- First Name
- Corbin
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2025
- Threads
- 26
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- 658
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- 581
- Location
- Rochester, MA, USA
- Website
- www.corbonthecob.com
- Vehicle(s)
- 2022 Wildtrak: The WildeBeast
- Your Bronco Model
- Wildtrak
- Thread starter
- #1
Hey all! I wanted to post my findings since it seems that there isn't a single lick of information on how to fix this out there aside from replacing the AC outlet.
I have a 2022 Wildtrak 4-dr with lux.
Firstly, this all sparked from this thread that I started posting in, where I gave updates on my situation up to this point. Tl;dr: I tried to have Ford warranty replace the outlet through their PremiumCare extended warranty, and they told me it would be a $100 charge IF they find that the outlet is the problem; otherwise if it's not covered by the warranty then no matter what I'd be charged a $169.99 diagnostic fee. All for a part that can be had for $40 plus shipping. No thank you! I told them to kick rocks and I walked away on the spot.
First of all, disconnect your battery so you don't fry your fingers off. (I didn't disconnect my battery, just made sure the vehicle was off. This is just a safety tip.)
That was yesterday. Today, I decided to give a crack at it. Dude at the dealership said that the whole center console has to come apart. So, I grabbed my pry tool and promptly ignored his statement and popped the thing out from the back. Piece of cake! Had some resistance, felt like it'd break, and then it popped out with no damage at all.
What happened was, the cover/housing popped off, leaving the actual outlet and wiring inside. This is the housing/cover that popped off, and circled in red are the points that snapped off of the actual contacts. If yours comes out as one whole piece somehow, then those circled holes are what you'll need to pry on to release the housing from the contacts.
And here are the tabs that pop into those holes, circled in red as well.
Circled in BLUE are the tabs that hold the entire thing into the rear of the center console. These are the reason they say you need to disassemble the entire console to access the back of the port for removal. You're supposed to squeeze on these so you can pop the whole thing out the back.
What happened for me was, since the cover separated from the socket, I just had to disconnect the power cable before I could remove the socket from the hole so it'd fit through the hole. Nice and easy!
Here's a view of the problem: the prongs are bent out due to their shitass design. Instead of having a left and right sandwich pinch design (technical term! idk i'm no scientist), they have a design which I guess works for both north american outlets as well as a nema 6-15-r sort of outlet I guess? Depending on the holes in the cover I'd think? Idk, kinda weird. Anyway, the result is a sloppy socket that doesn't squeeze hard enough to hold in a fart.
I used a phillips head screwdriver, but any sort of thing that fits in there will do the trick. I bent the upper half of the vertical prongs with the screwdriver, while moving the top-outer prong down and out of the way with my fingernail (shown mirrored with arrows on the right side as I perform the maneuver on the left). Moving the outer prong out of the way allows you to bend the inner one further.
I then did basically the same thing with the bottom half of the socket. Pushed the bottom-outer prong out of the way a bit, as I pried on the lower-inner-half of the socket. I couldn't move the bottom-outer prong very much, but I got it to work.
Here's the fixed outlet:
You can see how the inner prongs are now actually touching the outer prongs. This is ideal because of the way it is. You get the idea.
And here's proof that it's good as new! No more sagging wall warts or phone chargers. My 100W laptop charger even has zero issues now. Here's a pic of my 45W phone fast charger.
Any questions just let me know, or if you want additional pictures feel free to reach out on here! Good luck folks!
I have a 2022 Wildtrak 4-dr with lux.
Firstly, this all sparked from this thread that I started posting in, where I gave updates on my situation up to this point. Tl;dr: I tried to have Ford warranty replace the outlet through their PremiumCare extended warranty, and they told me it would be a $100 charge IF they find that the outlet is the problem; otherwise if it's not covered by the warranty then no matter what I'd be charged a $169.99 diagnostic fee. All for a part that can be had for $40 plus shipping. No thank you! I told them to kick rocks and I walked away on the spot.
First of all, disconnect your battery so you don't fry your fingers off. (I didn't disconnect my battery, just made sure the vehicle was off. This is just a safety tip.)
That was yesterday. Today, I decided to give a crack at it. Dude at the dealership said that the whole center console has to come apart. So, I grabbed my pry tool and promptly ignored his statement and popped the thing out from the back. Piece of cake! Had some resistance, felt like it'd break, and then it popped out with no damage at all.
What happened was, the cover/housing popped off, leaving the actual outlet and wiring inside. This is the housing/cover that popped off, and circled in red are the points that snapped off of the actual contacts. If yours comes out as one whole piece somehow, then those circled holes are what you'll need to pry on to release the housing from the contacts.
And here are the tabs that pop into those holes, circled in red as well.
Circled in BLUE are the tabs that hold the entire thing into the rear of the center console. These are the reason they say you need to disassemble the entire console to access the back of the port for removal. You're supposed to squeeze on these so you can pop the whole thing out the back.
What happened for me was, since the cover separated from the socket, I just had to disconnect the power cable before I could remove the socket from the hole so it'd fit through the hole. Nice and easy!
Here's a view of the problem: the prongs are bent out due to their shitass design. Instead of having a left and right sandwich pinch design (technical term! idk i'm no scientist), they have a design which I guess works for both north american outlets as well as a nema 6-15-r sort of outlet I guess? Depending on the holes in the cover I'd think? Idk, kinda weird. Anyway, the result is a sloppy socket that doesn't squeeze hard enough to hold in a fart.
I used a phillips head screwdriver, but any sort of thing that fits in there will do the trick. I bent the upper half of the vertical prongs with the screwdriver, while moving the top-outer prong down and out of the way with my fingernail (shown mirrored with arrows on the right side as I perform the maneuver on the left). Moving the outer prong out of the way allows you to bend the inner one further.
I then did basically the same thing with the bottom half of the socket. Pushed the bottom-outer prong out of the way a bit, as I pried on the lower-inner-half of the socket. I couldn't move the bottom-outer prong very much, but I got it to work.
Here's the fixed outlet:
You can see how the inner prongs are now actually touching the outer prongs. This is ideal because of the way it is. You get the idea.
And here's proof that it's good as new! No more sagging wall warts or phone chargers. My 100W laptop charger even has zero issues now. Here's a pic of my 45W phone fast charger.
Any questions just let me know, or if you want additional pictures feel free to reach out on here! Good luck folks!
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