Trailer Disconnected Message

[Jarm0c]

Hey y’all. Hoping someone has experienced this before because it’s honestly driving me out of my mind.

I have a ‘21 XLT and, after washing it about a week ago, I get the “trailer disconnected” message every single time I start up the truck. Oddly enough, I’ve never messed with the trailer connections and never (yet) even had a trailer connected to this truck.

over the last week, it’s gotten progressively worse, to the point that the message is alerting me every 10-15 seconds while I’m driving. It’ll go off if I hit OK and it’ll also go off if I wait long enough. But it’ll always come back on 10-15 seconds later.

I’ve scoured the internet and these forums, but haven’t found anything that might be helpful. There’s a setting in Features > Towing > Trailer Connection Notification, but turning this setting off does absolutely nothing for the warning.

any ideas of what I can check or look for? I’m seriously losing my mind to this dumb alert.

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[Ricksc]

Try some contact cleaner on trailer plug. Check back side of trailer plug under truck make sure all are connected tight.

 

[stonefly]

This sounds familiar, except yours seems to be happening far more often than did mine, which only gave occasional alarms when towing.

Something is making the truck think a trailer has been connected, suggests there is a fault to ground, given it occurred following a wash. You may get luck with contact cleaner to clear it temporarily but if there's aan underlying problem it may well recur. I would suggest checking as I did with mine:

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/trailer-wiring-fault-trailer-disconnect.18661/

 

[Tall Tail]

I'm having this warning also after recently towing And over the air updates

 

[Jarm0c]

I'm having this warning also after recently towing And over the air updates

It’s interesting you mention the recent OTA updates. My truck’s updates were stuck and I didn’t get any for over 2 years. I recently took it to the dealer and they were able to force the updates.

I noticed the trailer disconnect message initially only when I started the truck and opened the driver door. But as long as you cleared the alert and don’t open the door again, you were fine.

Until today, when it started going off nearly non-stop. Hopefully yours doesn’t lose its mind the way mine has.

 

[Jarm0c]

This sounds familiar, except yours seems to be happening far more often than did mine, which only gave occasional alarms when towing.

Something is making the truck think a trailer has been connected, suggests there is a fault to ground, given it occurred following a wash. You may get luck with contact cleaner to clear it temporarily but if there's aan underlying problem it may well recur. I would suggest checking as I did with mine:

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/trailer-wiring-fault-trailer-disconnect.18661/

Wow, you’ve done a TON of testing and research. I’m guessing worst case is replacing some of the connections. Hopefully they don’t take a week to trace wires and diagnose the issue. I’m taking it to the dealer tomorrow morning.

 

[stonefly]

Don't let those numbskulls use a simulator on it to call it operational. I used my own Kurt simulator and it called the connections good. Same for my local dealer, with some other brand. It was only when I compared measurements with truck off/on that I started getting answers that explained the alerts I was seeing.

It's a crying shame that the dealer would find a simulator to be acceptable when they should take these measurements to be definitive. My dealer thanked me for diagnosing the problem for them (WTF?). Now when I take my truck in the big dog service manager is always present when I arrive to make sure my needs are taken care of, indicating low standards to be impressed.
When you take it to them insist on these kind of measurements or there's a significant risk of wasted time and frustration... Or at least ask them how they arrived at their conclusions. Although in your case success in repair should be quite obvious...

If you're at all familiar with a voltmeter you can easily determine if there are ground faults and 7-pin connectors are standard. Thus easily reproducible if an electrical fault exists related to the connector. If not, this is an opportunity to learn a bit.

Something is telling the truck a trailer has been connected falsely, then disconnected. I'm halfway into a good strong stout at the moment but that screams out trailer connector fault resulting from fluid ingress.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Hey y’all. Hoping someone has experienced this before because it’s honestly driving me out of my mind.

I have a ‘21 XLT and, after washing it about a week ago, I get the “trailer disconnected” message every single time I start up the truck. Oddly enough, I’ve never messed with the trailer connections and never (yet) even had a trailer connected to this truck.

over the last week, it’s gotten progressively worse, to the point that the message is alerting me every 10-15 seconds while I’m driving. It’ll go off if I hit OK and it’ll also go off if I wait long enough. But it’ll always come back on 10-15 seconds later.

I’ve scoured the internet and these forums, but haven’t found anything that might be helpful. There’s a setting in Features > Towing > Trailer Connection Notification, but turning this setting off does absolutely nothing for the warning.

any ideas of what I can check or look for? I’m seriously losing my mind to this dumb alert.

Hi there! Will you send us a message with your VIN and your local Ford dealer? I can look into things on my end.

 

[Jarm0c]

I'm having this warning also after recently towing And over the air updates

Do you by chance have Amp Research power steps? My dealer was able to confirm when they unplug them from the OBD port, the issue goes away. Never had a problem before the recent OTA updates, but apparently something in the software isn’t playing nice.

 

[Tall Tail]

No I have the XLT with the fixed side steps.

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