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millim

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Was pretty scary. I'd gone on a beer & ice run and had 5 cases of beer and two sixteen pound bags of ice in the frunk. Against my better judgement I stacked the two ice bags on the same side as the emergency release. Fantasy draft was starting in 10 minutes, but I was only 5 minutes away from getting back and I was 12th in the order, so all good.

Long story short I had to accelerate decently quick as there was a regular stream of cars coming down the street at that time, and when I did the ice must have shifted, hit the emergency frunk release button, and the frunk flew open before I knew what happened. I obviously couldn't see the road well in front of me, but knew it was clear since I'd just started driving and I could see a smidge under the frunk and out the side window. As you can see from the picture below, I was pretty fortunate that it was easy to pull over.

After pulling to the side of the road I assessed the damage, which initially only appeared to be the case of Ultras that were rolling around the middle of the road (I'm guessing when I decelerated when the frunk flew open it rolled out). However when I tried to get the frunk to go back down nothing happened except a succession of three or four 2-beep notifications. I tried pressing down on the hood, but no joy...it wouldn't budge. I will admit that I didn't try to force it extremely hard, but I definitely gave it a good push. I tried the emergency frunk button again...nothing. I pulled on the red tab where the normal hood release would go and still nothing happened.

Tried calling road side assistance to see if I could get guidance on how to get it to go down...no luck. Basically all they could do was call a tow truck...which wasn't any help. I then tried calling my dealership, but unfortunately nobody was available in service to assist. Nothing in the online manual helped, and I didn't have any tools with me to try unplugging my 12V. Searches on the internet weren't getting me anywhere, and to add insult to injury I ended up auto-drafting my 1st and 2nd picks because I was so preoccupied with the stuck frunk and beers scattered around the highway.

Eventually after nearly 30 minutes of trying the buttons & red tab over and over, I noticed the frunk appeared to be a little lower. I tried the button again and it didn't work, but I was able to manually force it down. There was an issue w/ the latch, but after some poking & prodding it finally worked.

So here I am now...it's working but something is definitely off kilter. At the end of closing it makes a pretty loud noise and the hood is a little misaligned. I made an appointment to take it into the dealer this week and I'm sure it'll be fine, but the moral of the story for me is that the emergency release button is no joke, it works, and I think it works a bit too well. I kind of which it was a latch, and thinking back to the thread I saw here before, I may look to get some sort of cover on is so groceries or other stuff don't shift and cause this to happen again.

IMO this is a pretty material design flaw. They market the heck out of the frunk holding lots of stuff and up to 400 lbs, which almost necessarily means jamming a bunch of stuff in there. Thinking about the two sets of clubs Ford touts, I can easily see either the bottom of the bag or a loose club on the other side easily triggering it if you hit a bump the wrong way. If that happens like it did to me when pulling out hopefully nothing too bad happens, but what if someone is going 70mph in the middle lane of a freeway? The outcome could be catastrophic, and I unfortunately think that it's not if, but WHEN, we'll see more of this happening if they don't do something to change it.

Ford F-150 Lightning Frunk opened while accelerating after something shifted around! IMG_4194
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Firestop

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A while back someone posted about a similar incident, but only the primary latch released and the Frunk lid held until he was able to pull over and secure it. Discussion on that thread led to me believe that this would eventually happed…I’m sorry it happened to you.

That occurrence led me to search for solutions to protect the internal Frunk release because I felt this was a true safety issue, knew this was going to happen to me some day, and that @Ford Motor Company might take a while to develop a solution.

I couldn’t find anything reasonable until another member of this forum developed a solution so simple it hurt….two self-adhesive mini-magnets, a clear plastic magnetic rocker light switch protector and 5 minutes with a Dremel Tool sanding….. It probably needs something more substantial, but should work until Ford comes out with something safer…….

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08J6HF9T6?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwizlbCi1tn5AhXNAzQIHfmCBHUQFnoECA8QAQ&url=https://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Magnet-3-8-in-Dia-Neodymium-Rare-Earth-Magnet-Discs-with-Foam-Adhesive-12-Pack-97594/206503482&usg=AOvVaw0MwkGQ-aKFAC3MNGLNQfLF

Ford F-150 Lightning Frunk opened while accelerating after something shifted around! image

Ford F-150 Lightning Frunk opened while accelerating after something shifted around! image
 
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millim

millim

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I’ll definitely be doing that. Heading to bed now, but as luck would have it things got worse with the opening and closing tonight…definitely needs some work (have it on video and can try to post it tomorrow - upload didn’t work for me).
 

Whammy Bar

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I'm trying to picture how this happens under acceleration - you gun it... Normally this pins you to your seat. But the button is in the front. Things would shift away from the button. Did this happen when you let off after giving it the sauce?
 

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RavenYZF-R6

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I'm trying to picture how this happens under acceleration - you gun it... Normally this pins you to your seat. But the button is in the front. Things would shift away from the button. Did this happen when you let off after giving it the sauce?
Most of the time you have to turn one way or another to get onto a road. Probably gunned it while turning to get in front of cars coming at him.
 

yed19

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I think I was the one mentioned that had this happen to me. Mine only popped open a little and stopped. I think thus is probably because I was only going like 5 mph. How fast were you going when it hit the button? After this has happened to me, I do now pay very close attention as to if anything could hit that button. I bet the OP does now for sure. It should have a cover on it or something for sure.
 

Firestop

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I'm trying to picture how this happens under acceleration - you gun it... Normally this pins you to your seat. But the button is in the front. Things would shift away from the button. Did this happen when you let off after giving it the sauce?
Most of the time you have to turn one way or another to get onto a road. Probably gunned it while turning to get in front of cars coming at him.
I get the need to analyze this, but it isn’t the first time it’s been documented as happening (https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...frunk-release-activated-on-the-highway.11107/) and won’t be the last. IMHO, it is an occurrence that Ford didn’t anticipate given the hard plastic raised ring designed around the button that they probably thought would protect it from such activations.

Well, I’d say a re-engineered solution is warranted🤔
 
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Whammy Bar

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Most of the time you have to turn one way or another to get onto a road. Probably gunned it while turning to get in front of cars coming at him.
I get the need to analyz,e this, but it isn’t the first time it’s been documented as happening (https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...frunk-release-activated-on-the-highway.11107/) and won’t be the last. IMHO, it is an occurrence that Ford didn’t anticipate given the hard plastic raised ring designed around the button that they probably thought would protect it from such activations.

Well, I’d say a re-engineered solution is warranted🤔
Thinking of cutting a tennis ball in half and just gluing it over the button.

Not looking to find out I was wrong first hand...
 

Firestop

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Thinking of cutting a tennis ball in half and just gluing it over the button.

Not looking to find out I was wrong first hand...
That might work….I went with the clear plastic solution to honor the safety regulation that requires the switch to be visible 👓. ….beside the fact I thought the member who designed it was pretty creative…….
 

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VTbuckeye

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It is supposed to release the primary latch and give you a warning. Secondary latch should hold until stopped. This appears to be a secondary latch failure. All solved with a clear plastic safety cover on the release button.
 

TaxmanHog

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Curious to know if there is any CAN-bus logic behind the switch to opener solenoids, could a BCE control be programmed to interrupt the request to open while truck is "in gear"?
 

RickLightning

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Sounds like the truck was simply disgorging OP's extremely poor choice of alcoholic beverages. I applaud Ford for adding this safety feature! :p
 

sotek2345

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Curious to know if there is any CAN-bus logic behind the switch to opener solenoids, could a BCE control be programmed to interrupt the request to open while truck is "in gear"?
I bet that would violate the safety aspect of the button. If you are kidnapped and trapped in there, you want to be able to open it and get out, even if the vehicle is in motion.
 

Amps

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Curious to know if there is any CAN-bus logic behind the switch to opener solenoids, could a BCE control be programmed to interrupt the request to open while truck is "in gear"?
This is addressed in the highlighted paragraph of the federal standard:

https://www.federalregister.gov/d/01-20831/p-193

There's a possibility in this case that the action had been initiated while the truck was stopped waiting for traffic and/or moving under 3km/hr
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