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Temporarily lost communication with the climate system


Lauradeweese
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I have had so many problems with this car giving me this error. On the dashboard display panel, a message that says "temporarily lost communication with the climate system" displays itself at least three times a week.

 

When this message is present, nothing works. The A/C, the heat, nor the fans work. To add on top of that, it locks the windows too so you're stuck in a hot car with no airflow until the system randomly decides to start working again and then everything turns on at once.

 

I have contacted ford and received no help. The man informed me that he had never heard of a car doing this before and suggested I take it to my local dealer.

When I took it to my local dealer they said they couldn't help since the system was not locked up when I took it to them.

 

We are on a 9 hour car ride right now and we are in Florida with no air conditioning. PLEASE HELP ME FIX THIS.

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You'll probably have to leave it with the dealer for a few days so they can try to reproduce it. It can be difficult and sometimes impossible to diagnose something if the symptom is not present.

 

Another thing they can do is give you a data recorder.

 

But there is nothing that Ford corporate can do - you have to take it to a dealer.

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I have had so many problems with this car giving me this error. On the dashboard display panel, a message that says "temporarily lost communication with the climate system" displays itself at least three times a week.

 

When this message is present, nothing works. The A/C, the heat, nor the fans work. To add on top of that, it locks the windows too so you're stuck in a hot car with no airflow until the system randomly decides to start working again and then everything turns on at once.

 

I have contacted ford and received no help. The man informed me that he had never heard of a car doing this before and suggested I take it to my local dealer.

When I took it to my local dealer they said they couldn't help since the system was not locked up when I took it to them.

 

We are on a 9 hour car ride right now and we are in Florida with no air conditioning. PLEASE HELP ME FIX THIS.

 

Hi Lauradeweese,

 

When was your dealer visit? I recommend heading back while this is acting up to get a proper diagnosis. Once you have an appointment set up, please let me know, along with your mileage.

 

Meagan

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  • 4 months later...

How much diagnosis is required here? The message says that communication was lost with the climate control system. So it is either the climate module or the cable with the Canbus signals feeding that module is intermittent. It should not take a knowledgeable service technician too long to find the issue.

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How much diagnosis is required here? The message says that communication was lost with the climate control system. So it is either the climate module or the cable with the Canbus signals feeding that module is intermittent. It should not take a knowledgeable service technician too long to find the issue.

All that message indicates is that the CAN bus isn't allowing the required components to talk. Could be due to 'noise' on the bus, a defective 'controller module' or a defective 'receiver' module. This is very much like a web browser 'clock error', where you don't get a reply for a command request. Issue can range from a loose connector, bad wire, to a bad module, to an unrelated module flooding the bus with 'noise' so the components can't talk.

 

Like in "Cool hand Luke", what we have here is a failure to communicate. The $64K question is why, and what to do about it.

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If there were noise on the Canbus or a flood of messages from a different module, it is likely there would be communication errors occuring with many other modules. Here, the owner is reporting that the error is always with the climate control. Certainly it could be a more involved or obscure problem, but maybe we shouldn't "over-think" this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had this problem consistently for most of the last week...temperatures warmed up and "coincidentally?" I regained communication.

The problem will likely come again. It is VERY annoying. Surprised no one here has the cause of this problem. Will call up dealer to make an appointment, but again they might not be able to reproduce it.

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Sorry to hear that you are still having problems.

If the only message you are getting is "Temporarily lost communication with the climate system" then that is likely the failed module.

If you aren't still covered by the warranty and are handy you could pick up a used part from ebay or locally for about $125.

That would be a fraction of the price the dealership would charge to even diagnose the problem.

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  • 8 months later...

Any updates on this problem? My wife's 2015 Fusion is also having this issue-"Temporarily Lost communication with the Climate System". We have taken to the dealer twice and nothing has been diagnosed as where the problem lies yet. It was at the dealer four days the first time-four weeks the second time. It faulted out 13 times for us so far and they claim they can't get it to repeat. They tell us they need it to fault out to diagnose it at that time. When it faults out it also takes out the windows, locks on passenger side and the touch screen. We are heading into winter here and need the defrost for the frosty morning plus heat. It is as it states temporary but waiting for it too come back on so we can have heat and defrost is not acceptable. It has lasted up to twenty minutes. The technician told us it has given multiple codes showing communication errors with other modules. He stated that he could not just start changing modules or cables because it may or may not correct the problem. He also stated that Ford would send someone in (if they were not able not solve the issue in a reasonable amount of time) with the authority to start changes parts out to try and correct the problem. We picked the car up two days ago and were told to get an inexpensive code reader and to plug it in when it reoccurred to help them solve this. Thanks!

Edited by cljimmy72
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Most of the bluetooth and wifi OBD2 code readers that work with apps like ForScan only monitor the HS Canbus. The climate controller is on the MS Canbus. There are instructions on the ForScan website for a hardware mod to allow switching between the two busses.

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  • 2 years later...

If anyone has this issue try moving your driver's seat and wiggling the cables underneath the seat. I have had the issue in 2015 Fusion Titanium where the climate system loses communication and the passenger side windows lock up. I tried doing a software master reset, updating software, disconnecting the battery, etc... I found some of the wiring under the seat and if it is kicked from behind, gets caught on something while moving, or something gets wedged under there, that may be your issue. 

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  • 3 months later...

In case anyone is still looking for a resolution to this issue, try moving the driver seat, even just slightly, for me everything comes right back on. I don't even have to kick anything or wiggle wires like the last commenter suggested. Just tap the button to move the seat. It's really strange, but it has worked every single time.

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I've been having the same issue for over a year. 

Climate control system shuts down. I get an alarm stating "Temporarily lost communication with the Climate System."

"Blindspot System Fault" and "Cross Traffic System Fault," I'm guessing these both utilize the Side Object Detection Modules.

Door position preset buttons don't work (but manual seat adjustments do).

Front panel controls (radio and Climate control) don't work and panel LED's do not light up. Radio can still be controlled by steering wheel controls.

Power door locks on all four doors don't work.

Power windows on all four doors don't work.

On rearview mirrors, only the down button works (left, right and up do not).

 

My wife's fix has been to stop the car, get out and get back in. This usually works and faults clear. This is why I'm guessing there is something happening with the wiring under the seat that may be causing the communication error to come and go.

 

I did check the Side Object Detection modules be pulling the wiring harness and cleaning pins with alcohol. The modules themselves were pretty clean. Per another recent post, I pulled the wiring harnesses under the seat and reconnected them. No luck there either. 

 Moving the seat does not make it come back. It's all very sporadic.

20191103_151057 (2).jpg

20191103_151107 (2).jpg

20191103_151051 (2).jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally found a resolution to this problem. Given the fact that as some uses said, moving the seat would be a temporary fix and the fact that my wife getting out of the car and back in would also work, I decided to just replace the seat. It had to be a wiring issue somewhere in the seat. I found one on eBay for $250. Drove 60 miles to avoid shipping charges. Changing out is simple. Two large wiring harnesses and 4 bolts. Took less than 30 minutes. Viola, all issues are gone! 

 

 

Spoke too soon. Problem came back. I'm now working my way through network diagrams to find a possible location for communications breakdown.

Edited by Dtpat
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Thanks everyone, I ended up trading in that hunk of junk. It got to the point where it started locking the doors too. Incredibly unsafe and frustrating. 
 

I now have a Jeep with manual everything because of the trauma Ford caused with all electronic everything lol. 
 

 

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  • 9 months later...
On 10/24/2016 at 8:17 AM, cljimmy72 said:

https://help.ford.com/update-sync/usb/  I was having this exact same problem. Doing this fixed my issue!

 

 

Any updates on this problem? My wife's 2015 Fusion is also having this issue-"Temporarily Lost communication with the Climate System". We have taken to the dealer twice and nothing has been diagnosed as where the problem lies yet. It was at the dealer four days the first time-four weeks the second time. It faulted out 13 times for us so far and they claim they can't get it to repeat. They tell us they need it to fault out to diagnose it at that time. When it faults out it also takes out the windows, locks on passenger side and the touch screen. We are heading into winter here and need the defrost for the frosty morning plus heat. It is as it states temporary but waiting for it too come back on so we can have heat and defrost is not acceptable. It has lasted up to twenty minutes. The technician told us it has given multiple codes showing communication errors with other modules. He stated that he could not just start changing modules or cables because it may or may not correct the problem. He also stated that Ford would send someone in (if they were not able not solve the issue in a reasonable amount of time) with the authority to start changes parts out to try and correct the problem. We picked the car up two days ago and were told to get an inexpensive code reader and to plug it in when it reoccurred to help them solve this. Thanks!

 

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