Ford SYNC black screen

[bykfixer]

Mrs Fixer has one of those cars with a touch screen display that uses Ford SYNC 3. Thus far it has been trouble free until today. When you turn off your radio (infotainment system) the screen goes blank. Not even a clock. Turn it on and you see a Ford logo for about 20 seconds. From there you should see a display with several items. Hers would go black.

Soft reset where you hold the power button and skip right button for 10 seconds does a soft reset. You see the Ford logo, but in her case the screen would go black again. Now the radio worked. In the menu for the car, in the dashboard AM/FM/Siri all would play through the speakers.

I did some reading and found where if you have the vehicle turned off and in park, with the door open you hold the power button for 10 seconds, let go and press it again. And dawg gone if that didn't actually work.

5 Proven Ways To Solve The Ford Sync Black Screen Of Death Fix

If you have a Ford Sync system in your car, you may be familiar with the dreaded black screen of death. This problem can be extremely frustrating, but don't

motopickers.com

Here was the article. I read at another source about the door being open so I don't know if that matters. I had the door open.

Oh, but you have to turn the radio back off when you exit the car or the display stays on. About 5 minutes after it was fixed Mrs Fixer went to see if it was "still fixed" and the display was still on.

 

[ilikeguns40]

I'll have to save this in case this happens to my F250 work truck. Music is a must with my long drives

 

[alpg88]

Back in the days we had an electrician in the shop, who was famous for being able to solve electrical issues on Oldsmobile aurora 1st gen, (it was one of the hardest cars to troubleshoot electric issues, some shops would not even look at those) we asked him what helps you find problems in this car while others are afraid to even touch it, he said 'A book" we're like what book? we thought he had a dealers service manuals, or maybe even factory documents, but no it was none of those it was a bible.

 

[bykfixer]

Back in the days we had an electrician in the shop, who was famous for being able to solve electrical issues on Oldsmobile aurora 1st gen, (it was one of the hardest cars to troubleshoot electric issues, some shops would not even look at those) we asked him what helps you find problems in this car while others are afraid to even touch it, he said 'A book" we're like what book? we thought he had a dealers service manuals, or maybe even factory documents, but no it was none of those it was a bible.

When Mrs Fixer said thanks for fixing my car I replied "God did it, not me". I just read the articles He showed me and took steps He reccomended.

 

[bykfixer]

Ok, so my fix worked for about oh...... 3 hours and back to black...screen that it. We took it to the stealership who tried updating it but "no communication" kept showing. So they tried reprogramming it to no avail. So it needs a new APIM. I'll report back once it gets replaced.

In the meantime I found a 2020 Ford TSB # 20-2363 that basically reads that nearly every Ford model in 2020 and many from 019 were plagued by the issue. Now the TSB was Ford hollering at dealers to stop replacing the APIM's (at Ford's cost) before trying to reprogramming it first.

20-2363 Ford Technical Service Bulletin

20-2363 Ford Technical Service Bulletin

www.tsbsearch.com

 

[bykfixer]

Update:
The stealership took the car in and reprogrammed to APIM per the standard protocol and said "nope, didn't work. Next day everything went back to working normal but the guy had ordered a new one.

It worked normal until we put it back in the shop and they replaced the APIM under warranty. If you finance a newer car by all means get the extended warranty. Between the APIM replacement and other items fixed under warranty the cost has already been offset.

$650 for the radio, $550 for the labor to install it.

 

[sween1911]

Thanks for this. My 2020 Escape had one episode of screen funk on a roadtrip earlier this year. I'll check into this.

 

[bykfixer]

This post will change course for this thread for a bit. My company issued a 2023 F150 that came with malfunctioning frontal crash alert/assist and blind spot/cross traffic sensors. As a rule I don't care for them anyway but each time the truck is started you have to push "ok" a bunch of times to shut off the alarms. Every time. Annoying to say the least.

I put the truck in the shop and it turns out the computer was searching for features and sensors THE TRUCK DOESN'T HAVE. It's an XL and the computer thinks it's a King Ranch. So the kid managed to get all that straight but when I was driving home an icon on the dash turned red and the steering wheel was quivering. Whut-thuh?!?!

Turns out when you have the lane assist turned on (which the tech apparently had done because I turn off everything it'll let me turn off).... the vehicle warns you when you are speeding. At 5 over the icon turns green saying "you're speeding but it's cool" and when you get to 10 over it turns red and the steering wheel quivers. At 12 over the d@m thing decelarates.

Now I'm generally a law abiding citizen who drives around the speed limit but I'll be darned if I'm going to let my truck tell me how fast to go. There are times it's just safer to crank it up and zoom past an object or a vehicle. I was ready to put black tape over the front camera and keep hitting "ok" everytime it starts but it turns out it was the lane assist feature that causes it.

At least they did away with that feature that turns off the engine at red lights. The truck came with the dealer sticker and believe it or not there was a $50 charge TO NOT HAVE THAT feature.

I used to be a die hard Ford guy but these days they sure are screwing things up.

 

[alpg88]

My 2025 pilot has similar feature, but it would not slow you down, it just shows an icon with speed limit, and basically does nothing else, on one stretch of the road where limit is 50, for some reason it would show me an icon with 25 miles limit, but it does not slow me down, every time I drive there it shows 25 on a highway for a brief moment. The car has a front camera that recognizes speed limit signs, but there is no 25 sign anywhere on that part of the road

 

[bykfixer]

My 2025 pilot has similar feature, but it would not slow you down, it just shows an icon with speed limit, and basically does nothing else, on one stretch of the road where limit is 50, for some reason it would show me an icon with 25 miles limit, but it does not slow me down, every time I drive there it shows 25 on a highway for a brief moment. The car has a front camera that recognizes speed limit signs, but there is no 25 sigh anywhere on that part of the road

One of the reasons I was getting a code was the front camera was thinking it has a sign reader feature (and it wasn't working) but the sync 4 in my truck does not even have that option. The cross traffic/blind spot alert was because it was thinking the 360 camera was malfunctioning.... it doesn't have that feature either. Oh, and it came with a little plastic card with the comination to the outter keyless comination lock that it doesn't have.

I used to like Honda as much as Ford but it seems like the engineers at Honda these days are the one Ford and Microsoft fired. But to be honest, all of those gadgets and gizmos are making it so nobody builds a good car for the general public anymore.

 

[alpg88]

My car has all that but it does not need 360 cam, parking ultrasonic sensors are doing all cross traffic and blind spot monitoring, My trim has 4 cameras, (besides the one that monitors traffic signs, and line departure feature) , but they are not connected to driver assist system. Cuz not all trims have 360 camera, but all have driver assist system.

 

[leeholaaho]

2007 Dodge Nitro here, the vehicle everyone made fun of. Now they wish they had one.

 

[bykfixer]

Nah Lee, I still don't want a Dodge Nitro. Glad you are getting good service from yours though.

I do miss my '84 ram though. That was a great truck.

 

[Monocrom]

2007 Dodge Nitro here, the vehicle everyone made fun of. Now they wish they had one.

I know you're joking but....
Oh Hell no!
Had one as a temporary rental security vehicle at an old site where I worked. Almost every time I climbed in, smashed my right knee up against the corner of the literally squared-off center console that housed the automatic transmission. Whoever the interior designer was for that SUV is an absolutely hateful excuse for a human-being.

 

[alpg88]

If you think that was bad, we had a lambo lm002 in our shop once, absolute hell to sit and drive, I can not think of a worse interior design, and I drove many soviet cars.

 

[Monocrom]

Must admit, the Fiat 124 has proper seats. Thankfully that was retained when it was provided to the former Soviet Union under the Lada brand. I'm too young to remember but dad had a vehicle when I was a small child in the former Soviet Union. Conditions being what they were in that hell-hole, obviously it had to be a re-branded Fiat 124.

Only reason dad was exiled instead of executed for saying to a neighbor (who happily turned him in) that the government could be doing a slightly better job of taking care of its people, is because they knew he'd suffer more being cut off from his HUGE extended family. So they went with that punishment instead. Mom and I were kicked out with him. Spent a week or two, maybe more in Rome with very little money while the U.S. expedited our visas to enter the country. Some government officials were very interested in interviewing my dad about generally everything going on over there. No surprise, he had a far better life over here than he ever did over there.

Imagine Satan getting ticked off at a Soul and telling him to get out of Hell. Okay....

 

[leeholaaho]

I know you're joking but....
Oh Hell no!
Had one as a temporary rental security vehicle at an old site where I worked. Almost every time I climbed in, smashed my right knee up against the corner of the literally squared-off center console that housed the automatic transmission. Whoever the interior designer was for that SUV is an absolutely hateful excuse for a human-being.

I am pretty tall and I don't have that problem. The 4.0 With the 5 speed auto is decent. I bought it out of desperation (my subaru blew up and I was driving a rental) a couple years ago when finding a decent 4 wheel drive for a reasonable price was almost impossible. I probably had at least 20 vehicles and I actually like this one. I have not spent one dime outside of normal maintenance.

 

[Monocrom]

I am pretty tall and I don't have that problem. The 4.0 With the 5 speed auto is decent. I bought it out of desperation (my subaru blew up and I was driving a rental) a couple years ago when finding a decent 4 wheel drive for a reasonable price was almost impossible. I probably had at least 20 vehicles and I actually like this one. I have not spent one dime outside of normal maintenance.

No offense intended, I'm guessing you must be rail-thin to not have severe knee issues at this point. It honestly got to the point where I had to consciously stop before climbing in but after opening the Driver's side door. That was a reminder to myself not to simply casually, half-consciously climb inside like we all do. Aggravating part was, yes; there were times I still forgot!

 

[leeholaaho]

No offense intended, I'm guessing you must be rail-thin to not have severe knee issues at this point. It honestly got to the point where I had to consciously stop before climbing in but after opening the Driver's side door. That was a reminder to myself not to simply casually, half-consciously climb inside like we all do. Aggravating part was, yes; there were times I still forgot!

We cannot be speaking of the same vehicle. I could not hit the console if I tried. Google Dodge Nitro interior pictures. I am 6 2 and 220 pounds.

Google Image Result for https://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/dodge/nitro/2011/oem/2011_dodge_nitro_4dr-suv_heat_i_oem_1_500.jpg

 

[Monocrom]

We cannot be speaking of the same vehicle. I could not hit the console if I tried. Google Dodge Nitro interior pictures. I am 6 2 and 220 pounds.

I don't need to Google it. I drove the thing for far longer than I wish to remember. How our experiences are so polar opposite, I have no clue.