What the..? Any guesses?

[JayKramer]

My Explorer XLT has 200 miles..yes 200...we went to get dinner, came back out to car, fob in pocket, opened door with handle contact, and start button was non responsive and flashing, no response, but accessories went on including radio playing, dash messages said Hill Assist disabled and then flashed to AdvanceTrac message. I exited the car, and the car beeped twice as if car was actually running and I walked away with key. I approached car again tried lock and unlock car with fob few times, and eventually accessories went off and car started as if nothing happened. Heading to dealer today, there are no warning lights at all now, and I doubt they can pull a code on it? 200 miles....... Anyone experience a similar incident?

 

[ljcorby]

Its a long shot but it is possible that the battery in the fob needs to be replaced? Couldn't hurt to replace it to see if that resolves the issue.

 

[Jon M]

Sometimes electronics just glitch, and then they're fine. Interference from nearby signals could do it. Just an example of random issues resolving themselves, my rear A/C controls would show as being off, even though the unit was on, every time I started the car. That happened for several days, and then just *poof* started working normally. If it's a one off, I wouldn't think much of it. You'd like to think that it wouldn't happen on a brand new car, but there's just no telling, unless there actually is a code.

 

[Professorfingers]

Are you sure you had your foot on the brake before hitting the start button? What you describe sounds pretty normal for hitting the start button w/o your foot on the brake.

 

[JayKramer]

Are you sure you had your foot on the brake before hitting the start button? What you describe sounds pretty normal for hitting the start button w/o your foot on the brake.

Even if i pressed the start button without stepping on brake..that just lets accessories go on...but here,the start button was flashing..and subsequent brake depressing did nothing. It was as if it went into an anti theft mode. I will post what dealer tells me in case anyone else searches this issue...and thanks to all for the help here

 

[peterk9]

Are you sure you had your foot on the brake before hitting the start button? What you describe sounds pretty normal for hitting the start button w/o your foot on the brake.

I don't think the Hill Assist disabled and Advance Trac message are normal if the brake wasn't depressed. All that would happen is that the accessory mode would be enabled as Jay mentioned.

Peter

 

[peterk9]

My Explorer XLT has 200 miles..yes 200...we went to get dinner, came back out to car, fob in pocket, opened door with handle contact, and start button was non responsive and flashing, no response, but accessories went on including radio playing, dash messages said Hill Assist disabled and then flashed to AdvanceTrac message. I exited the car, and the car beeped twice as if car was actually running and I walked away with key. I approached car again tried lock and unlock car with fob few times, and eventually accessories went off and car started as if nothing happened. Heading to dealer today, there are no warning lights at all now, and I doubt they can pull a code on it? 200 miles....... Anyone experience a similar incident?

Welcome to the Forum Jay.
I hope I'm wrong but the result may likely be "Couldn't replicate the problem". Unless it happens again, I'd go along with Jon M in that it was likely an electrical 'glitch'.

Peter

 

[JayKramer]

Thanks guys for the helpful opinions...Our local Ford dealers Service Advisor made a bad first impression by saying he has no idea what is wrong, didnt even offer to look at the car, or even move away from his desk, but offered to place 2 new batteries in the remotes. He said if we have issues, there is a one week wait for service if needed. I asked him to repeat that, yep one week for service. Time to find another local dealer for service, but otherwise I hope the issue was a glitch and the new batteries are an extra precaution.

 

[jpz]

Agree with many of the other posts. Batteries were a good idea, electronics get funky especially when batteries are low. Also could have been interference, and never rule out the "fluke" with anything electronic. I work in an production industry, and one of the most common fixes for our machinery when it is not working as expected is to power it down, and power it back up. 99% of the time, it fixes the problem.

Too bad about that dealer, time to find another one and maybe reach out to Ford about his service. I'm not sure it will help, but it can't hurt.

 

[omar302]

Check if the connectors for car's battery (in the engine compartment) are tight. Loose battery connections can cause a lot of weird issues, also being a new vehicle, it might not have been tightened correctly.

 

[Mlarv5]

Here is an idea. Go back and park in the same spot around the same time tonight. If it happens again there is something in the local area that is interfering with the Explorer. When it happens again place the key fob in the holder in your console and see if that works. With modern day electronics there is a lot of interference that cause all sorts of problems.

I sort of feel sorry for the service department. People bring in a working car or truck and say yesterday it did XYZ. The problem is today it is working correctly and there is no errors logged. They then have to tell the customer they can not reproduce the problem, and the customer gets mad at them and the MFG.

 

[bigdude2468]

I am not going to go into all the details, (if you search you can find my original post) four years ago our 14 Ex had a complete electronic failure. Driving 70 MPH lost all instrumentation, door locks, radio, speedo turn signals etc. Engine seemed to run fine. Happened to be close to a Ford dealer, pulled in to service dept, turned key off engine kept running. Technician had to pull battery cable to shut engine off. Waited 10 seconds, reinstalled cable, engine started, everything fine including radio presets. Pulled codes, everything possible had a code, literally pages of them. Drove 100 miles home and the condition has never happened again. BCM crashed, why? no idea but a reboot fixed it.

I would not loose any sleep over it unless it happens again.

 

[ghouck]

The OPs scenario kinda sounds like what people described when someone was trying to use one of those repeater things to mimic their fob in order to steal the vehicle.

 

[JayKramer]

Update...it never happened again..I always hesitated to post issues on forums, but you guys were great, the majority said it was a fluke issue, and it seems it was, but the “repeater” theory, wow that’s scary stuff.

 

[peterk9]

Update...it never happened again..I always hesitated to post issues on forums, but you guys were great, the majority said it was a fluke issue, and it seems it was, but the “repeater” theory, wow that’s scary stuff.

Hi Jay. I think the more complicated (tech wise) these newer vehicles get the more likely it is that we'll see these 'hiccups' from time to time. Just keep fingers crossed it wasn't a sign of a more complicated issue.

Peter