Top 5 Problems Ford F-150 Truck 12th Generation 2009-14

Hey, friends. It's Len here from 1A Auto . While I've got you here, I want to go over some of the top problems on a 12th-generation Ford F-150. Let's get started.

One thing that I like to start off by talking about on this is safety, of course. That's my number one concern. And Ford actually has a safety recall out on these vehicles due to the transmission. What happens is the transmission, whether you're driving down the road or even on a highway, it just randomly decides it wants to drop down to first or even second gear. And, of course, that can cause major issues. One of the main causes of this could be because of the transmission output speed sensor. What happens is is it stops communicating with the PCM. The PCM thinks that your vehicle's stopped, when really it isn't, and next thing you know, boom, you make that abrupt downshift and it gets really squirrelly. The safest fix for this that I found is to go down Ford and make sure that they do the safety recall on it which is gonna be reflashing that PCM to make sure that you're safe as can be.

The second thing that I want to talk about is the MyFord Touch head unit. These have common issues with touch ability. Generally speaking, you go to touch it and it should do what you want, right? It's touchscreen. Well, on these, for some reason, they just decide they don't want to work. Maybe you're wearing some gloves, it's cold outside, maybe you've got long fingernails, you know, you just made them nice and pretty. Whatever the case may be, sometimes it's not responsive and sometimes it's actually a problem with the head unit. So that's fairly common.

Other things that may happen is the screen fails to return to its regular screen after it goes into the energy-saving mode. It'll just, kind of, stay there for some reason, and as much as you try to get out of it because you want to do what you need to do, it's just not happening.

Another thing that I'd like to mention is that the head units on these sometimes fail to communicate with something as simple as a smartphone. You're driving around, you got your Android or your iPhone whatever you're into, you want to listen to your music so you can get into a nice groove while you're driving and for some reason, it just won't communicate. That can lead to issues because, next thing you know, you're looking down and you're pushing buttons and you're not looking at the road like you should be. To me that's, kind of, a major issue. I like my music and I like to drive safe.

Lastly, something that I'd like to talk about. Maybe you've put it into reverse and you're trying to look at your little screen because you want to see what's behind you. I love that feature. You're driving back. Everything's looking copacetic. Next thing you know, the screen turns black. Why did it turn black? I don't know. Bonk, bonk, bonk on the head unit. It's not communicating with that rear camera.

Some of the fixes for this is there's a little download that you can do and you can put it on a little USB, you can plug it into your head unit and it should be able to reset the software for you. That'll be great. If that doesn't work, you could also try disconnecting the battery, do your little reset, plug it back in and give it another try. Hopefully, it works for you. If it doesn't, last resort, unfortunately, might be a little bit more costly. I would replace that head unit. If after you've done all this and that reverse camera still doesn't want to communicate, I would go ahead and test that reverse camera.

Number three, the next thing I want to talk about is O2 sensors. Let's say you're driving down the road and your check engine light turns on. Well, you pull those codes. You got your little scanner from 1A Auto right here. This is great by the way. And it tells you that you have a P0130 and a P0150. Well, that can be a bummer sometimes, but generally speaking, on these particular vehicles it's telling you that you have an issue with the O2 sensor. Maybe it's not reading right. It could be a voltage issue. Let's get a little bit more into that.

So some of the causes for this could be something as simple as checking your wiring to make sure you don't have any pinched, frayed or even broken wires. That's gonna be super important. Maybe if you look inside here when you take your connectors apart, you might see a little funny color in there. Green is usually a typical color or maybe even some blue. That means moisture got in there and it ruined it, okay? At that point, of course, you'd have to replace this.

There are some other issues that could be. You can go ahead and follow that circuit, the electrical circuit for this, and maybe find a blown fuse. Who knows? It could be something as simple as that. The last thing I like to mention about it as well is something as simple as an exhaust leak. If you think you hear an exhaust leak, it could be telling your vehicle that it's running too lean or too rich. And it could be trying to flood that engine or making it run too lean. And that's gonna cause major issues as well. So, with all that said, I wouldn't just jump into replacing the O2 sensor, but if you need them, we got them.

The fourth thing that I want to talk about is the canister purge solenoid. Maybe you're driving down the road and the truck just happens to stall out on you or maybe you drove down to the gas station, you just filled up the tank, you're ready for a road trip, you go to start up the truck and it just doesn't want to start. Some of the possible causes for this could be a faulty canister purge solenoid and/or a faulty canister vent solenoid. And course there could be other issues inside the circuit with the wiring and such. Ford has a TSB addressing this issue but basically what they recommend is replacing that canister purge valve.

Before I go ahead and replace that canister purge valve what I would generally like to do is I would test the wiring to make sure it's got all the right continuity where it needs to go. Once I did that and it still didn't want to work, I would go ahead and unplug the wiring from it, I would disconnect the hoses and then I would just try to force a little bit of air through it. If air can go through that purge solenoid without having it plugged in and getting the ground that is supposed to get, then that means that the solenoid is no good. If you tested all this and seemed to test out well, the next thing I would go to is that canister vent solenoid.

And number five, engine misfires. If you have a misfire condition, you're gonna notice a number of things. You're gonna notice your engines starting to run rough. Maybe you look at it and it's just shaking around. You can probably even feel it inside your car. You go to step on the gas, maybe, sometimes and it just doesn't have that pep that it used to have. Maybe your fuel economy went down you were getting 20, now you're getting 12. Well, that's not great. And, more than likely, you're gonna notice the check engine light.

Some of the possible causes for this could be low fuel pressure. Maybe that fuel pump in the back there just isn't running like it should. It's not pushing out enough pressure, you're not gonna run right. It's trying to push up fuel to get to those injectors and, well, in all honesty, maybe those fuel injectors are just as old as the pump. Maybe they're full of crud. They could be clogged. It's very possible.

Something else I'd like to check would be that mass airflow sensor. Generally speaking, that's gonna be on top of your engine or at least near it on the air intake hose. If you take that out, you take a peek and you notice that it's no good in there, maybe it looks like it's really cruddy and dirty, you can either clean it out or, in my recommendation, I would replace it. There's another possibility where you could have a vacuum leak. Maybe you got underneath the hood, you started unplugging things, you're doing your job, an oil change, whatever you do. You unplug something you shouldn't have. You left it unplugged. You went for a ride. It's sucking vacuum and it doesn't have the right amount of vacuum pressure in there. Your engine is definitely not gonna run right.

Some possible fixes could be checking that tune up. You want to take a peek at the coil. Make sure it's in great condition. It's not torn or worn. Take a look at that spark plug. Make sure you're not over your service interval. Also, it couldn't hurt to take a look at that air filter, maybe a fuel filter and of course the mass airflow sensor. If everything looks great you can move along.

The next thing I would check would be for vacuum leaks. The way I would do that is I would start up the vehicle, I would poke my head underneath the hood and just take a listen. If you hear a hissing noise, more than likely it's a vacuum leak. And then I move right along to check in that fuel pressure. You can do that with something as simple as a fuel pressure gauge. You hook it onto your fuel rail, start the vehicle and you take a peek. What's it reading? Is it in specs? Yes. You're doing all right.

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