Limp mode issues while off road

[shimmy]

I wheel my 24 Bronco Raptor and on several occasions now have run into the issue where the vehicle will enter limp mode. It seems to happen while going downhill, usually in rock crawl drive mode. All times have been high in the Rockies (8000+ ft elev). It is reproducible if I am stopped for a couple of minutes while facing a steep downhill in 4 lo (idle, in park, or just foot on brake).

Symptoms are the truck will bog down, lose all power, unable to rev above ~3k RPM. Christmas tree dash lights. Seems like full limp mode, it will barely move. Fully restarting the truck solves the problem (power down, open/close doors, lock, unlock, open doors, power on). No codes readable after the event. No dash lights after restart. No events with the ford pass app, always out of cell range.

Only mods are the Ford tune installed at the dealer.

Fully aware there are no vehicles that can be expected to be completely reliable while off-roading but this seems like a known issue. In some cases, could be quite dangerous—if I needed throttle to get out of a situation, in snow or mud or even just to avoid a hazard, it wouldn’t be there.

I have seen a few threads that never got resolved and am posting to see if anyone has gotten any useful responses from their dealer or otherwise. Any further information greatly appreciated!

 

[JohnGalt]

I’ve got no answers, but thanks for posting! All the electronics are cool in their own way, but unnerving.

I’ve had this happen about six months ago. Steep 30+ degrees descent right after climbing the same at about 6000’. I limped down the mountain to where I could get help (in case it wouldn’t restart) before attempting a restart. Restarted, worked fine and haven’t had an issue since. I didn’t pull codes at the time, but don’t recall anything when I did it some time later.

I’ve also seen two other Broncos lose their lockers when getting hung up in rocks with simultaneous lack of traction and high wheel speed. Especially concerning as we were on seriously difficult trails. This required a battery disconnect and then everything was fine. So if restart doesn’t fix an electronics issue, try disconnecting and waiting 5 or so minutes.

Finally, yet another Bronco lost lockers plus… ( I wasn’t there) on Dusy-Ershim trail when the wiring connection to the wheel speed sensor while in some rocks. Fortunately another guy had Forscan and a laptop to troubleshoot. They were able to repair the wiring and drive out without issue. Dusy-Ershim is not a great place to have a breakdown.

Probably time I get Forscan and learn to use it. It’d be cool if you could just run diagnostics off the dash touch screen. That’d be useful!

 

[NatlChamp]

I haven't experienced this (yet) but it's scary. I got myself into a situation last week in the sierras; extremely steep narrow downhill plus or minus 10 foot drop on either side. Snow had just melted and encountered a stretch of maybe 30 feet of deep mud. Low range, off road setting creeping downhill so steep once in the mud I was sliding all over the place. Using the breaks was not going to work. Had I not been able to use throttle I'd have been in a serious hurt. I was by myself, and this was a real white-knuckle experience.

Any way to find out if this is a continuing issue and any remedy? Thanks.

On another note, now I have a squeaky passenger side rear break.

 

[timhutch]

I also experienced this (several times) early on during descents in 4 low in my 2023 BRaptor. I wheel it pretty hard but I haven't had this happen in at least a year. From the research I did at the time I believe it was caused by a mismatch between the throttle pedal position and the expected speed/performance for that position. This mostly occurred during "jerky" hill descents in low range where uneven terrain and a very sensitive throttle made it difficult to be smooth. I believe the reason that I haven't experienced this recently may be because I have modified my driving habits as I have grown more used to the truck? One of the YouTube channels that I follow is called LiteBrite, and they had the same problem the first few times they took their BRaptor on hard offroad trails. In order to correct the problem I just shut the truck off for about 30 seconds and restarted. Always cleared the problem for me. If you do find a different reason and/or solution to this problem I would be very interested to hear about it. Best of luck!

 

[Hotrod1]

I wheel my 24 Bronco Raptor and on several occasions now have run into the issue where the vehicle will enter limp mode. It seems to happen while going downhill, usually in rock crawl drive mode. All times have been high in the Rockies (8000+ ft elev). It is reproducible if I am stopped for a couple of minutes while facing a steep downhill in 4 lo (idle, in park, or just foot on brake).

Symptoms are the truck will bog down, lose all power, unable to rev above ~3k RPM. Christmas tree dash lights. Seems like full limp mode, it will barely move. Fully restarting the truck solves the problem (power down, open/close doors, lock, unlock, open doors, power on). No codes readable after the event. No dash lights after restart. No events with the ford pass app, always out of cell range.

Only mods are the Ford tune installed at the dealer.

Fully aware there are no vehicles that can be expected to be completely reliable while off-roading but this seems like a known issue. In some cases, could be quite dangerous—if I needed throttle to get out of a situation, in snow or mud or even just to avoid a hazard, it wouldn’t be there.

I have seen a few threads that never got resolved and am posting to see if anyone has gotten any useful responses from their dealer or otherwise. Any further information greatly appreciated!

This has happened to me in Colorado probably 10 times on my last 2 trips. 4-6 times in Leadville area at 11,000 feet going down hill. I was able to use parking break and shut vehicle off and it was back to normal. It seems this happened when I had steep downhill and I was in manual and paddled down to 1 from 2 gear. Very frustrating!

Just got back from Ouray/Silverton and this happened another 3 times. At over 12,000 ft going steep downhill similar to example above. Same result parking break on shut off and it was OK.
Ford needs to come up with fix for this!

 

[LanceIto]

Are you guys using trail pedal when this occurs? If not, curious if one pedal drive will elevate the issue. I use it to take the play out of the Tcase chain slop I feel in 4L (1st and 2nd gear).

 

[JohnGalt]

Not me

 

[LanceIto]

Are you guys in D or M manually selecting gears?

 

[Jethro15]

Yep had it happen in Moab going down a steep rock face. My recollection was similar in that I believe I paddle shifted down to first gear and it got lurchy. I applied gas peddle to try to smooth out my descent and it didn’t like that. I had to ascend the other side and just floored it and it bogged down climbing out. I shut everything down at the top just to regather my thoughts. It was pretty hairy trying to climb out with limited power. Fortunately when I restarted it everything seemed normal the rest of the day. Thought it was driver error, not using my paddles correctly or something. But Apparantly not according to this feed. I’ll keep a lookout for any solutions from Ford.

 

[LanceIto]

Trail pedal is your answer. Try it. I was against it but I am pretty sure the engineers gave it to us for a reason. No more lurch.

 

[Jethro15]

Is that the slow speed descent built into the system? I’ve only done it once at the driving experience. Seems you have to stop completely to engage. I was on the move and was really shifting on the fly in a group of other drivers. Didn’t really have time to stop and remember how to engage it. I recall at the driving experience they said you can just use your light breaking technique if you wanted more of a hands on feel. Maybe it was the shifting and gas pedal that confused the system. Thank you for the e response.

 

[timhutch]

No, not me either. I usually use manual shifting on hard trails. It took me a little while to figure out how to get a smooth(ish) shift into or out of 1st gear in 4Lo.

 

[LanceIto]

Is the trail pedal. Super easy button in middle of selector switch. I dont use speed control. Its a but of a cheat code. I think its NECESSARY only in 4L crawling in 1st and 2nd.