My Sync 3 touchscreen stopped working over the weekend. It will only show a zoomed in map screen with my current location as I drive around and partially loaded maps. I can still use the steering wheel controls to change modes (AM, FM, XM, Bluetooth) but I can't anything else to happen.

I did the soft reset (Power button plus Next track) and the result is I just get a black screen. This goes away when I restart the truck and the map view returns. I've also disconnected the negative on my battery in hopes it will reset, but also did not work. I also tried pulling the fuse, which did nothing.

I have a service appointment scheduled for this weekend and I'm thinking the APIM might be bad or I just need to get the Sync update? Just thought I'd ask here for any thoughts before I go to the dealer. I can't even attempt to do a master reset as I can't access any of the menu functions.

I do have FORSCAN and can make mods to the AsBuilt. I had the Ford GT splash screen and read that it might have been the culprit. I changed the splash screen to something else and it still doesn't load. I can access the APIM module in FORSCAN, too.

Any other ideas? It's a 2017 Lariat with Sony sound system

 

I had the same thing happen to me and just found your post searching for a fix. Did you get it fixed? Did you mod with Forscan prior?

 

I ended up having to get the dealer to fix it. My APIM was dead and no systems could communicate with it. Had to have the APIM replaced with a new one, which still didn't fix it. The tech guys at Ford had to push a completely new software update also as the one they used to reload the new APIM corrupted within 20 minutes of being installed. It's been working fine for the past 3 weeks now.

I did have some FORSCAN mods installed originally. I had the Ford GT splash screen, which might have been the issue as I saw it is no longer supported, but hard to say. None of the other FORSCAN mods I had were impacted, except I no longer have the heated seats icon on the touch screen. I haven't had a chance to go back in and reprogram that, yet.

 

I just made an appointment for Thursday. Was worried that the Forscan mods had contributed. I also had the GT splash screen. I’ve been dealing with it too long. Thank you!!

 

Did they have to contact Ford tech support?

 

Yes. They installed the new APIM and told me it was good to go. As I went to leave and started my truck, the same issue happened. I went inside and told the tech who went and checked. After an hour, they told me they had to submit a trouble ticket to Ford support for help as they did not know. A few days later, they called and told me they had pushed a new software update and for me to come back in so they could reprogram the APIM, which finally resolved it. Not a cheap fix overall. New APIM was a little over $600. With labor, it was just over $800 to get it fixed. Has a 2 year warranty on it, though, so I guess that's good. My original went bad with 38,000 miles on the odometer

 

Known issue - it's because of the GT splash screen, which is no longer available in Sync 3.4. Revert that change and you'll be good to go (as far as the black-screen-on-boot goes, anyway).
Ford dealer techs won't know to look for it, so they'll just chalk it up to "dead APIM".

 

Had the same here, just used forscan to default splash screen and reset apim.

 

The reason for all that was your changing the theme to GT and messing with the APIM settings. The APIM sends your As Built Data to Ford over wifi and it updates the Ford as built server with the changes. So all those changes you made were reflected in the ford server as built data file and when the APIM was replaced and the dealer process pulled the as built programming it pulled the same programming that caused the failure in the first place. The dealer had to contact support and eventually someone at Ford went in and to put the as built for the APIM back to original in the Ford as built server and then the dealer could re-do the process and get it back to normal.

 

The GT theme has been removed for a long time from the 3.0 builds and the early 3.4. This is a common issue. Years ago people changed to the GT theme and now when they either upgrade or the truck does it via wi-fi, everything is broken. Changing back to the default Ford theme fixes the issue.

As noted above, some of the as built settings get uploaded to Ford when you change them. And it causes all kinds of issues as the as build you download is not what you thought it was. Best thing to do when making changes with the 2016 and higher vehicles is to save all the changes you made in a spreadsheet so you can change back if needed. And never think downloading your as build is going to be a 100% fix.