2015 Mustang Dash litup like a Christmas tree, car runs fine, signals stopped working, AdvanceTrac, ABS, and hill start assist turned off

[ORRadtech]

If the ABS controller is toast , would that cause all the steering wheel buttons to stop working? Only the horn works on the steering wheel, no buttons, and the turn signals also do not function.

The short answer is, yes.
A somewhat longer answer is the steering wheel buttons are all interconnected through the CANBUS network. The cruise control buttons are on the steering wheel and likely rely on input from multiple sources including ABS/ brakes.
Having said that it doesn't make it any more or less likely the ABS is the problem. It could just as easily be a symptom.

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[TRDFurgesson]

The horn is the only thing working on my steering wheel. All other buttons don't work. Signals don't work. I forgot to check the wipers but the clock spring is ordered. When I pulled out the old one, I spun it around a couple times to see how it feeled and forgot to mark it, so its probably off now.

if you’re going to purchase a steering control module, I have one that’s good. Get a hold of me first.

 

[stephensatt]

Ok, thanks. The parts are coming tonight from Amazon. I was able to get an aftermarket clockspring for $40 which is the cheapest there is, but I will let you know if I need the whole thing, but I am thinking its not going to be this spring, but ya never know. I am going to do what is being recommended and take those connectors apart next and clean them real well, put them back together with some dielectric grease while I am waiting. They hit me up with 12 hrs of work yesterday so I didn't do squat with that car last night.

I will need to do more reading on the CAN bus, but from what I am seeing, sounds like its just a BUS network that runs through the whole car, and they just put all the communications on it. I will need to learn how to read that , so I can check inputs from various components. FORSCAN seems like its missing some things, so maybe I am just not using it right. I have extensive experience working on cars, used to work in body shops doing all the electronics on cars back in the 90's and it was tons of flood damage cars so I have good troubleshooting skills but I have had Nissans for the past 10 years, and wife bought that 2015 Mustang new and this is the first time I have had to deal with Fords new Electronics since the 90's all my past Fords were Fox bodies and Broncos, all from the 90's.

Since she has bought that car, its needed 1 door electric motor for the passenger Window, and both the doors locks have broken twice now, and I mean, the actual mechanical locks break inside the door, they are plastic, and the doors will fly open and you have to duct tape them closed. That turned out to be a recall and the dealer fixed the door locks for free.

 

[stephensatt]

SOLVED!

The parts were delayed until this morning. I tested and weighed the clock spring from Amazon, which seemed a little bit more cheaply made that the original and the factory was 129grams and the aftermarket from Amazon is 126grams but at $40 and 2 day shipping, even Rockauto, 2nd cheapest was $100 for the Dorman, and they all look identical, probably same Chinese factory. I am only throwing this out there because I don't want to recommend a super cheap part, but it works so far. I tested continuity on the pins and it pins out identical to the factory which is a stamped FoMoCo part. Installed it, but I did not crank the car afterwards. What I didn't want to do, was re-trip the computer codes after the battery had been disconnected for 2 days if it was in fact the rack n pinion control module connectors and not the clock spring.

I then removed the plastic front undercarriage protector, cleaned the steering module connectors like TurdFerguson recommended. Those connectors did have some dirt and grease on them and when I took them apart, the copper terminals were also blue with corrosion, not real bad but enough I guess.

I cleaned those terminals with Walmart brand intake and carb cleaner, dries similar to brake cleaner, doesn't leave behind an oily film. I then used a small toothpick dipped in "Brasso" brand brass and copper cleaner you use on dishes and sit there very carefully with my 3x readers on and rubbed the toothpick with the cleaner back in forth over each pin and also on the female pins. Cleaned it again with the intake cleaner and blew it out with air, let it dry about 30 mins and put the connectors back together using a little bit of dielectric grease.

Plugged the battery in, all dash lights came on normal and no ABS faults or any other alerts, and the steering wheel buttons and signals work now. The car is still on the lift so I want to perform an oil change and brake job, so in a couple of days. I will post a full writeup with pictures of everything for everyone, because this is one of those that will drive you insane because the codes basically say the entire car is shot, half the computers are dead and don't respond, screams "take me to your dealer". Bad design through and through, with the computer not able to diagnose this, and with the circuit board being basically located at the lowest part of the car under the oil filter with no top protector so oil runs down onto the connectors, will be guaranteed to sit in water if you drive through high water, come on, really? Blah!

So, because the old clock spring 100% toned out on the continuity tester I think TRD is right and that it was the small connector with 3 wires going into the rack n pinion controller, which did have 2 connectors turn blue.

So if you are getting ABS lights, getting "steering assist fault", "Advancetrac turned off fault" , drivers restraint error with little light of guy wearing a seatbelt, 2 little cars skidding on the road symbols lighting up, and the buttons on the steering wheel, all of them don't work, turn signals don't work then it might just be that 3 pin connector at the rack, plugs into the bottom of the rack, next to the bigger 2 pin power connector, right under the oil filter or the clock spring or both.

 

[ORRadtech]

I figured you'd find corrosion somewhere. I think I said it would be corrosion, a bad connector or rodent/ wire damage.
For future reference, be very careful trying to use picks or anything to poke inside the female connectors. They can spread the connector causing loss of connection with the male pin. It can cause intermittent problems similar to what you just experienced. Next time you run into corrosion look into a product called deoxit. It will neutralize the corrosion without damage to the connectors.
And finally, if it were me, I'd put the factory clock spring back in. I would not trust chineseium part there.

 

[Bullitt0819]

[O/T, but tangentially related] A couple years ago, my '19 Bullitt started acting weird, usually when it had been sitting in the sun for a while. On startup, all the nannies would be disabled and I'd have to click through all the fault alerts. After a few miles on the road things would return to normal. Still under warranty, I took it to the dealer and, not surprisingly, they couldn't reproduce the problem, even though they claimed they let it sit in the sun. To be fair, it was an intermittent problem but happened to me more often than not.

Fast forward a year or so and Ford releases a TSB for this problem. Still under warranty I let the dealer fix it; turns out it was a position switch--i.e. which gear are we in--on the manual gearbox. So, yeah, everything's connected.

 

[stephensatt]

Well I got the brake job done. All the lights were off when I went on the initial drive and had no lights at all on the dash, looked great or so I thought. After about 10 mins of driving the "traction control" lights come on, and stay on, thats the 2 pics of the vehicles skidding on either side of the gear selector indicator on the center of the dash. Car runs and drives great, all the buttons worked, all the signals worked. I drove it around for about 30 mins and got into the driveway, with ony the traction control lights on and went to fetch my laptop and do another code scan and possibly clear the light, but when I plugged my computer in, all the exact same problems came right back. Now am back to exactly where I was the beginning of this thread. All the same codes came back, the steering wheel controls no longer work, the signals no longer work, and all those lights are back on. So I am thinking it is that connector at the rack, so I will clean it even more, and may even have to cut it off and put a new connector on it, if its just that bad. Thats the small 3 wire connector at the steering control box mounted on the rack. There are 2 plugs that go to it, the small 3 wire connector and a large 2 wire, positive and negative, which I assume provides all the power, and they are very thick, like starter wires. Look to be 4 gauge.

I know I am over the target so if its NOT that connector then it must be the rack itself. Woohoo! Only $600 for a rebuilt or aftermarket. I have had horrible problems with rebuilds these days, so probably buy a new aftermarket rack. Car has only 80k miles though, but those electric racks are very unreliable. My brother n law just replaced his on his RAM truck and had to wait 6 weeks because they are picked over and out of stock on those electric racks, they fail that much.

 

[stephensatt]

Ahahahahahahaha! Naw, that NOT me having a good time, that my head cracking under the insanity!

All codes are cleared now after sitting overnight and haven't come back, but bet they do. This MUST be those connectors or the rack itself, and I was going to say great things about the newer ford connectors with the red safety tab because they are easier to use vs the old types with the tabs that broke off after time. I noticed also the turn signal connector, when I touched it, it clicked into place and I am sure it was coming out on its own, dunno how it was loose. What is sad though about this, lets say it was literally just 1 wire coming loose at the rack is how it can take down half the cars electrical systems with just that one wire being loose.

Now another thing that could be happening is on that rack, the motherboard that controls it, the power steering controller board on the rack, its overheating, and its taking time to build heat, because I don't get codes for 30 mins of driving, and then they sloooooowly start to come about.

I did a fancy job on the connectors and added a rubber boot, so I will have pics soon if I can get on top of this. Dorman wants $25 for just that 3 wire connector if I need to replace it but I am still really in the troubleshooting phase of this as I cannot accurately reproduce the problem by just pushing or pulling something or disconnecting it. Brakes work well after brake job, good thing there isn't a power connector for that, so I got that going for me!

 

[SHOdaddy68]

A great place to find connectors is: www.findpigtails.com
We use them a lot at the body shop I manage.

 

[stephensatt]

[O/T, but tangentially related] A couple years ago, my '19 Bullitt started acting weird, usually when it had been sitting in the sun for a while. On startup, all the nannies would be disabled and I'd have to click through all the fault alerts. After a few miles on the road things would return to normal. Still under warranty, I took it to the dealer and, not surprisingly, they couldn't reproduce the problem, even though they claimed they let it sit in the sun. To be fair, it was an intermittent problem but happened to me more often than not.

Fast forward a year or so and Ford releases a TSB for this problem. Still under warranty I let the dealer fix it; turns out it was a position switch--i.e. which gear are we in--on the manual gearbox. So, yeah, everything's connected.

I now have a code for that. So the car is coming up with just the traction control alerts right now, and then it re-enables the steering wheel and the buttons work. It disables all the buttons and the blinkers once the ABS light comes on, so is that some kind of safety feature?

The code I now get on top of all the codes that are in the thread previously are these. Here is a PIC.

The PSCM codes are all new, U0100, U0121, and U0415

Shows steering wheel angle and I guess that a "Dealer Only" fix?

The "ABS control module" A is peppered throughout all these codes but I cannot seem to do any kinds of ABS diagnostics using FORSCAN. If I click on the blue ABS it doesn't do anything nor can I find ABS diagnostics listed under the wrench icon.

 

[Mustang_tales]

Please check the ground connection on the driver's side fender. Under filter box. Very important ground. You will get all kinds of crazy faults.

 

[Mustang_tales]

Please check the ground connection on the driver's side fender. Under filter box. Very important ground. You will get all kinds of crazy faults.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Please check the ground connection on the driver's side fender. Under filter box. Very important ground. You will get all kinds of crazy faults.

Interesting finding and probably a “first” on here. How did you come across that finding of the ground eyelet being broken and what were your symptoms?

 

[stephensatt]

Ok, so it appears to be fixed.....tap tap tapping on wood right now, as I don't want to jinx this. I am one hour out of this repair.

I did check on the grounds and they were good. Everyone pointing out these bad wiring faults are right on track with these type errors from Ford, because the Internet is littered with similar issues, all grounds, all broken connectors, blue corrosion and such.

So I ordered the replacement 3 pin PSCM CAN BUS connector from Amazon, turns out the F-150, F-250 share the exact same connector for 1/3 of the cost of the Mustang version, $10 from Amazon, here is the link. The connector you get has different wire colors than the one pictured and they "sorta" match the factory colors, wires are very thin, same size as the CAN BUS wire, like 24 gauge, maybe thinner. Here is the link for the $10 buck connector. Everyone else was $25 on up.

https://a.co/d/3uFdQPw

I did attempt to go under there and clean it up again, using some diamond bits for my Dremel, by hand, not with the rotary tool I used the bits and sat there scrapping the connectors back n forth for awhile, and then used vinegar and Q tips, cleaned it again, then sprayed it good with connector cleaner, and blew it out, waited about 10 minutes till it was good n dry. Now the female side, the wire feed side of this, that connector using my macro lens on my phone, it was blue colored, all the pins all the way through, so I just cut off the connector and put the new one on with red crimp connects.

I have been driving it around now for about 30 mins, went an got gas, got it heated up real good, Houston, 90F outside, so far great. None of the original codes except the PSCM U0401 keeps coming back, but so far the lights have not lit on the dash.

Also I did figure out how to use the Oscilloscope feature of FORSCAN and its a game changer, so you gotta learn that for these intermittent failures. Going down the road, I can see on the scope, the angles of the steering rack , and they do zero out going straight, and also the feeds from all 4 ABS sensors at the wheels and the VSS and ABS VSS perfectly matched with no jitter so thats awesome seeing the actual readings in real time from all the sensors going down the road.

I will have pictures soon but I need to put this back together and drive it some more before I can give it back to the wife because last time, I made it about 30 mins and the faults all came back.

Its important to note, that the car disables steering strength, so steering is more difficult, and the turn signals and steering wheel buttons as part of its "Limp Mode" when you get these ABS and PSCM errors. This will lead to replacing the "clock spring" as that controls all the steering controls, and NO WHERE I can find any of this is listed as part of limp mode by Ford. Even after changing the clock spring, if the ABS and Traction Control lights come back on, the signals and steering wheel buttons (ALL OF THEM) stop working. So no Bluetooth, no stereos controls, signals, 4 way curser control NADA, they all disable upon those errors while your driving, just turns them off OR the CAN BUS becomes interrupted, and those are all on the CAN BUS.

I am an old skool IT tech, and I can tell ya right now, when I was a teenager in the 80's and 90's our job was to remove BUS style networks from all building because they are inheritly unreliable. If you loose a leg of a BUS you loose all the computers on that leg, or the entire BUS can go down as a result, and thats why its not used in IT anymore, and the goto config is STAR BUS typology which is what cars had when they had a central computer sitting in the middle and every wire ran back to it from each sensor. Thats a more reliable setup from an engineering perspecitive.

 

[ORRadtech]

Red crimp connectors? If they aren't marine grade heat shrink connectors with adhesive inside then you will be looking at another failure in the future.
The old style with colored plastic insulators are open on both ends to the elements and will develop corrosion quicker than the connector you replaced.

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