Side curtain airbag recall left Maverick dead

[Cowboy]

I took my Mav in for the recall on a Friday morning and they called me around 5:00 PM to let me know that it was ready. All went smoothly. Truck looked great and ran fine. I left the dealership and headed home. I stopped at a grocery store on my way home. I pressed the Off button and the truck behaved normally with one significant difference. Everything shut off as it normally would except the engine. I could not get it to stop running. I called the dealership and told them what was going on and that I was headed back to them. The tech that did the recall met me in the driveway and started checking stuff. He could not get it to stop running either. The truck thought it was off but the engine was running. The dash, the lights, all looked like the truck was off. You could rev the engine and the tach just stayed pegged at 0. The computer showed that there were some codes thrown by the PCM so he took it into the shop to have a better look. They couldn't figure out what was going on. They were going to have to keep it overnight. The service advisor said they didn't have any loaners available so he was going to give me a ride home (about 30 minutes away) and went inside to make arrangements for someone to be available to come and get me when the truck was ready on Saturday. He came back out after about 15 minutes to let me know that he found me a loaner. I went in and filled out their paperwork for the loaner. I was already trying to figure out how I was going to manage to pick up hay and horse feed on Saturday with whatever loaner they had for me. I was sure it was going to be something small and totally inadequate but it would still be better than having them have to take me home and pick me back up again. I walked outside to talk to the tech who told me that he still didn't know what was going on other than he was certain that it wasn't anything to do with the recall work. As we were talking the service advisor pulled up in my loaner and got out smiling. He had managed to score me an F-150 STX. My weekend wasn't completely ruined. They finally got it fixed on Tuesday. The tech was initially able to get the PCM to behave normally, but then the truck started popping fuses right and left. He finally found a cluster of bare wires behind the dash that were contacting each other and randomly causing errors and popping fuses. He insulated and secured them as well as checking for other ones. When I picked it up he had started and stopped it approximately 50 times without any issues. I stopped and started the engine three times before I left the dealership. All was good and still is.

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[jolkowsk]

Greg, I think your story trumps mine! I honestly think all of these issues have to do with the bad wiring in the Maverick. The slightest strain on the wires cause fraying. My dealer showed me the "mess" of taped wires in the floor pan. I think it is safe to assume, your issue was cause by the simple disconnecting of the airbags. there is zero slack in the wiring loom, so the slightest pressure can cause issues anywhere along the loom.

Seems like you had a similar good experience with your dealer. Ford is lucky that they have dealers that care!

 

[GreenLady]

Now I’m concerned I’m scheduled for my airbag recall the day before I leave on a 500 mile trip. It’s taken forever to get to the top of the list for the replacement but now I’m thinking I want to put it off until I get back. Too many unpleasant stories

 

[OleFordGuy]

Wouldn’t blame ya for that, probably a good decision

 

[Scout]

Everyone, I am happy to announce that my Maverick is once again amongst the living. I picked her up today and so far so good, she drove fine on the 25 mile ride home from the dealer.

So I spent some time with the service advisor and mechanic to get a better understanding of what happened. It is important to note that the supplemental restraint system wiring harness runs directly under the front passenger door sill (see pic). The airbag replacement requires removal of the sill plate so that the side trim can be removed (the panel with the seat belt). With the door sill plate removed it leaves the wires exposed and susceptible to damage and that is exactly what is happening. The mechanics are then required to lean/kneel on the sill (per Ford instruction) to remove the headliner. In the case of my truck, a single wire got pinched and that rendered the vehicle dead.

A couple of other notes that the dealer shared. When the wiring harness is installed at the factory the slack is sloppily taped together with electrical tape. Instead of leaving some slack the wiring is put under unnecessary stress leaving it susceptible to pinching and fraying.

The bottom line, for anyone that has not had their airbags replaced, tell your dealership to not kneel on the door sills. My dealer has passed along all of this information to Ford, so the hope is that the installation instructions will get modified. What is your bet we will see yet another recall for the sloppy wiring?

A big shout out to Solomon Ford in Brownsville PA. Good luck to those next in line!! Feel free to message me with any questions or advice.

I have same experience, have post on the MTC, going on 4 weeks at dealer

 

[Riposterous]

This just happened to my 2022 Maverick XL (base model w/Co-Pilot 360). I've not had any problems till recently. I took my truck in for the side curtain airbag recall, got it back, and it appeared to have only one issue - at first - the overhead lights weren't working. I figured they forgot to hook something back up, and I'd take it back at some point in the next week to have them fix it.

Well, on the third day after getting it back, I got in to start it, and saw a bunch of faults and service soon messages displayed (identical to the video floating around). The towing guy came, tried a bunch of things, nothing worked, so he he towed from my garage to the dealership. The same issues occurred when the service department manager and one of their mechanics looked at it the first day....but none of this happened for their big tech guy later on....all of a sudden, everything was fine again. He did say the overhead lights still weren't working though (and threw some sort of code on their machine), and that they were still looking to see if there was a wiring issue related to all of this. I sent them this thread - he took apart everything at and around the door to look at the wiring, said nothing appeared wrong, though he did say he re-seated a few connectors and made several "minor adjustments" to be safe.

They kept it one more day for more testing. Everything was fine, no error codes, no issues, even the overhead lights were working fine. Long story short, the main, obvious issue they found in all of this - and I'm not sure which day they tested and realized it - was a bad 12V battery (the department manager told me he thought the problem was this the entire time). They replaced it, and told me that they tested further for parasitic voltage drain, and there was none.

The Maverick has been back home for three days so far, driven around a good deal, and has thus far been perfectly fine. Here's hoping it stays that way, because other than this, the truck has been absolutely fantastic.

 

[Azmig88]

The recall pays 2 hours.... but probably will actually take 4?

Not MY problem

 

[KevCuRaoi]

Not MY problem

No.
But that is the reason techs/dealerships are not happy about doing this recall. And that is why many dealerships are telling people to plan on them having it for the day.
That was the reason I offered that explanation.

 

[JimP]

Had the side curtain Airbag recall done on our Maverick last week. Brought it in at 9am on a Weds and didn't get it back until 3pm the next day. Per the pics attached, they scratched the interior in multiple spots and did not get the headliner back in correctly. Not happy and the dealership has been slow to correct. Wish I never would have moved forward with this.

 

[OleFordGuy]

I sure hate to see that Jim, it's really a sham. Seems like the co-founder of home depot sentiment of alot of the workforce now days of "Nobody Gives a Damm" is seen so much. Old fashioned appreciative thank you for your business, caring, can I help you with anything, etc is just out the window at many places.

IMO, it's totally irresponsible of the tech/dealership. They ought to repair/replace the damages they caused to your truck! Heck write a letter to the owner & GM of the dealership stating your case with pictures of the issues which you expect them to make right, and cc it to ford motor company and Jim Farley.

Luckily I've not had a single issue with mine and had zero recalls. I've read all the horror stories of the issues others have had, basically like what you ended up with. I imagine you saw those also?

I wish you luck in getting it all back in good condition.

 

[PNWMaverick]

Had the side curtain Airbag recall done on our Maverick last week. Brought it in at 9am on a Weds and didn't get it back until 3pm the next day. Per the pics attached, they scratched the interior in multiple spots and did not get the headliner back in correctly. Not happy and the dealership has been slow to correct. Wish I never would have moved forward with this.

Oh, Hell, no!

I wouldn't have even accepted it back from them at that point. They trashed your truck! If they don't fix it you will need to get ahold of both Ford and your auto insurance to file a damage claim against them.

At that point your insurance will go after the shops insurance for the body/panel damages.

 

[NedF]

Good measure to prevent squeaks, rattles, scratches and so forth.

My first new car, back in the 80' warranty work at less than 10,000 miles. The floor console had some real torx screws and some matching fake ones molded into the shifter cover plate. All of the fake ones were reamed out by a careless dealership mechanic.

The one that happened to me with my current Saturn SUV was as simple as the wiper blade hitting the window frame. They assigned the job to a rookie who instead of finding the proper puller to get the arm of the linkage, pried it up using the hood as a pivot point denting the hood. The hood was so dented it pooled water. I told them as it’s not even a month old there can not be any bondo or painting. They tried to find a new hood but when that failed they called in a body repair guy from a different company who painstakingly worked the dent out from underneath using some long tools as it was well hidden under the framing of the hood. I have to say the guy did a great job. There is still a small warp by only I can see it because I know what happened.

 

[skyhawk]

Wow are these techs wearing golf cleats when they works on these interiors? How do you scratch up a car interior so bad otherwise??

 

[Azmig88]

As I’ve said too many times:
There is NO way I’m getting this done.
There are waaaaaaaay too many people experiencing issues after bringing in their Mavericks for this recall.

 

[Islandman]

Headliner seems like a lot of work. Overhead console would have to come out, visors, grab handles, all pillar trim, etc. lots of opportunity to scratch the ”easy to scratch“ plastics (at bottom of all pillar trim).

They scratched mine up pretty good!

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