Intermittent non-functioning climate controls & seat memory controls in 2017 fusion SE

[bluecatfish]

I'm posting this in case anyone has experienced a similar issue, and since I have a possible resolution that is working so far. During the past few months, in my 2017 Fusion SE 2.0L with 28k miles, various interior controls stopped working intermittently: climate control buttons, touch screen, seat memory, window switches, audio controls. Sometimes whichever control was out would came back right away after restarting the car, other times the problem would persist for up to a day. This would happen a few times a month no matter who was driving. The issue became more urgent when my wife couldn't turn on the defrost/air-conditioning during a rainy drive despite repeatedly stopping & starting the car. First part of trying to resolve was getting the battery checked at Batteries Plus; they determined the battery was only allowing 70% capacity charge and had sulfated due to too many short trips, so I replaced the battery (they offered to try and overcharge it back closer to original capacity, but I didn't want to make more trips back and forth and keep this as a troubleshooting variable).

 

Problem came back a week later, again with my wife driving. Took it to dealer for warranty service, where they found numerous codes (non-check-engine-light worthy(?)) and "re-initialized" the car for the new battery but otherwise were unable to reproduce the problem(s); they got the codes cleared and could not make it produce new ones in a (likely short) test drive. Problem with CC/seat buttons came back as soon as my wife drove the car again.

 

More troubleshooting at home, eliminated the position of the steering wheel as a factor, then determined it has something to do with wife's seat position (memory setting 2), which is up and forward for a 5'4" person instead of down and back for 6'1" person. Took the door apart and cleaned the connectors, but reproduced the CC button problem again afterwards, so it (probably) wasn't the memory switch or door wiring. Finally determined that lowering the seat an inch from position 2 would make the problem go away, so it was something with the wiring under the driver seat itself. Wiggle/bend/pull wires didn't make it occur, so (hopefully) no broken wires. Unplugged and re-plugged all the connectors (there are a lot) under the seat, and the problem is no longer reproducible with seat raised, and has not occurred for a week now despite various attempts and driving with the seat all over the place. Fingers crossed it was just an intermittently faulty pin connection to whatever module is mounted under the seat (although the battery issue might also have contributed, these newer models want a battery in "good" condition).

 

I did find a link online describing similar issue, but no resolution given: http://www.carproblemzoo.com/ford/fusion/front-seat-power-adjust-problems.php

Edited October 28, 2019 by bluecatfish

[drolds1]

Thanks for posting, bluecatfish.  Perhaps, it'll help another member. It's been pinned.

[Dtpat]

Bluecatfish, this is identical to the issue I am having with my wife's 2013 fusion titanium. What really grabbed my attention is how it all seems to tie back to the driver seat. This happens intermittently and will go away for several weeks before reoccurring. We took it to the dealer but of course we could not reproduce the problem and they upgraded the software. My wife found the temporary fix was to pull over, get out and then back in to the car. Everything magically came back to life! This probably had a 95% success rate for her!. Just like you, it really became a safety issue when my wife was returning home on a cold rainy day. Since the HVAC was inoperable, there was no defrost. She had to keep wiping the windshield with a cloth the entire way home. I thought about pulling the driver's seat this weekend anyway so I will pull all the connectors and see how it goes. Thanks so much for sharing. Its been incredibly frustrating. As soon as I saw your post I felt this amazing relief that we are not alone in this and maybe have a solution. Even if it does not work, thanks so much for sharing!

[West]

My 2015 has this issue fight now and it started when my wife drove the car,  6 mos goes by with her not driving this car.  I have been opening and cleaning all connections related to the body control module but did not check the seat connections.

I hope your tip works.   My scan tool does show lost communication with both seat modules.  Fingers crossed Thanks!
Mark

 

EDIT:  please skip down to the post in September of 21 when the problem was finally fixed.  

Edited February 28, 2022 by West

[West]

I was excited to maybe have a solution so I checked the connections under the driver seat.  No joy, both were tight and removal and re install made no difference.   I was still without AC, Climate Control, Seat Heaters, Windows would not operate, Radio was out, Temp display was out.   Basically the entire center consol was dead along with Door Locks and Windows.

 

I unbolted the driver seat, tilted it back into the rear of the car to examine all the wires best I could and found no issues.   While there I decided to vacuum out any mess found under the seat since the seat was now out of the way.  As I vacuumed I cleaned the area under the carpet merge, where the front carpet and back carpet overlap.  I lifted up the front carpet to clean some minor mess and pulled up the padding that was down there again just to clean.   I spotted two ground wires bolted to the floor in this spot under the carpet and under the padding.  Basically under the front of the seat on the actual floor board.   Since I had already checked everywhere and every ground I could find I got out my socket, 8 MM to remove and check these two grounds.   As soon as I put the wrench on the first one I heard the car activate.  I had the key in the run position already while checking all these wires and connections.  The radio came on, the climate control fan came on, the windows started to work,  EVERYTHING came back alive!.   I went ahead and removed the bolts, wire brushed the floorboard and the 2 groups of wires.  I think one had 4 wires in it and the other had 2 wires.  Coated the area with a thin film of Dielectric grease to avoid future problems and assembled the grounds again.  Tightened them up and The car appears to be fixed.  Hard to believe but happy it all works once again.  I shook every wire in this area trying to make it fail again but It kept on ticking, everything working as it should.

My codes mostly cleared up although my Scan Tool is telling me the back up camera and the emergency brake have connection issues even though both are working perfectly at this time.  I will look into these later.

 

If I had not decided to clean and vacuum while in there I never would have found this issue.   The factory must have left the ground wire slightly loose when they built this car.   Car only has 16,000 original miles and is now 6 years old so wear and tear did not cause this issue.  AND FORD TOLD ME THE CAR WAS OUT OF WARRANTY AS OF FEBRUARY so even though it had only 16,000 miles on it since new It was my problem, no warranty.  This thread pointed me in the right direction or I would not have found my issue.  Thank You

[bbf2530]

9 hours ago, West said:

I was excited to maybe have a solution so I checked the connections under the driver seat.  No joy, both were tight and removal and re install made no difference.   I was still without AC, Climate Control, Seat Heaters, Windows would not operate, Radio was out, Temp display was out.   Basically the entire center consol was dead along with Door Locks and Windows.

 

I unbolted the driver seat, tilted it back into the rear of the car to examine all the wires best I could and found no issues.   While there I decided to vacuum out any mess found under the seat since the seat was now out of the way.  As I vacuumed I cleaned the area under the carpet merge, where the front carpet and back carpet overlap.  I lifted up the front carpet to clean some minor mess and pulled up the padding that was down there again just to clean.   I spotted two ground wires bolted to the floor in this spot under the carpet and under the padding.  Basically under the front of the seat on the actual floor board.   Since I had already checked everywhere and every ground I could find I got out my socket, 8 MM to remove and check these two grounds.   As soon as I put the wrench on the first one I heard the car activate.  I had the key in the run position already while checking all these wires and connections.  The radio came on, the climate control fan came on, the windows started to work,  EVERYTHING came back alive!.   I went ahead and removed the bolts, wire brushed the floorboard and the 2 groups of wires.  I think one had 4 wires in it and the other had 2 wires.  Coated the area with a thin film of Dielectric grease to avoid future problems and assembled the grounds again.  Tightened them up and The car appears to be fixed.  Hard to believe but happy it all works once again.  I shook every wire in this area trying to make it fail again but It kept on ticking, everything working as it should.

My codes mostly cleared up although my Scan Tool is telling me the back up camera and the emergency brake have connection issues even though both are working perfectly at this time.  I will look into these later.

 

If I had not decided to clean and vacuum while in there I never would have found this issue.   The factory must have left the ground wire slightly loose when they built this car.   Car only has 16,000 original miles and is now 6 years old so wear and tear did not cause this issue.  AND FORD TOLD ME THE CAR WAS OUT OF WARRANTY AS OF FEBRUARY so even though it had only 16,000 miles on it since new It was my problem, no warranty.  This thread pointed me in the right direction or I would not have found my issue.  Thank You

 

Hi West. Excellent diagnostic detective work! And thanks for posting back with information that may help others in the future.

 

Good luck.

[West]

Wanted to follow up on this issue.  The ground under the seat does reset the problem but did not fix it.  What I mean by this is disconnecting the ground as described somehow reboots the system and everything works but I no longer think the ground had anything to do with the failure.   The problem has come back 3 or 4 more times.  Always when it is very hot outside of course and I really want the AC to work.  It kills the AC, Radio and the ability to open or close windows or use door locks.  A real pain in the rear.

 

EDIT DONE AS A FOLLOW UP:

THE REPAIR THAT ACTUALLY FIXED THIS ISSUE:  *** My latest attempt at a fix was to remove the 3 wire harnesses that connect under the dash, left side of the steering column, way up there.  It can be seen if you drop the panel under the steering wheel down.  This panel is on a swivel.  The top has pop in locks.  Grab the top of this panel and gently pull out till the top releases on both sides of the steering wheel.  After this drops down, or swings down you can look inside the panel above the OBD2 port and see this fuse panel.  This fuse panel powers up the center console exactly where the problem keeps happening.  Disconnecting this fuse panel creates the problem just like the failure is doing.   I found 2 or 3 connections that were partially corroded.  No idea why since this car only has 17,000 miles and has mostly been garage kept but it is 6 years old now.  I cleaned the connections and reinstalled the wire harnesses and I am hoping for a fix but not convinced this was actually it.   I will report back as I learn more.  Reporting Back 5 months later, this repair WORKED, no problems since!

I still think it is pathetic that Ford dismisses any warranty responsibility on a car with this few miles on it.  I am wide open to any suggestions or if anyone has a Wire schematic to share.  Thanks   Mark

Edited February 28, 2022 by West

[West]

It is now February and the fix posted in September seems to have repaired my electrical gremlins.  The car has been driven frequently and the problem appears to be fixed finally.  Hope this helps some poor soul that bumps into the exact same issue.