Car ?'s

Kirun said:

What model? I doubt this pretty heavily. A lot of newer vehicles have electric parking brakes now, but you can still get them to release the caliper piston if you know what you're doing - without having to use diagnostic tools.

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It is nothing new, and it varies by model. Some cars have a simple system that engages the ebrake when the ignition is turned off. The fix is removing the electric motor or unplugging it. Some go a step further by not only engaging the ebrake, but also reengaging it at some interval or monitoring line pressure. Vehicles with line pressure monitoring need a computer to suspend this function.

And then luminaries like Toyota allow you to turn off ebrakes.

Fucker said:

It is nothing new, and it varies by model. Some cars have a simple system that engages the ebrake when the ignition is turned off. The fix is removing the electric motor or unplugging it. Some go a step further by not only engaging the ebrake, but also reengaging it at some interval or monitoring line pressure. Vehicles with line pressure monitoring need a computer to suspend this function.

And then luminaries like Toyota allow you to turn off ebrakes.

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That's why I asked what model. I know all this, but ALL of that is tied to sensors, which tie into fuses and/or relays. All of those can be disabled somewhere.

Is it a pain in this ass? Sure. But I just doubt the whole, "IT CAN ONLY BE DISABLED VIA COMPUTER!!". It's why I want to know the model so I can look up a wiring diagram and/or service information.

Dr.Retarded said:

Well ended up determining one of the coil packs out of the six I got was bad and just put in one of the old ones because it's not like all six were shot. Spark plugs were fine and I'm not getting any check engine lights any longer. Did go get an oil change this morning and the guy said there's also a recall on the PCM, so I've got to take it into a Ford dealership and get some sort of firmware update. That would explain why I'm getting a whole bunch of miscommunication errors when I do a full system report with the diagnostic tool.

Was kind of worried the PCM was on the fritz, but hopefully that'll fix everything. Seems to be running fine now. I did check the ground wire coming off the battery like Kobayashi suggested it looked fine.

I will say the blue engine tool has been pretty handy. You can export a PDF report of all your codes and then feed it in the AI to break the codes and everything down and give me a laundry list of things to troubleshoot. For 100 bucks I'm pretty damned impressed with what that thing is capable of.

Thanks though gentleman for some of the suggestions posted. Just have a couple more things maintenance wise this month and I should be good to go.

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Don't just check the battery negative terminal, there should also be a bonding cable that goes from somewhere on the engine block or frame to the body. I've actually had this burn up a coil pack (on a non-Ford vehicle).

If you encounter any more issues, might be worth taking a look.



Bluedriver is quite nice. Since it's a Ford, I'd actually recommend the OBDLink MX+ since it also allows use of Forscan, which lets you go quite a bit deeper. I have both - the app interface in Bluedriver is a bit better than the MX+ - for OBDlink's app, you have to individually download packages for every OEM.

Kirun said:

But I just doubt the whole, "IT CAN ONLY BE DISABLED VIA COMPUTER!!". It's why I want to know the model so I can look up a wiring diagram and/or service information.

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I literally just told you that some of them have to be disabled with a computer. On vehicles with brakes that monitor line pressure, the ebrakes will be reapplied if the pressure drops below a certain threshold. This is done at the main braking unit, and you ain't going to hack your way around that with vice grips or a "wiring diagram". Also, good luck fucking with a "wiring diagram" without knowing exactly what you are doing....really fast way of bricking a vehicle that will need a tow to the dealership to fix. Also, a fast way of voiding your warranty or having repairs excluded from warranty.

And someone like you would get the bright idea to unplug the battery and throw in new pads, but now you have to get the vehicle towed to the dealership to get the battery paired to the car.

In this day and age, the best way to approach a car repair is to look up the process beforehand, and/or have a dealer or qualified shop do it.

Fucker said:

towed to the dealership to get the battery paired to the car.

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Fucker said:

I literally just told you that some of them have to be disabled with a computer. On vehicles with brakes that monitor line pressure, the ebrakes will be reapplied if the pressure drops below a certain threshold. This is done at the main braking unit, and you ain't going to hack your way around that with vice grips or a "wiring diagram". Also, good luck fucking with a "wiring diagram" without knowing exactly what you are doing....really fast way of bricking a vehicle that will need a tow to the dealership to fix. Also, a fast way of voiding your warranty or having repairs excluded from warranty.

And someone like you would get the bright idea to unplug the battery and throw in new pads, but now you have to get the vehicle towed to the dealership to get the battery paired to the car.

In this day and age, the best way to approach a car repair is to look up the process beforehand, and/or have a dealer or qualified shop do it.

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Cool. What model of vehicle "automatically applies the e-brake when line pressure drops". I'm not aware of any passenger vehicles that have integrated line pressure monitoring systems - it's typically reserved for buses, heavy duty trucks, etc.

I'm in technical school now for this stuff. So, I'm interested if you have a model since I'd love to look up the service information on how exactly it works to consider if those bypasses I mentioned are possible - which they are on most vehicles for most things.

Many manufacturers also want you to go through crazy processes with maintenance mode, turning the car off/on 70 times, hooking it up to manufacturers scan tools, etc. when flushing a brake system. But none of that is necessary and the ABS will flush fine even without all that - in 99% of cases.

But like everything with vehicles, there are outliers and it's interesting to look those up.

I watched a video a while back where the mechanic said that you couldn’t pop the hood on a certain Mercedes model without a scan tool and a subscription to the Mercedes repair software.

Cad said:

I think what they're talking about is trucks without a cable-actuated e-brake, they have an actuator that just compresses the brake lines back there by each rear brake, thats how the e-brake works in those models. I don't think it has line pressure sensors or engages when line pressure drops (line pressure doesn't drop when you take the pads out anyway...) but if you try to compress the pistons to put the new pads in, you drive the actuators backwards and break them, so you need to release that system before you compress the pads.

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Right. Electronic e-brakes are extremely common. Most don't "auto activate" and thus you don't need to worry about the caliper piston being "stuck" out - they can be safely pushed back in.

Of the types that DO have an electric motor separately located at the wheel and/or caliper, you can typically disable them without having to plug in a scan tool - which is why I wanted to look at a wiring diagram for that model, to know where they're controlled.

That was why I wanted to know the model. Because the description they are giving just doesn't jive with, "IT HAS TO HAVE A COMPUTER!!". Is it possible? Sure. That's why I'm interested, because the description the mechanic gave sounded like bullshit and/or he wants to take the "simple" route.

Cars are more and more "locked down" these days because of all the electronic components, absolutely. But virtually everything has a bypass and in most cases, is actually required by law to have said bypass. And even if it doesn't have one listed in service information, chances are some technician has figured one out somewhere and shared that information online.

So just turn off the parking brake and disconnect the battery. Real tough one there.

Punko said:

Car brands have made working on cars harder and harder for people out there.

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Yes and no. Rarely are car manufacturers making things "harder" intentionally because "FUCK YOU CONSUMER!!!".

The reason why cars are getting more and more difficult to repair/do maintenance on is because cars are becoming more and more technical. Which means more sensors, more wiring, more components, points of failure, lidar/radar systems now, etc. Go look at a "modern" car's wiring diagram compared to something from even as "recent" as like the 90s or early 2000s. A car's chassis is only so large, and all that stuff has to go somewhere. All of those factors can make it a huge pain in the ass to repair/replace, sure. It's why you have to take half the car apart in some instances just to change a simple headlamp, remove a battery, etc. But car brands are rarely doing it intentionally.

And that doesn't even include all the government factors they have to adhere to as well - it's why you get things like auto stop/start systems. 99% of the reason they have those on modern cars now is because they have to meet EPA standards.

More legislation around car shit is something I'm almost always very much against (and legislation in general, really). And I'd urge people to look into SEMA as an organization if they actually give a shit about "right to repair". They have an awesome show in Vegas every year that's super fun.