What the frunk?

[climateguy]

I've only kept my frunk open for more than a few minutes at a time, until this morning, when I kept it open for a few hours. It came time to close it and move the vehicle, but It would not close. I've only owned my 2024 Lightning Flash for a few months. So this is the first day I tried to learn about the frunk. I knew almost nothing to start with.

Thanks to some threads on this forum, I managed to get the situation resolved.

I gained some understanding of what to not to do. Don't look in the table of contents of the manual for a section entitled "The Frunk", or anything like that. (Obviously, info on the frunk would be in a section entitled "Luggage Compartment"). Avoid the Index. ("Frunk" is not there). Don't call Ford. (If it's a Sunday). Not every dealer is going to be able to help in the slightest. (The woman answering my call to the dealer eventually said "what's a frunk"?, before she added "there are no service people here today". I told her it can't be that I will need to get this vehicle towed to you over this. She said she would try to transfer me to someone else there but my call ended up being disconnected.) My situation felt preposterous for a while.

Eventually, after reading a few threads on this forum, I realized it probably would not damage anything if I gently closed the frunk by hand. It closed but didn't fully latch. Because it sort of latched and it did stay almost closed, I now felt confident about moving the vehicle safely to a more convenient place. Moving the vehicle with the frunk in this condition causes a constant warning signal and warning message.

I decided that the next thing to do would be to attempt to reset whatever computer was responsible. In my mind, the least hazardous method to do this would be by cutting off the power to whatever computer controlled the frunk, by removing its fuse. However, the Lightning fuses are in the frunk. The frunk was now partially latched, and it was not responding to any sort of command to open itself. I found a description of a hand operated latch release that the manual stated was inside the vehicle. This did not work on the first try. It did work on the second try. It turns out that the manual says pull the release twice, but I only found this out later. At last, the frunk opened and I had access to the fuse box inside. Fuse 72 is a 40 amp fuse described in the manual as protecting the "front trunk module". (A section on fuses is listed in the table of contents and the index.) I removed it. I gave the situation ten minutes, then replaced the fuse. I gave the system ten more minutes to think things over. After this, the frunk operated normally.

I hope it stays that way. I'm glad I was not in the middle of nowhere with no access to the internet on a Sunday when this happened.

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[The Weatherman]

Yep, there something odd about how they control that thing. I try not to leave open for any longer than absolutely necessary.

 

[Wendy]

Then how do we frunk-gate if we have our electric hotdog cooker and stereo plugged in for a long time? Hmm, I guess I need to learn where that manual latch and fuse box are.

 

[RickLightning]

Then how do we frunk-gate if we have our electric hotdog cooker and stereo plugged in for a long time? Hmm, I guess I need to learn where that manual latch and fuse box are.

Easy answer.

First, you want the truck running when you're using all that stuff. So, you turn off the shutdown timer, and open the frunk. Since the truck is running, there is no timeout on the open frunk.

We had ours open for hours during an EV event 10 days ago. Hit button, it closes.

And there is no reason to have to reset it by pulling fuses. Simply close it manually, then reopen. If it doesn't latch, pull manual release, then close it again.

 

[Jodokk]

This issue is pretty well-known here. We're going in on October 17th to have the module replaced or repaired.
We've done all the secret tricks, even pulled the negative and, I even got my wife to close me in the Frunk to hit the release, (in case it was the open/shut sequence issue). Some worked for a few minutes, then it started throwing a fault.
Hope yours is a much easier fix.

 

[Adventureboy]

If you leave the frunk open and truck off, the truck eventually shuts down the control module and the frunk controller loses its brains. The fix is simple (although undocumented in the manual)

• Open Frunk if not already opened (if closed, manually open the frunk with the release tab in the cab - pull twice then lift the frunk manually).
• Press and hold the button on the Frunk until it beeps. This re-establishes the open setting
• Manually close the frunk gently until the truck closes the latch - this re-establishes closed position.

Frunk should operate as normal after this barring any physical or electrical issues.

I leave my frunk open regularly and this always works with minimal fuss.

 

[cal]

This issue is pretty well-known here. We're going in on October 17th to have the module replaced or repaired.
We've done all the secret tricks, even pulled the negative and, I even got my wife to close me in the Frunk to hit the release, (in case it was the open/shut sequence issue). Some worked for a few minutes, then it started throwing a fault.
Hope yours is a much easier fix.

You must be newly wed. After 49 years I'd never let my wife close me in the funk! Dont' trust the wife or Ford engineering that much!

 

[climateguy]

If you leave the frunk open and truck off, the truck eventually shuts down the control module and the frunk controller loses its brains. The fix is simple (although undocumented in the manual)

• Open Frunk if not already opened (if closed, manually open the frunk with the release tab in the cab - pull twice then lift the frunk manually).
• Press and hold the button on the Frunk until it beeps. This re-establishes the open setting
• Manually close the frunk gently until the truck closes the latch - this re-establishes closed position.

Frunk should operate as normal after this barring any physical or electrical issues.

I leave my frunk open regularly and this always works with minimal fuss.

My opened frunk failed to respond to commands to close for a second time.

The first time it stayed open refusing to respond, when I manually closed it, I tried holding it fully down to see if it would latch. It didn't latch properly, and normal operation was not restored.

This second time, as I manually gently closed it I was careful as I approached the closed position to give the truck a chance to close the latch itself. The truck fully latched it. The frunk then started acting normally again.

 

[Adventureboy]

My opened frunk failed to respond to commands to close for a second time.

The first time it stayed open refusing to respond, when I manually closed it, I tried holding it fully down to see if it would latch. It didn't latch properly, and normal operation was not restored.

This second time, as I manually gently closed it I was careful as I approached the closed position to give the truck a chance to close the latch itself. The truck fully latched it. The frunk then started acting normally again.

Yes it is quite picky about how you do it. You need to follow the 3 steps precisely or it can't find its way out of the dark. The second step is needed to wake up the module and establish the up position. Generally if the frunk is open already, press and hold the button until it beeps, then manually close gently until the truck takes it and latches.

 

[climateguy]

Yes it is quite picky about how you do it. You need to follow the 3 steps precisely or it can't find its way out of the dark. The second step is needed to wake up the module and establish the up position. Generally if the frunk is open already, press and hold the button until it beeps, then manually close gently until the truck takes it and latches.

This time all I had to do was one step: When the frunk was open and not responding to the close command, I didn't press the button on the frunk until it beeped. I didn't press it at all. I just carefully manually closed the frunk until the truck took it and latched it. Normal operation was restored.

I hadn't read about your technique at the time. I was just experimenting to see if removing the frunk module fuse for a while could be avoided. I hesitate to deliberately leave the frunk open until it fails to respond to commands to experiment, to see if some successful recovery procedure would work again, in case the next time, all recovery efforts fail and I have to resort to involving a Ford dealer.

Everyone's mileage may vary. I can live with this problem as long as restoring normal operation can be accomplished reliably. Thanks for sharing your technique.

 

[Adventureboy]

This time all I had to do was one step: When the frunk was open and not responding to the close command, I didn't press the button on the frunk until it beeped.

Excellent - I'll update my procedures. I got mine in Jan 2023 so there have been a few iterations of software updates since I put the procedure together. That is a good thing.

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