Yellow wrench of doom has appeared.

[Tino307]

I've had my "24 Flash for less than 2 months now. So far... my favorite vehicle I have owned. On Friday, the yellow wrench symbol appeared on my dash followed by a message that read," powertrain malfunction/reduced power- A powertrain or 4-wheel drive fault has been detected." I tried to make an appointment at my local dealer but can't get it in until next week. Today, I started it up and the wrench symbol and messages were gone. My question is: do the warnings, cautions and symbols go away after cycling the ignition on and off so many times? BTW the truck runs great, nothing appears to be wrong with it.
Thanks
Tino

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[marc_hanna]

It's always a surprise with Ford. I would keep driving it as long as it doesn't say stop vehicle now.

There are a lot of things that this could be related to, anywhere from a simple software update to a major malfunction.

 

[Tino307]

Thank You.

 

[jetfixr1]

Check your 12V connections for tightness. If you have a way to check the voltage, make sure its not low. If you have a stowing shifter, fold it down and back up then shift into drive. If you happen to have an OBD dongle, you can download a trial of forscan and check what the DTC code is that way you have an idea of what the issue is heading into the dealer. Maybe you can find some help here too.

 

[Tino307]

I dont have a voltmeter but did check the 12v battery. The positive side was a bit loose...but not much.
Thanks for the advise!

 

[Piquette]

Check to make sure you can still put your truck on charge without getting an error message. One of the symptoms of a failed battery module is the truck will not charge when plugged into either a level 2 or DCFC. If you do get a charging error message, then you will be limited to whatever charge you still have left in the battery.

In any case, don’t be in a rush to cancel the service appointment at your Ford dealer.

 

[Tino307]

I have charged on my level 2 charger with no problem. I may try a supercharger tomorrow and see how that works. Thanks for the tip!

 

[FloridaMan655321]

Might be good to give the truck a nice 'cold reboot', if you will. Disconnect the 12v battery for 20 minutes or so, then reconnect it. I've started to do this quarterly (coming up soon).

 

[Tino307]

I just might do that. Thank you!

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

I've started to do this quarterly (coming up soon).

Why?

 

[FloridaMan655321]

Why?

Because after 20 years of being in tech, I learned that sometimes computers need a nice cold reboot, especially non Unix OS's. I don't know the details of Ford, but if they have allowed Microsoft in with the sync shit, I'm guessing it's not Unix.

As far as why quarterly, just easy to remember and I have other quarterly tasks that I put on my calendar.

 

[Firn]

Why?

In reality every electronic device should have a "turn it off and back on" on occasion. These modules don't really power down and between memory overrun, poor programming, or heck even cosmic radiation flipping a bit in a memory register things can get a bit,off. Turning it off clears out the computer and reloads it from a known state.

 

[thunderbayterry]

I've had my "24 Flash for less than 2 months now. So far... my favorite vehicle I have owned. On Friday, the yellow wrench symbol appeared on my dash followed by a message that read," powertrain malfunction/reduced power- A powertrain or 4-wheel drive fault has been detected." I tried to make an appointment at my local dealer but can't get it in until next week. Today, I started it up and the wrench symbol and messages were gone. My question is: do the warnings, cautions and symbols go away after cycling the ignition on and off so many times? BTW the truck runs great, nothing appears to be wrong with it.
Thanks
Tino

I read somewhere that we need to remember our Lightings are basically a SmartPhone on wheels. So if you see a problem, just reboot. It solves a LOT of the issues. I know I've experienced it.

 

[MountainAlive]

There was an over the air update a while back that tried to address these “false” powertrain malfunction” errors but I don’t know if this applied to 2024 models.

 

[Tino307]

You all are a great wealth of information. Thanks to everyone!

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