Electrical System Problems of Lincoln Aviator - part 1

My 2021 Lincoln Aviator phev lift gate safety stop does not function properly. It will come closing down extremely hard. This will happen when the button is pressed on the lift gate or the hands free feature is triggered. The lift gate will not safety stop and pop back open as it should unless a significant amount of force is used; this is usually 2 or more people trying with all their strength to stop it from closing on them. I have been hurt by this and so has my child. This is a serious safety issue. I have included screenshots from the video (the system won’t let me send the video) I took replicating the issue with it completely crushing a box at the height of my head.

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On 7/27/25 while driving on a residential street the car behaved extremely erratically and was attempting engage the brakes resulting in an uncontrollable driving condition. Brakes were engaging automatically and dashboard showed fault messages including "antilock brake fault" and "pre-collision assist not available. " contacted Lincoln customer support and they arranged for a tow to the dealership and rental car. Dealership stated updates to system resolved the issue. Seems to be running fine now. If this incident had occurred on a highway it would have been extremely dangerous since the brakes were being engaged without driver knowledge and input.

The vehicle doors lock on their own. Also the keyless entry keypad on the drivers door does not respond so entry cannot be made using that method. This is very dangerous and possibly fatal if one of us were to exit the car let's say to pump gas and all the doors locked with a grandchild still in the car. I have spoken to the Lincoln service department but their response is that they do not know of any such issues. I believe this first happened once or twice last year but it now seems to happen monthly. We have changed the battery in the key fob with no improvment.

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See attached document for complaint.

Axle shaft seal no warning besides loud grinding noise. Electrical issues- causing speakers to not work and the lights coming on and going off. Then it causing the crash detection to not have sound.

My 2021 Lincoln Aviator grand touring phev has on 3 separate occasions randomly gone into “brick” mode where power is to some components like the sync screen, and some lights, but main dash won’t boot, the lock/unlock doesn’t work but lock icon flashes on door panel, the vehicle won’t start. This is after short trips out with my family for the evening. Not a fob issue. All 3 times the same. First occurrence at just over 11,000 miles, again in sept 2023, and happening again June 2025. Roadside assistance dispatches tow trucks, the vehicle can never be jump started. Electric parking brake is engaged and will not disengage even when manually put in neutral. Always takes dispatching several different tow trucks to get one equipped with skates to drag the vehicle on to a flatbed tow truck, or old school wheel lift truck to be able to tow the vehicle since the electric parking brake will not disengage in this situation. Last time this happened it took 6 separate trucks to come out over 3 days to find one that could tow it in metro detroit, the heart of the auto industry. This is a defect in the system of my vehicle that poses a safety issue because it prevents a regular tow truck from being able to tow this vehicle. I have had the dealership look at it many times, there is no fix, tech says it is a defect. Each time I have reported it to the Lincoln customer experience center, they don’t care enough to do anything. Not sure how to get help but I’m probably not the only one with this safety defect. There are other safety issues. The safety stop for the lift gate doesn’t always work and will hit you hard without stopping for an obstruction. I also have acceleration hesitation when stopped and turning in traffic, risk for accident. The electrical problems with my Aviator are endless but leaving me stranded with my children and unable to easily get help is a serious problem and unacceptable. Please let me know how you can help. Sincerely a concerned mother of 2 little boys.

The inside electric push-button switch that opens the door behind the driver was intermittent and is now completely inoperative. The inoperative switch means that anyone in the seat behind the driver must either roll down the window, reach out, and push the outside door button to open the door, or must slide across the rear seat and open the rear door on the right-hand side of the vehicle. The inoperative switch could be extremely dangerous when people must exit the car quickly.

I came to a stop a light in a busy intersection. The auto start/stop feature turned off the engine. When the light turned green, the car would not start and put us in danger from traffic approaching from the rear. When trying to start the car with the push button, it made one click and nothing more. The lights and other electrical systems seemed to behave and appear as normal. No warning lights or messages about errors or failures. I turned the car completely off, opened and closed the door to "reset" the car and still would not start. I tried this four times. I then opened the hood, got out of the car (all while at this busy intersection of multiple lanes of traffic, now working their way around me) and checked the battery connection just to be sure. Both positive and negative leads checked solidly connected. I then got back in the car and was able to start the car and move out of the way of traffic. I have not yet had it repeat and have not taken it to a service center yet. Very concerning to be stuck at that busy light with what appears to be a fully functioning car that would not restart after the auto start/stop feature activated.

I had damage to my electrical system caused by rodents chewing wires. Upon researching this issue I have found that Ford motor company has used soy-based wire coatings which has led to this being a consistent problem with this vehicle. Not only did this cost me $1,500+ dollars to repair which is not covered by warranty it clearly presents a safety hazard in a hybrid vehicle with a high voltage system. It isn't right that Ford motor company sticks me with this bill nor is is right that this is allowed to go on without them being responsible to replace affected wiring.

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The contact owns a 2020 Lincoln Aviator. The contact stated while pulling out of a driveway at 5 mph, the vehicle lost power steering functionality, the tires locked up, and the vehicle veered to the right into rocks and bushes, causing damages to the front passenger's side axle. The message "steering assist fault" was displayed. The contact stated that the forward collision avoidance and other unknown warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the residence, where a mobile independent mechanic replaced the front passenger's side axle. Additionally, the mechanic informed the contact that the battery had experienced an electrical shortage, and the battery was replaced. The vehicle was then towed to dealer, where it was diagnosed that the steering harness and knuckle had failed. The vehicle was not repaired due to the cost. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for the VIN to be added in Ford campaign number: 20s69. The failure mileage was approximately 96,000.

-check engine light on - service vehicle soon light on -fault with hight voltage system. Can't drive the vehicle.

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We have been experiencing multiple electrical and mechanical issues with our brand new 2025 Lincoln Aviator since we bought it approximately 4 months ago. The car frequently fails to start, with at least ten or more instances of this problem. We have taken it to the dealership two or three times, but despite their claims that the issue has been fixed, the problem recurs within a week or two from picking the car up from the dealer. There was a time when the car has shut off while stopped at a traffic light, and when the light turns green, it won’t restart. In some cases, it has taken anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours before the car would finally start again. Additionally, various warning signals appear on the dash cluster, including alerts about the emergency brakes and collision warning system not functioning properly. Additionally, we experienced issues where the car doors won't open right away due to this mechanical issue. This is a serious safety hazard, as the car shutting off unexpectedly in traffic puts us at significant risk. It is especially concerning because this is our family vehicle, and we frequently travel with two infants in car seats and our elderly parents. Despite multiple visits to the dealership, the issue persists. We even reached out to the parent company, Lincoln/Ford, and they essentially told us that there is nothing they can do, this is a "known issue with the 2025 Lincoln Aviator". After researching online, we found that other 2025 Lincoln Aviator owners have reported similar electrical and mechanical problems. We are extremely concerned for our safety and fear that this issue could lead to a serious accident. However, this is our only vehicle, leaving us with no alternative but to continue driving it despite the risks. Please note, as I type this message, we have an appointment this week to drop the car off again for service.

I had all recalls taken care of for my new vehicle I purchased yet I am still having issues with the screen going all black and not working when having my cellphone plugged in. Usually it will come back on once I unplug it but not always.

Most current recall has not been fixed. Vehicles displayed screen goes black with no warning, leaving no access to front or rear parking cameras, also leaving no access to gps while in use. I have several videos of this incident occurring and have sent to dealer, brought to dealer while occurring and they deny any problems even though their employees, and the owner have seen this occur after they claim the recall was repaired. Lincoln corporate will not get involved. Dealer claims it is my cell phone, even though it occurs with any cell phone connected.

Driving car on side street - going about 30 mph and car lost all power. Stopped completely in middle of road. No power - would not restart. No flashers. Since Aviator has "piano keys", the car would not go into neutral and once we figured how to manually put car in neutral, we could not get the driver's door to close and latch. Car was placed on flatbed wrecker and driver had to tape the door shut for transportation. Luckily this happened during daylight hours and sherriff's office sent a car to park behind us. Had this happened on my commute to office (at 0500) when it was dark outside, it could have horrible - no flashers.

The headlight control switch emits high pitch noise. When you toggle the switch to go between the different segments of the headlight switch. I've brought it to the dealer and the tech was able to determine where the noise was coming from. I had advised them. I had disconnected the battery prior and made the noise go away. So that's what they did and now they say it's a non issue cause the noise went away. I have a video demonstrating the issue with the switch. I'm afraid of an issue of fire. It's been. To the dealership twice now, for this issue and it still has not been resolved. I've spoke to corporate Lincoln in regards to the issue. And it's supposed to be escalated. But I'm getting ghosted by everyone at this time. This issue started in the first week of my ownership. It was worse than that point in time. It was so bad. I was unable to drive the car because it was giving me such severe migraine headaches because of the pitch of the noise. The noise when present is very distracting when you are trying to operate the vehicle safely.

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The backup camera glitches while backing up and turning the steering wheel causing issues with visibility. This is a safety issue because it affects your ability to see where you are going while in reverse. This is a brand new car and this issue should not be occurring.

Unsure what component failed specifically, has been inspected by dealer multiple times. This randomly occurs while driving. It disables a number of safety features such a collision assist and traction control as well as several driving modes until the car is fully powered off and restarted. There are multiple reports of this occurring frequently in online groups. No warnings prior to the failure but multiple warnings when it fails. This can occur daily, even multiple times a day during normal driving. Dealer has tried replacing multiple modules and sensors but problem persists.

Driving down the road and all of a sudden multiple warnings come on the dash. They include : service avancetrac, pre collision assist not available, 4wd fault service required, and hill start assist not available. These warning all clear upon restart but will come back at random times. I joined a forum for this vehicle and a lot of owners are reporting this issue.

360 degree camera glitch is not resolved despite replacement of cameras & image processing module based on recent recall. This continues to be a safety issues & Lincoln needs to find a permanent fix.

The car has stopped electrically with no response from any switches when trying to switch on. This has happened before couple of times and once it switched on by itself after 5 min, the second incident it had to be towed away from road after no response in 2 hours. This time it happened like every time and no response from electrical systems and blocked the road.

The exit switches on both rear doors on my wife's 2020 Lincoln Aviator all of the sudden stopped working today. For whatever reason, Lincoln decided to make the exit handles electronic instead of a traditional pull-style exit handle. This is a huge safety concern as the passengers in the rear of the vehicle are now trapped inside. I am a professional fire fighter and I take this problem very seriously. After doing some research for the last two hours online, I've found that dozens of people have experienced the exact same malfunction on their 2020 Lincoln Aviators. I've checked the recalls for the 2020 Aviator on your website and to my disbelief, this is not a recall! prior to both door exit switches failing, there were no warning lamps, messages, or any other notification. They simply just failed without notice.

The vehicle was already in for service once for this issue and is going back a second time the rear camera when backing up randomly starts to flicker and go crazy, and sometimes blanking out. The first fix replaced the camera to no avail. It seems to happen randomly, but about 50% of the time. I have video of the rear backup camera going crazy.

Rear camera blue screen. Screen intermittently blacks out.

Purchased the vehicle on Saturday. Lincoln motors had issued a stop sale on these vehicles due to back up camera recall issues. The stop sale has been lifted and we were assured that the back up camera recall had been fixed. We were contacted by Lincoln to trade in our vehicle due to the issues with the 2021 model and the unavailability of parts. Upon using the vehicle on Monday afternoon, the back up camera system crashed. The camera screen went blue, then black, crashed and then glitched. This resulted in a safety issue while backing out of our garage. The recall that Lincoln claims that they have fixed with additional parts has not been resolved. Lincoln motors should not be allowed to sell these vehicles.

Unknown on several occasions the vehicle would just shut off. Another occasion while getting on the freeway I pressed the accelerator pedal and the car pumped the brakes,there was no one in front of me or on side of me upon entering the freeway. Another incident I was in the fast lane on the freeway and the vehicle just shut off thank goodness the fast lane had a place where I could pull over and and restart the vehicle. Also where the vehicle pumped the brakes, that happened on several occasions. Another thing the vehicle shut of again in the middle of the street. I couldn't put the car in neutral the steering was locked. All of incidents were extremely dangerous. The vehicle has been in the dealership shop twice now and I mentioned it to them on both occasions. And I was told it was the battery. That starts the engine not battery for the eclectic system. I was also told that they did diagnostic check of the software system and there were no systems alerts it was only showing the battery. Now I now that when you drive a vehicle the engine battery charges, plus the vehicle in a 2021 with only 35,000 miles on it.

Once again, my vehicle exhibited immediate and sudden power loss while at highway speeds. Ironically, I was in transit to my dealer for the third time for this issue within my vehicle's 3,000 miles. This is incredibly unsafe at any speed, especially at highway speeds without warning. An uncommanded slowdown without any response from the accelerator pedal, and a warning on the gauge cluster stating "vehicle is slowing down". Cruise control at this time was not operational in the vehicle (another issue) and I was using my foot to control the speed. Additionally, the bluetooth connection was not functioning, the navigation screen nor map would even load, and I was unable to use cruise control due to an error message "cruise unavailable". We get a separate Lincoln Aviator for a loaner, and not only does reverse park assist not work, the rear camera doesn't function, either. These cars are dangerous and need to be recalled immediately and taken off the road. We plan to sell/trade ours as the soonest possibility and incur whatever financial burden that may come with it. It's not worth my family's safety, or that of someone else.

Went to get in it this morning, and said no key was detected. Okay, whatever, we'll use a backup code. The screen never prompted for a backup code. We had the key inside the vehicle, so we use the Lincoln way app to start the car and figured we can get it going from there. Nope, the car was running and everything was going, yet it won't allow us to select drive, reverse, or neutral. Sat there for a bit, fumbling around and nothing worked to get the vehicle in motion. We finally hit enough buttons for the vehicle to shut off, we got out, locked the doors, plugged it in, and just allowed it a few minutes to reset. Notta. Got all this on video. I finally had to pop the hood and use the freaking 2021-2023 explorer / Aviator hybrid vehicle emergency response guide to kill 12v power to the thing. After all that, it allowed us to get in and drive normally. However just a few hours later. . . 2,600 miles on the odometer and we were driving approx 55mph and the Aviator engaged the parking brake for about half a second. Nasty noise, huge bucking from the chassis, and just a split second of extreme confusion and wondering wtf. The red "park brake" was illuminated on the dashboard, and everything seemed normal afterward. However, immediately after that incident it then disabled adaptive cruise control via a message on the dashboard (no cruise worked). We drove home without further incident, called the dealer, and they stated to call Lincoln roadside assistance, get it towed back to the dealer that it was just a few days ago, and they'll deliver a loaner to us. A few hours later, it's on the tow truck. This is the second time this vehicle has placed us in danger. The first issue I'll report after this is submitted. Thank you.

When I am inside the car, the button to open the door from the inside (drivers side) is not working. As of right now there is no way to exit the vehicle from the drivers side. When we called galpin Lincoln to make an urgent appointment since this is a safety issue - they said there was nothing they could do and we go online and make an appointment for a month++ out. My safety is currently at risk as there is no way for me to safely get out of my car since the door does not open from the inside.

The rear camera is janky, the collision alert fires off at random times, and now, the main safety issue! received a huge red triangle on the hud and nav screen stating that the "vehicle is shutting down" and then poof, the damn thing shut down immediately without warning. The message was on the hud and nav for about a second and a half and it died. Thankfully we were at surface street speeds of around 30-35 and I was in command of the vehicle. This issue has been reported on other grand touring models of the Lincoln Aviator where people are at higher speeds, such as the highway or expressway. That said, this is my wifes main vehicle and I am terrified, as well as she, to have her driving this at all hours of the day responding to emergencies at her hospital. Please help us all that own this vehicle.

I would like to express my concerns about the Lincoln Aviator (2020) I used to own and to why I traded it in. I spoke with Ford and even took my case to bbb and lost. I was asking for my money back to buy my Ford explorer. The case was about all my electrical problems I was having and due to the fact, I did not take mv car into the dealer enough I lost. The dealership had advised me to make a list of problems instead of taking the car in each time because of travel distance that was a big mistake on my part as I felt they knew the car had problems and they were putting the problem back on me. They also had mentioned I did not drive very much and I tried explaining I was driving it more. One example was I drove it 50 miles one way and when I got to my destination I could not open back lift gate until I used button inside even though it was fine when I used it to load up the car before I left the house. Another time I came back from going to the coast, a good 3-hour drive, and I couldn't get in until I used key fob. You never knew how the car was going to act electrical. One morning I got up to go to store and the car was completely dead. Tow truck came and driver jumped the car and I backed it out of garage and put the car in park and it shut the car down. I remembered the little latch and was able to get out and the tow truck driver jumped it again and left the charger on the car to load the car up on the tow truck. I see now there is a recall for audible seat belt warning that has not been fixed yet. The biggest issue I addressed with Ford was since there is only one way out how were the passengers suppose to get out and they told me they had to climb over everything to go out the driver's door. Then I asked what if the person is large and has disabilities they are stuck, also what if there is an accident and they hit the driver door then there is no way out. I also said what if the car is going to catch fire, then what? you can't get out. I mentioned we have a 2006 corvette and we have 3 ways to get out of t.

After dealer did 3 software updates for recalls I experienced 2 safety issues: 1) wiper blades now do not recline to the proper position. Right blade goes down past windshield & hits the plastic piece making an extremely loud whack. Left blade does not lower to proper position & obstructs the lower view of windshield & the washer on left blade no longer works. 2) more concerning is while driving in reverse (in rain & dark), the car came to a complete & sudden halt practically giving me whiplash & making an extremely loud crash sound. Car came to such a hard & sudden stop I thought I had hit a wall even though there was 1) no warning light displayed or sound to indicate an obstruction or pending crash 2) nothing displayed on rear camera. Got out to see what I hit & why car stopped but found nothing wrong. Proceeded to continue backing up & it happened again. The car went about 3’ more then same thing happened. Then another 3’ it happened a 3rd time. It jolted my neck 3 times leaving me in pain. This incident was extremely frightening given I’m a handicapped driver & could have been stranded somewhere alone unable to drive the car at all. I suspect these 2 safety issues are related to Lincoln’s recall remedy & software updates as nothing else was done on my vehicle during my recent service other than replacing the front grill emblem.

The contact owns a 2020 Lincoln Aviator. The contact stated while driving 80 mph, the vehicle shifted from drive to neutral. The contact pulled over and restarted the vehicle. The vehicle failed to shift to park. The battery was drained, and the vehicle had to be jumpstarted. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed that the wiring harness needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was contacted, but no additional assistance was provided. The contact stated the failure was related to NHTSA campaign number: 21v534000 (visibility, electrical system). The failure mileage was approximately 144,000.

Awd, adaptive cruise control, infotrac, and collisiom assistance lights continue going off while on freeways. Have brought in several times in less than a year and I can’t imagine that the abs module is the issue as they reinstalled and it didn’t work along with replacement of numerous sensors. Please look into this.

Awd sensors repeatedly are going off then disappearing after car is turned on and off. Happens in city mostly but has triggered while driving on the highway. Caused all ability to use cruise control to deactivate. It also shows the down hill assist fault error.