Bronco

[93_SVT_3503]

Sorry to hear this OP, this sounds like an all around terrifying shituation! Whether it was operator error, programming, mechanical failure, or a combination, @Ford Motor Company should definitely investigate this and put some resources towards finding the cause. For as many 6G Broncos that are actually being used off-road, as advertised, it would be beneficial for the entire community. Especially since a lot of this new BS has gone electronically assisted!

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[6glifter]

Glad the only thing that got hurt was pride that being said im a ford tech and I've watched the video over and over again and the driver put the truck into reverse you can see the tires go the opposite way when the 3 loud crunches happen and then when he hits the gas it just takes off in reverse and seeing the comments on the YouTube video he mentioned watching the reverse camera screen while he rolled down the hill and that camera option only works in reverse. I work at a dealership and do all the broncos we get whether it be simple stuff or full bolt on accessories. everybody's blaming programming or vacuum and swearing it's ford's fault but nobody notices the very obvious tires going in the wrong direction I'm curious to what dealership gets the car to look at I'd like to see the fdrs info that comes up for the crash event stored in the system but regardless mistakes happen and the car can get fixed so hopefully it's just a minor setback and a learning experience for those involved.

 

[Rwhite692]

.......the driver put the truck into reverse you can see the tires go the opposite way when the 3 loud crunches happen and then when he hits the gas it just takes off in reverse and seeing the comments on the YouTube video he mentioned watching the reverse camera screen while he rolled down the hill and that camera option only works in reverse.....

Agree. at 1:02-1:04 you can see the front wheels suddenly break traction and move in reverse direction, before the vehicle even starts moving backwards.

 

[Alanp970]

Glad the only thing that got hurt was pride that being said im a ford tech and I've watched the video over and over again and the driver put the truck into reverse you can see the tires go the opposite way when the 3 loud crunches happen and then when he hits the gas it just takes off in reverse and seeing the comments on the YouTube video he mentioned watching the reverse camera screen while he rolled down the hill and that camera option only works in reverse. I work at a dealership and do all the broncos we get whether it be simple stuff or full bolt on accessories. everybody's blaming programming or vacuum and swearing it's ford's fault but nobody notices the very obvious tires going in the wrong direction I'm curious to what dealership gets the car to look at I'd like to see the fdrs info that comes up for the crash event stored in the system but regardless mistakes happen and the car can get fixed so hopefully it's just a minor setback and a learning experience for those involved.

That's a good point that if he was using the rear view camera he had to be in reverse. You can also hear that telltale whine that tells me he had the clutch pushed in. So yes, mistakes were made but it's pretty scary that the vacuum boosted models can't hold themselves in a spot like this. And maybe that's asking too much but if they can't stop they should be able to slow it down considerably. This doesn't look like the brakes were working at all! I realize you're going to have much weaker brakes without boost but these seem to do almost nothing. Mine has scared me twice at slow speeds in parking lots. The first thing someone says after driving my Bronco is "Are the brakes supposed to be like that?" and that's when they are working normally. My dealer says there is nothing wrong but I'm convinced otherwise. I've owned many 4x4's on 35's before this so please don't think I'm a newbie. I think what happened here is the same thing that has happened to mine, only at a much more critical moment. Only time will tell but I think Ford has a big problem here.

 

[Aonarch]

Anyone who crawls with a std shift Bronco should read this thread. Being prepared for a similar situation is a big deal to prevent panic. Dumping the clutch in 1st gear and/or applying the parking brake would have at least slowed it down significantly. Engine would have rotated backwards but so what.
Also, A hand emergency brake would have been easier to use than the stupid electronic one.
All these computer controlled bells and whistles are not necessarily a good thing.

This!!!

Sorry OP that happened. It was completely avoidable.

Clutch in was the worst decision. You effectively put it in neutral, then not pumping the brakes.

It is dumb ford didn’t give the manuals a manual parking brake.

Then again my Corvette had an electronic one too, as do most new cars.

I assume you’ve never driven a manual braked car, aka no booster.

I wouldn’t have expected the vehicle to start either and would have prioritized getting it stopped, versus started.

 

[BBQBennz]

Wow, that seems like it could have ended much worse.
I have a 22 BDia with a MT Sasq. Keep us all posted on what you find was the culprit.

 

[Broncola]

Every one should actually test various scenarios of this to know how their bronco will react. I found a safe hill, came to a stop and shut off the bronco. Turned it back on in ACC mode without starting. Clutch in and on the brake it holds great. Pump the brakes about three times and all boost or brake assist is gone and the pedal is extremely stiff. I’ve had vehicles with no power brake before and it’s not the same. Stoppable but tough. Gain some speed and IDK. I had limited success restarting the bronco trying different variables rolling backwards. Didn’t want to push my luck figuring everything out on a public street. If you stall it out you won’t have any boost left. You’ll probably have hill assist braking till you start to mess with it.

Anyway it was eye opening and gave me some confidence for the future.

Letting the clutch out, preferably in a gear in the the correct direction of travel is also a good skill to learn. As well as getting more familiar with the parking/e-brake.

 

[DUSTYcazOREGON]

According to my insurance agent, collision would cover it. The fact it didn't happen on a road shouldn't matter, same as if he had hit a tree by the side of the road.

My view is that the owner caused the damage by choosing to go off roading and into the particular situation. Not saying it is intentional, but the outcome is the same. A damaged vehicle that the insurance company must pay thou$ands to replace. I can see their end of it. I have seen cases such as a tree that falls on a house. The company shows the owner knew the tree needed trimming or removal but failed to do so and the company refuses to pay out. What I guess I am saying is that insurance companies are looking at ways to get out of paying.

 

[Bmadda]

My view is that the owner caused the damage by choosing to go off roading and into the particular situation. Not saying it is intentional, but the outcome is the same. A damaged vehicle that the insurance company must pay thou$ands to replace. I can see their end of it. I have seen cases such as a tree that falls on a house. The company shows the owner knew the tree needed trimming or removal but failed to do so and the company refuses to pay out. What I guess I am saying is that insurance companies are looking at ways to get out of paying.

Collision coverage is for when the insured driver is at fault...so if the OP carries that coverage he should be covered. Doesn't matter how he ended up in an accident w/a tree...the tree's insurance IS NOT going to pay. That's why collision costs so much more!

 

[TacosTuesday]

it's like taking a car to a race track for a track day... regular insurance, even with all the coverages, wouldn't cover any damage that happened when racing. i imagine this being basically the same, but i do wish all the luck to the owner and hope it does get covered.

 

[RobBob22]

All things considered, maybe there were things you could have done better but in the end unexpectedly rolling down a hill backwards when you're already hitting brakes , in my view, using a tree to stop is still on the list of reasonable options to get stopped.

I do believe you probably lost all your vacuum boost, it's hard to say from there if you could have put enough pressure even with two feet on the brake to get stopped, we'll never really know, after that first jostle it's possible your foot wasn't even on the brake at all anymore.

Maybe, maybe ABS got confused, but if you were in 4L i think some traction features are limited if i recall. I think most reasonable explanation is lack of boost and enough foot power in the moment.

Edit:

just to try, I have a driveway with a 25+ degree slope. Shutting off the engine and rolling downhill forward I got maybe 3 good pumps of the brake with boost on the 4th the pedal got stiff and I had to to put a significant amount of pressure on the brake to come to a stop. I could see reverse being even more challenging. Also, having stalled on the trails a few times I’ve found the assisted restart is pretty quick, even some pressure on the clutch will get that starter moving.

I will say after rewatching the video it does somewhat look like you were possibly gassing in reverse. It wouldn’t be impossible to go from crawl to reverse by accident, I’ve done this once myself.

With all that said, I do believe if this vehicle had a manual pull cable E-brake much of what happens could have been prevented. This is hands down my biggest complaint about the manual bronco.

 

[mike8675309]

Someone more knowledgeable than me please chime in.
...

...
Since day one I noticed you can’t 3 pedal, feather, pop the clutch, and/or brake boost. It either smokes it or stalls. It doesn’t let you use the clutch as an additional tool to control power.

The system really wants you to pick the “right” combination of 4L/4H and gear, engage the clutch fully, then slowly chew over the obstacle. But you can’t always do that, so you try to ramp up the torque/rpms. When it stalls while trying to pop over an obstacle, it is so wound up, it actually throws you back. I could hear it.
...

I have never had to do anything I would call ramping up the torque/rpms.
On obstacles, I've had zero issues feathering the clutch as necessary.
In low range and on an obstacle you won't be able to "pop the clutch" to get the vehicle to do much. The 2.3 doesn't have enough engine mass but it has plenty of vehicle mass. The Bronco also has a fairly compliant suspension, so a lot of energy that goes into getting over an obstacle gets put into the suspension. I really thing any "winding up" or throwing you back is related to the suspension loading up and unloading.

 

[mike8675309]

Some lessons.

• Don't try to start the vehicle if you are already moving backward.
• Your best bet is to slam both feet on the brake pedal and push as hard as possible, particularly if you don't have assist. Engage the emergency brake.
• Then steer.

Nothing about this list is unique to the bronco—just a general rule of manual transmission vehicles.

 

[2dogcamp]

All modern vehicles have data recorders that record data up to an impact. When you take the vehicle to Ford they should be able to retrieve the data of Throttle, Brake, Clutch and Gear positions for a period of 30 seconds prior to impact. That would tell the story of what happened.

 

[Techun]

If your battery is low on juice even just a little too much, and it doesn't take much since the starter draws so much power, the A.S.S. stops working. The system will disable itself if the battery isn't fully charged. I was driving a short distance back to back a few times and my battery didn't charge enough in between stopping and parking and my A.S.S. stopped working.

If you were crawling along, stopping and starting while waiting for others or just using that A.S.S. to restart your engine, while using lights or anything else that may let your battery drop even a little the A.S.S. disables itself. It happened to me on the trail, where an auto start didn't happen, I remember having to push the start button myself, but I didn't know why until the A.S.S. was disabled again in the city.

This time, I noticed the engine still running while stopped at a light and I hadn't hit that A.S.S. What had happened is, the battery was not getting enough time to charge due to too short of distance being driven between shutdowns and it disabled the A.S.S. After investigating I found in the dash's menu where it tells you when the A.S.S. is disabled due to charging.

So, if you were depending on the A.S.S. and it was disabled without you realizing it was, it would have felt just like you described.

Why do you think your ass stopped working due to low battery charge?

I find it extremely unlikely that your new battery would be drained due to ass usage. A hot engine takes very little to start it back up.

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