simps7b2
Member
There are a couple posts on here about the buttons on the drive mode selector getting jammed. This happened to me when my kid kicked or stepped on the drive mode buttons/selector. The selector was noticeable shoved down at the back and all the buttons were inoperable. The rotary dial was also difficult to turn and when I tried to press a button I got a "4x4 fault detected" message. The problem was all due to the cluster getting pushed down and had nothing to do with crumbs/spill. The fault message would go away after turning the car off.
My specific model is a 2021 XLT FX4. I was able to pry a bit at the plastic side skirts of the center console to pop the whole piece off and get under the facia (there is a YT vid where someone claims you must unscrew stuff, but that is a different year/trim). I then unplugged the drive-mode selector, but left everything else connected (it may be safer to disconnect everything and take the whole unit out if you're sure you won't break any plugs). It looked to me like there is a small ridge around the box of the unit that is supposed to hold the whole thing up. When the kid stepped on it the ridge popped passed its retainer on one side and jammed the whole thing in its hole.
At this point I decided to remove the computer module from the bottom of the selector, which is probably safer given that I pried and pressed on the thing a lot. I did this by unscrewing the only 2 screws at the bottom of it. There are two little springs on the side of it and a rubber mat on top that I thankfully didn't let fall into oblivion. With the computer bit out I was able to force the box back up by leveraging a screw driver in the gap while pressing up. I mangled the ridge quite a bit, but it went back up ok. After this everything went back together pretty easy. I'm not 100% sure that the springs made it back into their little holes, but I rotated through all the drive modes and selected all the buttons and stuff seemed to be ok. Here's to hoping there's no mechanical damage from the locker getting engaged on the road or something (pretty sure it didn't).
All that to say, this is a really stupid design. I'm pretty sure whoever made the final call on all this crap doesn't have any children. Them Ford engineers need to start making babies so they stop doing stupid $#$%.
My specific model is a 2021 XLT FX4. I was able to pry a bit at the plastic side skirts of the center console to pop the whole piece off and get under the facia (there is a YT vid where someone claims you must unscrew stuff, but that is a different year/trim). I then unplugged the drive-mode selector, but left everything else connected (it may be safer to disconnect everything and take the whole unit out if you're sure you won't break any plugs). It looked to me like there is a small ridge around the box of the unit that is supposed to hold the whole thing up. When the kid stepped on it the ridge popped passed its retainer on one side and jammed the whole thing in its hole.
At this point I decided to remove the computer module from the bottom of the selector, which is probably safer given that I pried and pressed on the thing a lot. I did this by unscrewing the only 2 screws at the bottom of it. There are two little springs on the side of it and a rubber mat on top that I thankfully didn't let fall into oblivion. With the computer bit out I was able to force the box back up by leveraging a screw driver in the gap while pressing up. I mangled the ridge quite a bit, but it went back up ok. After this everything went back together pretty easy. I'm not 100% sure that the springs made it back into their little holes, but I rotated through all the drive modes and selected all the buttons and stuff seemed to be ok. Here's to hoping there's no mechanical damage from the locker getting engaged on the road or something (pretty sure it didn't).
All that to say, this is a really stupid design. I'm pretty sure whoever made the final call on all this crap doesn't have any children. Them Ford engineers need to start making babies so they stop doing stupid $#$%.
