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All windows stopped working

Lil Red Broncette

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2022 2 door, manual trans, Black Diamond trim, Squatch

In short, windows were open all day, stated the car and neither window would close. No messages on the displays indicating a problem. Thinking maybe a glitch, stopped, restarted it, a few things like that no effect. Drove to the dealer a couple miles away to see if they had any tricks or could point to a fuse. They weren't much help. They pulled the OTA data and said there were no codes. I asked about a fuse and they said it wasn't a fuse or it would show dash messages or codes. I started to arrange a rental car, till Ford could look at it. About 40 min later I went to head home and put it in the garage and magically they were working again.

The problem occurred the following day, this time with the windows closed. Before knowing there was a problem, I observed when I got in that the window went down the normal short bit when opening the door and up upon closing. After starting the car, the window controls would not work. I opened the driver door and sure enough they went down and up the short bit as I open/closed. I did the same on the passenger side door with the normal window operation. Yet the control was not working. Clearly the motor was working and whatever made it do its thing opening/closing the door was working. It was something at the command side.

As I was driving home it occurred to me that the switches were by the mirror controls. I thought maybe both were controlled by the same module and if the module lost power the window controls wouldn't work either. I verified the window controls still weren't working. I pushed the button for the right side mirror and saw the light go on for the control. Clearly it had power, I then tried the window controls again without even trying to move the mirror and the windows worked! Was that just a coincidence?

Anyone else encounter thing? Sorry if this is a repetitive post, by attempt to use the forum search returned many replies and none were even close and most didn't even seem to relate to windows.

The problem has not been persistent, just those two times on consecutive days when I was leaving work right after starting the car. Every other time I've tried they windows they are fine.

There is one common element that happened when starting the car both those days at work. I don't know if related but am suspicious.

As this is a manual trans, to start the car you need to push in the clutch. There is no requirement to also push in brake pedal like my 2022 with auto trans. At work I park on a slight hill. If I don't have the parking brake on or don't also depress the brake, the car rolls back slightly. If I press the start button just as it begins to roll back slightly I have noticed it will make a half hearted crank and not start. Half or maybe a second. It never does this half hearted attempt at starting if the car isn't moving and sometimes it will start fine despite it moving.

I presume that it is some sort of safety protocol check that says "if car starts to move when starter is engaged, the clutch position switch may be bad so don't start so we don't run over people". Thus if it is rolling already it recognizes the movement isn't related to cranking and starts normally.

Anyway, both days I had problems with the windows, were days I experienced this half hearted crank attempt because the car had started rolling.

Note, this is far from the only time I experienced this half hearted start. That was something I noticed three years ago when I got the car and have experienced many times. I never had an issue with the windows before related to it. Due to that half hearted start, I tend to either press the brakes or let it roll more before hitting start so it doesn't do it.

I did try and replicate the window problem by intentionally letting it start to roll when I press start to trigger that half hearted start attempt/safety response. While I can pretty reliably trigger that safety response reaction, I could not cause the window malfunction to occur.

I am thinking that maybe it is a combination of that safety cutoff behavior and the battery getting older. I don't see evidence of a problem starting but the battery is three years old. The two occurrence were after sitting all day at work. My attempts to replicate it were only after the car had started and some driving so the battery would be a bit better state of charge than it was after sitting all day at work. The only other place it sits a long time like that is at home, but it is flat at home so that roll thing doesn't occur.

I don't know how the bronco, with all the electronics prevents power sags cranking the engine (especially with start/stop) from glitching the electronics. I am wondering if the half crank without actually starting bleeds down the power more and or there is something that the vehicle doesn't do after the safety response that it does on a normal restart.

Anyway, much of this is speculation. Anyone know anything?
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Brian_B

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Wow, weird one. Also, very detailed!

I have seen the limp start thing occur before - you may be right about it kind of freaking out if it sees motion while it's trying to start, but I haven't tested it or necessarily tied it to that. Usually it's me not hitting the button long enough or not having the clutch in far enough... but there are times I've swore it wasn't either of those... and it wouldn't surprise me if it's some anti-bump start thing in there too that you are seeing.

I haven't had the same issue with windows, but I have seen other oddities on occasion.

For folks that have intentionally tried to bump start, they say it takes a few minutes for all the computers to reset before it calms back down. They also say it throws all kinds of errors up, but in your case it's not really a bump start, your starter actually engaged... maybe just some shoddy code check somewhere?

As far as how the bronco prevents power sags from causing glitches - the short answer is it doesn't do anything other than rely on the battery to be strong. So a weak battery causes all sorts of random crap to happen.
 
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Lil Red Broncette

Lil Red Broncette

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I thought it was me not hitting the button long enough as well. I never experience it with my Bronco Base with automatic transmission. Also, I do have the clutch fully in and when it aborts the crank like that the car continues to roll because it wasn't anything to do with the crank but just because the clutch was pushed.

I have tried to do a bump / roll start to see if it could be done. It has been years and I don't recall if it actually did start, but I recall it spewing messages that made me hope it would just clear after turning off the ignition.
 

WarthogJr

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I’m thinking battery. Lots of threads about weird things happening, new battery gets installed, weird things go away.
 

Fumey

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Did it ever get resolved? I’m having the same issue with my windows.
 

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23OBX2.7

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Have new battery and happened to my driver's window...
 

MsPickles

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Seems this is one weird problem. Just happened this afternoon.
Driver window indexed fine entering and exiting. Tried to roll down the windows when getting mail, and window would not roll down. Tried all windows, same for all 4, nothing. Power cycled vehicle, nothing. No lights on the mirror button when pressed.
One minute later after repeatedly pressing all the buttons over and over, light can on for mirror when pressed. Then all 4 windows worked.
Never happened before. 2022-4.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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