Life gate automatically opened, car lights flashing

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xkerzon

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This morning at 12:44am CST, our 2018 XLT rear lift gate opened all by itself, hit the garage door and remained opened all night. The exterior lights flashed during several cycles / sequences over several minutes. I have video on our surveillance cameras. The main key fob is in the vehicle. The spare is on the second story in a dresser drawer (confirmed). The key fobs had nothing sitting on top of them to apply any kind of pressure. No kids in the house. No one was in the garage. This is clear to me that it’s a ghost, lol, I mean electrical malfunction with either the key fob or main battery. Anyone else experience anything like this. Unfortunately, the garage was opened before realizing the tailgate was ajar so it got some damage. YouTube link here if it lets me:
 

aggiegrad05

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This has popped up a few times on here. Here is one thread where a couple of folks note phantom opening with no human interaction:

https://www.expeditionforum.com/threads/hands-free-lift-gate-closing-by-itself.41228/

I'm not sure I have seen a solution, however, but maybe someone else remembers. On that thread I posted above, @fishrising uploaded his/her service ticket showing some rewiring per TSB 19-2162. I think that was for a foot activation malfunction, but maybe it was for this issue.
 

Going_Going_Gone

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A couple of weeks back I took ours in for the mirror fix and TSB 19-2162 because my lift gate would close by itself when you walked behind it or most often when unloading groceries etc. It made absolutely no change to the foot (non) activation. Then last week, and for the first time, the lift gate opened by itself in the garage with the fob in the house. I didn't know it was open when I opened the garage door from the outside using a remote. The garage door stalled when a stiffener brace came up under the lower lip of the open lift gate which hadn't opened all the way. I had to go through the house to figure out what had happened. Normally we park so there's room enough to open the lift gate even with the garage door closed but not this time. Fortunately there was only a paint scratch where you can't see it. Sad to say that I'm not overwhelmed by the electronics on this vehicle...when I take it in, it always seems to be two steps forward then one step back.
 
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xkerzon

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Update and possible reason for my liftgate issue.
1. I forgot to mention that we have the automatic lift gate option on our XLT.
2. My wife leaned on a cup in the cup holder and broke the bottom of the cup holder more than a week ago so there is a hole now and you can see down into the middle console. Yesterday, I removed the top portion of the console so I could look to fix the cup holder. There was a plug connected to the cup holder which I thought was the cup holder ambient lighting. The sticker near what I unplugged says U553 CC Front Cup Holder Assy Ambient 2277653X8B. Attached a picture of the female end of the plug. It wasn’t Ambient lighting. My wife went to start the vehicle after my original post above and the Expy said “no key fob” or something. I tried the backup key fob but it did the same thing. I remembered that wire that I left unplugged, and when I plugged it back in, the car started right up. I’m not for sure, but my issue could have been related to whatever I unplugged.

7DEFADEE-6C0B-4912-8B8A-9D4DD13EB1E8.jpeg
 

Uturn

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The left front cup holder contains the slot for programming a new key fob. My understanding from another post is that in the event of a dead key fob, the dead key fob can be inserted into the slot and the vehicle will still start. It may also be the receiver for the keyless start system.
 

jwas1

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This morning at 12:44am CST, our 2018 XLT rear lift gate opened all by itself, hit the garage door and remained opened all night. The exterior lights flashed during several cycles / sequences over several minutes. I have video on our surveillance cameras. The main key fob is in the vehicle. The spare is on the second story in a dresser drawer (confirmed). The key fobs had nothing sitting on top of them to apply any kind of pressure. No kids in the house. No one was in the garage. This is clear to me that it’s a ghost, lol, I mean electrical malfunction with either the key fob or main battery. Anyone else experience anything like this. Unfortunately, the garage was opened before realizing the tailgate was ajar so it got some damage. YouTube link here if it lets me:
 

jwas1

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I had this on our 2018 XLT Expy. Took it to dealer multiple times before they fixed. They said it was “a faulty relay”. The kick to open stopped working after the fix. I also have the popping outside mirror problem.
 
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