Sudden Loss of Power and Steering

[invertedspear]

I may be missing a feature or limitation of something, but I just leave the key in the truck all the time. I lock it with the touch panel and it unlocks when I approach with the phone in my pocket. If it doesn't, I use the touchpad to unlock it. I'm adding to this thread because I'm thinking I may be doing something that I shouldn't be doing or it is highly recommended I do not do that. Obviously, if someone finds out my entry code, it can be stolen.

I have the XLT so no PAAK, maybe it's different if you have that, but if I have the fob near the door and touch the handle, the doors will unlock. I'd leave your phone far away and test if the door unlocks when you grab the handle. Maybe it's smart enough to time-out if the key stays in range and you're fine, but seems risky to not test.

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[Ford Motor Company]

I posted this on Reddit last night and was asked to post it here as well

I was driving home last night with my wife; about 30m from home the vehicle (2023 Lightning Lariat) suddenly lost power - the throttle was unresponsive, power steering was dead, and the nav system went black. It was pretty scary, and I’m fortunate I wasn’t in a sketchier, freeway speed situation

After pulling off to the side of the road, the vehicle was able to restart, but it reported a “steering fault” error and wasn’t able to drive faster than 45mph.

I pulled over into a gas station, where the car refused to start back up. I called Ford’s roadside assistance, but because I was using phone-as-a-key they couldn’t help me. **you need a physical key if you ever need roadside assistance **.

I ended up calling a friend to get my wife who would get my keys so I could get roadside assistance. By the time my friend got there, the vehicle rebooted and I was able to get home without issue.

Has anyone else run into issues similar to this?

Edit:
Some other odd behavior I noticed surrounding the event
* When the vehicle abruptly stopped, it was reporting that I had 99mi of range at 50% battery. That seemed pretty low but I didn't give it much thought since I was close to home. After the sieze-up and safe-mode restart that jumped to 148mi.
* When I charged the vehicle that night (80amp charge station pro), it did not get up to the target, 85%, it only got to \ ~76-77%



@Ford Motor Company

Hi Chris! I can look into your Lightning's power loss concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Lightning's VIN?

 

[TaxmanHog]

I may be missing a feature or limitation of something, but I just leave the key in the truck all the time. I lock it with the touch panel and it unlocks when I approach with the phone in my pocket. If it doesn't, I use the touchpad to unlock it. I'm adding to this thread because I'm thinking I may be doing something that I shouldn't be doing or it is highly recommended I do not do that. Obviously, if someone finds out my entry code, it can be stolen.

DO some additional testing with your PAAK enabled phone off or far from the truck.

I suspect that leaving a live FOB in the truck console, may enable third parties to touch the door handle and open the door and drive away. I'll do a similar test tomorrow to confirm either way.

For me, leaving the live or even a disabled FOB in my truck would be a security risk. Personally I have PAAK and like it but I always carry my FOB along with all my other traditional keys for the house, garage and clubhouse.

 

[tubby]

DO some additional testing with your PAAK enabled phone off or far from the truck.

I suspect that leaving a live FOB in the truck console, may enable third parties to touch the door handle and open the door and drive away. I'll do a similar test tomorrow to confirm either way.

For me, leaving the live or even a disabled FOB in my truck would be a security risk. Personally I have PAAK and like it but I always carry my FOB along with all my other traditional keys for the house, garage and clubhouse.

I did a test leaving the key inside the Lighting and keeping my phone out of Bluetooth distance and it did not automatically unlock when I touched the handle. Maybe the key magically goes to sleep if it is not moved when inside. I do like leaving it inside just in case the phone ends up somewhere or broken unexpectedly or even dies. I know this is not the forum for this statement, but they say 1.8 million people have dropped their mobile phones down the toilet in the last year.

 

[TheBigBezo]

Not to go too off topic, but it did make me think, would leaving a key fob in a Faraday bag in the glove box work similar to removing the battery?

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

Not to go too off topic, but it did make me think, would leaving a key fob in a Faraday bag in the glove box work similar to removing the battery?

Yes

 

[Henry Ford]

I think it mainly comes down to how will anyone else operate the vehicle. I know when I dropped my truck off for tinting the guy asked me for my keys and I'm sheepishly loaned him my cellphone so he could drive into his workspace.

Valet mode creates an eight digit code. The first five digits open the door, the full eight digits starts the truck.

Don't give your phone to strangers. If you are anything like me it has access to financial information, stuff my company doesn't want me to give away, and other stuff I just don't want people to have access to. There are security steps involved to get to anything on my (and hopefully your) phone but what are you going to do without your phone while waiting for service to be done on your truck? Talk to other people? They're on their phones!

 

[TaxmanHog]

I did a test leaving the key inside the Lighting and keeping my phone out of Bluetooth distance and it did not automatically unlock when I touched the handle. Maybe the key magically goes to sleep if it is not moved when inside.

Thanks for the follow-up, I didn't get around to this test today, preoccupied with the pre-conditioning & departure time issues.

 

[tubby]

I would try leaving the key in the vehicle to confirm my test. I leave mine next to the wireless charger. Make sure you know your entry code. Also, I always lock my door with the keypad. Maybe that somehow is the way to do it when you want to leave the key inside. I'm sure you know this, but to lock it with the keypad, just push the bottom 2 buttons at the same time.

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