Active Park Assist Disabled

Been getting message on dash saying something to the effect "Active Park Assist Disabled" when shifting into gear for months. Self-parking feature doesn't work anymore. Neither does the "radar" that tells you when you're about to hit something (on any side) when parking.

2018 model, purchased new about a year ago. Been in 2x to dealer for repair. Both times dealer says it's a known issue and has a prescribed fix, which they've applied, but problem persists. The way they explained it, the sensors allow dirt and water inside them and are very sensitive and get knocked offline easily. No explanation for why the prescribed fix (cleaning them out, I guess) hasn't resolved the issue and they suggested wait for a permanent fix.

I reached out to corporate Ford and they didn't help at all.

Anyone else experience this? Any ideas how to more quickly get to a permenent fix? Any other insight?

Bumping this thread with some new info. Hoping it sounds familiar to someone and maybe there's word of what the ultimate fix is?

I noticed today that the wording of the error message alternates between what I wrote above ("Active Park Assist Disabled") and something to the effect "Park Aid Unavailable - Sensor Blocked".

With either message the result is the same: The self-park feature is disabled (and cannot be re-enabled by pushbutton) and the "radar" that tells you when you're getting to close to something is completely disabled.

We get this error condition probably around 49 out of every 50 engine starts, meaning about once every 50 starts we luck out and both the active park and "radar" systems work as normal. Though, it seems like lately we're lucking out a bit more often then we had been (maybe we're up to 1 out of every 25 starts it's all working?).

We'll be taking it back to the dealer for a 3rd attempt at fixing soon. In the 2 prior visits they said they cleaned the sensors but otherwise just shrugged their shoulders. Anyone else had theirs in for service with this issue?

Bad Sensor or Parking Assist Control Module (PAM) ?

2018expyXLT4wd said:

Bad Sensor or Parking Assist Control Module (PAM) ?

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Would either of those conditions be expected to result in codes on OBD scanner? Dealer claims despite the on-dash error message no codes come through OBD.

Not sure which module generates a code - Does the PAM, for instance, push the code out to a higher level module, or does some higher level module interrogate the PAM periodically, and post the code (don't know). It's firmware, so at the mercy of the programmer - just ask Boeing.

I never even tried it on my Expedition, maybe I should see it's magic

armoredsaint said:

I never even tried it on my Expedition, maybe I should see it's magic

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Normal perpendicular spot: I can back in just as well and a lot faster than the truck can on its own, but I often let the truck do it when I have passengers as they get a kick out of it.

Parallel spot: It's magical. I can't parallel park to save my life and the truck does an excellent job getting in and out of a spot. It cuts the corners really close (too close for my comfort sometimes) but it gets the land yacht into spots that look far too small. I wouldn't even attempt to parallel park this thing on my own and am very happy with the feature.

In my case, I don't really care about the self-park feature (don't use it except to amaze the kids).

However, not having the "radar" that tells you you're about to hit something when manually parking is a major deal in my book. All that "radar" just might save you from unwittingly backing over someone or something. It also does help when pulling into tight spaces (garage, parking stall/space, etc.).

Had the "radar" (sorry to keep calling it that, don't know what its offical term is) been working instead of broken a month or two back, my wife likely wouldn't have backed into a parked car and our insurance rates wouldn't have just increased. :-/ But, better having backed into a car rather than a person. :-/

this is embarrassing, since i never used it - i don't know how to even initiative it - i know there's the button you push next to the drive modes and use the turn signal

I didn't know the option was even offered on any trim level for the Expy's!