Complete shut down while driving

[RSH]

I had a similar situation happen while in the drive thru at McDonalds. The vehicle suddenly experienced a total power failure and shut down. It turned out to be a loose Battery's negative cable at the point where it connects to the chassis. Once tightened, haven't had that issue again.

When my Badlands initally had some electrical issues happen the first thing I did was check the battery connections and the ground connection on the body. The body ground was tight, the battery terminals not so much, I removed the cables from the battery, cleaned the terminals with a wire brush, did the same with the battery cable clamps, re-seated the clamps on the battery terminals and torqued the hardware.
Long story short that stopped 99% of the electrical issues I was having.

Then the electrical issues started again,
In the end I had my battery replaced under warranty, no issues since.

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[rocks]

Here's another report of a loose ground connection.

This might explain a lot of the electrical problems we've heard about.

It's worth checking yours to make sure it's tight..

The negative connection to the right of the battery on the body?

 

[sajohnson]

The negative connection to the right of the battery on the body?

Correct.

All negative returns (body grounds) go through that connection. So if it were disconnected, nothing would work. If it is loose, there could be any number of intermittent problems.

Some electrical issues do appear to be caused by a bad battery -- like Robert describes above. Especially since he checked the body ground and it was tight.

In other cases I can't help wondering if the cause was a loose body ground that was tightened when the battery was replaced.

Another possibility is a resistive ground connection. For example, the body is painted before that connection is made. The contact area should be bare metal with an oxidation inhibiter applied. There's a good chance Ford (and most other mfrs) do not bother with that, and just rely on current being able to flow from the stud > nut > cable lug. Whatever they are doing obviously works fine in most cases, but that could be a problem.

No doubt some batteries have been bad, but it is exceedingly rare for batteries to fail when less than 1-2 years old. To have what seems like a high percentage fail is unheard of. Then again, posts on forums can make issues seem more common than they are.

 

[rocks]

Correct.

All negative returns (body grounds) go through that connection. So if it were disconnected, nothing would work. If it is loose, there could be any number of intermittent problems.

Thanks, I thought so but thought maybe there was another ground somewhere. A couple of member dealers never tightened the ground wire which is why I asked. How does a service guy miss that?

 

[sajohnson]

Thanks, I thought so but thought maybe there was another ground somewhere. A couple of member dealers never tightened the ground wire which is why I asked. How does a service guy miss that?

This is one of those hindsight is 20/20 situations. A technician does not expect a body ground connection to be loose (unless there is a TSB). It is very unusual. So chances are they simply disconnect the cables from the existing battery and reconnect them to the new battery without checking any other hardware. They might check the body ground, but that's not part of the typical procedure.

There are a lot of grounds all over the BS, but the return path to Bat(-) for all of them is through that main body ground connection > cable > Bat(-):

You said, "A couple of member dealers never tightened the ground wire..." How did the owner know that? Did they check it after they got their BS back from the shop? Just curious.

BTW, I added to my original post (#48) above since you read it.

 

[sajohnson]

From the "Grounds" section of the service manual, showing just one (1) connection to Bat(-):

 

[Mwittke5857]

Hi All
I have A 2022 OB Sport… 36k miles.
it’s been twice in one month that I’ve had to tow the car on a flat bed because the car completely shuts down while driving. The first time left me stranded in the middle of the highway during rush hour, and last night on the intersection, in rush hour.
when it shuts down nothing works, absolutely nothing, not even the hazard lights. All electrical features are disabled, the wheels lock, can’t turn it back on.

I’ve taken it to Ford and they claim they can’t recreate the issue and they deemed the car “fine”. A car that randomly shuts down is not “fine”. I’ve asked them to check batteries, alternator, maybe there could be a short circuit… idk, I’m not a mechanic just going by common sense, but the people at Ford claim they hook up the computer, all the error messages were cleared (erased) and the car is fine… all that means to me is that they reset the computer, that just eliminates error messages, but doesn’t solve the issue.
last night I was told it could even be a network problem….
has anyone encountered this and what was your outcome?
thanks!

Ran into a similar prob with an 18 EcoSport, code was power control module failure. Once I restarted, the code disappeared. Had the dealer hook it up, $150 later, no problem. It happened twice and I traded it in on my BSBB. It was just over 50k, right when the plugged oil pickup issue apparently is likely to happen. Has to be battery/cable/connection issue to shut yours down completely

 

[Semper Fi Huck]

Tonight my wife and I had been running around in our 2022 BS Outer Banks with about 4500 miles on it, and we were about to head somewhere to eat as the sun was setting when all of a sudden all these warnings started popping up including key not detected (both keys were in there). I tried putting my key down on the emergency key pad and still nothing happened. Luckily the vehicle was still running, and I noticed that none of the radio or steering wheel buttons were lighting up and when we got behind another car at a light I could tell that neither my headlights nor my DRL halo’s were on and no matter what I did with the light switch nothing happened. We made the decision to turn around and go home. Once we got home I turned off the vehicle and it has not restarted since always saying no key detected. I disconnected the battery and reconnected it and still nothing.
Since I bought this vehicle wrecked and rebuilt it I have the inclination to think maybe I didn’t fully click in one of the many connectors that I took apart, but we have been driving it for over a month with no issues and this thread and a google search show similar issues with several other models and brands. Any information or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dude]

Check for a loose ground on the drivers side right fender - this the ground that goes from the fender point directly to the 12V battery

 

[Semper Fi Huck]

Nope, that one is all good. The one on the other side is all good too. I pulled out the PATS forward antenna and tested it, but it seems to test out fine. I’m beginning to lean towards a bad BCM that hopefully just needs to be reprogrammed. I’m trying to figure out how to test it. I can’t run a OBDII scan because I can’t get it into the on position. I need someone with an electrical engineering degree to help me figure this out.

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