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2015 Fusion Electrical Gremlins


West
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Hello, new to the Forum.  I own a 2015 Ford Fusion, this is 2021 and it has all of 16,000 miles on it.  This is the 2.0L Turbo ecoboost engine.  I drove this exact car as a company car, put 75,000 miles on the company car so I know these pretty well.  Great car.  This one is my personal car.

 

Problem, start the car and engine runs great.  Climate Control is Dead, All WIndows are Dead, interior Door Locks are Dead but the exterior door remote works to unlock. Radio is Dead.   Electric Seats are Dead.  These same items may come on and work perfectly for a few days and then quit again.  They all work or they all fail, no in between so far.

Sounds like a connection issue or a body ground failing to me.  With the very low miles on this car I find it hard to accept.  I believe I am now out of warranty so looking to fix it myself.  Is this a known problem with the Fusion from this era or do I need to diagnose this issue.  Other than this past winter this car has been garage kept since new.

For those that need to know, it has this very low mileage because my Dad bought it new, unfortunately his health did not let him drive it much and now he can't drive at all so I bought it from him a year ago, when I bought it the mileage was 5,600 total.  It is a nice car, a time warp car in beautiful shape.  I wish I had garage space to keep it as clean as it is.

 

Is there an electrical diagram available on this site?

 

I did see forum notes saying it can be the C1812 connector, C168C, C1717, or C134 but I have yet to find where any of these connectors are.

 

Thank You

 

Mark

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Battery brand new, installed a group 48 H6 with 730 CCA, Sams Club has a great deal on these right now for $89.00.  This is the largest battery that will fit in the Fusion box using the expanded bolt down spot.

The H6 is 1.5" longer, 1" taller and has excess cold cranking amps.  730 vs the factory 590 or 500 CCA.   The battery I replaced was 6 years old but still tested out with 12.5 Volts and never cranked the engine slowly but I figured it was a good time to replace it.

Before install I did connect the Pos and Ground leads with a ground wire to bleed off any residual voltage for 30 minutes.

 

Made no change.   Doors don't work from the inside, Windows and locks, Heated Seats dont work, actually the entire center console does not work other than showing the date and time on a dark screen in the Nav Window.    

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Another forum member had a similar issue, pointed me to the Seat Wireing.  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, Window 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 wires.  Coated the area with a film of Dielectric grease 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.

 

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.  Hope it helps the next person.

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Dielectric grease, or tune-up grease, is a silicone-based grease that repels moisture and protects electrical connections against corrosion. ... The grease does not conduct electricity, so it shouldn't be applied directly to the mating surfaces (pins and sockets) of an electrical connection.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, a follow up I am not excited to share.  The problem came back twice more.  Once we were on a trip, I pulled over because it was 105* outside and the AC had quit along with not being able to open a window.   I moved the driver seat in all directions and as I had the driver seat in the full up position and my head was touching the headliner the power came back on, I slowly lowered the seat till I was comfortable enough to drive and we hit the road with no more issues.  Two days later I went out to drive the car and the same power issue is there again.

Scanning the codes the only issue I found was the back up camera, the scan tool is telling me the back up camera is dis connected?  Put the car in reverse when the problem is not present and the center console lights up normally the video feed shows perfectly and starts and stops normally as I shift into or out of reverse.   Did not detect it beeping as I approach another parked car backing up but I don't remember it ever beeping so I really don't know if sound is part of this system.  I was going to pull it apart to check connections but the rear trunk lid has to be completely torn apart to get to the back up camera to inspect.   I don't think I have tried the back up camera when the electrical was dead, I should have done that test.

I did remove the seat again, removed the two grounds again, the two 8mm bolts under the seat at the floor and once again everything starts working perfectly.  Wiggling all those wires and adjusting the seat does not cause the problem to start again.  I connected another ground to the two ground screws hoping to eliminate this issue.   

I am concerned that removing the two screws that hold the grounds is just resetting the problem till it happens again.

I am wide open to any suggestions on this problem.   The issues stated at the start of this thread have not changed, each time 100% of the items fail, no power windows, no inside door lock control, no AC Heat fan, or any function in the center console, Radio, Heated seats Temp display, everything is dead.   When it comes back on it is 100% every time so far.

Thanks

Mark

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Still trying to find the culprit, looking at the back up camera operation since that is the only code found that says it is not working, even though my camera works each and every time I try it.   What I did notice just now.  When I put the car in Reverse the cameral works right away, good view out the back looking at the center console.   But looking at my battery meter the volts drop by almost 1 full volt while the camera is operating?   I have not been able to get close enough to check these wires yet to see if any are Hot to the touch indicating a partial ground.   Might be the case since the car keeps telling me the camera is not working/ can't communicate with the camera. 

My battery charger was hooked up and set to apply 25 amps while I did these checks to avoid draining the battery.  While the car was in reverse the battery charger said it was supplying a full 25.8 amps, take the car out of reverse and the amp draw fell off.

Open door turn key to on position without starting and it draws 9.3 amps,   The battery was fully charged already so no extra draw.  Put it in reverse and the camera comes on and the amp draw is 12.5 amps, an increase of 3.2 amps to power the camera and display.

Turn the HVAC fan to high position and the amp draw increases to 25.8, the max I can supply with my charger.

The amp draw looks OK to me.

After one hour of testing and trying every switch and seat adjustment the console has not failed or even blinked, it has worked perfectly.

Food for thought.

Edited by West
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Additional Note,  the vehicle manual says the rear view camera will shut off any time the trunk is opened and will not operate while the trunk is in the open position.  Mine works all the time if the car is in reverse, if I open the trunk the camera shows whatever is above the back of the trunk lid, maybe there is a shut off in the system that is causing my scan code failure related to the rear view camera.    Do you guys know if your camera works with the trunk open?  My car is a 2015. Fusion SE.   Thanks

Mark

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  • 3 weeks later...

One more follow up and no firm solutions.   The Center Console failed once again, of course it was 100* outside when the AC decided to quit along with all the previous mentioned items, basically the entire center console and all electronics that run in the center console go out and the Driver door controls quit, door locks, windows Mirrors.

Once again, I removed the driver seat, go to that connection below the seat where the 2 grounds bolt down and I can make everything turn right back on.  Remove one of those wires and everything is dead exactly the same.  I removed the ends off these wire bundles.  Both are grounds and bolt to the body under the seat.   I installed new connectors on these two grounds, one has 2 wires connected to it and the other has several, maybe 10-12 connected to it.  The one with 10-12 seems to be the guilty party.  I hope by installing new ground connectors this is fixed but time will tell.   No matter how I jiggled these wires after the repair I could not make the issue happen again.   Time will tell.  I hope someone sees this problem and it saves them time.

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  • 2 months later...

The center Console failure came back several more times.   Adjusting the seat sometimes triggers this to happen.   I have already verified the connections to the seat module are clean and good.  Checked and verified good grounds.  I think the removal and re installation of the ground wire was re setting the system and making it work till the next failure because I could fix or create this failure by removing this ground under the seat.   

Now, the latest.  There is a fuse box under the dash on the driver side.  It is well hidden, left side of the steering column about 1 foot back from the front of the dash.  It is up high and out of sight.   To access or view this box you need to lower the inspection panel under the steering wheel.   You pry it open from the top and it swings down towards your carpet.  I opened it with my fingers but it takes a good pull.  Again this is the panel under the steering wheel. about where your knees rest while driving.

There were two or three connections at this fuse panel.   Most of these fuses are directly related to the console failure I was having.   The larger connector at the top of the fuse box seemed to have a little corrosion inside the connector when opened.  No idea how it go there inside this car and with how low the miles are.  17,500 now.   I cleaned this with a Q tip and some electric connector spray cleaner.   Cleaned the other connectors while in there also.   These cut power to my clock, I had to reset the clock but it is almost 2 weeks now and I have had zero failures.  I have tried hard to trigger the console to fail again.   So far all is working perfectly finally.   I will report back if it comes back again.  I did see other Ford cars reported the same exact issue.   Edge and Focus.

Mark

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another week, several trips in this car, variable weather, multiple seat adjustments and so far not one issue with the electric failure in the center console.   Knock on wood this finally seems fixed.  The connections at the fuse panel in the left side of the dash had a little corrosion.  That was cleaned and have not had one failure since.   I used to be able to trigger the failure by moving the driver seat but not anymore.   Hope this helps someone.  As you can see from this post, it took quite a while to fix this problem.

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  • 1 month later...

I think this is a final wrap.  Now Nov 14th and the car has not acted up since September.  I am saying the under dash electrical connection was the problem and is now fixed.  Details listed two posts up above.  I hope this saves the next guy a headache.  ( since Ford could care less if they help )

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

The connectors in your photo are slide connectors, as you lift the bar the connector self releases, once it is released just clean those connections best you can and re install, they are very nice connectors, lift the bar up it releases, set the connector back in place as you push it in slide the bar back to the lock position like it is in the photos you posted.  It is kind of like unbuckling an old style seat belt.  On install I opened and closed then a few times each to hopefully make sure they had good contacts.  I chose not to use Di electric grease on these fuse box connections because I have had issues in the past with it interfering in the low voltage connections to the cars computers.  Never had an issue with the 12V connectors but most of the computer connections now run 0 to 5 volts and the grease can and does interfere.   Your car probably has 30 small computers in it controlling everything, they all work on low voltage.

When I pulled mine apart, I removed every one of those connectors to make sure they were clean and seated proper.  Only one had some white dust, electrical frosted connections, the others were clean but that one was causing me a big issue.

I have not been on this forum in a while but I hope this helps you.

Mark

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  • 2 months later...

I think #5 was the problem although I would check #1 also.  I replied earlier today but I don't see my reply?  Maybe it will show up later.

My problem came back one more time two weeks ago.   I went back in to that same fuse panel and when I pulled off #5 I saw the same issue with a little corrosion on the large spade connectors, there are two in the top right of that white connector.   I cleaned with electric cleaner and used a small amount of dielectric grease on them this time.  The car is fixed and has not repeated the failure.   Thinking about this problem I was wondering if that connection at the spade terminals might be loose?   A loose connection can cause it to glaze over just like Points in the old gas engines did.   I will look to tighten them if the problem ever comes back.  If they are not loose I think moisture is somehow getting in there.

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It didnt. It happened again. I wasn't home when it happened but I am sure more hot days are coming so Ill get a chance to mess with those connectors  when it occurs again. Damn, my wife was mad at me again because I told her I fixed it

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