Complete Failure of systems while motor running and driving

[longboarder]

I have a 6-month-old 2022 Expedition Max, approximately 6K mileage. I keep an eye on it, always monitoring gauges. I am a rideshare driver, not Uber or Left, but for children so I do go that extra bit. I was headed out the other day and forgot my phone so circled my block and as I was coming up to my house everything failed! Steering locked, brakes gone and locked absolutely no warning lights and panel normal with all gauges, including battery, showing perfect. I landed in my yard by pulling the emergency brake. I shut the engine off, caught my breath, and attempted to start it again only to see every single light in and out of the car going nuts, bells dinging but nothing warning. The brake pedal kicked back so hard I bruised my knee on the steering column.
I called AAA and had it towed to the dealership nearby (where purchased) and they were extremely nonplussed. Said this happens all the time, just a bad battery. It's six months old and only came with 10 miles on it. They said the factory "must have screwed up and not checked before shipping". Comforting. They told me that the battery controls the brakes and when it fails so do the brakes. I will sleep better knowing that!
Anyone ever hear of this? They said it was an easy couple hours fix--that was a day and a half ago and now they aren't returning phone calls or texts.
I previously had a used 2019 Expedition Max that came with only 20K mileage. It was sweet, sunroof and all! But the A/C went out 6 weeks later and took 6 months to get an appointment (L.A. summers are hot!). Took it in on October 4th 2022 . . . and never saw it again. They gave me a rental (which I had to pay "special" insurance on--$600!!) and on December 22nd told me to come get it ONLY to find when I got there that, sadly, it was irreparable and they would put me in a "new" car for ONLY 25K down! I had lost my dad just two weeks prior and wasn't thinking straight--just wanted to get back to work.
Was getting this Expedition a mistake? Are there issues with the 2022?

 

[m3olsen]

@longboarder - hopefully anyone else who may have experienced this will chime in. I've been monitoring this forum on and off for years now and have never read about symptoms like you're describing.

 

[Dewey3]

Interesting that you had no brakes... unless I'm mistaken, the e-brake is electrical as well, at least I think the switch portion is.

 

[duneslider]

E-brake is totally electric. I also have never heard of something like this happening.

 

[Shakeandbake]

Can anyone else confirm the whole battery causing the brakes and steering to fail? Don't need this kind of anxiety when I drive near cliffs every day.

 

[Dewey3]

When "old fashioned" vacuum assisted brakes lose their vacuum boost, the brakes feel like they may not be working, but in reality, they just require EXTREMELY hard pedal pushing since the vacuum assist is gone. I am not questioning the OP because I was not in his position, but I seriously doubt that NHTSB would allow vehicle that have NO brakes should they lose power.

Old fashioned power steering is very similar, but as long as the vehicle is moving, steering will work without the assistance of the power assist. With today's steer by wire vehicles, I don't know ????

 

[Deadman]

doesn't seem possible...

 

[rd618]

A few things, sorry to hear about the situation, scary for sure, especially if you're not well versed in how to handle a "dead" car.
First, All brakes must have a manual or automatic override if there is a loss in power. It's a requirement. Even if your battery is unplugged and you press the brake pedal it will apply braking force. The parking brake is fully electronic, if that worked you still had power.
Second, if your car was running as you were driving, you can disconnect the battery and the alternator provides power to all critical components. A battery is required to start a vehicle, not keep it running. If the battery was disconnected the car would give you a warning message but not shut itself off. Similarly, a message would apply if the battery was faulty, not charging, etc.
To the issue at hand, steering locked, engine off, dashboard normal. There are only a handful of interconnected systems that might potentially give you a situation like you are describing. These things have backups for the backups, if the engine shutoff while in motion and steering "locked" and brakes "locked", there is either a series of systems that failed, coms bus failure, or the car was running on accessory power.

 

[5280tunage]

While not your situation, I can't stand that the power steering on these "locks" the wheel when the engines off. Every car I've ever had before, even ones with lane departure controls, wheel feedback, etc. all still turn, all be it with much more force required. I hate even sitting at a stop, when auto-stop-start is engaged and the steering won't turn at all. So i can only imagine what it must have been like if you lost brakes, steering, everything. I would think there has to be some kind of diagnostics in the vehicle to help trace that event. Otherwise I personally would want a buyback, as I could never trust that car again.

 

[SyndicateZ]

If all those things happened to me at the same time I would be thinking my car is about to transform into an autobot