Hi! New guy here, my son's 2013 Focus Platinum ABS system, when activated, applies the brakes sporadically, even when the driver's not even touching the pedal and at any speed. He's had to keep the system inactivated so he can drive the car locally, but he's reticent to use it in high speed situations in case the system activates itself and applies the brakes at a very inopportune moment possibly causing a tragedy. He's taken it to 2 different Ford dealers in Miami, FL without too much luck; the first told him to just keep the system inactivated and the second troubleshot the issue to a defective main computer, which sounds logical. However, they've ordered 2 computers and both have arrived with the wrong "programming"! I can't believe that Ford, supplied with the car's data and VIN, cannot provide the correct programming in their computers! I don't know how the dealer's parts ordering system works but I think it's ridiculous that this is happening from such a large and prestigious organization. ​​​​​​​Can anyone in this forum help us either identify the correctly programmed computer's part number for this vehicle or provide some guidance as to how to proceed from here? We're planning to tow the car from Miami to Melbourne's Kelly Ford and try our luck with them since they fixed a difficult electrical problem once before and my son's relocating here anyway.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Seems the tech do not know what the issue is and are guessing and throwing parts, a virgin ECU can be programmed in house, no need for pre programming.
I also doubt there is an ECU issue,
You need the services of a diagnostician, not a mechanic (grease monkey),
You will need to check the status of the comms circuits and ABS signals to the ABS module.

 

hi, did you still looking for help ?

 

Brakes usually don't apply by themselves, so what is doing that, then we can go after the ABS to see if it is functioning correctly.

Can you enlighten us as to just what brake work was recently done and by whom ?

Don't know for sure if your vehicle has ADAS, that could be part of the problem especially if somebody messed with one of the sensors that is sensitive to distance, and objects in the path of the vehicle. Did anyone change or alter anything involving the grille or front of the vehicle, if so let us know and we may be able to offer a possible solution.

 

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