Ford Pass Remote Start Problem 2025 XLT

[HeyBales]

My 2024 Lariat connected to my home router and two different WiFi’s at work.
All on the first try.
All three routers are on the newest protocols, internet six I think it’s referred to as that.
It remote starts with the Ford pass app every time.

But it’s faster if I use my key fob thingy.

WiFi connection has nothing to do with truck connecting to Ford's network, giving you remote start ability.

It uses cellular ATT only.

Your devices uses your wifi for the app to talk to Ford's network, and eventually the truck thru that.

So your truck connecting to wifi easily has nothing to do with your app's ability to remote start.

Wifi is ONLY used to update the infotainment center. And those updates are unlikely now since system is so old. It's just keeping a radio on. At least it drops connection when finished checking for updates.

Sponsored

 

[HeyBales]

I successfully connected my 2025 XLT to my Android phone hotspot, thinking it could be a cellular network connection (modem issue). I am still not able to connect fordpass to it. If the connection is attempted over any internet connection and not exclusively on the cellular network, then it could be a server issue. I tried reseting everything I can and still no luck. Pretty frustrating and a lot of time wasted. I hope someone from Ford quality is actually monitoring these threads.

Read post below yours for how it works.

And no they don't.

 

[semicolin]

Ugh. My brand new 2025 XL in Canada stopped accessing FordPass 22 hours ago. No location updates, no remote start, and no authorization in the app.
Tried the steps at the top of the thread. It’s completely boned.

 

[sebxb]

Same problem here!

 

[LibDan]

Ugh. My brand new 2025 XL in Canada stopped accessing FordPass 22 hours ago. No location updates, no remote start, and no authorization in the app.
Tried the steps at the top of the thread. It’s completely boned.

If it's any consolation, mine came back after a couple days, went away again, and about a day and a half. Dealer says my vehicle is throwing a "U-Code" so it must be a battery issue. I'm skeptical, but it has an appointment Feb 27th ("first available") to find out.

 

[semicolin]

If it's any consolation, mine came back after a couple days, went away again, and about a day and a half. Dealer says my vehicle is throwing a "U-Code" so it must be a battery issue. I'm skeptical, but it has an appointment Feb 27th ("first available") to find out.

It's not much consolation at all. :/

I always expect problems with vehicles, but in the first week of ownership I've had both a windshield failure and this fordpass failure and there's no good reason for any of it.

 

[LAClippers420]

Y’all are better than me. Never once have I used the remote start. After some 22s reported the smell of egg and sulfur I decided to never try it lol.

 

[LibDan]

It's not much consolation at all. :/

I always expect problems with vehicles, but in the first week of ownership I've had both a windshield failure and this fordpass failure and there's no good reason for any of it.

Oh, I agree; one does not expect vehicle problems in the first week of ownership (and certainly not without a good reason) - It puts a bad taste in your mouth about the brand and takes a while to regain your trust, assuming nothing goes sideways. It's all the more galling because, in addition to the six week quality hold we all experienced, my truck was randomly selected for additional testing to the tune of adding something like 30 miles to the odometer. I don't know what they tested, but it wasn't the FordPass, the front passenger grab bar, or the latch to the center console. This is now my fourth new car in a row (and my first new Ford), and I've never had an experience like this.

My personal belief is that Ford, like many other car manufacturers, is far too focused on keeping up with the Joneses as far as having and developing all these super-cool wiz-bang tech features at the expense of making sure the core functions of the car work. Sorry, Ford, but it can have all the cool tech in the world, but it if it doesn't start and I can't rely on it, it's not much good as a car. It's kind of a walk before you run thing. Put another way, I don't need auto-dimming headlights or speed sign recognition, but I do need a new car that doesn't need to go into the shop every month or two to have a problem fixed.

I admit that I'm entirely being fair to Ford because a lot of complex tech is required these days, however, it's not entirely unfair to Ford either. There are several other automakers who seem able to master those requirements and still produce vehicles with markedly higher reliability scores. Then again, precisely because this was a Ford is exactly why I bought a 10 year/150,000 mile extended warranty. I hope I wasted money there; I fear I did not.

 

[RR - All the way]

If it's any consolation, mine came back after a couple days, went away again, and about a day and a half. Dealer says my vehicle is throwing a "U-Code" so it must be a battery issue. I'm skeptical, but it has an appointment Feb 27th ("first available") to find out.

So your dealer said it was a battery issue..... Note all vehicles on this thread experiencing this problem are hybrids!!!!!!! Battery, harness, etc. may indeed be related.

 

[LibDan]

So your dealer said it was a battery issue..... Note all vehicles on this thread experiencing this problem are hybrids!!!!!!! Battery, harness, etc. may indeed be related.

Tom,

I don't understand why my truck being a hybrid matters - I don't think the service advisor was suggesting there was a problem with the hybrid battery or anything in the hybrid system. I think he meant the regular car battery.

I could easily believe the is a problem somewhere on the CAN bus however. Though my prime suspect is the modem (which is connected he CAN), it could be some other control module. If it was a battery issue though, wouldn't it likely affect more than just FordPass and the data received from the ABS control module? Plus, there are no other indications of a battery problem. Which is not to say it couldn't be the battery, of course. I just feel like the service advisor is being a bit lazy rather than thinking about all the evidence. I'm giving serious thought to seeing what a different Ford dealer's service department says.

 

[RR - All the way]

Tom,

I don't understand why my truck being a hybrid matters - I don't think the service advisor was suggesting there was a problem with the hybrid battery or anything in the hybrid system. I think he meant the regular car battery.

I could easily believe the is a problem somewhere on the CAN bus however. Though my prime suspect is the modem (which is connected he CAN), it could be some other control module. If it was a battery issue though, wouldn't it likely affect more than just FordPass and the data received from the ABS control module? Plus, there are no other indications of a battery problem. Which is not to say it couldn't be the battery, of course. I just feel like the service advisor is being a bit lazy rather than thinking about all the evidence. I'm giving serious thought to seeing what a different Ford dealer's service department says.

You may very well be right. Although a small sample size, I just found it interesting that all vehicles having this problem on this thread are hybrids. Just a coincidence? Possibly!

 

[semicolin]

Well, I’ve contacted FordPass support. He had me to try to reset and re-authorize a couple of times which failed, then he had me drive a mile away, and he could see from his end that the vehicle hadn’t updated position since yesterday.

He escalated it to engineering and I’m waiting for a call back. I’m in an urban area with great cellular coverage, so it looks to me, an idiot, like one of three things:

• incorrect configuration at ford’s end
• SIM card/cell network authorization issue
• Modem/transceiver failure

 

[semicolin]

Although I suppose I could get on the hotspot to verify if it’s the modem. I’ll try that next.

 

[HeyBales]

Although I suppose I could get on the hotspot to verify if it’s the modem. I’ll try that next.

If you have the hotspot service enabled - very useful test.

Because it's the same entry into ATT network, and Ford traffic they route to Ford probably via VPN direct connect, and the hotspot traffic they do normal handoff to internet.

Or badly, they could route it all to Ford, which requires the non-telecommunications company to hopefully have their routing setup correctly for letting the hotspot traffic out thru a firewall to the internet. Yikes I hope they didn't put that load on their network engineers.

 

[semicolin]

Yeah, I set up the hotspot a few days ago and created a trial account with AT&T. I'm in Canada so we don't have AT&T, but after the trial they apparently will hand me off to Bell. In any case, the hotspot was working a few days ago and now it isn't.

Vehicle hotspot menu showed full bars of 5G, so the modem can see a cellular network. My cellphone was able to see and get DHCP/IP from the vehicle's wifi router, but it couldn't get an internet connection.

So maybe the hardware is fine, but Ford has an issue with their cellular provider.

Sponsored