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Hill Start Assist Failure

We got ours back last week after the valving in the transmissionw as rebuilt. All was good until last night. The car was sitting on our driveway and my wife went to leave. She started it up, put in reverse and it died. This happened 5 times before it stayed running. When it finally did stay running, the engine ran extremely rough and all kinds of lights were flashing on the dash. The hill start assist warning came back on at each start up. This morning when she went to the gym, she backe dout opf our garage and it made a god awful grinding noise but the engine stayed running this time. She stopped, put in park and then back to reverse and it was fine. She came home, got ready for work and went to leave and it violently threw itself in park. She said it felt like she hit something. She shut it off and put it in reverse again and all was good for about another 5 minutes. When traveling down the road at 35 MPH, it started grinding very loudly again. This time I was on the phone with her and heard it. It sounded like the parking pawl was trying to engage.

On top of these issues, I noticed every one of our tires are chewing themselves up on the inside and outside tread. The pressure is set at 35PSI in every tire and the dealer checked everything over last week.

We just rolled 36,100 miles on it so FORD better step up and cover all this under the factory warranty.

The dealer has been notified and I am waiting a call back now. EVERY single one of these issues started with the computer reflash engaging the parking brake when in park. I am almost to the point of trading it in because we can't continually be without a car for FORD's junk software issues. This is my second Ford and will probably be my last as the first on was in the sho 13 times in a year for electrical issues and now this one for this. When they both are in the shop more than we can drive them, it leaves me to belive FORD is an inferior product.
I didn’t have the issues with the car dying but I did have transmission issues including the car clunking every time Ininto park
We got ours back last week after the valving in the transmissionw as rebuilt. All was good until last night. The car was sitting on our driveway and my wife went to leave. She started it up, put in reverse and it died. This happened 5 times before it stayed running. When it finally did stay running, the engine ran extremely rough and all kinds of lights were flashing on the dash. The hill start assist warning came back on at each start up. This morning when she went to the gym, she backe dout opf our garage and it made a god awful grinding noise but the engine stayed running this time. She stopped, put in park and then back to reverse and it was fine. She came home, got ready for work and went to leave and it violently threw itself in park. She said it felt like she hit something. She shut it off and put it in reverse again and all was good for about another 5 minutes. When traveling down the road at 35 MPH, it started grinding very loudly again. This time I was on the phone with her and heard it. It sounded like the parking pawl was trying to engage.

On top of these issues, I noticed every one of our tires are chewing themselves up on the inside and outside tread. The pressure is set at 35PSI in every tire and the dealer checked everything over last week.

We just rolled 36,100 miles on it so FORD better step up and cover all this under the factory warranty.

The dealer has been notified and I am waiting a call back now. EVERY single one of these issues started with the computer reflash engaging the parking brake when in park. I am almost to the point of trading it in because we can't continually be without a car for FORD's junk software issues. This is my second Ford and will probably be my last as the first on was in the sho 13 times in a year for electrical issues and now this one for this. When they both are in the shop more than we can drive them, it leaves me to belive FORD is an inferior product.
I posted this in another thread,
CFB4989B-8CD5-42B2-8D22-D807EDA3CDF2.jpeg
Back in August I had transmission issues with my ST as well including the car clunking into park every time I would shift into park. It would also seem to be searching for gears from 1st to 3rd driving from a red light or parking spot. Also, it would downshift very abruptly decelerating from 40-50mph. Took it to the dealer and they found tranny damage and ultimately replaced the transmission. There was a TSB for that and included it in the picture below, hope this helps and good luck!!!
 



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Thanks all for the follow ups. We have involved Ford Corporate to connect with our dealer who is servicing the car. Unfortunately, it's been a week and I don't think Ford Corporate and the dealer have even been able to connect, and we haven't heard any updates. Going to follow up today, the service center was supposed to inspect for transmission damage. Fingers crossed but now going on a week with no updates and no loaner car...
 






Hello my name is Heath

My wife has a 2021 Explorer with now 26k miles and we are dealing with all the issues you in this thread have been. We had it in the shop a last week for the 6 time with this issue and they replaced the PCM. The next day the same issues showed up again. We took it to the shop Tuesday and the shop was told by Ford to wait and not put any more parts in it and the problem is a known issue.

Oh forgot to mention that the issues started before the parking brake update programming.

The only reason I joined was to reply here

Hope it gets figured out soon.
Welcome to the Forum Heath. :wave:

Peter
 






Thanks all for the follow ups. We have involved Ford Corporate to connect with our dealer who is servicing the car. Unfortunately, it's been a week and I don't think Ford Corporate and the dealer have even been able to connect, and we haven't heard any updates. Going to follow up today, the service center was supposed to inspect for transmission damage. Fingers crossed but now going on a week with no updates and no loaner car...
My explorer seems fine so far. New PCM, data link module. Fingers crossed.
 






My explorer seems fine so far. New PCM, data link module. Fingers crossed.
That's good news. Our service center gave up and said they couldn't work on the vehicle unless they could recreate the issue, but haven't been able to do so after 3 weeks. So we are back to square one waiting for this to occur again... Ford Corporate has been very unresponsive, and also says they can't advise without a code, which they can't get without the issue occurring. After being in and out of service center 5 times and not having vehicle for almost 5 weeks we are back to exactly where we started.
 






After our computer had a complete reset the parking brake started engaging when the explorer was placed in park we thought something was wrong because it never did this before so after I did some research I read about the vehicle rolling away in park so this was their bandaid fix to the issue. After they did our reset now we have the hill assist issue.

We have a 2020 model with 35,000 on it and it's done this to us 4 times in the last month. It's even shifted itself into park while the vehicle was moving at low speeds twice. When this happens, the car dies and the trans parking pin is grinding like crazy. The Hill Start assist lights flash and come on the DIC. The car will restart when the button is pushed but the engine hesitates and sputters for a short while afterwards. Once it's cleared up, the vehicle will run fine again. We've had it into the dealership three times in the last three weeks and they tell us they reflash the module and since it doesn't replicate the issue, they think they have it fixed.

It's back in the shop again for the same issue since it just happened again the other night. I have noticed that since the dealership reprogramed the computer to activate the parking brake everytime it's in park or a door is opened, is when all of this started. Before that programing, the issue was non existant.

I'mhoping FORD comes out with something soon because I can only imagine what this is doing to the inside of the trans and how long will it take for major issues to show up after it's out of warranty?

catpartsman

Ford finally has a recall to address your possible damaged transmission.​

 






We have only had our Explorer for 3 months and the Hill Assist Failure has occurred 4 times now and it completely shuts the car off. The dealer tells us the problem is fixed, then it happens again. I am worried about are safety, anyone have ideas as to why this is happening?
Yes, same problem here. No dealer seemed to be able to fix since it didn't show up on any codes. Finally found a Ford Tech and kept car for 2 weeks to locate problem and fixed it. Ford help line couldn't acknowledge what was wrong. But while tech drove it, he was able to do the scan when it happened. When I got the hill start msg, vehicle would try to go into Park while moving.
 






catpartsman

Ford finally has a recall to address your possible damaged transmission.​

Finally!! My dealership thought we were crazy since it never did it to them while they had it. Knock on wood, it’s been good since the summer but still needs addressed.
 












Mine is having all of these same warnings, did you ever figure out what it is? Took it to a shop yesterday and they told me I need to take it to the dealership and I want to get an idea of what it is before taking it!
Welcome to the Forum. :wave:
FYI, the member you quoted was last seen here on Sept. 26, 2022 so may no longer be following.
The fact that a shop advised you to take it to the dealership could mean it's not your average run-of-the-mill repair.

Peter
 






Mine is having all of these same warnings, did you ever figure out what it is? Took it to a shop yesterday and they told me I need to take it to the dealership and I want to get an idea of what it is before taking it!
Mine was a half-shaft speed sensor on the axle a few months ago. Took care of the problem with all those alerts. There are numerous discussions on here about this problem. Some have reported another part was replaced possible an AWD module. Either way it's a sensor or module. Mine was under powertrain warranty but I bought a bumper to bumper Ford ESP a year ago.
 






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