2012 Power Third Row Quit Working

[MikeFreas]

Not sure what the deal is with my third row but I can't get them to the "normal" position. When you press the normal button they stow only. The fold and stow buttons work normally. Any ideas?

 

[peterk9]

Not sure what the deal is with my third row but I can't get them to the "normal" position. When you press the normal button they stow only. The fold and stow buttons work normally. Any ideas?

Hi Mike. Did you by any chance have them 'obstructed' any time when they were moving? I had it happen once and found that one of them became dislodged from some part under the seat that moves them. It happened a few years ago so I can't recall exactly what it was. Did you try this with the engine running? I've noticed that the seats sometimes reacted differently if the engine was off.

Peter

 

[Jungle1943]

My seat was broken, the dealer replaced the motor, and several other parts that broke, but the seat is stuck in a V, and according to the dealer, the seat needs to be reprogrammed. But Ford wont give the software upgrade to the dealer? Anyone hear of such a thing? The dealer has had my car for over 3 weeks now, and the dealer says he's at the mercy of the Ford software department. I asked him if there was anyone I could call at Ford to move this along, he didnt think ther was.

Anyone got ideas?

 

[peterk9]

My seat was broken, the dealer replaced the motor, and several other parts that broke, but the seat is stuck in a V, and according to the dealer, the seat needs to be reprogrammed. But Ford wont give the software upgrade to the dealer? Anyone hear of such a thing? The dealer has had my car for over 3 weeks now, and the dealer says he's at the mercy of the Ford software department. I asked him if there was anyone I could call at Ford to move this along, he didnt think ther was.

Anyone got ideas?

Never heard about this "software" thing. I sometimes had issues with the 3rd row power seats in my 2011 and it was usually if I used them without the engine running. Weak battery perhaps. Once I started the motor I was able to get the seats back in sync. Sometimes I had to do one at a time. There were a couple times one of the seats would stop in the 'V' position but playing around with it eventually got it back to normal. I see no reason to have the dealer keep it. Why not just pick it up and have them call when this "software" comes in?

Peter

 

[Roots]

Not sure what the deal is with my third row but I can't get them to the "normal" position. When you press the normal button they stow only. The fold and stow buttons work normally. Any ideas?

I'm having the same issue. its annoying. I'm thinking it might be the module.

 

[Jungle1943]

Never heard about this "software" thing. I sometimes had issues with the 3rd row power seats in my 2011 and it was usually if I used them without the engine running. Weak battery perhaps. Once I started the motor I was able to get the seats back in sync. Sometimes I had to do one at a time. There were a couple times one of the seats would stop in the 'V' position but playing around with it eventually got it back to normal. I see no reason to have the dealer keep it. Why not just pick it up and have them call when this "software" comes in?

Peter

Update to this issue:
There was a position sensor in the seat that had burned out, so the seats didn't know what position they were in. They had to troubleshoot the issue with Ford engineering to discover that, and that was the main cause of delay. Apparently getting any Ford engineers to respond to a call from dealership is very difficult. Reason I didn't take the car back was that the ENTIRE back third of the car was dismantled and sitting in the shop. They gave me a loaner for the duration (6 weeks) so I didn't really care how long it took to fix, as long as I had a car to drive. 2017 Escape, didn't like that at all, but another story for another day. BTW, the repair was over $2,000, so I make triple sure that my seats are clear of any obstacles. I am considering putting a lockout switch on the power seat button so it can't be activated accidentally.

Update to the update:
The passenger side seat stopped working. Took back to the shop, again they were waiting for Ford engineering to call them (still waiting, as they never called me back). But, the techs were dogged in their determination and solved the problem, and havent had an issue since. Also, the dealer changed the oil gratis as a courtesy for having to bring the car in again. Thumbs up to Fox Ford in Chicago for taking care of the problem, thumbs down to Ford Engineering for being unresponsive to dealer, and ultimately customer, requests for diagnostic help

 

[Roots]

Update to this issue:
There was a position sensor in the seat that had burned out, so the seats didn't know what position they were in. They had to troubleshoot the issue with Ford engineering to discover that, and that was the main cause of delay. Apparently getting any Ford engineers to respond to a call from dealership is very difficult. Reason I didn't take the car back was that the ENTIRE back third of the car was dismantled and sitting in the shop. They gave me a loaner for the duration (6 weeks) so I didn't really care how long it took to fix, as long as I had a car to drive. 2017 Escape, didn't like that at all, but another story for another day. BTW, the repair was over $2,000, so I make triple sure that my seats are clear of any obstacles. I am considering putting a lockout switch on the power seat button so it can't be activated accidentally.

Update to the update:
The passenger side seat stopped working. Took back to the shop, again they were waiting for Ford engineering to call them (still waiting, as they never called me back). But, the techs were dogged in their determination and solved the problem, and havent had an issue since. Also, the dealer changed the oil gratis as a courtesy for having to bring the car in again. Thumbs up to Fox Ford in Chicago for taking care of the problem, thumbs down to Ford Engineering for being unresponsive to dealer, and ultimately customer, requests for diagnostic help

Thank you for the info. I didnt know the system had a positioning sensor. $2,000 is a bit much. i wonder what they had to do to get to the sensor.

 

[kk239]

Does anyone know if there is a way to manually fold/stow the power third row seats?

Had the car loaded with the seats stowed and accidentally hit the button to fold up. Tore the wiring out of the wiring harness connections under the seat and damaged the motor. Just wanted to see if there was any manual fold and stow function.

 

[peterk9]

Does anyone know if there is a way to manually fold/stow the power third row seats?

Had the car loaded with the seats stowed and accidentally hit the button to fold up. Tore the wiring out of the wiring harness connections under the seat and damaged the motor. Just wanted to see if there was any manual fold and stow function.

Unless you can do it with the attached straps, I'm not aware of a way to do it manually. I think you'd be working against the physical mechanisms in place that normally do the work. Manually folded seats have different straps to release parts of the seat depending on what you want to do with them. Power fold seats do not have those straps.

Peter