2016 F-150 breakdown
06-01-2016, 04:30 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
2016 F-150 breakdown
My 2016 F-150 3.5L EcoBoost with ~20k miles died on me 3 times in 4 days last week, so I dropped it off at the dealership for repair. I just got it back, so thought that I’d share what I know about it, in case it helps anyone else, and I’m starting a new thread with tags, so it will be searchable.
The symptoms: 2 of 3 times, I was driving on the highway with the cruise set, when the truck lost engine power. Truck was still running, but pressing the accelerator did nothing. Electrical system still functioned (power steering and lights) and brakes worked normally. When this occurred, the truck started dinging, the airbag light lit up, and the productivity screen showed a “Hill Descent Control Disabled” error message, some type of “AdvanceTrac” error message that I wasn’t able to catch, and the wrench icon. There was no choice but to head for the shoulder of the highway. It felt like the engine was off, but once on the shoulder, I could tell that the engine was still running, but idling very rough, like it had dropped a cylinder, and the truck was shuddering as it was idling both in gear, and in park. These two times happened on days that I had been driving 1 hour or more to the jobsite, then the truck had been off for 2-3 hours at the jobsite. Upon starting back for home, it happened 6 minutes after starting the truck the first time and 12 minutes after starting the truck the 2nd time. The 3 times it happened to the mechanic were a similar time sequence, maybe 10 minutes after starting. The 3rd time for me, it happened in the garage, when I used the remote starter. Each time, simply turning the truck off and starting it again fixed the issue.
I dropped the truck off on a Tuesday morning. My service rep said it sounded like an issue that they’ve seen in new Explorers a couple of times, but that never in a 2016 F-150. He said that the fix for the Explorer was a new throttle body, and guessed that it would be for the F-150 as well.
Tuesday afternoon, I got the call that the dealership was not able to replicate the issue, and was not able to find any codes from whenit happened to me.
Wednesday afternoon, I got the call that the dealership was able to replicate the issue twice, but that they got no engine codes, despite having a computer plugged into the truck while it happened. They said that had to consult Ford on this, and that the truck was too dangerous to drive, which I already knew, as one of the experiences was in the middle lane out of 5 lanes near Chicago. I had no chance to get to the right shoulder, as the right two lanes were a solid wall of trucks, so I went left, and really pissed some people off as I did so, but I managed to get to the shoulder without incident. On a 2-lane highway, it’s a frustration. In busier places, it’s an emergency.
Thursday, I got a call that they got the truck to fail again, and were able to capture an engine code, and the code said that I needed a new throttle body.
After waiting 2 days for the throttle body to come in, I finally have the truck back. I was talking to the service guys when I picked it up, and one of them said that they had another 2016 F-150 come in that week with identical symptoms to mine, except that it did have a code for a throttle body. He said that it was from a car rental company, and had ~15k miles on it. And they’ve now seen 4 or 5 Explorers with this issue, and were wondering if it was a production run of bad throttle bodies or bad ones from a particular vendor or something. The service tech said that he was pretty sure that Ford was going to have to issue a recall on this issue. (Take it for what it’s worth – I’m passing along 2nd hand information from a group of dealership mechanics in this paragraph…)
My truck was produced in Dearborn, and the build date, per http://www.etis.ford.com/ is 10.20.2015.
I hope that it’s limited to a small run of throttle bodies, and it doesn’t happen to you.
The symptoms: 2 of 3 times, I was driving on the highway with the cruise set, when the truck lost engine power. Truck was still running, but pressing the accelerator did nothing. Electrical system still functioned (power steering and lights) and brakes worked normally. When this occurred, the truck started dinging, the airbag light lit up, and the productivity screen showed a “Hill Descent Control Disabled” error message, some type of “AdvanceTrac” error message that I wasn’t able to catch, and the wrench icon. There was no choice but to head for the shoulder of the highway. It felt like the engine was off, but once on the shoulder, I could tell that the engine was still running, but idling very rough, like it had dropped a cylinder, and the truck was shuddering as it was idling both in gear, and in park. These two times happened on days that I had been driving 1 hour or more to the jobsite, then the truck had been off for 2-3 hours at the jobsite. Upon starting back for home, it happened 6 minutes after starting the truck the first time and 12 minutes after starting the truck the 2nd time. The 3 times it happened to the mechanic were a similar time sequence, maybe 10 minutes after starting. The 3rd time for me, it happened in the garage, when I used the remote starter. Each time, simply turning the truck off and starting it again fixed the issue.
I dropped the truck off on a Tuesday morning. My service rep said it sounded like an issue that they’ve seen in new Explorers a couple of times, but that never in a 2016 F-150. He said that the fix for the Explorer was a new throttle body, and guessed that it would be for the F-150 as well.
Tuesday afternoon, I got the call that the dealership was not able to replicate the issue, and was not able to find any codes from whenit happened to me.
Wednesday afternoon, I got the call that the dealership was able to replicate the issue twice, but that they got no engine codes, despite having a computer plugged into the truck while it happened. They said that had to consult Ford on this, and that the truck was too dangerous to drive, which I already knew, as one of the experiences was in the middle lane out of 5 lanes near Chicago. I had no chance to get to the right shoulder, as the right two lanes were a solid wall of trucks, so I went left, and really pissed some people off as I did so, but I managed to get to the shoulder without incident. On a 2-lane highway, it’s a frustration. In busier places, it’s an emergency.
Thursday, I got a call that they got the truck to fail again, and were able to capture an engine code, and the code said that I needed a new throttle body.
After waiting 2 days for the throttle body to come in, I finally have the truck back. I was talking to the service guys when I picked it up, and one of them said that they had another 2016 F-150 come in that week with identical symptoms to mine, except that it did have a code for a throttle body. He said that it was from a car rental company, and had ~15k miles on it. And they’ve now seen 4 or 5 Explorers with this issue, and were wondering if it was a production run of bad throttle bodies or bad ones from a particular vendor or something. The service tech said that he was pretty sure that Ford was going to have to issue a recall on this issue. (Take it for what it’s worth – I’m passing along 2nd hand information from a group of dealership mechanics in this paragraph…)
My truck was produced in Dearborn, and the build date, per http://www.etis.ford.com/ is 10.20.2015.
I hope that it’s limited to a small run of throttle bodies, and it doesn’t happen to you.
Last edited by SloMoJoe; 06-01-2016 at 06:07 PM.
The following 10 users liked this post by SloMoJoe:
02fx4dude (06-23-2016),
Bafflingbs (09-22-2016),
Bill_The_PA (06-01-2016),
BStrummin (06-23-2016),
Chris70 (09-02-2016),
and 5 others liked this post.
06-01-2016, 04:43 PM
#2
Senior Member
My 2016 F-150 3.5L EcoBoost with ~20k miles died on me 3 times in 4 days last week, so I dropped it off at the dealership for repair. I just got it back, so thought that I’d share what I know about it, in case it helps anyone else, and I’m starting a new thread with tags, so it will be searchable.
The symptoms: 2 of 3 times, I was driving on the highway with the cruise set, when the truck lost engine power. Truck was still running, but pressing the accelerator did nothing. Electrical system still functioned (power steering and lights) and brakes worked normally. When this occurred, the truck started dinging, the airbag light lit up, and the productivity screen showed a “Hill Descent Control Disabled” error message, some type of “AdvanceTrac” error message that I wasn’t able to catch, and the wrench icon. There was no choice but to head for the shoulder of the highway. It felt like the engine was off, but once on the shoulder, I could tell that the engine was still running, but idling very rough, like it had dropped a cylinder, and the truck was shuddering as it was idling both in gear, and in park. These two times happened on days that I had been driving 1 hour or more to the jobsite, then the truck had been off for 2-3 hours at the jobsite. Upon starting back for home, it happened 6 minutes after starting the truck the first time and 12 minutes after starting the truck the 2nd time. The 3 times it happened to the mechanic were a similar time sequence, maybe 10 minutes after starting. The 3rd time for me, it happened in the garage, when I used the remote starter. Each time, simply turning the truck off and starting it again fixed the issue.
I dropped the truck off on a Tuesday morning. My service rep said it sounded like an issue that they’ve seen in new Explorers a couple of times, but that never in a 2016 F-150. He said that the fix for the Explorer was a new throttle body, and guessed that it would be for the F-150 as well.
Tuesday afternoon, I got the call that the dealership was not able to replicate the issue, and was not able to find any codes from whenit happened to me.
Wednesday afternoon, I got the call that the dealership was able to replicate the issue twice, but that they got no engine codes, despite having a computer plugged into the truck while it happened. They said that had to consult Ford on this, and that the truck was too dangerous to drive, which I already knew, as one of the experiences was in the middle lane out of 5 lanes near Chicago. I had no chance to get to the right shoulder, as the right two lanes were a solid wall of trucks, so I went left, and really pissed some people off as I did so, but I managed to get to the shoulder without incident. On a 2-lane highway, it’s a frustration. In busier places, it’s an emergency.
Thursday, I got a call that they got the truck to fail again, and were able to capture an engine code, and the code said that I needed a new throttle body.
After waiting 2 days for the throttle body to come in, I finally have the truck back. I was talking to the service guys when I picked it up, and one of them said that they had another 2016 F-150 come in that week with identical symptoms to mine, except that it did have a code for a throttle body. He said that it was from a car rental company, and had ~15k miles on it. And they’ve now seen 4 or 5 Explorers withthis issue, and were wondering if it was a production run of bad throttle bodies or bad ones from a particular vendor or something. The service tech said that he was pretty sure that Ford was going to have to issue a recall on this issue. (Take it for what it’s worth – I’m passing along 2nd hand information from a group of dealership mechanics in this paragraph…)
I hope that it’s limited to a small run of throttle bodies, and it doesn’t happen to you.
The symptoms: 2 of 3 times, I was driving on the highway with the cruise set, when the truck lost engine power. Truck was still running, but pressing the accelerator did nothing. Electrical system still functioned (power steering and lights) and brakes worked normally. When this occurred, the truck started dinging, the airbag light lit up, and the productivity screen showed a “Hill Descent Control Disabled” error message, some type of “AdvanceTrac” error message that I wasn’t able to catch, and the wrench icon. There was no choice but to head for the shoulder of the highway. It felt like the engine was off, but once on the shoulder, I could tell that the engine was still running, but idling very rough, like it had dropped a cylinder, and the truck was shuddering as it was idling both in gear, and in park. These two times happened on days that I had been driving 1 hour or more to the jobsite, then the truck had been off for 2-3 hours at the jobsite. Upon starting back for home, it happened 6 minutes after starting the truck the first time and 12 minutes after starting the truck the 2nd time. The 3 times it happened to the mechanic were a similar time sequence, maybe 10 minutes after starting. The 3rd time for me, it happened in the garage, when I used the remote starter. Each time, simply turning the truck off and starting it again fixed the issue.
I dropped the truck off on a Tuesday morning. My service rep said it sounded like an issue that they’ve seen in new Explorers a couple of times, but that never in a 2016 F-150. He said that the fix for the Explorer was a new throttle body, and guessed that it would be for the F-150 as well.
Tuesday afternoon, I got the call that the dealership was not able to replicate the issue, and was not able to find any codes from whenit happened to me.
Wednesday afternoon, I got the call that the dealership was able to replicate the issue twice, but that they got no engine codes, despite having a computer plugged into the truck while it happened. They said that had to consult Ford on this, and that the truck was too dangerous to drive, which I already knew, as one of the experiences was in the middle lane out of 5 lanes near Chicago. I had no chance to get to the right shoulder, as the right two lanes were a solid wall of trucks, so I went left, and really pissed some people off as I did so, but I managed to get to the shoulder without incident. On a 2-lane highway, it’s a frustration. In busier places, it’s an emergency.
Thursday, I got a call that they got the truck to fail again, and were able to capture an engine code, and the code said that I needed a new throttle body.
After waiting 2 days for the throttle body to come in, I finally have the truck back. I was talking to the service guys when I picked it up, and one of them said that they had another 2016 F-150 come in that week with identical symptoms to mine, except that it did have a code for a throttle body. He said that it was from a car rental company, and had ~15k miles on it. And they’ve now seen 4 or 5 Explorers withthis issue, and were wondering if it was a production run of bad throttle bodies or bad ones from a particular vendor or something. The service tech said that he was pretty sure that Ford was going to have to issue a recall on this issue. (Take it for what it’s worth – I’m passing along 2nd hand information from a group of dealership mechanics in this paragraph…)
I hope that it’s limited to a small run of throttle bodies, and it doesn’t happen to you.
06-01-2016, 05:40 PM
#5
Official HTT Greeter
It sounds like the dealer mechanic(s) did good though. Finally a thread where the mechanic doesn't say "they all do that". Did he happen to say if it was only the 3.5L Eco, or all the new engines?
definitely keep us posted, please.
definitely keep us posted, please.
The following users liked this post:
dhmcfadin (06-01-2016)
06-01-2016, 06:08 PM
#7
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Trending Topics
06-01-2016, 06:09 PM
#8
Senior Member
Thread Starter
They didn't say the engine type, just that it was another 2016 F-150.
06-01-2016, 06:19 PM
#9
Senior Member
This happened to our 2012 Explorer - when we were fully loaded and heading to the beach - a few years back. The really crummy part is we had more the 36k miles on it at the time and the throttle body wasn't covered under the extended warranty either.
While it's pure cr@p that they fail at all, at least it seems they're failing before 36k miles now. Not sure how to feel about that!
While it's pure cr@p that they fail at all, at least it seems they're failing before 36k miles now. Not sure how to feel about that!
