Trailer Brake controller NFG

[RogueCheddar]

Fuming right now!

Just come back from my dealer here in BC, Canada where I was booked in for the trailer brake controller recall. I had commented on a previous thread about the recall that I had hooked up my travel trailer a couple of weekends ago to test out and set up the TBC only to find out about the recall when I realized my system was not working, and when I say not working I mean no numbers showing up on the display when the gain controls buttons were pushed and no way to store the settings either. The manual slider is working and does activate the trailer brakes but again, no way to store settings and no menus anywhere to be found.
I called the dealer who were at this stage unaware of the recall so I enlightened them and they booked it in.
Today they updated the software as per the recall but still no gain controls showing on the display and again no way of storing the settings. My dealer is baffled, they called Ford Canada service "hotline" asking for some guidance but at this point they have none but are promising to look into it. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement, one of the key reasons for choosing this little truck was to be able to to tow my trailer and now I'm SOL.
The dealer are reassuring me they will find a fix for the issue and get it sorted but until that happens no camping for us.
I do expect issues to pop up being a first run of a new vehicle but do they not at least look to see if all the control systems are working before signing it off for delivery? Clearly not.


Rant over!

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[The Weatherman]

So how heavy is your loaded trailer. If it’s less than like 3500lbs, you wouldn’t Have To Have electric brakes. A little extra caution and stopping distance and you should be fine.

 

[Johnkn]

He needs brakes on that trailer......

.

 

[RogueCheddar]

So how heavy is your loaded trailer. If it’s less than like 3500lbs, you wouldn’t Have To Have electric brakes. A little extra caution and stopping distance and you should be fine.

Its 2500lbs loaded. Many of my trips will be over long mountain passes so I will be using brakes.

 

[NJBob]

He does say that it works with the manual slider. The trailer has brakes. I bought the 4 K tow package but currently have to trailer with brakes. Any way to test them? Bet there is many like me

 

[RogueCheddar]

I’m in the same boat but decided to tow anyway after someone in another thread said they had the 7 pin checked and it is outputting voltage to the trailer brakes at the default 6volts. You just can’t adjust it. I’ve towed my 3300lbs trailer over 500 miles with some steep inclines with no issues. Just put it in tow mode as soon as I start the truck. I do have an appointment with the dealership to see if they can get anywhere with the issue

I have Ford Canada now looking into it. my brakes do work on the slider and it pulls up nicely but there is no way to store the gain settings at all so it would mean using the brakes manually, something I'm not keen to do. it's like they just didn't install the software in the factory. It is funny how one of the Techs at my dealership said I would be fine to tow with the size of trailer I have, I asked him if he wanted to put that in writing and sign his name to that, he declined....

 

[Kipgardiner]

First post but I've been following this and I have a 22 Maverick with the same problem and, it seems to be a problem for the F-150 guys as well. I found an F-150 group that has to install a resistor in the trailer wiring to make the TBC wake up and send more power back to the trailer. I thought for $15 for 2 resistors I'll try it. Well it works. My 8' trailer with brakes comes on with less time delay and stronger.

I'll paste a link to the F-150 group and what they did as it's easier than me explaining but it makes the TBC think the trailer is bigger with more brakes or axles so it sends more power. I also paste a pic of my resistor on my trailer. Thanks and happy trailering.

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/trailer-brake-controller-issues-ford-disaster-solved-379698/

 

[enigmalegend]

Good afternoon all

I live in the US and am currently experiencing the same issue. Furthermore i am at the same point of the troubleshooting process that @RogueCheddar was back in April 14th which is the mechanic has contact "The Hotline".
Now let me give you a little bit of the story about my case...

- April 19th = Took the truck to the nearest Ford dealership to get the recall taking care off
- April 22nd = We went to get our brand new travel trailer we bought (the reason i got the 4k towing package on my Maverick) but the Integrated Trailer Brake Controller (ITBC) refuse to show any gain numbers on the dashboard. We did found out that the Manual trailer part of the system still work. But the RV Dealership didn't feel comfortable releasing the trailer until we took the truck back to Ford
- April 25th = we took the truck back to the dealership so they can have another go at repairing the module. After escalating the issue to a Ford Engineer (Not sure if "The Hotline" was engage) and having the truck in the shop for about a week, it was decided to "replace" the module ( remember that part since it will become crucial later). Took the truck with me on April 28th with a paper in writing that said "you should be safe to tow your travel trailer(yes the dealership put it in writing). The new module wont arrive for another week
- May 10th = The part Arrive last week and they finally got me in this day in order to attached the part
- Today, May 11th = I was informed that the swapping of the towing module didn't work and that " THE HOTLINE" has been engage. They supply me with a loaner vehicle at this time since they knew i wasn't going to be happy about been down to 1 car since my wide also work

First and foremost I do not blamed the dealership or its staff for that matter ( at least not at this time) since they have follow the procedures put in place by Ford. I am highly disappointed on how Ford Support system has handle this issue. Now my background is in I.T.. I have worked in multiple levels of support and i am currently a network and collaboration engineer. I will not claim that my background makes me suitable to put a mechanic's hat to address the issue BUT... I am capable of thinking and breathing at the same time when it comes to "flashing" an electronic device. Which for the untrained eye a flashing of a device is the same thing as re-installing the operating system ( Windows 10 for example) to a factory default version. You sometimes do this when you try to update said device and it fail. This is call the "back out" plan when all fails. I became very suspicious that this was going to work because in the world of networking, if you send a signal to another device across the network and the other side doesn't respond, you have to address the problem layer by layer, which at this point Ford Support System has not do that.
Now we can say with a lot of certainty that the layer of power and the later of been on the same network has been address since the "manual" brake does work when applied and it shows on your dashboard as an error stating "no trailer attached" when press without a trailer been attached. Which means whatever nominal power is use to apply breaks in the trailer is certaingly working. When you press the plus and minus button on the "gain" control option nothing happen. My guess is that the Dashboard Module ( or computer) does not know how to read the signals from the ITBC module ( another computer) in regards to the "Gain" feature.

Personally I cannot afford to fix this issue with 2 resistors because my truck has less than 7500 miles when i started this journey. We have a lemon law in the state i live in (it activate when the car is within 18k miles of use) where if the manufacturer of the car cannot fix the issue within an appropriate amount of time, then they will have to refund my money in full ( including financial fees and full amount of the loan) or replace it with a brand new vehicle.

We will see where this journey will take me and my plan is to keep you posted on this post if a fix is found

 

[TRQ427]

man,, from red hot converters ,,so hot they glow in meltdown mode,,to another serious electrical failure the cant be repaired,, these trucks are not impressive at all.

 

[SkeeterB]

Anyone know how to test the trailer brake controller without a trailer"?

 

[enigmalegend]

Anyone know how to test the trailer brake controller without a trailer"?

all you do is turn your truck on and start by squeezing the manual breaks first. you should get a message that said "no trailer attach". IF that works then you want to push the +/- button to adjust the gain. if you see the numbers increasing or decreasing on your instrument cluster with the same message that said "no trailer attached" then your controller is working as intended. if you do no see "anything" on your cluster then you maybe on the same boat as me

 

[enigmalegend]

Good afternoon all

I live in the US and am currently experiencing the same issue. Furthermore i am at the same point of the troubleshooting process that @RogueCheddar was back in April 14th which is the mechanic has contact "The Hotline".
Now let me give you a little bit of the story about my case...

- April 19th = Took the truck to the nearest Ford dealership to get the recall taking care off
- April 22nd = We went to get our brand new travel trailer we bought (the reason i got the 4k towing package on my Maverick) but the Integrated Trailer Brake Controller (ITBC) refuse to show any gain numbers on the dashboard. We did found out that the Manual trailer part of the system still work. But the RV Dealership didn't feel comfortable releasing the trailer until we took the truck back to Ford
- April 25th = we took the truck back to the dealership so they can have another go at repairing the module. After escalating the issue to a Ford Engineer (Not sure if "The Hotline" was engage) and having the truck in the shop for about a week, it was decided to "replace" the module ( remember that part since it will become crucial later). Took the truck with me on April 28th with a paper in writing that said "you should be safe to tow your travel trailer(yes the dealership put it in writing). The new module wont arrive for another week
- May 10th = The part Arrive last week and they finally got me in this day in order to attached the part
- Today, May 11th = I was informed that the swapping of the towing module didn't work and that " THE HOTLINE" has been engage. They supply me with a loaner vehicle at this time since they knew i wasn't going to be happy about been down to 1 car since my wide also work

First and foremost I do not blamed the dealership or its staff for that matter ( at least not at this time) since they have follow the procedures put in place by Ford. I am highly disappointed on how Ford Support system has handle this issue. Now my background is in I.T.. I have worked in multiple levels of support and i am currently a network and collaboration engineer. I will not claim that my background makes me suitable to put a mechanic's hat to address the issue BUT... I am capable of thinking and breathing at the same time when it comes to "flashing" an electronic device. Which for the untrained eye a flashing of a device is the same thing as re-installing the operating system ( Windows 10 for example) to a factory default version. You sometimes do this when you try to update said device and it fail. This is call the "back out" plan when all fails. I became very suspicious that this was going to work because in the world of networking, if you send a signal to another device across the network and the other side doesn't respond, you have to address the problem layer by layer, which at this point Ford Support System has not do that.
Now we can say with a lot of certainty that the layer of power and the later of been on the same network has been address since the "manual" brake does work when applied and it shows on your dashboard as an error stating "no trailer attached" when press without a trailer been attached. Which means whatever nominal power is use to apply breaks in the trailer is certaingly working. When you press the plus and minus button on the "gain" control option nothing happen. My guess is that the Dashboard Module ( or computer) does not know how to read the signals from the ITBC module ( another computer) in regards to the "Gain" feature.

Personally I cannot afford to fix this issue with 2 resistors because my truck has less than 7500 miles when i started this journey. We have a lemon law in the state i live in (it activate when the car is within 18k miles of use) where if the manufacturer of the car cannot fix the issue within an appropriate amount of time, then they will have to refund my money in full ( including financial fees and full amount of the loan) or replace it with a brand new vehicle.

We will see where this journey will take me and my plan is to keep you posted on this post if a fix is found

Ladies and Gentleman hold on to your underwear !!! Ford is now throwing another new part to replace in order to fix the problem. They are now swapping the instrument cluster.... Yes I know this still seem like they are throwing shit at the wall to see what stick. I will be pleasantly surprise but my gut tells me it will not due to not finding/addressing the problem.... I will continue to update this threat in hope that once they fix mine, you guys can fix yours...

 

[RogueCheddar]

Good afternoon all

I live in the US and am currently experiencing the same issue. Furthermore i am at the same point of the troubleshooting process that @RogueCheddar was back in April 14th which is the mechanic has contact "The Hotline".
Now let me give you a little bit of the story about my case...

- April 19th = Took the truck to the nearest Ford dealership to get the recall taking care off
- April 22nd = We went to get our brand new travel trailer we bought (the reason i got the 4k towing package on my Maverick) but the Integrated Trailer Brake Controller (ITBC) refuse to show any gain numbers on the dashboard. We did found out that the Manual trailer part of the system still work. But the RV Dealership didn't feel comfortable releasing the trailer until we took the truck back to Ford
- April 25th = we took the truck back to the dealership so they can have another go at repairing the module. After escalating the issue to a Ford Engineer (Not sure if "The Hotline" was engage) and having the truck in the shop for about a week, it was decided to "replace" the module ( remember that part since it will become crucial later). Took the truck with me on April 28th with a paper in writing that said "you should be safe to tow your travel trailer(yes the dealership put it in writing). The new module wont arrive for another week
- May 10th = The part Arrive last week and they finally got me in this day in order to attached the part
- Today, May 11th = I was informed that the swapping of the towing module didn't work and that " THE HOTLINE" has been engage. They supply me with a loaner vehicle at this time since they knew i wasn't going to be happy about been down to 1 car since my wide also work

First and foremost I do not blamed the dealership or its staff for that matter ( at least not at this time) since they have follow the procedures put in place by Ford. I am highly disappointed on how Ford Support system has handle this issue. Now my background is in I.T.. I have worked in multiple levels of support and i am currently a network and collaboration engineer. I will not claim that my background makes me suitable to put a mechanic's hat to address the issue BUT... I am capable of thinking and breathing at the same time when it comes to "flashing" an electronic device. Which for the untrained eye a flashing of a device is the same thing as re-installing the operating system ( Windows 10 for example) to a factory default version. You sometimes do this when you try to update said device and it fail. This is call the "back out" plan when all fails. I became very suspicious that this was going to work because in the world of networking, if you send a signal to another device across the network and the other side doesn't respond, you have to address the problem layer by layer, which at this point Ford Support System has not do that.
Now we can say with a lot of certainty that the layer of power and the later of been on the same network has been address since the "manual" brake does work when applied and it shows on your dashboard as an error stating "no trailer attached" when press without a trailer been attached. Which means whatever nominal power is use to apply breaks in the trailer is certaingly working. When you press the plus and minus button on the "gain" control option nothing happen. My guess is that the Dashboard Module ( or computer) does not know how to read the signals from the ITBC module ( another computer) in regards to the "Gain" feature.

Personally I cannot afford to fix this issue with 2 resistors because my truck has less than 7500 miles when i started this journey. We have a lemon law in the state i live in (it activate when the car is within 18k miles of use) where if the manufacturer of the car cannot fix the issue within an appropriate amount of time, then they will have to refund my money in full ( including financial fees and full amount of the loan) or replace it with a brand new vehicle.

We will see where this journey will take me and my plan is to keep you posted on this post if a fix is found

As of today we are still without a fix to this issue although Ford Canada have assigned us a "Tech" that will liase with our dealer to get things moving. Definitely sounds like we have the same issue, I have even sent youtube footage to our rep at Ford Canada of what should happen on the dash when you push the gain buttons and what is clearly not happening on ours when you do the same thing. I'm of opinion that there is a whole chunk of software missing from either the brake module or the dash as the actual unit is clearly putting out voltage to the brakes, but there is no way to set the gains and no menus appearing. My unexpert view is that it should be fairly straightforward to see if the software is there and not working correctly or just not there at all, time will tell I guess.
In the meantime I am continuing to tow my 2500lb Travel trailer with an abundance of caution and left hand hovering over the manual brake slider on long downhills.

 

[enigmalegend]

As of today we are still without a fix to this issue although Ford Canada have assigned us a "Tech" that will liase with our dealer to get things moving. Definitely sounds like we have the same issue, I have even sent youtube footage to our rep at Ford Canada of what should happen on the dash when you push the gain buttons and what is clearly not happening on ours when you do the same thing. I'm of opinion that there is a whole chunk of software missing from either the brake module or the dash as the actual unit is clearly putting out voltage to the brakes, but there is no way to set the gains and no menus appearing. My unexpert view is that it should be fairly straightforward to see if the software is there and not working correctly or just not there at all, time will tell I guess.
In the meantime I am continuing to tow my 2500lb Travel trailer with an abundance of caution and left hand hovering over the manual brake slider on long downhills.

I totally agreed. It does not make sense to continue throwing hardware parts at a problem when is clearly a software bug. I do not even have my truck anymore. Is at the dealership so unfortunately it has been hold hostage pending the fix. We actually have a week schedule vacation to camp with our travel trailer, 5 hours away from home, 2 weeks from now. I already told the dealer I had to reschedule my vacation due to this problem and I am not doing this again. It is funny, the whole idea my wife and I had when we got this travel trailer (our first) is to take long weekends mini vacation. we have not even test the camper since we park it on our driveway at a campground...

 

[Mav22nc]

I totally agreed. It does not make sense to continue throwing hardware parts at a problem when is clearly a software bug. I do not even have my truck anymore. Is at the dealership so unfortunately it has been hold hostage pending the fix. We actually have a week schedule vacation to camp with our travel trailer, 5 hours away from home, 2 weeks from now. I already told the dealer I had to reschedule my vacation due to this problem and I am not doing this again. It is funny, the whole idea my wife and I had when we got this travel trailer (our first) is to take long weekends mini vacation. we have not even test the camper since we park it on our driveway at a campground...

I totally agreed. It does not make sense to continue throwing hardware parts at a problem when is clearly a software bug. I do not even have my truck anymore. Is at the dealership so unfortunately it has been hold hostage pending the fix. We actually have a week schedule vacation to camp with our travel trailer, 5 hours away from home, 2 weeks from now. I already told the dealer I had to reschedule my vacation due to this problem and I am not doing this again. It is funny, the whole idea my wife and I had when we got this travel trailer (our first) is to take long weekends mini vacation. we have not even test the camper since we park it on our driveway at a campground...

From Mav22nc:
I live in the States. Got the notice in TBC software in the mail, made an appt at my dealer next day, got it fixed with software update 2 days later. Haven’t towed since then, but the mechanic who did the update and the head of the service Dept said I’m good to go.

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