UTA's - Unexplained Truck Activities

[Lytning]

I have experienced several UTA's ... Unexplained Truck Activities of unusual things that happen with my truck with no apparent logic associated with them. Shortly after delivery, I experienced the extremely loud audio system runaway event. Thankfully, that has not recurred. @Ford Motor Company never followed up on my complaint, so I have no explanation. I also received at least 6 OTA updates during short stops at the same Total Wine parking lot, but those (and almost all other) updates have stopped. I am still on BlueCruise 1.0.

The current UTA is occurring at a Urologist's office. (I almost named the thread UTI's). On at least 4 occasions, my truck doors will not lock or unlock by touching the sensor on the door handle when the truck is in this one Doctor's parking lot. I have to use the key fob to lock and unlock the doors. The door touch sensor works everywhere else, including other Doctors' offices. I have an Ohmmu 12 volt battery and SOC's are 90% to 100%.

Does anyone have a logical explanation for the door lock UTA?

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[EVpower]

As an RF (radio Frequency) Systems guy, when I hear of a location specific fault, I tend to suspect an interference problem. Maybe a FOB battery aging?? Airport or broadcast transmitter nearby?

Steve

 

[RocketGhost]

Maybe thinking of what the urologist is going to do causes stress and perspiration that prevents the sensor from working.

 

[gbuydos]

I'm thinking UWDA events. Unexplained Wine Drinking Anomaly's.

 

[Adventureboy]

The unlock sensor is on the backside of the handle. I've noticed that with recent Ford App updates, these sensors don't work if my phone has been locked for a while. Unlocking the phone normally always fixes this but it could also simple be that my phone is out of my pocket by then. The lock button has always been flaky for me. The technique that works for me most of the time is to brush across it with my fingers rather than just touching it.

@EVpower has a valid point. If there is enough RF interference, it can affect various functions in different ways. Touch Lock/Unlock uses low-power NFC frequencies, while the key fob uses different frequencies that may not have as much local interference, or the key fob button simply has more broadcast power than NFC.

 

[Adventureboy]

Shortly after delivery, I experienced the extremely loud audio system runaway event.

I have a theory on this. If you power down the truck and then bump the volume up button on the wheel as you exit, the Sync system may have the volume up button state active as you exit the truck and Sync goes into standby in this state. Starting up the next time, may cause a runaway volume up event until one of the buttons are pressed or volume knob turned which may take a few seconds to activate on startup, and by then it is blasting away.
Hopefully, this hasn't happened again and Sync updates have fixed the potential sticky state.

 

[Lytning]

As an RF (radio Frequency) Systems guy, when I hear of a location specific fault, I tend to suspect an interference problem. Maybe a FOB battery aging?? Airport or broadcast transmitter nearby?

Steve

Good ideas. There are no visible antennas nearby, and it is not near an airport or broadcaster. I park away from the building under a large oak tree. Maybe an underground power feed to the building?

 

[Electric Messiah]

I have experienced several UTA's ... Unexplained Truck Activities of unusual things that happen with my truck with no apparent logic associated with them. Shortly after delivery, I experienced the extremely loud audio system runaway event. Thankfully, that has not recurred. @Ford Motor Company never followed up on my complaint, so I have no explanation. I also received at least 6 OTA updates during short stops at the same Total Wine parking lot, but those (and almost all other) updates have stopped. I am still on BlueCruise 1.0.

The current UTA is occurring at a Urologist's office. (I almost named the thread UTI's). On at least 4 occasions, my truck doors will not lock or unlock by touching the sensor on the door handle when the truck is in this one Doctor's parking lot. I have to use the key fob to lock and unlock the doors. The door touch sensor works everywhere else, including other Doctors' offices. I have an Ohmmu 12 volt battery and SOC's are 90% to 100%.

Does anyone have a logical explanation for the door lock UTA?

Logic tells me patients will know Doc's successfully diagnosed plumbing issues when they get back to the parking lot and find lock/unlock working smoothly again!

 

[chl]

I concur with the idea of RF interference with the key Fob.
If you look around the oak tree area you may spot a 5G antenna somewhere near by, but RF can bounce off things and be in unexpected places.
Offices these days have wifi that may reach the parking lot.

A low FOB battery is another possibility, if the rf signal from the key FOB is weak, then it is more subject to interference.

I always have trouble with touch handles and touch screens - not sure but I suspect it has to do with the conductivity or lack thereof and/or the charges present or not present on my fingers. It is very annoying when I am trying to use smart phones, check out screens, and sometimes the lightning dash screen too. That doesn't sound like your problem though since it is only in this one parking lot.
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OTAs
Since it does not seem to be your LV battery preventing OTAs, I would just mention they don't come all that frequently to begin with, so it may be there are none that you are missing?

The last one I got was a Frunk update in September 16th 2025 or so.

There is a way to check for updates history on the Ford web site:

https://www.ford.com/support/software-update-release-notes-history/

But how does one know if there was one they missed?
Look under "recalls" - https://www.ford.com/support/recalls-details

However, I just tried and got this message:

"We are not able to retrieve recall information for the VIN you have entered."

LOL?

Of course check to see that you have automatic updates turned on in your truck or in FordPass.

One time my automatic update setting got turned off somehow - I swear I don't remember doing that, some computer gremlin probably did it?

There is also the question of the ATT cell network - variations in solar activity, etc. can cause problems with communications equipment. I live is an area with weak ATT signals already. I did get a message from the Virginia Mileage Choice program recently that said my OBD GPS device had not sent a signal recently and to check it was still working. I drove my truck up to the top of a nearby hill with a shopping center and bought some groceries, and the next day the data showed up on their web site.

These types of things were my biggest concern before I bought my Lightning - ghosts in the machine. Driving a computer with wheels is putting a lot of faith in computers and programmers, and my many years of experience with those gave me some trepidation.

There's always something...

 

[Lytning]

These types of things were my biggest concern before I bought my Lightning - ghosts in the machine. Driving a computer with wheels is putting a lot of faith in computers and programmers, and my many years of experience with those gave me some trepidation.

There's always something...
[/QUOTE]
It is likely RF interference of some origin. I will try a different parking spot next time. FOB battery is good. I sometimes have the same issue as you with capacitive touch screens. Slightly licking my finger usually gets it to work. I received the same message when checking for recalls.

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