Doors off gremlins explained, and an inexpensive DIY solution!

[Crazyhorse8889]

How widespread is this problem? I've gone months now without doors and all I've ever gotten is a random message at startup saying the door electrical is not hooked up. Hit OK and it disappears. Doesn't even happen every time I start.

Mine does it. Not all the time but enough

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[KompressorV12]

Can you give an example of what you're talking about when you say gremlins? I've had my doors off since mid June. I get an electrical door warning on the spedo dash for about 10 seconds before it disappears or will disappear if I press ok. Seems to be as designed, but not an inconvivence or 'gremlin' that would warrant me rewiring sections of my bronco.

 

[mcon33]

Seems to me like Ford should have just used a normally closed pressure switch at the back of the port on the door jamb. Something that is held down (open switch) when the plug is in place, but when you remove the doors it closes the switch to ground. This would have been much more reliable, serviceable and corrosion resistant than the bar..

I feel like this makes the absolute most sense. Like the light bulb switch in a refrigerator

 

[Razorback]

So my doors are off today and I tried opening the hood. No alarms, then I hit the lock on the fob, waited 10 min or so, and tried opening the hood again...No alarms. I did have the fob in my pocket when I did that, so maybe I will try opening the hood w/out the fob on me just to make sure.

EDIT: tried w/out the fob in my pocket...No alarm

Thanks. I really hoping the triggers were still live. I'll just have to get a self contained alarm and carry additional fob. Would have been nice to get alerts through Ford Pass app and use Bronco fob. Oh well.

 

[Lanman]

We haven't taken the doors off of my wife's Bronco yet but didn't I read somewhere in another thread that you just need to make sure you have your seatbelt fastened before you start the car and then the only warning you get is the one that goes away after 10 seconds or when you click on ok?

But if you start the car without your seatbeld fastened you get multiple other warnings.

 

[Bmadda]

Can you give an example of what you're talking about when you say gremlins? I've had my doors off since mid June. I get an electrical door warning on the spedo dash for about 10 seconds before it disappears or will disappear if I press ok. Seems to be as designed, but not an inconvivence or 'gremlin' that would warrant me rewiring sections of my bronco.

No...that is a "normal" alert. it's there in case you reinstalled the doors and forgot to plug them in. what I found was that, when mine was malfunctioning, I DID NOT get that alert...in fact the 1st time I saw that alert was after I did this modification. What I got instead was just about every other type of alert...airbag faults/airbag light on, door ajar warning (ajar? damn thing's not even on the vehicle!) no key detected (although it did start and run) bunch of other ones I can't remember. My son came over to help me remove the rear portion of the top and go for a ride, and he was laughing his arse off at my rediculous brand new vehicle dinging at me. I could still start it and drive it, but when I tried changing goat modes, or putting it in 4lo, or using the sway bar disco I had to clear a bunch of messages off the dash. Sounds like yours is working normally. But if you ever have problems you can always revisit this thread!

 

[Bmadda]

We haven't taken the doors off of my wife's Bronco yet but didn't I read somewhere in another thread that you just need to make sure you have your seatbelt fastened before you start the car and then the only warning you get is the one that goes away after 10 seconds or when you click on ok?

But if you start the car without your seatbeld fastened you get multiple other warnings.

If mine is running at idle and stopped at any time w/out seatbelt fastened it dings and says "vehicle is on". When moving it stops doing that, but the next stop I come to it does it again. I get no other warnings regardless of if I put the seatbelt on after starting or before. This is the exact same warning it gives me if I start the vehicle and open the door (w/doors on). The difference is when the doors are on it doesn't matter if my seatbelt is buckled or not, without the doors, unbuckling my seatbelt has the same effect as opening the door. I believe it's programmed that way...there's an alternate set of rules for doors off operation.

 

[BAUS67]

Have yet to understand why the didn't build a function into the screen where you could select the doors off individually or all together. It's all software at that point and doesn't need to rely on exposed terminal shorting bars. Have an icon in the cluster that shows doors off or message that self clears upon start up.

Either way, good workaround.

It was probably the same rocket scientist that said hey, we should put these under our off-roader so they catch every rock within earshot.

 

[Strykerwsu]

If mine is running at idle and stopped at any time w/out seatbelt fastened it dings and says "vehicle is on". When moving it stops doing that, but the next stop I come to it does it again. I get no other warnings regardless of if I put the seatbelt on after starting or before. This is the exact same warning it gives me if I start the vehicle and open the door (w/doors on). The difference is when the doors are on it doesn't matter if my seatbelt is buckled or not, without the doors, unbuckling my seatbelt has the same effect as opening the door. I believe it's programmed that way...there's an alternate set of rules for doors off operation.

No matter if we put seat belts on first or not, we get about 10 warnings and always engages parking brake. I can deal with hitting ok about 8 times but I hate the engagement of parking brake.

 

[Ducati1098]

No matter if we put seat belts on first or not, we get about 10 warnings and always engages parking brake. I can deal with hitting ok about 8 times but I hate the engagement of parking brake.

Ford released an SSM about this concern today.

“Some 2021-2022 Bronco vehicles equipped with an EBB may exhibit multiple error messages displayed in the IPC followed by automatic engagement of the parking brake immediately after starting the vehicle with the doors removed or after sitting in the vehicle for an extended period of time with the vehicle off. The issue will resolve itself once the brake pedal is no longer depressed or the parking brake is manually disengaged. This may be due to the software within the anti-lock brake (ABS) module. This issue can be avoided by placing the vehicle in accessory mode for a few seconds before starting the engine. Engineering is working on improved software to correct this condition that will be available in November 2022. No repairs should be made in attempt to correct this condition.”

 

[KompressorV12]

No...that is a "normal" alert. it's there in case you reinstalled the doors and forgot to plug them in. what I found was that, when mine was malfunctioning, I DID NOT get that alert...in fact the 1st time I saw that alert was after I did this modification. What I got instead was just about every other type of alert...airbag faults/airbag light on, door ajar warning (ajar? damn thing's not even on the vehicle!) no key detected (although it did start and run) bunch of other ones I can't remember. My son came over to help me remove the rear portion of the top and go for a ride, and he was laughing his arse off at my rediculous brand new vehicle dinging at me. I could still start it and drive it, but when I tried changing goat modes, or putting it in 4lo, or using the sway bar disco I had to clear a bunch of messages off the dash. Sounds like yours is working normally. But if you ever have problems you can always revisit this thread!

This clearly sounds like a warranty issue then. i’d be worried with all your slicing and dicing they’ll reject your warranty claim. I don’t have a single one of those issues and I’ve been doorless for almost 2 months (my bronco has a bill date of December 8, 2021)

 

[Jhuff]

This clearly sounds like a warranty issue then. i’d be worried with all your slicing and dicing they’ll reject your warranty claim. I don’t have a single one of those issues and I’ve been doorless for almost 2 months (my bronco has a bill date of December 8, 2021)

Warranty law allows for the replacement of OEM parts with similar non-oem parts. I would say he has a good argument that he simply replaced a faulty OEM circuit with a functioning one.

On that note, OP, did I miss it or did you find the problem (bent bar, corrosion, etc?) Perhaps it is a fault that warranty could fix. I had a "bad" sound module that was simply a bent pin in a harness connector... Yours could be something as simple.

Thanks for the info, though! If this becomes a common problem, a dummy plug with a bar or jumper built-in would be super nice fix.

 

[flip]

It was probably the same rocket scientist that said hey, we should put these under our off-roader so they catch every rock within earshot.

If you think that's bad, don't look at what's packed in the radiator support cavities and behind the headlights. No matter how many times I washed, mud is still coming out from what I'd call 2 mild off-roading sessions.

 

[da_jokker]

Can you give an example of what you're talking about when you say gremlins? I've had my doors off since mid June. I get an electrical door warning on the spedo dash for about 10 seconds before it disappears or will disappear if I press ok. Seems to be as designed, but not an inconvivence or 'gremlin' that would warrant me rewiring sections of my bronco.

There are various threads all over this board from people having their Broncos yelling at them when taking their doors off....and not talking about the "doors off" warning but reports of system errors in all sorts of modules.

 

[Bmadda]

This clearly sounds like a warranty issue then. i’d be worried with all your slicing and dicing they’ll reject your warranty claim. I don’t have a single one of those issues and I’ve been doorless for almost 2 months (my bronco has a bill date of December 8, 2021)

I didn't slice or dice anything. My jumpers can be removed leaving no visible trace if needed. But I guarantee I won't have any issue w/warranty. Gotta learn to relax man!

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