Ford Ranger owners have reported 6 electronic stability control related problems since 1996. Table 1 shows the 1 most common electronic stability control problems. The number one most common problem is related to the vehicle's electronic stability control (6 problems). For details of each of the problem category, use the links in the table.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Electronic Stability Control problems |
Sometimes truck stays in gear after shifting into park. Has rolled forward after I exited the vehicle. Lane keep assist has misjudged lane & turned the wheels sharply causing unwanted lane change. Pre collision warning often sounds alarms & shows visual warnings with no traffic nearby, the system has emergency braking & I'm afraid of it applying brakes when I'm on the interstate. Crash detected audible & visual warnings often appear when there has never been a crash. Driver's door mirror is not secure, vibrates/rattles when truck is at highway speeds. Front & rear differentials make grinding noises & front end jumps, wheels lock up when using 4x4l. Does not always shift into 4x4h. Vehicle has overheated & stalled while in traffic. Pedestrian detection system is non-functional. A man stepped off the sidewalk in front of my truck on Monday, Jan 06 2020, I was traveling about 15-20 mph. Luckily I saw him in time and put the brakes on, when I came to a stop the man was a mere 2" from the front of my truck & we were both extremely shaken. Had I applied the brakes 1 second later the man would be dead. The pedestrian detection system never alerted me to the pedestrian with any type of warning, audible or visual. The system never assisted with emergency braking as a result. The parking & cross traffic sensors rarely work correctly, almost never detect cross traffic when pulling out of a parking spot. I can pull up to a vehicle, with my front license plate touching the receiver bar on the hitch of the vehicle in front of me before the sensors detect the vehicle. As a disabled veteran I'm more cautious than most, but all of these issues, of which there are more, make this truck a severe hazard, I do not feel safe driving it. Dealership refuses to service anymore, has been in shop 5 times, they have witnessed some issues but won't acknowledge them. Uploaded list of defects.
The truck will display a warning on the dash as well as make audible warnings saying that a camera in the grille is blocked or malfunctioning. Another warning that also happens a lot is something saying that a crash has been detected, it has loud chimes that go off as well as a flashing red display on dash. The pre collision warning also frequently alerts with visual and audible warnings. All of these will happen at any random time, and of all the couple dozen times these warnings have happened there hasn't been a single time that there was any traffic nearby, nor was there anything blocking any camera or sensor. The vehicle is barely more than a month old and has been back to the dealership a few times to fix body alignment issues and programming issues with the ecu, pcm and tcu. The service department told me that the pre collision system only works if you also have adaptive cruise control, which my truck does not. They said there is no way to fix the system to get it to stop giving false warnings unless they add the adaptive cruise control module and other components. However, the dealership is refusing to add the additional parts and also refusing to replace the vehicle with one that does. They told me Ford is aware of this issue, and admits that a false warning may activate the braking system on its own, which can cause an accident, but they stated that Ford will not pay correct the issue. This is a serious safety issue and Ford needs to issue a recall for their faulty, and dangerous, collision warning system. They need to install adaptive cruise control in vehicles without if that's all it would take to fix the issue and make vehicles safe to drive.
The advanced trac light stayed on all the time. Took to Ford dealer and costed 100. 00 to check light, they said was restraint control module, it affected brakes, advanced trac, air bags and anti-tip over device. The vehicle only had 3500 miles on it. The part is rediculously priced!! 650. 00 is outrageous!!!.
After short drive, and shutdown engine would crank but not start. Towed to dealership. Next day truck started right up. Dealer could find no issues. Several weeks and 2000 miles later, problem occurred again. Found fuel inertia switch electrical connector melted. Fell apart when removing. Purchased new switch and electrical harness connector pigtail. Fortunately failure occurred after stopping and shutting down. Could cause a terrible accident if failure occurred at highway speeds. Something is causing an overheat condition in this switch/connector.
When the steering wheel is tilted in any position other than completely up, both my turn singles (front and back) and high beams will not work.
After loosing the battery (power loss) my 4x4cm (4wd control module) went bad on my 2001 Ranger 4x4 truck. This caused my 4wd to not function at all. I had to replace the 4x4cm with a brand new one. Ford has updated the part. The original part number is 1l54-7h417-ac and the new updated part number is 1l5z-7e453-ac.