Posted on 03/26/2011 7:49:43 AM PDT by chickadee
Yesterday, I decided to take my relatively new car out for a spin. Due to a combination of ugly winter weather and health issues, I hadn't driven the car in a couple of months and wanted to give it a spin to keep its "juices" flowing.
I got in the car and tried to start it. Nothing. All the symbols lit up and went nuts, but no sound of cranking.
Fortunately, Ford gives new owners 5 years of Roadside Assistance. Ford's service responded quickly and professionally. The technician came prepared with a "box" to start the car in my garage. It wouldn't start. He had discovered a loose battery connection, which he tightened, but still "no go". He was familiar with the vehicle and tried one or two adjustments before deciding that the car was in lockout mode.
After consulting the manual, he determined that the car's computer was not recognizing the key. He presumed the loss of coding was due to the "dead" battery. He said the dealership would need to repower the battery and reinstall the codes before the car would start.
I contacted the dealership and they said to arrange with Roadside Assistance to have it brought to them and they would reinstall the codes.
Longish story short - it turned out that the battery was not dead - not even low. Ford has a program built into it that if a car is not started in 50 days, it goes into lockdown mode to conserve the battery. To protect the battery from itself and its constant computer analysis.
Once the dealership discovered that the battery was fine, they contacted Ford who explained the above to them (even the techs were unaware of the 50 day thing.) The cure was simple, disconnect the negative lead for 30 seconds, reconnect and all was well.
Meanwhile, two service calls to the house and the car had been loaded on a flatbed and towed across town.
Wow. Ain't technology great?
bought the wife a brand new dodge...no owners manual..everything on disc now...
For our last few cars we got both, disc and printed. I still like to have the printed one in the glovebox, you never know.
Thanks for your post. I learn something new every day on FR.
You're putting the blame in the wrong place. I can virtually guarantee you that the programmers didn't dream this idea up on their own and implement it just because they could.
Whether the decision was right or wrong, this "feature" would have only been put into the code because it was specifically called out in the functional requirements document for the software.
Yep. I hate most new cars, all the excessive electronic ‘bonus’ stuff is just plain annoying. I like my manual. The only problem I do have is rolling the passenger side window up and down.. wish that one was electric. But otherwise, a ‘95 Mustang is good for me :)
The original U.S. Prius had a car battery that was so small, if you left the car sit more than 2 weeks, the drain from the security system would kill the battery, and you’d need a jump-start.
This even though there was a fully-charged 21kw battery source right in the car — which needed the 12-volt battery to start the computer that ran the inverter to use the big battery.
On the plus side, you can jumpstart that car with a 12-volt drill battery. All you need to do is boot the compiter, and then the 12volt power comes from the big battery.
Apparently, nobody in Japan would leave a car sit for 2 weeks, but it’s quite common here in the U.S.. Someone started selling an after-market power switch for the battery.
Yuck, this creep cheats on his wife and acts like he doesn’t.
Sound like the South Park ep where the Internet died
I'm tempted to compare the Empress to one or two prominent ladies of the left, but better not.
Sounds just like my ‘99 Grand Marquis - bought it at the end of 2005 and so far, never a breakdown. And upkeep is surprisingly low.
then that is a very good deal!!!!
Thank you; however, I have to say that it is par for the course for the Crown Vic/Grand Marquis line from Ford. Not to say there aren’t some bumps - they tinkered with the suspension in the 1999 redesign, which made the ride a little harsher than it needed to be - but these things are seriously old-school technology and since the basic vehicle is designed and built to be used and abused as taxis and police cruisers, they stand up quite well to piddling little civilian usage.
Late reply, but yes, it does....
My 97 Taurus had a fault in its climate control system once that caused it to go into a safe mode. Turns out that it does a self-calibration, and if it fails during the calibration for any reason, it goes to a safe mode to prevent damage.
I was wondering why it was only blowing hot air, then I found out a simple reboot sequence to send it through the calibration again.... passed with flying colors and never had a problem again.
I was just about to say - is the car’s computer Windows-based?
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