Thanks for that input. I finally rounded up a local mechanic who has a reputation for troubleshooting problems and not just replacing parts so I’m going to see him. At this point I’m 3 months without full use of my car. I’ll add any new info or my final solution after that. Being an Electronic Engineer, this is sure an overuse and abuse of technology. Meanwhile I’m learning I probably can’t buy a new car without an EPB!
That’s good news Keith; thanks. I’ve been looking at the Outback and Forester and 15 years would take me to the end of the road. I think I’ll forward that to the Ford regional office!
That is only for Outbacks and Legacys from 2012 to 2014 and only for the EPB, not the whole vehicle.
Thanks for clarifying. Yeh, it sounds like in that date range the manufacturers were all probably buying the same OEM parts.
I’ve got a 2016 Lincoln MKX and I’m having the same problem. Two months ago, I started the car to leave my house for work and got a warning that said “Parking Brake Limited Functionality. Service Soon.” I pressed okay and didn’t have any more issues out of it for a few days. When I got in the car again after about a week of driving it, I got the same message again and hit okay and went to leave my house. After going forward about 15-20 feet, I started getting a constant beeping and a warning on the screen saying I needed to disengage the parking brake. I hit the button to release it, and got a message saying “Parking Brake Malfunction. Service soon.” and a warning indicator on the dash. I tried again and got the same message. I put the car in park, turned the car off, engaged and then disengaged the brake again, and restarted the car. Once I did, the message went away, as well as the indicator. From then on, every time I started the car, I had to go through the same routine. Eventually, that sequence stopped working to “disengage” the brake, even though the brake was not applied in the first place. We took the car to the dealership we bought it from and had them fix it under the service warranty we bought with the car. They kept it for a week and said that they had fixed the programming so it wouldn’t happen again. My wife picked it up and the mechanic tested the car from start up about 10 times and it never threw the code. My wife took the car and left. Less than a mile down the road, the warning activated again and would not stop. We returned to the dealership and they finally agreed to order a new part (ABS Module) to fix the problem. Fast forward, they’ve had our car for a little over a month “waiting on the part” and only today had it come in and started to work on the replacement. Now they tell us the car is stuck in “service mode” and they can’t figure out how to get it out of service mode and have had to contact Ford for instructions. Honestly, this is the worst experience I’ve ever had with a vehicle and the dealership’s service department is awful. But since I see that multiple different people have had the same issue across several different cars and I have yet to see a resolution to the issue, I’m worried that it may be a serious problem to fix. If the dealership manages to fix it satisfactorily this time, I’ll leave another message with their solution. If anyone has any further information on a fix before then, please let me know.
No offense, but could you make use of paragraph breaks to make it easier for those old folks of us that have a hard time reading a continuous stream of words?
+1
I refuse to even attempt to read a “wall of text” that is lacking paragraph breaks.
Well I have a 2013 Ford Fusion and every 6 months or so the left rear caliper locks up when the parking brake is applied. The parking brake motor will not release it. If you rock the car back and forth enough and then apply and release the parking brake it will free itself. This is a factory defect!!!
When this happens I just return the caliper to autozone and install the free lifetime replacement. At some point in time the aftermarket will fix this problem, not Ford. There were a lot of recalls on this car and much of the electronics have failed. This is my last Ford.