Bronco Sport Badlands dies crossing 20" of Water

[Big Brody]

My Bronco Sport Badlands died on April 10, 2021 in 20" of Water (probably less) near Moab, Utah. Ford's website claims 23.6". Here is my story on YouTube.

Here is a Sprinter going through the same spot 1 week later at about the same depth. However much faster than I went.


I unfortunately did not get any video while the BS BL was being dragged out by the Wrangler, so I have to go by where the mud in the wheel well got washed off. I also opened the door to get out in the middle of the water and it was right below the door on the driver's side. I measured that at 19".
It threw a bunch of errors on the dash and the parking brake would not disengage. The tow truck had a heck of a time getting it on and off the flat bed. Tic Tac Tow did a heck of a job getting me out of there though. I would recommend them.

 

[Big Brody]

It is currently at a dealer in Colorado getting looked at. I'm out $800 in towing plus another trip back to bring my mountain bike back home. I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[Central Jersey]

It is currently at a dealer in Colorado getting looked at. I'm out $800 in towing plus another trip back to bring my mountain bike back home. I'll keep this thread updated.

Hope they cover it under warranty. If not I hope you have comprehensive coverage,

I hope you get it back soon .

(My BS BB took damage off-road and will be out of commission for at least another month. I miss mine is a sweet ride )

 

[Big Brody]

Hope they cover it under warranty. If not I hope you have comprehensive coverage,

I hope you get it back soon .

(My BS BB took damage off-road and will be out of commission for at least another month. I miss mine is a sweet ride )

I do have comprehensive and I have contacted my insurance about it. I'm hoping that Ford will cover it all under Warranty so I don't have to file a claim.
Sorry to hear about yours being out too. I was looking forward to having a lot of fun with this ride all summer long.

 

[roaddiet]

Bummer! I’ve done similar in my Escape and my friend did that in his Outback, much slower than that wild Sprinter of course. No issues. Sorry this has turned into a hassle.

 

[Big Brody]

Hope they cover it under warranty. If not I hope you have comprehensive coverage,

I hope you get it back soon .

(My BS BB took damage off-road and will be out of commission for at least another month. I miss mine is a sweet ride )

The dealer got back to me and confirmed it is the ECU / Main Computer. It is in the driver's side wheel well behind the fog light. This is not a great position for water fording. Apparently there is corrosion in the computer and a couple of the harnesses need to be replaced. ECU not only dies in water fording, but could also die in an Front End Collision. Design flaw?

 

[fourthgear]

Design flaw or not , why would you put the Brain of the Truck in that area , sounds like they didn't apply any Dielectric grease to the Connector . I'm going to have to look at mine , see if I can see it with out disassembling it . These new type connectors have an O-Ring type seal, maybe they are bad .

 

[Maxwellian]

I became pretty skeptical of the water fording claims when I saw where the ECU is. Sorry you had to prove my suspicion. Hope it gets sorted out as painlessly as possible. I’ll probably grease mine up real good now, though I think I’ve got some months till we see much water around here.

 

[69cuda340s]

Over in that video where they put a tune on the 2.0 they remove the ECU and they show it being removed in the video. When I saw that I was thinking how bad of a place that is for a computer on an off road oriented vehicle:

https://www.broncosportforum.com/forum/threads/bronco-sport-2-0l-gets-ecu-flash-tune-by-vivid-racing-vr-tuned-ecu-flash.2226/

Glad to hear dealer is taking care of it.

 

[Johnperrion]

The dealer got back to me and confirmed it is the ECU / Main Computer. It is in the driver's side wheel well behind the fog light. This is not a great position for water fording. Apparently there is corrosion in the computer and a couple of the harnesses need to be replaced. ECU not only dies in water fording, but could also die in an Front End Collision. Design flaw?

Here is a pic I took with my bumper removed. The ECU is just sitting right there in front of the driver side wheel asking to be trouble. I still haven't reinstalled my bumper completely so I'll go out in the morning and measure where the ECU rests to give us a more accurate fording level with its current placement. And I am going to look into the process of relocating to a higher position.
Thanks for your post and sorry bout your rig :/

 

[BagOJuice]

And then theres videos like this of people waterfording sucessfully in pretty deep stuff... I wonder if there were production issues on some sports to keep that stuff dry. Regardless, that sucks, good luck, i hope they cover that for you

 

[Bdub]

So sorry you're experiencing these issues. I read your thread hoping you had not hydro locked the engine (happened to me several years ago in a Dodge Charger - the engine had to be replaced).
It would be nice if Ford would issue a TSB to waterproof the connections on the ECU.

 

[Osco]

Cool video...

 

[Big Brody]

Here is a pic I took with my bumper removed. The ECU is just sitting right there in front of the driver side wheel asking to be trouble. I still haven't reinstalled my bumper completely so I'll go out in the morning and measure where the ECU rests to give us a more accurate fording level with its current placement. And I am going to look into the process of relocating to a higher position.
Thanks for your post and sorry bout your rig :/

Yeah I'd like to know how high that is. Also what kind of sealing they did on it. Judging from the other videos the factory must have messed up on the production. Please let me know when you take that measurement.

 

[Johnperrion]

Yeah I'd like to know how high that is. Also what kind of sealing they did on it. Judging from the other videos the factory must have messed up on the production. Please let me know when you take that measurement.

I'll go do it right now good sir.

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