2013 Ford Fusion warning lights

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

Today I drove out to visit my father for a few hours. When starting my car to leave I was bombarded with EVERY warning light known to man beeping at me. This car hasn’t seen so much as a low tire pressure light until today. The hud was reading *door ajar *parking brake on *check engine *low tire pressure *warning car not in park

There were a few other light that popped up of which I have no idea the meaning of. I Immediately shut the car off. Turned it back on and everything was gone. As I’m cruising down the road headed home the RPM gauge, gas gauge, temperature gage, MPH gauge, …all failed. Then came back. Then Failed. This repeated over and over. All the warning lights came back on again flashing and beeping reading the exact same various of messages just as before. This time transmission failure and the ABS light joined the party. My signals did not work, nor did the bright light indicator. Obviously knowing that none of that was going on because the car was still driving just as smooth as ever before. I continued to drive drove roughly 10 minutes down the road to the nearest gas station. There I shut the car off & set for a few minutes. I checked the oil just to ease my mind. Once I started it again, everything was gone, completely back to normal, all the gauges went back to working properly. Warning lights went away like it never even even happened.

Now the radio won’t work. It displays the date and time. You can change the language and temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius but nothing more!

Please help me guys!
Kevin

2

Not a good idea to put your phone number on an internet site… @cdaquila a little help here.

Given the nature of your problem, I’d say there is a computer that is acting erratically in your Fusion. I’d suggest taking it to the dealer for diagnosis. Don’t be surprised if they can’t find anything. Intermittent problems can be a big challenge.

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You mention of the radio date/time made me wonder about your battery in all of this.

Is the battery in good shape? How old is it?

Or, are your battery cables/clamps tight and secure?

Just a wild guess here, but I wonder if either a battery cable cane loose momentarily, or if your battery is on its way out.

3 Likes
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The only time that I’ve seen something like this , is when the battery is going south or loose?corroded cables.

All kind of strange things will happen then. And many radios will shut down to conserve power if the voltage gets too low.

Battery connections are the first place to begin when you have a “No Crank” situation. Even

if you have a new battery, if the connections are loose, dirty or corroded, you will not be

allowing the full flow of current to pass thru the connections. The connection may be

enough to turn on the lights, but not enough for the huge flow that is needed to operate the

starter. This is where many people say that they know the battery is good….”because the

lights come on”. This is no more a battery test than licking a 9volt battery. It only tells you that there is electricity…not how many volts or the amperage that flows from the battery.

Jump starting may have wiggled the terminal just enough to allow the current to pass and start the engine, but tomorrow you have the same problem.

First remove the cables from the battery and use a wire brush to remove any corrosion and dirt from the battery posts and the cable terminals. There is a tool with a round wire brush for this purpose, found at any auto parts store for less than $10 http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/kd-tools-terminal-battery-brush-kdt201/25980576-P?searchTerm=terminal+brush.

Before connecting the cables, apply a coating of di-electric grease to the battery posts this will keep oxygen away from the connection so that it will not corrode as fast.

It is just as important that the other end of the cables also have a clean connection. Remove the negative cable from the battery again so that you do not short anything out. Follow both cables to their far ends, remove this connection and wire brush the connection and the cable terminal clean and retighten these connections.

If there was work done recently, there may have been an “engine to body” ground that was not installed following the work. These grounds normally run from the rear of the engine to the firewall and are uninsulated and most are a braided wire. If any of these are found unattached…reattach them.

Remember….this is not a “Sherman Tank” don’t over tighten the connections.

Tight…tight………………too tight…broke!!!

Yosemite

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I mean I guess it could be on its way out however the batter is less than a year old. Last night I removed the hot (red) cable and let the battery sit unhooked over night and this morning still nothing. There is no corrosion and both cables appear to be tight and secure. The car starts fine with no obvious struggle as if the battery is dying.

Is it possible that lightning struck the car?

However, there’s no inner or outer physical damange.

An AutoZone employee suggested the radio was shot. Seems to me that is wrong due to the face the date/time/temp and Ford emblem still appear?

Either way thanks for all the advice and help.

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Well, it could still be the battery, but my money would be on a failing alternator. When the diodes in an alternator are beginning to fail, the result is surging and falling output, and that wild variation in output causes all of the electronic devices to act in a truly wacky manner.

I would suggest that you have the alternator’s output tested today, before you wind-up killing that battery and being stranded and needing a tow.

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Lots of good info here, but I think the use of di-electric grease on the contact surfaces of the battery terminals is wrong. Dielectric means it does not conduct electricity. That’s the point. It is used in places like between spark plug boots and plug bodies where you don’t want electricity to pass, but you want lubrication or protection. If you completely clean the terminals and cable ends with a wire brush and reattach them you can certainly smear dielectric grease over the exposed terminals (after they are connected) to slow corrosion, but it should not be on the contact surfaces themselves.

The problem you are having now seems to be, like others have said, an intermittent electrical connection. Have you had any work done under the hood recently? Something may have been pushed around and now a connection is loose or a wire is broken inside its insulation. You may have to spend some time wiggling cables while someone watches the dash.

2 Likes
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Let me weigh in on this with my limited connector experience. Just some off-the-cuff thoughts.

A good connector is air tight (or gold on gold). Ribbon connectors come to mind where a fork penetrates the insulation and makes the connection, with the plastic insulation closing around it, making the connection airtight. This prevents the connection from oxidizing.

Perhaps the di-electric grease serves that same function. The metal makes contact to the metal, pushing the grease away. The grease then remains in any voids and the edges and provides an air tight seal around the connection.

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There’s been no work done under the hood since I’ve own it. Just routine maintenance. I had a diagnostic ran on the alternator and battery moments ago and everything was performing at 100%.

Someone told me there might be a factory reset code that I can get from for to fix this pesky radio issue.

I keep going back on what could have caused all of this

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That is wrong

You need to disconnect the negative cable

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Well jeez lol

I’ll unhook the negative cable tonight when I get home and see what happens. Thanks a million for all the help and advise out there!

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I only mentioned it for any future work you do

It’s safer for you and the car, if you remove the negative cable

Do you have a digital multimeter?

If so, I’d recommend checking charging voltage . . . directly at the battery terminals . . . at idle with no loads on

Then do the same thing, but with a bunch of loads on . . . high beams, high blower speed, rear window defogger, radio, seat heaters, you get the idea

Then report the results, please

A few months ago, my brother’s 3-year old battery failed cold turkey, without warning, and when it did, he also saw a bunch of warning messages, same as you.

And when the battery catastrophically failed without warning, it also took out the alternator.

Ever since replacing the battery and alternator, he’s had no problems. And those warning messages haven’t reappeared

I’m hoping your particular problem will also be simple to diagnose and repair.

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Understood, that makes sense. I don’t have the tech to test it but my cousin does. We are planned on getting together this weekend if I don’t fix the problem.

However, all those warning lights have went away and stayed away. I had a diagnostic ran on the alternator and battery moments ago and everything was performing at 100%. But we didn’t try it with loads going to the battery. Definitely something I can try this weekend if the radio reset code from Ford doesn’t work.

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Of course, you are correct, but I’m trying to figure out why you replied to me with that correction, as I did not suggest that dubious practice.
:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Sorry :frowning_face:

16

No problema!

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It sounds to me like you are having an electrical power loss problem for some reason. Suggest to ask your shop to do a charging system and battery test. If nothing found but the problem resumes, ask them to install a volt meter in the passenger compartment so you can monitor the battery connector voltages as you drive. If they drop significantly coincident with these symptoms, you’ll have found a good clue. Makes sense for you to look carefully at the battery connections. Sometimes those connectors will start to fray where the wire meets the connector, or the crimp may fail, creating a loose connection. As posted above, when disconnecting the battery, do it from the negative side, not the positive. Less chance of getting short circuit and its undesirable effects. The radio’s symptom might be that it also lost power Some radios are designed to be difficult to restart when they lose power. It’s an anti-theft thing. Sometimes you have to return the car and the radio to the dealership to get the radio working again.

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You stated that the engine was running fine when the all or most of the warning lights came on, along with other accessories failing like the turn signals. So the ignition power was okay but power to the dash and the turn signals at least had a problem. This might mean that the ACC contacts of the ignition switch have a problem or there may be a wire connection problem at or near the dash fuse panel. It would be helpful to look at a wiring diagram to check for a common power wire connection to the dash and the turn signal switch and check the connections along that line of the circuit.