md40022

Thanks. It may have been your response that I saw on another thread. I don't recall who posted it, but regardless -- Thank you. I did change out the TB a few hours ago and all seems good right now. Like you said, it's a 10 minute job.

actually in searching these symptoms it's looking like people say this could be a Throttle Body issue....

Hoping someone can help me with this.... 2010 Hybrid. 135k miles. I live in the Chicago area, it's been getting a little chilly overnight - may or may not factor into the problem. Car was sitting since 5pm the previous night. Went to start the car for work this morning, about 7:30am. It started in EV mode. Everything seemed fine. I turned the defroster on while still in park. Upon doing this the gas engine kicks on and immediately gives me a wrench icon on the left side of the dash. Not the check engine light, but this wrench icon thing. Engine sounds very rumbly at this point too. I pop the hood and see a fair amount of shaking and vibration from the engine. Far more than normal. I need to get to work though and I only work 3 miles away, so I give it a shot. No pickup from the car at all. Acceleration is very very minimal and it seems to literally top out at about 40 mph. The car is in ICE mode while I'm driving. However, when I come to stop signs and the EV kicks in I notice the EV battery meter at maybe 10% of life At this point I go back home and call in sick to work. Here's the goofy part though, I shut the car off for maybe 3 minutes while I called in sick. Upon starting it a 2nd time it started up fine. The wrench icon is gone. The engine isn't rumbling. I drove it around the block a few times and it seems back to normal. EV battery gauge is back up to about 50%. Acceleration is back to normal. ICE sounds normal again. Since then, I've started the car a 3rd time and again all seemed normal though I didn't drive it at all this time. I hate chalking this up as a fluke and not taking action, because with winter coming I know this will bite me. My initial thoughts, with having very minimal knowledge of a hybrid system, are the issue seems to be clear to the ICE. I suspect the lack of acceleration and the fact that I was topping out at 40mph would be from the EV (which normally does top out at that speed, roughly) to be related to the ICE struggling and the EV system carrying the entire weight. This also might be why the EV battery was virtually drained by the time I got back home from my attempt to get to work. Obviously the rumbling and shaking from the ICE would again indicate an ICE issue..... Could this be the 12v battery failing? Because again, the problem started when I flipped the defroster on causing the car to switch from EV to ICE this morning. Within seconds of flipping the defroster on is when the wrench icon popped up and when the ICE kicked on I immediately heard the rumbling. Could the car have initially started in EV mode, then when switching to ICE the 12v battery wasn't able to do it's thing? I only bring that up as an idea because on my 2nd and 3rd starts, now that the battery maybe got charged up a bit, all seems fine. Battery is straight from the dealership and was installed in August of 2021, so it's just over 2 years old. I did put a meter on the battery and it shows 12.3v with the car off and 14.0v with it on, though this isn't at a cold start anymore though so I know those numbers can be misleading. And my brain only went the battery route due to the fact that the problem was only at a cold start when the ICE first kicked over. 25 months seems like a short life for a battery though (albeit, Chicago winters can be brutal)........ I might not even be in the ballpark though with the battery idea lol Any thoughts?

Just started to have a problem with my 2010 Fusion Hybrid. Compass will stay STUCK in a given direction. Usually it's north. When I first start the car it will give a quick little "cal" / calibration note and then either show "N" and be stuck there, or it will show the correct direction and operate as normal for a few minutes before eventually getting stuck again and at that point it could be stuck on any direction N/S/E/W. A few points on my end though..... I did remove the factory radio and replace it with an aftermarket radio maybe 3 years ago. The compass worked fine up until the last week or so, so the radio replacement had nothing to do with the problem. However, that recalibrating by holding down buttons on the factory radio thing is impossible for me. To the previous poster above me, I'm dealing with an identical symptom as you and I'm using an aftermarket radio. So I don't think your radio has anything to do with it. I'm heavily leaning towards the compass itself. That requires full blown rearview mirror replacement though, or am I wrong about that??

Solved. If anyone experiences anything similar ---- direct message me.

Probably worth noting, battery was replaced in August 2021. So it's not even 2 years old yet.

Interesting thread. I am dealing with a very similar problem to the original poster (see my ABS / Speed Sensor / Braking issue... Help thread). When he describes as a grinding, I hear as a clunking but it sure seems to be coming from the same area. I am getting a C0036 code (rear left tone wheel). I would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to know if this C0036 issue is specifically what's causing this clunking or grinding from under the hood, but with some of the erratic behaviors I've getting, I am not 100% sure of that being the case. Per my mechanic's visual inspection the tone wheel was filthy but not broken or cracked. At least from what he claimed. Maybe there's a hairline crack he missed? He cleaned it up real good, but still the same issue. I don't know if the speed sensor should be looked at or not, because C0036 specifically says tone wheel, does not mention sensor at all -- though I know they work together. My biggest concern though is if this clunking sound is damaging to the vehicle or not. It sure does NOT sound healthy haha. Also, when I get the clunk or grind sound which seems to be coming from the ABS module, I don't always get any dashboard lights. I might be wrong, but shouldn't the dash lights come on every single time there is a bad detection from the speed sensor and tone wheel? Yet when I get the clunking sound, it's not a guarantee that I get the dash lights coming on. There seem to be some inconsistencies in the way my car is behaving. But if my clunk (or grind) sound is in fact coming from the ABS module, I am not at risk of doing any further damage if I drive on it for another week until I can get back to the mechanic??? Because it doesn't sound all that pleasant, which is obviously concerning.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I am perplexed with my current issue and could really use some opinions. Here are all of the details of my problem... 2010 Fusion Hybrid. 130k miles. I live in the Chicago area. Problem first occurred right around Xmas. I am driving thru the grocery store parking lot and as I am coming to a complete stop (around 5-10mph) the car feels like it "slips" for just a split second. The feeling is as if I hit a tiny patch of ice and the brakes just had a little hiccup or slip on an ice patch. It only happened for a very split second and as it happened the ABS, Traction Control, and Service Advancetrac lights all came up on the dashboard. It was a cold, nasty night out and I attributed the issue to hitting a patch of ice. As I continued to drive, the 3 warning lights all went away and everything seemed fine. Same problem occurs about a week later. Again, it's winter time in Chicago so I don't make a big deal about it. Assume it's just bad road conditions. Same problem occurs again a few days later. At this point, I get concerned. I check my brake fluid reservoir and I find it empty. I add brake fluid, but the issue remains. I call a friend of mine who does some mechanic work on the side and he tells me if I was empty at the brake reservoir, I most likely have air in my brake lines. He suggests we bleed the system. We do a brake bleed and he tells me there is a TON of air in the in system. During the bleed, we do not see any signs of a fluid leak at the calipers. It's probably mid January when we do this. After the brake bleed things actually seem good for a week or so. After about a week though, the problem returns and it returns more aggressively. Now, in addition to that "slipping" feel I am also getting a little clunking or knocking noise from under the hood. When it returns, on cold days it seems to be happening at 50% of my stops - always in the 5mph-10mph range just before a complete stop. Sometimes I get EVERYTHING happening (the slip feel, the clunk noise, and the 3 dash board lights) and other times I just get the 3 dash lights or I just get the slip feel and clunk sound. The slip feel and the clunk sound seem to be hand in hand at this point. The 3 dash lights sometimes come on, other times they don't. Again, it's VERY frequent when its very cold out. On nicer days though, it doesn't occur all that often. Based on the clunk from under the hood, we decide to replace the master cylinder. It's maybe 2 weeks ago when we do this. We also decide to replace the front pads, rotors and calipers. They visually looked okay, but being that there had some age on them and he was only charging for parts, we decided to change them along with the master cylinder. After changing everything out, we again bled the system.... No change what so ever though. Exact same issue remained. At this point, the guy who was doing the work made the realization that on this car you have to use a scan tool to specifically bleed the ABS system. He was unaware of that, so he never bled the ABS. I have no idea if this is contributing to the issue or not, but he starts to wonder if air is in the ABS could that be messing with valves within the ABS module and be the cause of the clunking noise under the hood. This morning I bring it to a professional mechanic. The mechanic puts his scanner on it and says there are multiple ABS codes being thrown, but knowing that other parties had their hands on the car in replacing the MC and playing with the brake lines he said he doesn't want to put any stock into any codes yet and he prefers to reset everything and see what returns. The one code that he did say stood out to him though was C0036, which is an issue with the drivers side rear tone wheel and ABS speed sensor. He said if there was an issue from a tone wheel or speed sensor if could be causing all kinds of insanity from the ABS. He inspects and reports the tone wheel is not broken or cracked, but it is filthy and packed with mud. He cleans up the tone wheel. He takes it for a 10 minute test drive and says all is good. I ask them if bleeding the ABS system is something that he should do. His response is everything just drove great on his test run so let's see what happens - it might just be a dirty sensor and tone wheel. I pick the car up a few hours ago and at first all seemed okay (it was a nice day today), but the same issue did return. All the symptoms mentioned above are still present. I hooked ForScan up to it a few minutes ago and the only ABS code being shown is C0036 (rear drivers side tone wheel again). I'm at a loss at this point. I will be going back to the mechanic obviously, but that might end up being a week away still since I really need the car for these next few days. There are a few things that still don't seem to be adding up here still though. Being dry on brake fluid when I first checked things is still something that remains unexplained. Nobody has seen any signs of a leak anywhere - so that remains a mystery. Although, fluid levels seems to be holding ever since then. The ABS having never been bled remains of major concern to me because an air pocket messing with a valve within the ABS/HCU module (clunking noise) sure sounds practical, but at the same time there have been PLENTY of instances when I get this slipping feel and the clunk noise where the dash lights never come on and I'm kind of of the opinion that the speed sensor failure triggering the ABS and Traction Control would only be when the dash lights come on and the dash lights don't always come on when the issue occurs. And even if I do have air in my ABS system and my brake fluid did magically go dry a month or two ago, did my rear tone wheel malfunction just coincidentally happen at the same time??? Something just doesn't seem to be adding up through all of this. And the wild card in all of this is in everything I read, the ABS / HCU module in the 2010 Fusion seems to really be problematic and could end up being the root cause of everything I suppose? I'm still a week away from being able to get back to the mechanic so in the meantime does anyone have any opinions on this? For what it's worth, the brakes feel fine up until when the problem occurs. The pedal isn't spongy, I dont feel like it's losing pressure. Stopping feels absolutely fine until that 5mph-10mph range at which point I get that little hiccup or slip along with the clunk... and maybe the 3 dash lights coming up. I'm at a loss!!

In attempting to troubleshoot what has been an ongoing issue with my 2010 Fusion Hybrid, I am wondering if there is a way to disable the ABS module for a day or two just to see how the given problem does or doesn't change. I was hoping to find just one simple fuse for it, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Any fuse that looks like it might be ABS related seems to have other functions tied to it as well. I know disabling ABS is not a preferred thing, of course, but would anyone know the "best" way to go about this for a day or two of troubleshooting purposes? again, it's a 2010 Hybrid.

Giving an update here in hopes that maybe some of the new info sparks some opinions of others.... A day or two after my original post, we did a brake bleed and found a TON of air in the 4 brake lines. Bled out the air. Added brake fluid. No signs of fluid leak at any of the 4 calipers. At that point, after bleeding the system, about 2 weeks passed and all was great. No issues at all. About a week ago though, the issue returned. Same exact scenario as noted in the original post. Just as I'm coming to a complete stop the brakes seem to "slip" just for a split second and the pressure in the pedal decreases. It's a split second thing and then all returns to normal. Maybe 25% of the time when the problem occurs, I get the trifeca of ABS, Advancetrac, and Traction Control lighting up on the dashboard. All 3 lights shut off after about a block of driving though. And it's only maybe 25% of the time when the problem occurs that the lights do come on...... Maybe 2 or 3 days ago we bleed the brakes again (fluid level is fine time) and once again more air in the system. Also within the last 2 or 3 days I'm now occasionally getting a knock or clunk noise from what seems to sound like the center area under the hood. Would seem to be in the area of the master cylinder. This has me thinking master cylinder at this point. Knowing that I found my fluid reservoir dry a few weeks back when I first checked and being that there was no sign of fluid leak at any of the 4 wheels, that seems to put the master cylinder in play. Also, knowing that a ton of air was in the lines and after bleeding the lines more air got into the lines 2 weeks later. Now factor in the newly developed "clunk" noise from the center area under the hood when the problem occurs ------- master cylinder, right? Any opinions are very appreciated.

EXACT SAME scenario for me. Like 100% identical, to the T. I know diagnosing via a Google search is recipe for disaster, but everything I've seen online with the 3 warning lights coming on seemed to point to sensors --- and the original poster on this thread had a sensor issue. But the fact that I found myself very low on brake fluid makes me think I'm totally overthinking this and I just need to get some brake work done ASAP. The only difference with my situation is mine is still acting up even after adding fluid - but knowing that I probably got air in the lines at this point, I'm not all that surprised..... Hopefully I can get through a few more days that will probably total about 50 miles of driving before I get in to the mechanic.

2010 Fusion Hybrid. About 135,000 miles. So, about 2 weeks ago I am driving very slowly in a grocery store parking lot and as I apply the brakes to stop at a stop sign I feel a little bit of a "jerk" as the car comes to a stop. As this happens I get the ABS light, the sliding vehicle light (don't know the actual name for this) and the "service advancetrac" lights all popping up on the dashboard. I live in the Chicago area and the weather was kind of nasty at the time so I attributed the jerky feeling at the stop to a patch of ice and being that all 3 warning lights turned off on their own about a block later - I assumed all was fine. Figured it was an ice patch, no big deal. Fast forward to within the last few days. I have now began to notice fairly often when I come to a stop the brakes almost seem to "slip" for a very brief moment during the stopping process. It almost feels as if I briefly hit a tiny patch of ice and the deceleration stops for just a fraction of a second and then it picks back up again. Brake pressure on the pedal felt fine though. And occasionally I will get the trifecta of those 3 warning lights mentioned above coming on right around the same time that this happens. The lights quickly go away on their own though as I start driving again. Since the first time this happened 2 weeks ago I attributed to the weather and it only again started happening within the last 2 days or so, I just checked my brake fluid last evening. The reservoir was virtually dry. I added fluid last night for the sake of being able to get to and from work for a few days until I can take it into the mechanic. Even after adding fluid last evening though, the same issues mentioned above remain. Though I know after adding fluid the system should be bled and I know if there is air in the system that could still be an issue. I know that I need to get the brakes checked and serviced. Obviously. I do have a few questions though.... The actual brakes themselves have checked "OK" in the dashboard system check. The only dashboard warnings I've had with this issue have been those 3 lights; Service Advancetrac, ABS, and sliding car icon. Wouldn't being low on fluid give an actual brake failure notification of some sort and not ABS / Advancetrac notifications? In all of my Google searches of this type of symptom people seem to point to speed sensors and wheel sensors triggering these 3 notifications, but at the same time the fact that I was very low on brake fluid makes me think that I'm totally over analyzing it with all these sensors and it's GOTTA be brake related, right? I mean "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck..... it's probably a duck". If I'm having stopping issues and I'm low on brake fluid, hey dummy get your brakes checked..... but the google world seems to say everything revolving around that trifecta of dashboard notifications is sensor related. Ultimately I'll be heading to the mechanic within the next few days --- but any opinions here would be welcomed. For the record, I had my rear brakes done (pads, rotors and calipers) in August of 2021 and at that time the mechanic said the front brakes looked really good. I've owned the car for just over 2 years and have never had the front brakes done - unsure of how old they are.

So, I've put a very bootleg "fix" into place and I am happy with things on my end, so that is the end of that. Just in case anyone runs into a similar problem and is okay with a bootleg fix, here is how I "fixed" the issue..... Initial problem was I would only get cold air from the passenger side on my dual climate control. Driver's side was fine, changing between hot and cold as needed. Passenger side would only blow cold. I removed the glove box (very easy) and from there was able to remove the passenger side blend door actuator. It was a little tricky the first time, but after doing it once or twice it actually becomes easy. I tested the actuator while it was removed from the actual blend door. And when I switched between hot and cold the actuator gave no response at all. No gears grinding, no clicking, nothing at all. Completely dead. This led me to believe it was either the actuator itself, a wiring problem, or the temperature control module in the center dash. I ordered a new actuator since it was only $30 - figured I'd take a chance on it. Installed the new actuator. Same issue though. Completely dead. No response at all. At this point though, I was able to determine that the blend door itself was fine. I was able to move the shaft of the door by hand and in one direction I get cold air, in the other direction I get hot air. Perfect. And what I realized in this test is that the default position of the door's shaft will release cold air. So while I can manually move the shaft to get hot air, it will not stay like this. So when I move it to get hot air, as soon as I take my hand off the shaft the door returns to the default position and the air is cold again. It's not spring loaded or anything, it's just the way the weight of the door and gravity seem to fall. But at this point now I'm now pretty good at the process of getting the actuator in and out. And I have two actuators in my possession now. The default positioning of the cam on the actuator is in the cold air position. So I took one of the two actuators, opened up the gear box, and adjusted the gear and cam positioning for that one of the actuator's default cam positions are now for hot air. By now I'm sure you know where I'm going with this, and YES it is a bootleg fix. So now I have one actuator positioned for the fall/winter and one actuator positioned for the spring/summer..... and being that it's a 5 minute job, I will just be swapping out one actuator for another at the start of fall and the start of spring. The 5 pin harness is disconnected and the dash is not throwing any codes, so the only purpose the actuator is currently serving is it is holding the shaft of the blend door in the exact position that it needs to be held for fall/winter or spring/summer. Is this an ideal fix? No, not at all. But this specific symptom seems to pretty much go unresolved on every single thread on the forum - so I'm satisfied with this fix. It's a $35 cost for a second actuator and it's 5 minutes of labor every 6 months to switch them out..... it is what it is haha.

Update.... I did gain access to the blend door actuator after removing the glove box door. I was only able to access one of the bolts. In removing that one bolt I was able to get the actuator's motor shaft removed from the door itself. Then with the actuator removed from the blend door I played around with the temperature control knob on the passenger side and absolutely NOTHING was happening with the actuator. There weren't any clicking sounds indicating a stripped gear, there was no life to it what so ever. And for comparison sake when I play with the temperature control knob on the driver's side I do hear some noises from within the dash which would lead me to believe the blend door actuator on the driver's side is obviously doing its thing. But on the passenger side there are no noises at all and I was able to visually confirm that the shaft on the actuator is not moving at all. The actuator seems completely DEAD DEAD DEAD. I'd love to say this is a bad actuator, but now I'm curious if it's even getting voltage given that it's not making any noises or anything. The good news would be that I don't think this is an issue with the blend door itself, because the actuator seems to be completely dead. Unless of course the blend door was so jammed up that it KO'd the actuator. I'm hoping that's not the case though, ecause the door itself looks like a NIGHTMARE to get to. So at this point I believe I either have a bad actuator motor or a bad temperature control module in the center console (I'm assuming that's what feeds the voltage to the actuator?). Does my troubleshooting logic seem solid here or am I missing something? And I was able to do this testing by just removing one of the 2 (or 3?) bolts on the actuator. Assuming that I have to completely remove the actuator to replace it, does anyone have any tips on how to access all of those bolts because the others look very difficult to get to!!!! Any tips would be appreciated.

Well after browsing numerous forums, it doesn't seem that there is a known cause or pattern for this in fusions. Just a lot of speculation and guessing. So, I'll be digging into the dash to check the blend door and BD actuator within the next few days. Has anyone done this before, and if so if someone's able to provide a few pointers or even a step by step for accessing the blend door / BD actuator I would really appreciate it. Otherwise I'll be going in blind. it's a 2010 fusion hybrid and it's the passenger side I'm trying to access. On a side note, in some other forums I've seen some people suggest things like resetting or re-calibrating the BD actuator. That's probably a long shot, but if it's as simple as pulling a fuse or disconnecting a batter terminal for 60 seconds then it's probably worth a try before ripping open the dash...... Again, anyone with any knowledge of if "resetting" it is a real thing or just some message forum people talking crazy, and if this is a real thing what would be that procedure? For what it's worth, I did replace the 12 volt battery a few months ago, right in the middle of summer. Prior to a few days ago, I haven't used the heat since the battery replacement. So if that could have played games with some sort of calibration I wouldn't have even known about it at the time..... So again, if anyone knows if resetting/recalibrating these actuators is even a real thing - if you could shed some light on that procedure it would be awesome..... Otherwise, I'll be digging into the dash within the next few days.