Disconnect low-voltage battery? (Frozen MyFordTouch screen)

[csavage7]

While I was driving today and trying input a destination using voice commands into the GPS, the My Ford Touch screen froze. It remains frozen on that screen even if you turn the car off and walk away for awhile and then turn it back on. So no way to turn on the radio (it's muted to be in Navigation voice command mode), or get to the camera when backing up, etc.

 

(Earlier I discovered the clock had reset itself - it was showing something like 1:30 a.m. even though it was 2:45 p.m. - the second time that has happened. First time I took it to dealer and was told they were unable to reproduce the problem.)

 

I called dealer service department and asked if there was any way to reboot the My Ford Touch screen computer without having to bring the car into the service department and lose use of it for the day. The guy checked with a technician and relayed that the tech always tries disconnecting the negative on the battery, waiting 10 minutes, and then reconnecting it. If that doesn't work, they said, maybe it is a software issue and I should bring it in.

 

I popped the hood and got out the manual to disconnect the battery, but all it says (pg 289) is that the battery is maintenance-free and when it needs to be replaced I should bring it in to an authorized dealer.  It does go on to say that if a technician has disconnected the battery I'll lose things like radio settings and clock and so should be prepared to restore those settings.

 

Anyway, does anyone know how to disconnect the negative on the battery? I peered at it myself but couldn't figure it out. Does this require special tools? Since the dealer tech relayed that as a thing to try, I suspect it can be done. (They're closed now until Monday or I'd call back.)

[AgentCMAX]

I read somewhere online that you can reboot MyFordTouch by pulling out the fuse.  Take a look at your owner's manual and find where the fusebox is as well as which fuse controls the radio and remove the fuse for 5 seconds then put it back.  See if that works before you try to disconnect your battery.

[shaners]

There is a way to reboot it yourself...  I did it with mine but I don't remember how I did it.  I believe it is in the manual somewhere.

[Laurel]

Darell posted this awhile back from the Edge forum  You have to scroll down and watch the video of the guy uplugging the power source in the fuse box rather than taking tiny fuses out that are easy to drop and not find again.  http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?/topic/8278-forcing-a-reboot/

[csavage7]

Thanks for pointing me to the video. I see that someone made a file you could stick in via USB to cause a delayed reboot, without losing your settings. Does anyone know if that software (circa 2011) would accomplish the same thing on a 2013 model?

[Laurel]

Thanks for pointing me to the video. I see that someone made a file you could stick in via USB to cause a delayed reboot, without losing your settings. Does anyone know if that software (circa 2011) would accomplish the same thing on a 2013 model?

I am thinking it is okay as I found this site which looks current for a download.  http://outofmytouch.com/

[csavage7]

In my case, since it's not just wonky but totally frozen - even if the car is turned off and rebooted, that same screen shows up, locked -- I guess I need the fuse/power-cycle route. The website says: " Is it frozen? If you can't get your system to respond, the reboot app won't help. You're forced to power cycle the system by either pulling fuses or disconnecting the battery."

 

Seems like this bug

http://bugs.outofmytouch.com/issues/72

except more severe, as his system rebooted after 5 minutes by itself.

[csavage7]

Looks like my happened-twice clock problem is here too.

http://bugs.outofmytouch.com/issues/94

[Laurel]

I just read page 287 of the owner's manual about disconnecting the 12 volt battery (doesn't say how to do it ), BUT there is a fairly detailed process that you have to go through once you disconnect the battery.  It is 11 steps and it says "Note:  If you do not allow the engine to relearn the idle and fuel trim strategy, the idle quality of your vehicle may be adversely affected until the engine computer eventually relearns the idle trim and fuel trim strategy".  I am thinking disconnecting the battery cable is best left for the technician as it sounded damned complicated and tedious to me i.e. section 3 of step 6 says "Reset the power windows bounce-back feature".  I would be pulling that power plug to the MFT and hope for the best.  Good luck!

[csavage7]

So I tried pulling fuses 69 (instrument cluster) and 79 (radio/hazard light switch) alone and together. Also tried fuse 73 (data link connector) and 85 (electronic data feed). Some made the screen go dark, but when plugged back in it was still stuck on the frozen screen. I didn't see any other fuse descriptions that immediately signaled that they might be controlling the power to My Ford Touch.

 

I watched the video but the 2011 Edge the guy had is set up differently from a 2013 C-Max, maybe. At least when I yanked what I thought was the power supply for the fusebox it didn't cause any reboot. Does anyone know which cable supplies power to the fusebox?

[darrelld]

So I tried pulling fuses 69 (instrument cluster) and 79 (radio/hazard light switch) alone and together. Also tried fuse 73 (data link connector) and 85 (electronic data feed). Some made the screen go dark, but when plugged back in it was still stuck on the frozen screen. I didn't see any other fuse descriptions that immediately signaled that they might be controlling the power to My Ford Touch.

 

I watched the video but the 2011 Edge the guy had is set up differently from a 2013 C-Max, maybe. At least when I yanked what I thought was the power supply for the fusebox it didn't cause any reboot. Does anyone know which cable supplies power to the fusebox?

Have you tried this one?

 

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4481849&postcount=10

 

Finally, a solution that worked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZOlson View Post

To all posts about sync not working. I pulled the fuse for sync according to my manual. I turned on the car and left it on for 3-5 minutes. Turned the car off, put the fuse back in, and now it works.

This was the only place where I found a succinct conversation and solution. I read several recommendations elsewhere about disconnecting the battery but thought better of it. However, I did remove the fuse for 15+ minutes after trying that first for about 2 minutes. Nothing helped until I read this post about turning the car on w/o the Sync fuse installed.

 

It Worked!

Thanks.

[csavage7]

YES!!! That did it. Thank you, darrelld.

 

If anyone else has this problem, here is the solution:

 

1. Access the fusebox in the passenger foot area under the glove compartment by squeeze-pulling off the two black pegs, and then removing the soft felt cover.

2. Use needle nose pliers to gently pull out fuse number 69 (instrument panel). The number is to the right of the relevant plug. It is marked with a #5.

3. Turn on the car. You'll need to goose the gas pedal to get the engine to turn on. It will be weird since there is nothing on your dashboard lighting up, but you can hear it.

4. Wait five minutes, turn off the car.

5. Use the pliers to position the fuse back in its slot, then push it into place with your finger.

6. Replace the cover and pegs

7. Turn the car on again and let the system reboot.

[AgentCMAX]

YES!!! That did it. Thank you, darrelld.

 

If anyone else has this problem, here is the solution:

 

1. Access the fusebox in the passenger foot area under the glove compartment by squeeze-pulling off the two black pegs, and then removing the soft felt cover.

2. Use needle nose pliers to gently pull out fuse number 69 (instrument panel). The number is to the right of the relevant plug. It is marked with a #5.

3. Turn on the car. You'll need to goose the gas pedal to get the engine to turn on. It will be weird since there is nothing on your dashboard lighting up, but you can hear it.

4. Wait five minutes, turn off the car.

5. Use the pliers to position the fuse back in its slot, then push it into place with your finger.

6. Replace the cover and pegs

7. Turn the car on again and let the system reboot.

Awesome! Thx darrell and to you csavage for posting your steps for the C-Max.

[JohnTrigger]

When my MFT screen froze and wouldn't reset on its own, I first decided to disconnect the battery, but it is not under the hood in the front on a CMAX SEL.  The 12V battery is in the back end of the vehicle, underneath the vehicle, behind the rear wheels, inside a rectangle plastic box.  So, I didn't try that, since I didn't feel like crawling under the vehicle at that time.  Instead, I disconnected the 7.5 Amp fuze #67(Cell phone Passport (CMax Energi)) and 15 Amp fuze #79 (Radio Hazard Light Switch), which are hidden under the dash in the passenger compartment after removing two plastic clips and pulling the carpet back.  After pulling those two fuzes, it rebooted on its own.  Not sure why #67 worked for me, but when I initially pulled only #79, it did not work, so I pulled #67 too (even though it says it is for the Energi model).  Who knows.

[appraiserdude]

To the people who pulled fuses in this thread; did your sync reboot after pulling any of the aforementioned fuses? I have been trying to locate the sync fuse. Unfortunately the C-Max appears to be the only car where the sync fuse is not expressly labeled in the owners manual. 

[ceemax71]

Fuse 67 powers the message center module (SYNC) and NAV system module.

[ecahal]

Mine completely froze too... the stereo was on, I couldn't change the station or turn the volume up or down, it  felt like the car was possessed. The folks at SYNC walked me through doing a 'soft master reset' which didn't help, and my dealer told me to come in the following day for a hard reset.  After some research, I discovered the fuse 67 thing above and it worked instantly and like a charm.
On the 2013 C-max it is in the passenger foot well, remove the panel (look up, you'll see it there, where the ambient lighting is).  Now I couldn't actually find fuse 67, but there are these large fuse panels, I opened the 2nd one from the left, my screens went blank.  I closed the panel and sync rebooted instantly.

[Noah Harbinger]

I got to see a little debugging as I was trying to buy mine. The system largely worked but wouldn't respond to voice commands: It would mute the audio, but wouldn't respond with a voice prompt, or react to any voice commands. Pressing the hangup button returned control to the entertainment system. 

 

The guy said "oh just do a master system reset" (gear / gear / gear > scroll to bottom > master reset). Didn't work, twice. 

 

Took it to the service bay. (Goodness, they seem to move you to the front of the queue if a problem is blocking the sale). Turns out, it seems to cancel the reset if you aren't 100% patient: Don't touch anything until the screen goes blank, starts up, goes through the "Sync" progress bar (which looks eerily similar to the old Windows start-up progress bar… bad memories!), and reloads all the items on-screen…. Then turn the accessory off, and back on, and again be patient while it loads everything. Then it worked, and has continued working so far. 

 

Oh yeah, so does anyone actually know where the low-voltage battery is? As much as I'm willing to take their reassurance that the battery should never be touched except by a certified graduate from Hogwarts, I still want to know, and it feels strange not seeing it anywhere. 

Edited May 27, 2013 by Noah Harbinger

[fotomoto]

Oh yeah, so does anyone actually know where the low-voltage battery is? As much as I'm willing to take their reassurance that the battery should never be touched except by a certified graduate from Hogwarts, I still want to know, and it feels strange not seeing it anywhere. 

 

Yes it's hidden but quite easy to get to once you know where it is.  It's under the carpeted rear flip up cover in the hatch.  Remove the rubber pad in the right side storage bin and pull the bottom plastic cover off.  12V battery is under it.  Traditional jump points are still under the front hood.  

 

Owners manual can be found on-line and is searchable and I greatly prefer using it over the paper one in the glovebox:  http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/1603-on-line-owners-manual/

[Noah Harbinger]

I downloaded the owner's manual before I bought the car :)

 

I searched for 'battery' and didn't see anything except "our vehicle is equipped with a Motorcraft maintenance-free low voltage battery which normally does not require additional water during its life of service. ", P289

[62Lincoln]

On 12/9/2012 at 1:53 PM, csavage7 said:

YES!!! That did it. Thank you, darrelld.

 

If anyone else has this problem, here is the solution:

 

1. Access the fusebox in the passenger foot area under the glove compartment by squeeze-pulling off the two black pegs, and then removing the soft felt cover.

2. Use needle nose pliers to gently pull out fuse number 69 (instrument panel). The number is to the right of the relevant plug. It is marked with a #5.

3. Turn on the car. You'll need to goose the gas pedal to get the engine to turn on. It will be weird since there is nothing on your dashboard lighting up, but you can hear it.

4. Wait five minutes, turn off the car.

5. Use the pliers to position the fuse back in its slot, then push it into place with your finger.

6. Replace the cover and pegs

7. Turn the car on again and let the system reboot.

 

These instructions were gold here in 2020. Thanks for this!  ?

[cr08]

On 12/9/2012 at 1:53 PM, csavage7 said:

YES!!! That did it. Thank you, darrelld.

 

If anyone else has this problem, here is the solution:

 

1. Access the fusebox in the passenger foot area under the glove compartment by squeeze-pulling off the two black pegs, and then removing the soft felt cover.

2. Use needle nose pliers to gently pull out fuse number 69 (instrument panel). The number is to the right of the relevant plug. It is marked with a #5.

3. Turn on the car. You'll need to goose the gas pedal to get the engine to turn on. It will be weird since there is nothing on your dashboard lighting up, but you can hear it.

4. Wait five minutes, turn off the car.

5. Use the pliers to position the fuse back in its slot, then push it into place with your finger.

6. Replace the cover and pegs

7. Turn the car on again and let the system reboot.

 

Since I've seen this post referenced in a few places elsewhere and this is a VERY old post with some inaccurate information, here's some corrections hopefully for anyone coming across this thread:

An actual full on screen freeze where the entire system is unresponsive and stays on with the vehicle off is a rarity nowadays. IF this continues to happen, ENSURE your Sync system is fully up to date! Old versions of MyFord Touch/Sync 2 were problematic and most of the bugs have been sorted with later versions which you can download to USB on Ford's site and install yourself. Or worse you can work with your dealer.

In the interim the proper fuse 67 (not 69) is the one to pull to power reset the APIM/touch screen. There's another fuse, #79 which is for the ACM which is another issue that's already been well documented (touch screen works but you can't change AM/FM/Sirius stations, change audio sources, etc..).

As far as the comment about turning on the engine/ICE, this is -completely- unnecessary not only for this but just about any other electronic fix/workaround on these vehicles unless it is an engine/drivetrain specific issue that calls for this step. As far as the electronics go including the infotainment system, the car is on and operational when in 'Ready to Drive' mode. Whether the ICE is running or not, it doesn't care. Also the multi step process of starting the car, waiting, turning off, replacing the fuse, etc. is also unwarranted. Replacing the fuse whether the car is on or off can be done in one go without cycling the ignition. Leave the fuse out for a minute just to be safe and let the module drain off any stored power and reinsert the fuse.

Edited September 2, 2022 by cr08