it's telling me it's waiting for the owner to approve for me to be an authorized user.. so I left the truck there.
At what point do I call it quits.. or atleast ask them to make the rather significant monthly payment for the vehicle since they've had it for the whole month. I got the truck on 2/22, brought it in on 2/27 for a few days while they looked at the battery and refused to replace it, even though the SOC was very low and I drove it a lot in that week, that's when they told me i need to keep it on a trickle charger when I'm not driving.. I didn't have to charge my Tesla as much as I do with this truck apparently. Reported the Alexa not working then, and Fords response was for them to make sure I had an Amazon account.
I got to drive it about 8 weeks before it was there for the next 4. Come on. @Ford Motor Company , i'm sending over a message with my VIN and dealership name. If anyone else on here can think of anything, i'm all ears. I would have taken the truck for the weekend and just brought it back next week, but I need GPS this weekend, and that now doesn't work in my truck either.

 

[HammaMan]

Voltage shouldn't be dropping that fast. Did they update the APIM to the latest version? Fuse 11 I think is keyed for snow plow / rear seat heat. Not sure what they're calling a master reset. There's dozens of modules that can be reset, but not a function that does them all. Granted they can't even order parts right so yeah.....

 

[JDaleo]

Voltage shouldn't be dropping that fast. Did they update the APIM to the latest version? Fuse 11 I think is keyed for snow plow / rear seat heat. Not sure what they're calling a master reset. There's dozens of modules that can be reset, but not a function that does them all. Granted they can't even order parts right so yeah.....

Yep, APIM was updated to the latest version, 3 or 4 times, as they kept installing new APIMs. I believe they just went into the General Settings and did a Reset from there.. after they did that reset is when everything started to break down and get worse. When I brought the truck in, my only issues were that the screen would randomly reboot, and one time while I was driving it went black for about 15 minutes, Alexa never worked right (which I didn't really care about), the running boards would not save the setting, it would default back to AUTO after each restart and the seat support being broken.. but now there is no GPS, Android Auto is not working, I cannot connect through FordPass because someone else from the dealership connected their phone and needs to delete it on their end (and didn't). The battery level looks like it's holding a bit better now. When it's off, sometimes it drops from 12.7 to 12.4 after a few hours.. sometimes starts at 12.5 and goes to 12.3, but it seems to hold there. I know they kept resetting the BMS too, especially with the new battery.. but these vehicles don't seem to go to sleep correctly. They have too much running when the power is off.

 

[HammaMan]

Yep, APIM was updated to the latest version, 3 or 4 times, as they kept installing new APIMs. I believe they just went into the General Settings and did a Reset from there.. after they did that reset is when everything started to break down and get worse. When I brought the truck in, my only issues were that the screen would randomly reboot, and one time while I was driving it went black for about 15 minutes, Alexa never worked right (which I didn't really care about), the running boards would not save the setting, it would default back to AUTO after each restart and the seat support being broken.. but now there is no GPS, Android Auto is not working, I cannot connect through FordPass because someone else from the dealership connected their phone and needs to delete it on their end (and didn't). The battery level looks like it's holding a bit better now. When it's off, sometimes it drops from 12.7 to 12.4 after a few hours.. sometimes starts at 12.5 and goes to 12.3, but it seems to hold there. I know they kept resetting the BMS too, especially with the new battery.. but these vehicles don't seem to go to sleep correctly. They have too much running when the power is off.

WOW, just wow. I take it you don't have a mongoose?

You can delete their phone out of the APIM and put yours back in. Doing a master reset doesn't make much sense, they should have PMI'd the APIM if it was defective. Sounds like they're just throwing shit at the wall hoping something sticks. For battery drain they should have looked at the BCM. Left pass/driver doors and hood open long enough to time out and see if they can't find where the draw is measuring v drop on fuses. This is just basic diagnostics stuff. PMI BCM and APIM, then see if if phantom drain occurs.

I feel for ya, we paid too much $$ for these trucks to be dealing with this half-assed service. Ford needs a good internal tech message board combined with a LLM where techs can just straight up tell it what's going on and it could provide answers. This is what incompetence up and down the chain looks likes and there's no excuse for it.

 

[JDaleo]

WOW, just wow. I take it you don't have a mongoose?

You can delete their phone out of the APIM and put yours back in. Doing a master reset doesn't make much sense, they should have PMI'd the APIM if it was defective. Sounds like they're just throwing shit at the wall hoping something sticks.

He deleted his phone from bluetooth connections, but they dropped my connection from FordPass shortly after I brought it in. When I logged back in, it told me I needed to do a master reset or a connectivity reset (or something similar). I tried a master reset first, it said it was doing something for about 5 seconds, the screen went away.. while I was navigating through the screens about a minute later, it went black and reset. I tried the app, and it told me the modem was in use already and I needed to do another reset. So i did a connectivity reset, and that said it was doing something a few seconds, and nothing. The app still don't me it was in use by someone else and I needed to request access from the owner.

The original APIM, the determined was defective only after doing a reset. It then started throwing errors and the GPS died. They ordered another and put it in, then said the ACM was shot and throwing codes all over the place. Then told me they had to order yet another APIM because the screen wasn't responding to touch and would turn on and off randomly, even when the truck was shut off and locked. They put the last one in and said it was fine.. But still no GPS. I don't know what the hell they're doing at this point, but I agree, just throwing stuff at the wall. If they take more than week, I'm going to ask for it to be transported to another dealer for service.

 

[JDaleo]

I have an upcoming trip that I need the truck for in the new few weeks, to pull my RV. If they don't have it ready by then, I'm going to ask then to swap out my loaner for a pickup that can pull. They gave me a Lincoln Nautilus, which is TERRIBLE.. transmission jumps all over the place, WREAKS of cigarettes, loses power randomly, releases the auto brakes randomly. I don't know what happened to Ford lately, but they should stop adding new technology to their cars if they don't know how to properly build, maintain or diagnose them.. although perhaps that's why they're dropping a ton of technology lately in vehicles, and calling it a continued "parts shortage issue".

 

[HammaMan]

Wait -- so GPS stopped working on your first one, it was found to be "defective", they eventually get a working one and GPS is still not working? These guys couldn't diagnose a cardboard box. They should put the first one back and work on the GPS issue checking wire routes and its antennas / etc...

 

[JDaleo]

Wait -- so GPS stopped working on your first one, it was found to be "defective", they eventually get a working one and GPS is still not working? These guys couldn't diagnose a cardboard box. They should put the first one back and work on the GPS issue checking wire routes and its antennas / etc...

Exactly. When I brought it in the GPS was working fine, it was only after they did a system reset on the screen that it went bad. I don't know what else they actually did, but they told me that's all they did that started causing that issue. And then it started throwing a bunch of errors at them, that was the only way that they were allowed to replace the APIM, was to present those codes to Ford for authorization.

The odd thing is, on the notes after the last APIM was replaced, they stated the GPS was working. The second I got in the car and started it, it said I was in Dearborn Michigan with no GPS signal. So I gave it a few minutes to connect and it never did, because I've only actually used the onboard navigation once, typically I've always used Android Auto.

 

[HammaMan]

Find another dealer -- check reviews to see if their service dept is any good. You've had it 2 months and already dealing with a load of nonsense.

 

[Snakebitten]

Just one question........

Did you ever get a new 12V AGM battery put in your truck?

 

[Gros Ventre]

Just one question........

Did you ever get a new 12V AGM battery put in your truck?

Starting to see a pattern here... It took me awhile to realize that the production line of batteries matched the production line of trucks (Statement of the obvious, I know) and that a truck sitting in the field meant a battery sitting idle... just not good for the battery and I think its related to these issues. You're on to something... ;-)

 

[RickBullotta]

My truck has been at the dealership now for almost 3 weeks. Went in for the radio acting up, rebooting itself often, battery going low by itself, and a few other small issues. The APIM was replaced after a few days, they couldn't find anything wrong, but did a master reset, then things started throwing errors and gps wouldn't work. The few small things were quickly fixed, but they can't find anything draining the battery, however it's dropping by ~.1v every 12 hours or so. After it hit 11.9v, they said they would charge it up. They charged it for a while and it got to 12.5v but said they couldn't replace because it's coming back as good, just a low SOC. It kept dropping while it was there and after I complained enough, they said they'd do a courtesy replacement and I could pick it up last Friday. After about an hour they called back and said they need to hang onto it because now with the new battery they're getting ACM errors all over the place. Anyone here have any thoughts on what might be wrong and why a new battery would throw ACM errors. They said they reset BMS with the battery, but also started complaining because I apparently "have a lot of things tapped in" aka the one light strip in the front attached to fuse 21. I had to tell them that the service guy told me that's okay to use because Ford doesn't really care about that stuff as long as it's on a switch or switched fuse, which this is, since I don't have upfitter switches. This is the second time I brought it in for the battery after getting the truck about 2 months ago, and I didn't even have the lights in place the first time I brought it in.

Wondering if anyone here might know something, or might be able to see into the system to see which code(s) my truck is throwing? They aren't giving me much details, and I'm curious what is actually going on here.

Did they try another battery? That's the first thing (ok, second thing) I'd do.

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