Hill start assist failure

[CO Base]

Dropped off at the dealership this am. Could not fix the problem and could not replicate what has been going on.

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[83XLT]

I've had this happen 5 or 6 times. Same thing...after sitting in the car with it turned off.

I've noticed that when it happens, as I start the car, I feel a "crunch" coming from the brake pedal. It actually feels like something is breaking. Then the lights and beeps etc.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I've had this happen 5 or 6 times. Same thing...after sitting in the car with it turned off.

I've noticed that when it happens, as I start the car, I feel a "crunch" coming from the brake pedal. It actually feels like something is breaking. Then the lights and beeps etc.

Hi there! If you'd like to, go ahead and send us a private message with your VIN and dealer info and I’ll look into this hill assist concern. Thanks!

 

[HCGxKaLiBeR]

I'm surprised none of the dealers found a root cause yet and there is no TSB for this either.
Mine happens when I'm parked with engine off. After some clicks and clunks from the front driver foot well area, the error tends to come up.

There were dash error messages and phone alerts, but of course none of the codes were stored in the car.

I then messaged Ford account back on the forum, but the actual support person from Ford is far from helpful. Said case closed since my car is not currently in the dealer for repair... I mean what the heck.. then why bother to reach out.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Dropped off at the dealership this am. Could not fix the problem and could not replicate what has been going on.

Hi Dan! I can look into your hill assist concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Bronco's VIN?

 

[CO Base]

Hi Dan! I can look into your hill assist concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Bronco's VIN?

Just sent you a message. Thanks

 

[Brad Fx]

This happened to me Monday for the 1st time in 14 month, 10,340 miles.

1. Turned off car.
2. Opened and closed door, but remained in car waiting for someone.
3. At one point, pressed the brake out of habit and it felt tight.
4. Later heard a loud clunk.
5. Started car, several errors fired off on the dash, but only sent hill start assist error to the phone.
6. Parking was brake auto-engaged.
7. No issues as of Thursday.

Nothing about this parking scenario is different than what I’ve done many times for 14 months, except for the multiple Software Updates being sent out. Any chance it’s related?

 

[Ford Motor Company]

This happened to me Monday for the 1st time in 14 month, 10,340 miles.

1. Turned off car.
2. Opened and closed door, but remained in car waiting for someone.
3. At one point, pressed the brake out of habit and it felt tight.
4. Later heard a loud clunk.
5. Started car, several errors fired off on the dash, but only sent hill start assist error to the phone.
6. Parking was brake auto-engaged.
7. No issues as of Thursday.

Nothing about this parking scenario is different than what I’ve done many times for 14 months, except for the multiple Software Updates being sent out. Any chance it’s related?

Good morning! Are you still experiencing this concern? If so, I would like to look into it on my end. Please send over a private message with your VIN and the name/location of your local Ford dealer.

 

[RkyMtnBum]

This failure just happened to me as well. (Adding for posterity). 2,500 miles, just bought last Wed with 2,400 miles.

Stopped off at a friend's house so he could compare with his Rubicon. Parked in the driveway. Talked for about 15-20 minutes and started the Bronco and got the hill assist error as well as the parking break on notification. (It also populated in FordPass). I shut it off and started it again and could feel the parking brake was still engaged and gave it a little throttle in reverse and it appeared to drive normally.

We will see if happens again.

 

[BCHBRNC22]

Was just looking through my alerts and had about 10 of these Hill start assist alert failures. They were all during the Fall when I had the doors off. Has to to be a related bug?

 

[dgorsett]

I had issues out on the trail with loss of engine-power a week ago and a bunch of codes going off, but I got power back after pulling off the trail for a minute and the error codes went away after a mile or two. I took it into the dealer last Friday and had them do a break-in oil change and check everything out at 1,600 miles and they said there we no issues found and nothing wrong with any of the sensors. No issues last weekend, but started it up this morning and got the following error messages... Hill Start Assist, Pre-Collision Assist, Service Advance-Trac, and Check Brake System. Started up fine and drove to work fine, but looks like I need to head back to the dealer again soon.

Digging back through old threads since I have had a similar, problem, your description most closely resembles mine. On the trail, two days in a row in December lost power, had to over power brakes (parking or hill start idk), lots of brake system related warnings, get to a flat spot fiddle around a few minutes and bang, it releases on its own and all is good since. I'm curious if you ever found the cause. Thanks

 

[Thurmy7]

I never did find the cause for this (dealer couldn't find anything), but I do now turn off Traction Control anytime I go on the trails and haven't had an issue since. One thing to know is that there's two things to turn off with Traction Control. You can just hit the button once and it turns of Traction Control but if you hold the button down it will turn off Advanced Traction Control. I don't know the difference, but I now turn off both any time we're on the trails. It's a bit of a pain to have to remember to do it each time you start the vehicle though. If you still run into the issue even after turning off Traction Control, I would definitely take it to the dealership. Too many electronics on these things... but they're so damn fun to drive offroad.

 

[dgorsett]

I never did find the cause for this (dealer couldn't find anything), but I do now turn off Traction Control anytime I go on the trails and haven't had an issue since. One thing to know is that there's two things to turn off with Traction Control. You can just hit the button once and it turns of Traction Control but if you hold the button down it will turn off Advanced Traction Control. I don't know the difference, but I now turn off both any time we're on the trails. It's a bit of a pain to have to remember to do it each time you start the vehicle though. If you still run into the issue even after turning off Traction Control, I would definitely take it to the dealership. Too many electronics on these things... but they're so damn fun to drive offroad.

On this, I was in 4L both times I had the issue and according to the OM and message when shifting to 4L in 4L Traction Control is supposed to be automatically shut off so IDK.

As a sidenote, on the same trip we were climbing a hill and I had to engage the rear locker to make it. The year before we had climbed the same hill in my son's Tacoma and it climbed with no locker, but you could hear the ABS actively managing traction control, I kinda wish the Bronco had more active traction control.

 

[Thurmy7]

That would be great if traction control is turned off automatically once you're in 4L. The couple of times this happened to me I was in 2WD and 4High. I do recall the very first hill-climb I went up in just 2WD and without deactivating traction control and I experienced a weird limp in power and I thought maybe I just missed the skinny pedal but eventually made it up and didn't think much of it until the more notable power losses and error messages on future trips. I feel like traction control was a common element to any of my power-loss experiences to date, as since I've been turning TC off I've had zero issues and have been in all sorts of terrain since starting that practice.

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