The plastic parts involved w/door handles and locks seem to be a weak link in modern cars. I’ve never had a minutes trouble with the metal door handles and latch mechanisms on my 70’s truck, other than needing to lube them once in a while. But I had to remove and replace the passenger side door handle & lock on my Corolla a year or so ago. Part of that job involves pushing a sort of mushroom shaped pin out of a hole in a plastic part. It appeared this would be a risky operation for a clumsy diy’er oaf like me, good chance of breaking the plastic part. So I was extra, extra careful. Even with all that caution, pushing that pin out still broke the plastic! … lol … Fortunately I was able to JB Weld it back together without much trouble, so no harm done.
In any event, hoping that new transponder gets you back to a reliable car again.
So much for that. The car failed to start today - KEY NOT DETECTED. Luckily on the third try it did start… so total down time was about 45 seconds.
So if it’s not the key and not the “transponder”, then what could possibly cause the problem? I guess the anti-theft system?
Also, if the ford dealership can’t figure it out? Then who could possibly fix it? The car is a 2015 with 59k miles. I really don’t want to have to wholesale it at auction.
I called the Ford Corporate number and got a case number. I’m not sure that will help much but I am concerned that the dealership doesn’t know how to fix this - probably never seen it until now. And I’m concerned that won’t ask for corporate help as it may go against their numbers.
Sorry you are having this difficulty. Very frustrating. The dealership may have to mail the key and the transponder to a specialized Ford service center to get to the bottom of it.
Many years ago I worked at a company that made a very high technology advanced (at the time) electronics unit, about the size of a fridge, holding 30 or 40 circuit cards that plugged into mother boards. One of these units failed in the field, and not even the company’s best field engineering experts could figure out why. The company replaced the failed unit with a loaner, then they had to ship the entire unit back to the engineers who designed that product. After 3 days of two R&D engineers taking that machine completely apart, down to the last screw, they finally figured it out. Some tiny bits of 30 awg wire had got stuck underneath a motherboard connector. Shorting out a couple of pins, intermittently, as heat caused the plastic in the connector to flex.
Another example, a company was giving a demo of their latest technology, taken 4 years to develop, a two hour demo viewed by the entire company practically. At the 30 minute mark the machine stopped working. No matter what the experts on hand did it wouldn’t start working again. Just kept displaying an operating system software error code nobody had ever seen before. They had no choice but to stop and call the demo a complete success, for one half hour at least … lol … That evening, around midnight the software folks figured it out. One of the keys on the $39 querty keyboard had stuck.
The dealership called today - says the problem is the instrument cluster and there is a code kicking to support that as the issue. I’m hoping that’s right and it solves the problem. The cost is $775. I could get one cheaper on eBay (about $100) and then pay them to program and install it. But I think it’s probably best to go with the dealership on this one.
Question please - does the instrument cluster sound right to anyone? I really don’t want to pay $775 and then two days later have KEY NOT DETECTED again. That would make me pretty upset and I don’t want to be upset.
That could quite possibly be the cause. The dealership has all the diagnostic equipment at their disposal. Stuff independent shops might not have. If they can’t diagnose it correctly, I doubt anybody else can. Make sure you have a written agreement that you are paying them $750 to fix the problem. If what they do doesn’t fix it, then they must continue working it at their expense until the problem is fixed. Don’t offer to buy any parts yourself b/c that just gives them an out.
Good news. We got the new instrument cluster installed the first week of June and there have been zero problems since. They also fixed (replaced) the door handle they broke. In the end I paid $330 to replace a key that probably wasn’t broken and $750ish for an instrument cluster replacement as the old one apparently had an intermittent issue.
Funny thing is there were known issues with instrument clusters with a few other 2015 models. So much that they had extended warranties out to 75k miles or something. The 2015 Fiesta was not among those. So I paid full price. But it looks fixed now.
Good for you. The dealership solution has proved to be the best. Back on the road with a car that starts reliably, what’s not to like.
Btw: Did they return the old instrument cluster? If so, hold on to it. One or more of its various parts might come in handy for a needed repair someday.
Thank you for posting the resolution to this issue. My problem on a 2015 Transit Connect just happened yesterday, so i am hoping i can take this information to the dealer to resolve it quickly.
Hi there. I realize this is a really old thread but I am just going to try anyway in hopes you might see this and be able to answer a couple questions as this is the only thread I’ve found that someone actually posted any sort of real resolution. I’ve tried countless things to fix my 2014 Fiesta (non smart/actual metal key into the ignition) ‘key not detected’ problem that is only getting worse.
Which instrument cluster was replaced? The one on the dash behind the steering wheel with the speedometer/odometer or the ‘infotainment’ screen in the center?
Do you by any chance remember what the code was that the car was giving that led the dealership to diagnose this as an instrument cluster problem?
Did the problem ever arise again after the cluster replacement?
I’m just wondering if I should cut my losses with this dang car already after my Transmission Control Module (TCM) fiasco that took Ford corporate months to send out the replacement part under the extended warranty- a problem that disabled all power in the car, while I was on the highway driving 70 mph!! Scary. I love my little car so much but the stress is of these problems is getting out to be too much already.
Thanks in advance. Fingers crossed you see this somehow. I’ve actually seen you on another thread as well and recognized your story and problem.
Hello! I’m very sorry to hear you are having that same “key not detected” problem with your Fiesta.
It has been a few years now. We still have the car and it has been perfectly fine ever since that repair.
I do not remember if there was an actual code being reported by the car’s computer beyond “key not found”.
The fix was replacing the instrument cluster thing (the one with all the gauges, mileage, etc). That was kind of expensive but alleviated the problem. The hoodwink was the first dealership had me buy a new key - didn’t seem to be the problem at all.
Keys get damaged more often than computers, need to rule out the inexpensive parts before replacing the immobilizer receiver (located inside the instrument cluster). They could have insisted on replacing both parts on the first visit.
Thank you so much for your quick reply! Definitely going to be looking into this as I don’t feel like it’s a key problem since the problem comes up with both of my keys. Fingers crossed we can finally find the solution and put this problem behind us. It’s been over a year now being randomly stranded and none of our other fixes have worked.
Has a Ford dealership mechanic looked at it? Some problems, esp on newer cars, pretty much requires access to brand-specific specialty tools, esp scan tools. Someday maybe all new cars will come with these software tools.
