I'm jumping on the Bad Battery Bandwagon.
We just had something similar although it was with steering, not overheating. Had been very cold, car had been in garage but not driven for four days. Wife reported it was hard to start, sounding like low battery voltage, but it did start. Lots of lights on the instrument cluster and the infotainment screen was black. I told her to drive it to the dealer but she barely made it out of the driveway because the steering wheel would not turn more than a few degrees. Towed to dealer and discovered the battery was shot. This was a "new" AGM, installed in September 2025 as part of the recall (original battery was lead-acid due to Covid parts shortages).
Service manager said when the computer senses extremely low voltage on startup it screws up any number of systems controlled by electronic modules. New battery resolved all issues.
Because it had just been replaced 5 months ago AND even then only because of a recall, the dealer was able to get Ford to warranty it, too.
The latter part of my long story is what may be relevant to your situation. I wonder if your engine is really overheating, or if (because of a battery/ground issue) some electronic module just thinks it is.
I will be interested to see what you ultimately find out. Best of luck!
We just had something similar although it was with steering, not overheating. Had been very cold, car had been in garage but not driven for four days. Wife reported it was hard to start, sounding like low battery voltage, but it did start. Lots of lights on the instrument cluster and the infotainment screen was black. I told her to drive it to the dealer but she barely made it out of the driveway because the steering wheel would not turn more than a few degrees. Towed to dealer and discovered the battery was shot. This was a "new" AGM, installed in September 2025 as part of the recall (original battery was lead-acid due to Covid parts shortages).
Service manager said when the computer senses extremely low voltage on startup it screws up any number of systems controlled by electronic modules. New battery resolved all issues.
Because it had just been replaced 5 months ago AND even then only because of a recall, the dealer was able to get Ford to warranty it, too.
The latter part of my long story is what may be relevant to your situation. I wonder if your engine is really overheating, or if (because of a battery/ground issue) some electronic module just thinks it is.
I will be interested to see what you ultimately find out. Best of luck!
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