Power Tailgate stuck in the up position

[audioman2]

Thank you ? for all this information

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[Ford Motor Company]

Two weeks ago out of the blue the Power Tailgate stoped working. Nothing was working, the power button in the tailgate near the backup camera, the button in the dash or the key fob. All do not open or close the tailgate. Each time I press it I hear 3 beeps inside the cabin and some times I see a message in the driver cluster that says “power tailgate stow step”

I have tried opening the tailgate step and re closing it. I have tried turning off the power tailgate in the entertainment system. Setting it to manual or turning it back on still does not fix the problem.

Yesterday I took the truck into a dealership and after 1/2 day they said they are doing a software update and that’s going to fix it. Today after no call all morning. I call them and they said bad news. We can’t fix your problem because……. drum-roll, you have installed a 3rd Party truck bed cover. I am very confused because almost everyone who buys a truck gets a truck bed cover or a camper shell to protect/lock your stuff not to mention stuff flying out when you driver around town.
Even on Ford.com you can buy/order a truck with a truck bed cover ?

The cost for them to fix it Out-Of-Warranty repair $903

This sucks. I have not have the truck for a full year yet (only 11k mileage) and my tailgate is broken. I say broken because it’s stuck, locked in the up position and no way to get it into manual mode. So I have a 70k truck with a broken tailgate and Ford, well at least this Dealership says it’s my fault because I have a truck bed cover. WTF

I asked for the part number Control Unit - Ford (MU5Z-14B291-U) that's what they think is causing the problem. See attached photos. I opened the tailgate (all 13 t30 screws) to look inside. I was hoping to find two wires like I have seen in many online videos with other F150 having the same problem. No wires. They have two L-R top actuators for the locks. Two L-R bottom actuators for moving the power tailgate up and down. There's a sensor under the tailgate step, and then there's a control unit.

So I have part number but what if I get that new module plug it in and it needs to be programed to function or worse something else is broken.

Again it just stopped working out of the blue I didn't do anything special. The cover I have is also aluminum in fairly light so maybe 30 pounds of weight on that back panel or less and most of the support is on the two sides of the truck bed and not all on the tailgate. I put the cover on right when I bought the truck last October 21 and I've had zero problems. It didn't even rub or make any funny noises opening and closing so it didn't seem like it was putting any pressure at all onto the tailgate. never had trouble closing because of the truck bed cover.


What should I do ? what if I am not even buying the right part? Does anyone find it odd that they think the control unit will fix the problem. How would even standing on the tailgate cause a faulty control unit.

I am really saddened that a. it was not covered under warranty and b. that I am left with trying to diagnose a problem on a brand new F150. Are we all to think that truck bed covers break control units?

The worse part of this is the design. Ford gave us no way to get out of this problem. If the power tailgate fails and I could at least use it the good old fashion way manually at least we have a workaround not $1000 a month broken unit. sad face! We should be able to pull a cable or un attach something to get it working.

Hi there! Would you send us a private message with your VIN and dealership name and location? I’d like to look into this concern on my end.

 

[audioman2]

Ford does sell Truck Bed Covers when you order a new Truck or after market from parts.ford.com

no warnings anywhere about voiding warranty if you add them

https://parts.ford.com/shop/SearchD...rBy:&pageView:&minPrice:&maxPrice:&pageSize:&

 

[antho]

There is a sensor for the step in the tailgate. If the sensor thinks the step is out, it won’t operate. I would start there. Also, Have you tried putting it in manual mode to see if it will atleast open?

 

[audioman2]

There is a sensor for the step in the tailgate. If the sensor thinks the step is out, it won’t operate. I would start there. Also, Have you tried putting it in manual mode to see if it will atleast open?

yep, setting it to Manuel doesn’t do anything, I have found the sensor, unplugging and replugging. It doesn’t do anything, the DTS code leads to the module needed to replaced.

those are some great drawings

 

[antho]

Here is the wiring pinout for the latches.
Also, Have you verified that Fuse 37 is good?

 

[audioman2]

It was the control module. It was replaced by North bay Ford under warranty, after the part arrived it only took about 20 minutes to install. PolLy at North Bay Ford did a great job helping with the repair.

North bay Ford ordered the part at dealer cost and it was $215

Frontier Ford said that they wouldn’t cover my warranty because I had a third-party truck bed cover installed. bullshit!

The failure was electronics and that’s it.
Obviously, the part went bad over time, Ford has released many revisions of this part.

Frontier Ford said they would cover my fix for $903 out of warranty and that it would take a good part of a day to swap it out and program the module.

That was a compete lie, the part did not need to be programmed, it just needed to be swapped, basically 30 seconds.

nothing else in the tailgate went wrong

The top left and right lock actuators operated fine

The bottom left and right actuators that enable the power tailgate to go up and down we’re fine

The stove step sensor, which is what the error message showed in the driver instrument cluster was fine.

frontier Ford ignored their DTS code diagnostics and then just wanted to blame me the customer and charge me money.

Pretty crooked business.!

I thank everybody who posted on this thread there was lots of interesting things that I was unaware of.

 

[oren102]

It was the control module. It was replaced by North bay Ford under warranty, after the part arrived it only took about 20 minutes to install. PolLy at North Bay Ford did a great job helping with the repair.

North bay Ford ordered the part at dealer cost and it was $215

Frontier Ford said that they wouldn’t cover my warranty because I had a third-party truck bed cover installed. bullshit!

The failure was electronics and that’s it.
Obviously, the part went bad over time, Ford has released many revisions of this part.

Frontier Ford said they would cover my fix for $903 out of warranty and that it would take a good part of a day to swap it out and program the module.

That was a compete lie, the part did not need to be programmed, it just needed to be swapped, basically 30 seconds.

nothing else in the tailgate went wrong

The top left and right lock actuators operated fine

The bottom left and right actuators that enable the power tailgate to go up and down we’re fine

The stove step sensor, which is what the error message showed in the driver instrument cluster was fine.

frontier Ford ignored their DTS code diagnostics and then just wanted to blame me the customer and charge me money.

Pretty crooked business.!

I thank everybody who posted on this thread there was lots of interesting things that I was unaware of.

Wow, what a terrible experience.
Thanks for letting us all know, glad it all works now!

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