2021 Bronco Sport Sudden Death Syndrome? Locks brakes during operation, every error on screen, park break stuck

[SpoortModel]

Hi everyone,

My lady has a 2021 Bronco Sport and we have now encountered this dreaded issue 3 times.
It is a lease due to end in 2 months but in the last 5 weeks the vehicle has fully stopped functioning and locked up the brakes on many occasions without prompt. The first time was at an intersection when the auto-start/stop feature failed to restart the car and instead locked the brakes, refused to start, move or function, and left us stranded.
After 30 mins the system decides nothing ever happened and the car started and we left to return home to a more reliable vehicle and send it in; dealer "repaired" what they thought it was and sent it back.
The second time it happened fortunately she was only in a parking spot and it was able to get towed out. The dealer claimed it was some power steering tech issues and replaced some stuff - clearly they are not able to properly diagnose this issue.
Attached is a video I took of trying to start it after the second system failure and shutdown. I had removed and reconnected the negative battery terminal for a while hoping it would restart the computer but it did not work.

The third and most dangerous time she was traveling 45mph and the Bronco suddenly engaged the parking brake and all four brakes causing a huge skid mark and hazard on the roadway. Fortunately it was earlier in the morning and traffic on this road was not as busy yet so no one slammed into her.
It turned off the engine and went back into the cycle of errors and issues and was not able to be pushed or engage neutral via the orange pull-tab and parking brake disengage. It took another 30 minutes for the car to "forget" what was going on and the police who were working on moving it were able to start it back up and drive onto a side street to be towed.

I only have one friend with this car aside from my partner and he had this occur at 5mph in a parking lot and it had to get towed as well.

Have any other bronco owners had this issue? The car enters what I call "sudden death" both for the car and in this case the driver. Some of the technologies inside of this machine are clearly glitched or failing when communicating and causing a very hazardous safety concern for drivers and those on the road around these vehicles. This is a major safety concern and I'm shocked I can't find much information on this page about this scenario. Please link me to this if it is an old topic!

Thanks all,
Spoort

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[Lowcountry Bronco]

Only help I can provide is to tell you to report it:

https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index

Luckily the lease is almost over and if it were mine it would probably sit at the dealer until it was ready to turn in.

 

[AreUgettingEnufCaffeine]

I'd try over at broncosportforum to check..There's new recalls trending on the sports and mavericks per reddit

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Hi everyone,

My lady has a 2021 Bronco Sport and we have now encountered this dreaded issue 3 times.
It is a lease due to end in 2 months but in the last 5 weeks the vehicle has fully stopped functioning and locked up the brakes on many occasions without prompt. The first time was at an intersection when the auto-start/stop feature failed to restart the car and instead locked the brakes, refused to start, move or function, and left us stranded.
After 30 mins the system decides nothing ever happened and the car started and we left to return home to a more reliable vehicle and send it in; dealer "repaired" what they thought it was and sent it back.
The second time it happened fortunately she was only in a parking spot and it was able to get towed out. The dealer claimed it was some power steering tech issues and replaced some stuff - clearly they are not able to properly diagnose this issue.
Attached is a video I took of trying to start it after the second system failure and shutdown. I had removed and reconnected the negative battery terminal for a while hoping it would restart the computer but it did not work.

The third and most dangerous time she was traveling 45mph and the Bronco suddenly engaged the parking brake and all four brakes causing a huge skid mark and hazard on the roadway. Fortunately it was earlier in the morning and traffic on this road was not as busy yet so no one slammed into her.
It turned off the engine and went back into the cycle of errors and issues and was not able to be pushed or engage neutral via the orange pull-tab and parking brake disengage. It took another 30 minutes for the car to "forget" what was going on and the police who were working on moving it were able to start it back up and drive onto a side street to be towed.

I only have one friend with this car aside from my partner and he had this occur at 5mph in a parking lot and it had to get towed as well.

Have any other bronco owners had this issue? The car enters what I call "sudden death" both for the car and in this case the driver. Some of the technologies inside of this machine are clearly glitched or failing when communicating and causing a very hazardous safety concern for drivers and those on the road around these vehicles. This is a major safety concern and I'm shocked I can't find much information on this page about this scenario. Please link me to this if it is an old topic!

Thanks all,
Spoort

Could you send over a message with your VIN and estimated mileage? I would like to take a closer look at this braking issue.

 

[SpoortModel]

Could you send over a message with your VIN and estimated mileage? I would like to take a closer look at this braking issue.

Definitely! Thanks for taking the time to look into it. it's a whole system failure issue they're supposedly investigating. message incoming

 

[userdude]

While we'd like to help, this is a full-size Bronco forum. Try the link for the Bronco Sport-specific forum. Note the Official Ford account always asks for that info and rarely does it come to anything. FYI.

Also, waaaay back in the day we called it poltergeising when an electronic device went bozo like that... I think the issue was warping boards that pulled the board away from the connections just enough that a little heat/cold would flex, break the solder, and then end up barely touching. We had a video deck in the early 80's (Beta! PAL/SECAM!) that did this if we used it too long.

My Aunt also had a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee that had a similar issue and she eventually had the main computer replaced for the same issue.

 

[SpoortModel]

Only help I can provide is to tell you to report it:

https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index

Luckily the lease is almost over and if it were mine it would probably sit at the dealer until it was ready to turn in.

That is likely what will happen since this is the 3rd time and it posed a major safety hazard; thanks for that link for the NHTSA as well, I can let her know to submit a complaint if she feels motivated to do so.

 

[SpoortModel]

While we'd like to help, this is a full-size Bronco forum. Try the link for the Bronco Sport-specific forum. Note the Official Ford account always asks for that info and rarely does it come to anything. FYI.

Also, waaaay back in the day we called it poltergeising when an electronic device went bozo like that... I think the issue was warping boards that pulled the board away from the connections just enough that a little heat/cold would flex, break the solder, and then end up barely touching. We had a video deck in the early 80's (Beta! PAL/SECAM!) that did this if we used it too long.

My Aunt also had a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee that had a similar issue and she eventually had the main computer replaced for the same issue.

ah thanks for this info on the thread man! I hope it at least provides more of a paper trail and audit of the investigation at the minimum, as it is an acknowledgement of awareness at least and hopefully it can be repaired to save other drivers from it.

It was definitely a poltergeist situation and I pity the techs trying to diagnose such an issue with modern tech in these cars.

 

[SpoortModel]

I'd try over at broncosportforum to check..There's new recalls trending on the sports and mavericks per reddit

apologies, thanks for the redirect. I will liaise with ford in messages for now and close this if no updates are provided.

 

[AreUgettingEnufCaffeine]

apologies, thanks for the redirect. I will liaise with ford in messages for now and close this if no updates are provided.

No problem, hopefully they can help.. good luck, it does sound bad

 

[userdude]

Fifteen years ago I bought a plasma tv on closeout (it was a nice tv for cheap). Best Buy was like, here's a free Sony Blu Ray player! I was like, sweet! This was when they were at least $250.

I get home, get it all setup, then try to play The Big Lebowski (the dude abides). To say it acted like a demon possessed it is an understatement.

Totally bummed, I pack it up, take it back and the Best Buy employee saw me coming. They're like, no problem, here's a $200 Best Buy credit. I'm like, what? It turns out Sony pumped out several hundred thousand of these Blu Ray players with a board problem. To get their (self) insurance to pay for it, they had to be returned. I got a very nice Sony DVD player I had for years.

Hope it works out for y'all! My aunt had to stay on Jeep for months and ended up having three installed. She eventually traded it in for another. That one was a POS. However, she still drove it from Woodside CA to Carmel every day for months...

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