My PowerBoost is essentially dead

[trabo]

Thanks to everyone keeping this thread going. This is one of the scariest threads I've found on the PB. I am about to place my order tomorrow.

One thing I've learned in my time is that dealerships and their mechanics are generally trash. If you get poorly treated by one, immediately go to another and find a sympathetic rep.. typically your level of service will upgrade instantly.

While it seems like OPs issue wasn't the battery, having a mechanic so steadfast in his desire not to try any and all solutions is a major red flag. I wish I would have been here months ago to tell OP he needed to go to a different dealer. Thankfully others chimed in and at least recommended a flat bed and a battery.

The biggest takeaway is to understand that often us *very* informed owners know more about our trucks than the mechanics. I currently have a 2017 Tacoma and have had to explain to service techs multiple times about specific parts and issues that they were not clearly understanding. Here I am, before my truck is ordered, researching problems. I'll be damned if any service tech or front office rep is going to tell me anything about my truck I won't already know.

Hope y'all have happy trails in your powerboosts, I am very much looking forward to mine. Thanks again for keeping the thread going, this will provide invaluable info for those down the road who are just as unlucky.

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[s.v.t.]

One thing I've learned in my time is that dealerships and their mechanics are generally trash.

Oof, man. Hot take. While some don’t care, it’s more than likely that Ford has built one helluva complex truck - a la Power Boost, and hasn’t provided the time and resources to ramp of Ford Technicians to understand these complexities.

 

[trabo]

You disagree? I've never had a pleasant experience at a dealership regarding any sort of repair or truly seeking out a strange problem. These mechanics are used to cranking out oil changes and regularly scheduled maintenance on cars and rarely problem-solving complex solutions.

Dealerships are conditioned to have the person at the front buy time (and therefore money) and the guys in the back are conditioned to come up with any slapdick answer to get you back out the door. These long-term issues do not make them money.

 

[Snakebitten]

Oof, man. Hot take. While some don’t care, it’s more than likely that Ford has built one helluva complex truck - a la Power Boost, and hasn’t provided the time and resources to ramp of Ford Technicians to understand these complexities.

Ford, the manufacturer, makes everything possible available to the technician that is devoted. Those same resources are what the gurus on this forum access in order to diagnose and address the issues that the technicians are failing at.

In fact, those technicians have additional resources like direct access to field engineers. Recently Ford has been shipping special headsets that allow technicians to video/audio conference with those engineers from the repair bay so the engineer can be right there with them seeing and listening and even remotely sharing the ODB FDRS data.

There are likely some really qualified technicians out there that can professionally service these latest generation F150's. But Ford didn't make them great technicians. Rather they desire to be good at what they do.

The issue for the consumer (us) is the veil that separates us from the technicians. We don't know who they are nor do we get to choose who gets our service ticket.

 

[s.v.t.]

Ford, the manufacturer, makes everything possible available to the technician that is devoted. Those same resources are what the gurus on this forum access in order to diagnose and address the issues that the technicians are failing at.

In fact, those technicians have additional resources like direct access to field engineers. Recently Ford has been shipping special headsets that allow technicians to video/audio conference with those engineers from the repair bay so the engineer can be right there with them seeing and listening and even remotely sharing the ODB FDRS data.

There are likely some really qualified technicians out there that can professionally service these latest generation F150's. But Ford didn't make them great technicians. Rather they desire to be good at what they do.

The issue for the consumer (us) is the veil that separates us from the technicians. We don't know who they are nor do we get to choose who gets our service ticket.

Thanks for the detailed post. I stand corrected.

 

[Snakebitten]

I hope it didn't come off like that.

I certainly don't want it to.

 

[mj1angier]

What happens a lot of the time is the best techs are smart enough to go into business for themselves, lol. There might 1-2 guys with the know how at a bigger dealer, but most are part pullers/ pushers- pull what part the computer tells them to and push in a new one. And now with the computers on new autos, they need to know more about programing and less about nuts and bolts.

 

[Josh35]

Thanks to everyone keeping this thread going. This is one of the scariest threads I've found on the PB. I am about to place my order tomorrow.

One thing I've learned in my time is that dealerships and their mechanics are generally trash. If you get poorly treated by one, immediately go to another and find a sympathetic rep.. typically your level of service will upgrade instantly.

While it seems like OPs issue wasn't the battery, having a mechanic so steadfast in his desire not to try any and all solutions is a major red flag. I wish I would have been here months ago to tell OP he needed to go to a different dealer. Thankfully others chimed in and at least recommended a flat bed and a battery.

The biggest takeaway is to understand that often us *very* informed owners know more about our trucks than the mechanics. I currently have a 2017 Tacoma and have had to explain to service techs multiple times about specific parts and issues that they were not clearly understanding. Here I am, before my truck is ordered, researching problems. I'll be damned if any service tech or front office rep is going to tell me anything about my truck I won't already know.

Hope y'all have happy trails in your powerboosts, I am very much looking forward to mine. Thanks again for keeping the thread going, this will provide invaluable info for those down the road who are just as unlucky.

My reason for not taking it elsewhere was that the GM at this dealer agreed to supply me a loaner truck till mine was fixed. I did call other dealers who were unwilling to supply a loaner and Ford Warranty only covers rental replacement for a short period of time.

 

[devern]

Well... tomorrow will be 4 weeks since I left my PB with the dealer for service. They replaced the GWM in the first week, kept it overnight and then different codes showed up, including something about battery voltage... so it's probably a wiring issue, I guess? It really sucks that my problem is intermittent; seems to happen when the truck warms up sitting out in the sun... must make it difficult to trace.

Luckily, they've set us up with a loaner while they work on it... but an escape is not an F-150.

 

[05RubiconLJ]

This has turned into a very informative thread. I have found out, first hand, that changing dealerships can be beneficial when it comes to sorting out issues. Once one dealer is headed down a path towards one solution, they often get tunnel vision.

I took my truck in May 2021 for a persistent check engine light and the faint smell of gasoline near the fuel filler area. The dealer reset the light and said they found nothing wrong. The next week the light came back on and left it with them for a few days. The dealer tech once again found no reason for the light and kicked it up to Ford. They ran some remote diagnostics, found nothing, and kicked it up to the engineering group. They suggested that the entire fuel filler neck be replaced. I waited 5-months for parts, while still driving with the light on. The dealer fixed the truck and a few weeks later the light came back on.

It was at this point I switched dealers. They pinpointed the issue within a few hours (improperly installed sensor on the fuel tank), ordered a replacement sensor, and installed it. So far, no more light. I assume this was the issue from the get-go.

 

[Jonpierce]

In my experience, they are entirely and completely useless.

I did this for my Ranger and they did their job. Worked with the dealer and had a part on a plane and installed in a timely manor. My truck was 2 days away from being able to file a claim.

 

[devern]

I did this for my Ranger and they did their job. Worked with the dealer and had a part on a plane and installed in a timely manor. My truck was 2 days away from being able to file a claim.

How/who did you end up contacting that got this resolved for you so expediently?
I just checked the FordPass app and my truck has gone into deep sleep mode... meaning it likely hasn't been touched at all in over 2 weeks.

 

[Jonpierce]

How/who did you end up contacting that got this resolved for you so expediently?
I just checked the FordPass app and my truck has gone into deep sleep mode... meaning it likely hasn't been touched at all in over 2 weeks.

I filed a claim with Ford. My service manager actually told me to file the claim and gave me the contact info. It still took some time but it was much faster than the service department could get it done. Once the claim was filed ford started asking all dealers in the country if they had the part. They found one before the factory had the new ones made and put it on a plane. The key is they can only have your truck for about 45 days I think. Then they need to compensate you if it’s a warranty issue. They had my truck out 2 days before their time was up. They provided a cheep rental also.

 

[devern]

Reviving the dead thread to let you know that, with the increase in daily average temperature, our problem returned. It goes back in next week to start replacing modules.

I spent a few hours on the weekend looking over wiring diagrams, and I suspect there is a bad IC (mosfet or something) on the BCM, specifically the FET that controls the wakeup signal to the PCM, and SOBDMC, and BECM.

When the issue happened, I quickly checked the codes using my OBDLink MX+:

• Stored code: U0111 – Lost communication with BCM “Module C” (aka SOBDMC)
• Stored code: U0143 – Lost communication with BECM “Module A”

Looking at what the different faults have in common: the MOSFET on the BCM connects (pins 18, and 47) to 3 other modules with the label "wakeup": to the PCM (pin 73) through one wire, and the SOBDMC "BCM Module C" (pin J1) and the BECM (pin 20). Since this appears to send a wakeup signal to those modules, it makes a ton of sense that if it didn't work, we would see codes for lost communication with those modules.

I later got notification from FordPass App that the PCM lost communication with a host of other modules. The timestamp was the first successful start 5 hours after the fault (evening after it cooled off), when I attempted remote start through the app before taking a cab back to the truck. I'm guessing this means that the PCM probably received the wakeup successfully, but couldn't communicate back to the GWM to store a code while the problem was occurring (its CAN communication is via the SOBDMC).

EDIT: Just checked my screenshots and there was also a pending U0100 - Lost Communication with ECM/PCM "A"

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