2018 FORD F-150 Electrical System Problems

The truck currently has 75xxx miles on it. I've had it in at the dealership before for transmission issues. The repairs/fix they did lasted for a while before the same problems came back. It started as rough shifting/jerking. Recently the truck will, when accelerating, jump out of gear completely while indicating on the dash that it is in gear, and the engine will rev up on its own (up to 3500 rpm) for several seconds before violently jerking into gear. I worry that the engine may try to rev up while actually in gear and cause rapid acceleration and possibly an accident if it's unable to be stopped in time.

The contact owns a 2018 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while starting the vehicle on two occasions, the electrical systems in the vehicle failed to illuminate. The contact was unable to restart the vehicle. The contact stated that on another occasion while driving 30 MPH, the interior and exterior lights and electrical systems became inoperable. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who was unable to identify the cause of the failure. After the third failure, the contact took the vehicle home and had an electrician inspect the vehicle. The electrician diagnosed that the ground wires had begun rusting due to being made of a nonferrous material. The electrician disconnected, sanded down, and used di-electric grease to prevent the rust from reoccurring; however, the failure persisted. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 20,000.

The vehicle as of 12/9/2023 at 3:00pm CST is at a mileage of 79,503. We are consistently experiencing the slipping of gears when the truck is switched from park to drive. The first couple gears seem to slip as it accelerates. The speedometer will be showing at under 10mph, and the truck will jerk forward. The engine/transmission gets loud as if the car is still in a lower gear as it’s accelerating. While it’s jerking and making the loud noise, the speedometer will not go over 10mph. We are concerned that it is a problem with the powertrain control module. It seems to happen when the shift lever is moved from Park to Drive, possibly it causes a loss of gear indication on the instrument cluster display and a momentary selection of an unintended gear, such as Reverse or Neutral before the vehicle achieves the Drive function. We have a...

We have had several problems with this vehicle since we bought it in 2020. It uses way too much oil for it to be new. We were told it was a common issue, but if the oil level ever gets down to a certain point, the truck acts weird. We have to put 3-5 quarts of oil in the truck in between oil changes (3,000 miles). We have put the truck in the shop several times for different issues, specifically engine knocking that we were told was "just how the motor is, all of the 5.0L engines do this," and oil issues. We also just had purchased it, and the timing belt broke while driving. We understand that used vehicles often come with problems that cannot be diagnosed before purchasing, but the vehicle only had 30k miles on it. My husband was driving down the highway today and the truck...

Vehicle randomly stalled out as I was slowing down and an error appeared stating that there was a problem with the auto on/off feature and that I would need to put the vehicle in park and restart it manually. Fortunately I was turning onto a side road but if this was to happen as I was trying to make a quick turn through traffic it would have been a much larger issue.

The contact owns a 2018 Ford F-150. The contact stated that the interior lights illuminated, and the rear driver's door message was displayed. The battery was drained due to the failure. The contact located a similar article on YouTube regarding the rear driver's door and that the wiring harness was frayed. The contact spoke to her neighbor, who experienced the same failure. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, and the contact was referred to NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 38,391.

We tried to turn the vehicle OFF and it would not switch off. Literally we turned the key off but the motor kept running. We took it to a local mechanic who said the vehicle's wiring system has been melted and it would need to go to a dealer. Ford confirmed that the wiring harness melted and the vehicle's but the cause is unclear. Pictures show that the wiring got very hot, hot enough to melt plastic and discolor it. Ford says, that's what happens sometimes with 7 year vehicles. However, where plastic is discolored means there was open flame or sparking. Had the truck caught fire, the passengers may not have been able to exit if the doors were locked and the electric locks didn't work. We have not had it repaired and are considering an insurance claim. There were no warning lamps. No one has inspected the vehicle...

APMI failure, compromises the ability to connect handheld device to vehicle for safety while on the road and ability to keep hands an eyes where the product designs them to be by disabling many safety features with voice, and navigation.

The contact owns a 2018 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at a slow speed, the vehicle shut off with the "Auto START/STOP - Shift to Park - Restart Engine" message was displayed. The contact was able to restart the vehicle and the vehicle resumed normal operation. The contact also stated that while driving at a high speed, the vehicle shuddered while depressing of the accelerator pedal. The vehicle had been taken to the dealer on several occasions; however, the mechanic was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The manufacturer had been notified of the failure but offered no assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 28,000.

The twin panel sunroof has water leaks threw the factory installed rivets on the rail causing electrical shortages and which can lead to a fire hazard water and electrical do not mix ford needs to redesign these sunroof rails to prevent water from seeping threw the cracks of the factory installed rivets

APIM is bad. It causes safety issues as the SYNC 3 system is either slow to change or doesn't change at all. Among other issues, I've driven forward in Drive with the SYNC screen still showing the view of the reverse camera. IT interferes with any safety systems that require the APIM to react in a timely manner.

I was recently driving the vehicle with no issues and all systems running normally. Suddenly, every light in the cabin and every dashboard indicator light started flashing with a chime through the speaker system which normally occurs when the keys are in the ignition. The vehicle was parked and the engine was turned off immediately to avoid any further issues or damage. After turning off the ignition and removing the keys, the vehicle continued to try and power on with the accompanying chime through the speaker system. After exiting the vehicle, it was observed the headlights and taillights were also flashing very rapidly. An attempt was made to restart the vehicle. After inserting the keys, every light in the cabin and every dashboard indicator light started flashing with a chime through the speaker system again, the engine would not turn over or attempt to start. An attempt was made to...

Radio, rearview camera, compass, usb ports, eight inch display failure. APIM has gone bad, a very common Ford defect over several years covering several models, that is costing/has cost thousands of consumers over a thousand dollars each to repair. The APIMs are obviously defective, a recall should be issued, and Ford should be required to replace the APIM at no cost to the consumer.

The contact owns a 2018 Ford F-150. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the Navigation System screen turned off temporarily. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring increasingly and the Navigation System screen would turn off for an extended period and would fail to turn on upon turning off and restarting the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The dealer referred the contact to the manufacturer. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that it was a known failure; however, there was no fix for the failure. The manufacturer referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000.

The sync3 screen is flashing intermittently. It blacks out for 1 second and comes back on for one second. It continuously does this, and is very distracting while driving down the road. Especially at night. Also I cannot see the rearview camera while backing up the vehicle. I have done research on the problem, and there are numerous other problems just like I'm experiencing.

In late 2020 Ford issued recall 20C03 to correct a problem with the Daylight running lights. This entailed the reprogramming of the body control module. In so doing they made an error in the new program and inadvertently activated the parking lamps at all times when using the Daylight running lights. This is in violation of the FMVSS No. 108 (Vehicle Lighting Standards) and California Vehicle Code Section 24800 (Driving with Parking Lights). I filed a complaint with Ford Motor Co. and they have repeatedly refused to correct the issue. Now to avoid the possibility of receiving a traffic violation it is necessary to not use a safety feature and drive without Daylight running lights.

Exiting a major freeway. Truck lost all power and dash lights illuminated. With a message. Place and park and restart engine. Resulting in me narrowly avoiding a major accident, due to lack of power and braking. After running off the side of the highway and stopping. Vehicle could be restarted with no check engine or faults. However, this is extremely dangerous. After getting home and researching to see if this is a problem to other Ford F150 owners. Others have reported similar problems. Will not be driving vehicle because its unsafe.

Unknown Mykey has me hostage. When I purchased my vehicle they only had 1 key. Not realizing that setting up the MyKey for my vehicle, I would be putting myself and others that drive on the road with me grave danger. I purchased my truck in March of 2019 and I the fall of 2021 I didn’t think nothing of it by setting up the Mykey for my Ford F-150. Well without further a due I realized that the restrictions that the Mykey puts on there owners. Driving on the freeway or anywhere one may have to pass another vehicle quickly . Hang onto your hat because the speedometer stops at 80 and you just might find yourself between an on coming vehicle and the vehicle you were trying to get around before he thought about not allot you to… In the last 15 months there’s been to many near...

While driving at generally any speed from 8mph up to 70mph the electronic steering wheel will pull in either direction, I have brought this truck into a certified Ford dealership and they said everything they checked out was okay with said truck. This is not okay as it almost pulled me into the ditch while turning a corner. Other then that incident this erratic steering situation arises anytime I am driving, it does not appear to be intermittent.

radio and camera do not work full screen does not turn on

Vehicle had electrical issues - Diagnosis by dealership was water damage to the Body Control Module. This module is inside the cabin on the front passenger area by their feet/legs. The issues included - flashers goin off, horn going off, truck bed gate dropping open - while parked and while driving down highway, and entire vehicle just shutting down while ALL of the issues happened at once. People have been put at risk by the gate dropping and the immediate shut down of an operating vehicle. The dealer was able to reproduce the problem. I had it happen twice. I have since identified that it is something that is a known issue on F150 forums. So much so that the likely cause of the water damage has been identified, and forwarded to the manufacturer. They are not fixing the issue. Manufacturer's dealership technician identified the water damage as the root...

There is a noticeable lag in the infotainment system whenever an input from the steering wheel is changed or the screen is touched. The navigation screen shows "no gps" and the maps stop working frequently. There are times the touch screen is black and completely unresponsive. The bluetooth connection with my phone connects and disconnects constantly also. The usb ports directly beneath the radio frequently don't work either. Safety is effected because of increased time looking away from the road trying to answer calls or get directions through the navigation system. The problem has not been inspected because I haven't been to the dealer since this first started happening. There were no warning lamps. The only indicators were that the bluetooth connection for my phone was dropped and the "no gps" was displayed on the maps. This first appeared about 3 months ago.

From the summer of the first year of purchasing the new vehicle on April 4, 2018, due to the very foul smell of urine when the air conditioner was operated, diagnosis and repairs were requested to more than 4 dealers in New York City, but only the opinion was presented that there was nothing wrong except for cleaning methods, and every summer I constantly asked other dealers for diagnosis and repair, but it didn't work. However, I have continuously commissioned the dealer every year to solve this problem, and the dealer of the current ford lincoln of queen said that if the warranty repair is not possible, the owner must pay the cost to do the work, and the warranty repair that I have part, but they are due to the borrower's faulty use No warranty repairs due to Since there has been a problem since the first year of...

The vehicles electronic systems all seem to be going haywire. Towing alerts are given when not actual or sometimes not even towing. Backup camera is on/off when backing up then touch screen does not function for several minutes after backup camera was on. Towing and backup camera malfunctions affect driver safety and vehicle accident prevention. The problem has not been looked at and/or repaired by dealer as I'm investigating what the issue 'may be' (first indication is APIM module???) No OEM or Police inspections performed Started winter/spring 2022 and have gotten worse. First signs were Trailer Warning alerts then progressed with GPS and backup camera outages. Now none of vehicles electronics seem to be function at or even NEAR 100 percent effective.

While driving 5mph 5 minutes after starting the truck, the truck caught on fire and burst into flames after stalling out.

Backup camera failed/does not show anything on dash screen. Cannot see behind me when backing up. The dealer service center confirmed the failure and ordered a new wiring harness at my cost of $450.00. The dealer said the wiring harness for the camera needs to be replaced. The camera worked sporadically and then failed. There is now a message on my dash screen saying the camera does not work.

My truck has an automatic start-stop feature. About twice a month, when I am at a stop and the auto stop shuts down the engine, the whole truck will shut down. I will then have to put the transmission into park, turn the key to off and then restart the truck. A warning light comes up on my front display which says Auto StartStop Shift to P, then Restart Engine. The A with the arrow around it is in orange. This has caused me many issues in traffic and I have been close to getting rear ended on multiple occasions because of it. I have had it to the dealer, Haldeman Ford of Kutztown, on 5 different occasions over the past 6 months and it is still not resolved. The dealership has replaced the battery, did a system reboot and replaced the starter. I have shown them pictures and videos...

I put the truck in park and left it idle with the air conditioning on for a passenger got out to go do something for a few minutes and the truck just started have flames come out of it from the middle of the truck until the truck completely burned the fire started with the truck running and idling and the the truck was parked on gravel

After starting the vehicle, at any time in under a minute the vehicle's engine will randomly shut off and display a message on the instrument cluster "Auto StartStop, Shift to P then Restart Engine". A photo of this message is included in this report. This issue can occur while in Park, Reverse, Neutral, or Drive. I have had it randomly occur to me upwards of 40 occasions over the past 3 years. A few times I have actually been driving at a slow speed (below 10 mph) when the engine stopped. So far for me, it seems to only happen when the engine RPM's are below 1500 or so. It feels like the engine shakes and then shuts off, then the dash chimes and displays the message mentioned above. I follow the instructions; I turn the ignition off, shift to Park, and restart the engine. Sometimes it starts back up...

There wasnt an incident yet, but it was made a law that after may 1st, 2018, all new vehicles need rear view visibility systems. Ford made their vehicles have backup cameras, but they are faulty and stop working. Then charge consumers thousands of dollars to fix a safety issue that should be a recall, free of charge. I am filing a complaint om behalf of thousands and thousands of Ford owners. This law went into effect may 1st of 2018, According to USDOT and the National Highway Traffic safety administration. What ford is doing is wrong/unlawful and they should have to follow the law just like everyone else (even being an automobile company).

Engine doesn’t start when turning the key. When taking the key out and reinserted the engine starts. Auto stop start failure light displayed on dash while idling at a a stop light. Had to turn the ignition off and on several time while at the light. Vehicle has not been reported to the manufacturer or inspected yet. Vehicle is available for inspection upon request.

After towing a trailer for a few hours, the truck has difficulty cranking over after the truck has been turned off for refueling. It seems like the battery or alternator are bad, but I have had both checked and they are in good shape. This only happens when pulling a trailer. This has happened multiple times. The safety concern is being stranded on a road trip. Others have this issue on the 2018 f150 as well. I have read about this. Some have said a wire is overheating.

At 9,000 miles the oil ran dry in the engine. No warning lights came on. The vehicle had routine oil change at 5,000 miles. I was stranded on the road with no transportation. After several oil consumption test Ford agreed to replace the motor with a long block. After 1,000 miles on the second motor the oils was over 2 quarts low on oil. Ford remedy was a longer dipstick with wider oil range. After two oil consumption tests Ford change the motor again with short block. After 20 miles the one of the heads went bad. Ford replaced one head. After 75 miles the vehicle stopped running and is in the shop again. The vehicle has been in the shop for over 6 weeks at a time. I have requested a buy back twice.

The F150 will stall when auto start/stop activates. This is a critical safety issue due to the vehicle becoming inoperable at intersections while stopped. The issue was reviewed several times by the dealership and issue persisted. The issue is still not repaired and mitigated by deactivating the system. This resulted in a lemon law lawsuit from me to ford with me winning a settlement for 8K dollars. However, this dangerous issue must be properly repaired. I am able to demonstrate this issue upon request. I have also have video of the incident with warning lights that activate.

Vehicle was inspected by the dealership and Ford inspector. VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL RELATED PROBLEMS OF THE 2018 Ford F-150. Backing up to an elevated driveway on a residential street. Braking at 0 mph and the vehicle accelerated at a speed which crashed the front end of the neighbor’s car parked at the top of the driveway. Those neighbors have two small children which play on that driveway and would have been killed. The neighbor heard the brakes screeching. I did not have my foot on the accelerator. This incident was reported to the police, the dealership and Ford which inspected the vehicle. They claim they did not find a problem, but there are a multitude of similar issues online. I received an recall email from NHTSA today, March 22, 2022 which I was convinced was FORD and NHTSA resolving this issue because the NHTSA information (in its brevity) seemed similar...

The vehicle I am writing about is 2018 F150 equipped with the 2.7L eco boost and the 10 speed transmission. The vehicle came standard with the auto-stop start feature. I however do not like the system to I press the “stop/start button” to turn off the system. The vehicle has appx 53,000 miles on it I had been driving for approximately 10 minutes and had made several stops without incident. I however came to approximately the 6th stop and the engine of the truck shit off completely, oil pressure indicated zero with a battery discharge light. The center screen displayed the message “auto stop start, shift to P, then restart engine”. I shifted to park and was able to restart. Although I was at a stop I worry if the vehicle is capable of shutting down randomly like this while in motion. This was not a routine shut down of...

On Jan 1st-I was returning to SE Michigan from Cincinnati and driving thru rain most of the way back that has turned to snow shortly after I crossed into Michigan. I was on M23 doing about 70MPH just south of I96 interchange (Brighton, MI) when my vehicle shuddered three different times in about a minute for maybe 2-3 seconds. Then a warning light flashed on my dashboard and went off before I could read it. Then it appeared again and flashed off again. Then vehicle shuddered again and my entire dashboard lit up with every warning light seemingly possible and all type of warning/error messages started circling thru main dash info center. My engine turned off and I had no power steering, brakes, etc. I pulled off to the side of the road safely but in a very congested area with left & right merging lanes. I shut engine off...

The A/C unit does not blow hot or cold. This seems to be a common problem for years with a lot of the FORD F-150 based on a lot youtube videos. No one can seem to understand where the problem is originating from. When I got it diagnosed that they suspected the grounding wire is exposed and touching metal at some point in the system. Overall, I think electrical wire that is not working can have a knock on effect to other parts of the car system.

The passenger side door would not lock. The door appeared to be closed, but when I drove about 300 feet, the door flew open. I had to keep hitting the lock button and slam the door closed before the door actually locked. The outside temperature was 22 degrees Fahrenheit. This happened to me one another time, also when the outside temperature was below freezing.

The contact owns a 2018 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving approximately 45 mph when the vehicle's side air bags on the driver-side, front and rear, suddenly deployed without impact. The contact then noticed that a small fire had sparked on the floorboard near their feet. The contact had pulled over to the side of the road where an observer was able to retrieve a fire extinguisher from their home and put out the fire. The contact was unable to verify if a fire report was made. There were no injuries. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who had not diagnosed or repaired the vehicle as of yet. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 55,000.

I was driving and as I came to a stop I lost all power and engine shut off. Received an error message to put vehicle in park and restart engine.

my tailgate opened on its own while i was pulling a trailer and the tailgate got all scratched up . This isn't the first time its opened on its own .ford had put an update on the truck after the first time that was supposed to resolve the issue . I took it back to the dealer and they looked it over and said they can't find any problems now. i don't feel they were being honest in there assessment or did they look very hard to fix this issue . if the tailgate opens again on its own it could be very dangerous for any traffic behind as unsecured cargo could fall out at highway speeds .

apim module only works part time. When it is not working, which is 99% of the time, the radio, GPS, and other devices will not work correctly. Ford diagnostics at the dealership tell me the apim module needs replacing.

Complete failure of the Sync 3 Advanved Program Interface Module (APIM). Recall available up until 2017 model year, 2018 needs to be included. I purchased my vehicle used in August 2019 with 28,000 miles and had problems with the APIM from the start. Dealer refuses to replace. Problems include: -Device will not update firmware over Wi-Fi or USB flash drive. -None of the official Ford Sync mobile apps on iPhone will connect to APIM. -Resuming music from USB flash drive frozen in memory from same song and time every time I start the car even after playing many songs ahead. -Turning off the vehicle loses the current clock time. -Driving durring the day with headlights off, screen randomly goes black into night mode. Dealer quoted me $1008 to replace APIM, not gonna happen. I researched prices online and can purchase this and do it myself for less than $300 but,...

Ford Sync 3 system in 2018 F-150 has been faulty, dealership diagnosed it as a faulty APIM, no longer covered under standard warranty. Online forums are littered with similar issues, Ford refuses to address or cover, wants > $1k for replacement. Symptions: - Main display screen goes completely blank - Backup camera does not display - Handsfree bluetooth disconnects - GPS freezes, directions do not display

THE APIM IS DEFECTIVE THE GPS SIGNIAL ON THE NAVIGATION IS MESSED UP IT WILL SHOW THAT I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A LAKE OR FIELD WHEN I'M ON THE ROAD, THE NAVIGATION IS ALSO VERY SLOW AND THE BACKUP SENSORS DON'T WORK AS EXPECTED WHEN BACKING UP THE 360 CAMERA IS ALSO EXTREMELY LAGY AND TAKES 15 SECONDS TO ACTIVATE. FORD SAYS THIS PART IS 1800 BUT IT IS AN INTERNAL PART OF THE NAVIGATION SYSTEM AND SHOULDN'T JUST FAIL

2018 F-150 PANORAMIC SUNROOF TRACKS AND MOTORS BROKE AND STUCK OPEN POSITION. WAS DRIVING AND WITH FUMES FROM OTHER CARS ENTERING MY VEHICLE FROM OPEN ROOF AND INABILITY TO CLOSE, I WAS GETTING LIGHTHEADED AND ALMOST PASSED OUT FROM EXHAUST FUMES SITTING IN TRAFFIC.

I TOOK MY TRUCK TO THE FORD DEALERSHIP I PURCHASED IT FROM BECAUSE THE TAIL LIGHTS STOPPED WORKING. THE SERVICE MANAGER INFORMED ME THAT WATER WAS IN BOTH TAIL LIGHTS AND HAD TO BE REPLACED FOR $3,000. MY TRUCK IS A 2018, HAS ONLY 18,000 MILES AND WELL TAKEN CARE OF AND NO ACCIDENTS. THE SERVICE CLAIMED THE WATER GOT IN BECAUSE OF DAMAGE TO THE TAIL LIGHT. THE MARKS HE POINTED OUT ON THE TAIL LIGHTS WERE VERY LIGHT SCUFF MARKS AND COULD NOT ALLOW WATER TO GET INSIDE. THEY WOULD NOT COVER THE REPLACEMENT BECAUSE OF THE SCUFF MARKS. I WENT ON A FORD FORUM AND FOUND THAT THERE HAD BEEN PLENTY OF OTHER 2018 (AND OTHER YEARS) THAT HAD WATER IN THEIR TAIL LIGHTS AS WELL. THE TRUCKS THAT WERE OUT OF WARRANTY JUST REMOVE THE TAIL LIGHT, DRAINED THE WATER, APPLIED SILICON AROUND THE SEEMS OF...

ELECTRIC TAILGATE LATCH FAILS CAUSING TAILGATE TO OPEN UNEXPECTEDLY; HAPPENS WHETHER IN MOTION OR STANDING STILL. EVIDENTLY THERE IS A RECALL FOR THIS PROBLEM IN CANADA, BUT NOT THE US.

POWER DOOR LOCKS WOULD NOT OPEN. HAD TO USE KEY TO ENTER VEHICLE AND THEN PHYSICALLY PULL UP DOOR LOCKS TO OPEN DOORS. ONLY HAPPENED WHEN TEMP WAS FREEZING TWICE SO FAR WHEN VEHICLE WAS PARKED OUTSIDE