Hello, I’m sure this has been discussed before but I made a mistake today and changed the front brakes on my 2021 f150 xlt without enabling the brake maintenance mode. I did not touch the rear. After getting everything back together several lights are displayed on the dash. ABS, traction control, service brake system, etc. Brake petal is spongy. What do I need to do? Does the whole system need to be reset? After doing some googling after the fact I did enable and disable maintenance mode but it did not fix the issue. Any thoughts?

 

Welcome. Far as I know, service mode is only for the rear brakes.

 

The brake service mode is only for the rear brakes, I recommend driving carefully to a brake repair shop and let them undo and fix your work.

 

Hi there, I'd be happy to look into your F-150 concerns on my end. Will you send us a message with your VIN and dealership info? I can look into things on my end.

 

Did you open the brake bleeders or flush the brake fluid? It is extremely easy to get air in the brake lines on these trucks and the factory procedure for bleeding the system requires using a scan tool and pressure bleeder.

 

 

not true! you do not need a pressure bleeder OR a scan tool to change the brake pads!

 

I never said you need a pressure bleeder or a scan tool to change brake pads. I asked if the OP opened the bleeders or flushed the brake fluid because this is the easiest way to cause the symptoms the OP is experiencing and many people will do this when they do other brake work.

If you want to flush your brake fluid or get air out of the brake system, the factory procedure is to "carry out the brake system pressure bleeding using the diagnostic scan tool following the on-screen instructions."

 

I stand corrected, you did not say that you needed to do those things to change the pads.

You can STILL bleed the brakes in the conventional manner, with out a scan tool or a power bleeder.

A power bleeder can make bleeding brakes a 1 man job (I use one myself).
OPTIONALLY you can use ForScan to activate the ABS pump to bleed the brakes....but it can still be done in the conventional manner w/out specialized tools.

 

If you enter the brake maintenance mode before bleeding the brakes, you can bleed them in a conventional manner; but it can and often does set a DTC in the ABS module that cannot be reliably cleared without running the officially recommended bleeding procedure with a scan tool and pressure bleeder. The brake system on the 2021+ F150s is very different from prior years because it uses an electronic brake control module that is both an electric brake booster and ABS assembly. These trucks do not use a traditional vacuum booster with a separate ABS unit.