The trailer brake on my truck is not working consistently. When coming down a snowy mountain pass two days ago, the bake controller disconnected (after working for about 5 hours). This is incredibly dangerous and due to the fact that I am on a cross country road trip and all dealers are booked months in advance I have not been able to get any information from Ford. I am going to post links to other people having this same problem. This has happened since the truck was purchased. This is an incredibly dangerous situation and I would have expected more from a Ford Truck. I believe based on these other peoples experiences that the issue is with the Powerboost Hybrid specifically. Motor Trend even noticed this in their review: Software Struggles We also intended to evaluate how much the electric motor's torque helps with towing, only to be thwarted by another bug, this one in the trailer brake controller. No matter what we did, the integrated trailer brake controller would not activate the trailer brakes—even with the gain all the way up. We verified the issue was with this F-150 by hitching the trailer to another truck, where the trailer brake controller and trailer brakes worked fine. Link to Motor Trend Review: https://www.motortrend.com/news/2021-ford-f-150-powerboost-hybrid-review/ Other Examples of customers experiencing the same problem. https://tfltruck.com/2021/08/ask-tfl-ford-150-trailer-electrical-issues/ (read the comments at the bottom of the article) https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/trailer-brake-failure.5105/ https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/trailer-brake-not-working.3039/page-2 https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/trailer-tow-power-issue.3259/ https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/trailer-towing-issues.2619/
2021 Ford F-150 Hybrid brakes complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 14 of 14, newest first, as owners wrote them.
While towing an RV trailer, the trucks brake controller failed to send signal to trailer when brakes were applied relying on truck only to stop load. The truck recognized trailer was attached but when brake controller was squeezed message on dash was “No Trailer” Stopped at dealer in Kerrville Tx but problem was not seen on scan tool. This issue seems to be intermittent with no warning message when it happens. Manually monitoring brake controller is the only way to determine if the trucks brake controller is functioning correctly. Consumer took the truck in to 2 different dealers with this trailer brake issue. Both dealers wanted to assume the truck loses connection with trailer. Consumer stated truck does not, the trailer brakes just stop working. Consumer stated has taken the truck to 2 different dealers with this trailer brake issue. Both dealers want to assume the truck loses connection with trailer. Consumer truck does not but trailer brakes just stop working. The attached picture shows me squeezing the brake controller while showing the brakes lights coming on on the rear camera.
2021 F150 XLT Powerboost (4x4, 9420 miles). Brakes failed while at a complete stop and truck propelled forward despite brake pedal being being pressed down. I was in a fast food drive through at a complete stop with my foot on the brake pedal and the instrument cluster went crazy, warning lights flashing, malfunction messages for what seemed like everything (believe pre-collision, ABS, traction, hill, and some others- cant recall for sure), warning chimes sounding non stop, the brake pedal dropped towards the floor board, and truck started moving forward despite pressing pedal as far down as I could; this all happened almost instantly. Pumped breaks (not sure if it did anything) but I barley stopped in time from hitting the car in front of me, and I left a far amount of room between us initially. After this, when limping the truck through the drive through (was stuck in the line at this point), it took about 10ft to stop from a 1-2mph roll. After clearing the drive through line, I was limping the truck to open area of parking lot and the truck randomly bucked (like bump starting a manual) and all the instrument cluster warnings disappeared and brake pedal pressure and braking performance returned. Just as how the issue instantly occurred, it also disappeared instantly. Despite all the warnings on the cluster, only ABS Fault and Pre-Collision show on the FordPass app. Prior to to this, there were no issues. The vehicle has yet to be inspected by Ford as the service department is booked out for bit. Vehicle has since been parked as I am fearful a 6k lb vehicle without brakes can end with loss of life. Interesting enough, Ford does not seem to share this concern as their Roadside Assistance Dept says the truck does not have towing coverage while their Customer Care Team says it does but they can't work with each other and end result is I had to prepay $273.06 to Ford Roadside Assistance for the tow to the future service appointment, and maybe Ford might reimburse it.
I bought a new 2021 F-150 Powerboost exactly 60 days ago, drove approximately 1500 miles until I completely lost brakes on the car almost causing an accident. I brought the car over to the dealer Cross-Roads Ford of APEX and after one day with my truck, they diagnosed the issue, made software updates to all modules, and returned the car. I got the car and within 5 minutes from the dealer, lost brakes again and had to manage to stop the vehicle... Returned to the dealer and it's in for diagnosis again but they asked me to contact Ford. This is not acceptable, I put my family at risk twice and possibly others in the road with this truck. Opened a case with Ford CAS-32036511-Y0W3W4.
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