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Power liftgate issue


Kevin Su

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I have a 2015 Titanium with hands free liftgate. While this is a good feature, it seems the sensor could be triggered unintentionally by shifting your feet near the bumper as you work near the rear of the car, or intentionally by little kids as they like to imitate adults.

 

Either way, it could be a safety hazard. I know the gate has an obstruction sensor. However, I hate for anything to happen due to a faulty obstruction sensor, and I am not keen to find out what happens if it was my kid or my wife's head or neck at the edge of the closing gate.

 

There is a way to disable the power liftgate, but I really only want the hands free feature disabled.

 

Does anyone have similar issues or concrns? And do you have a clean and reliable way to disable the hands free feature (e.g. blocking the sensor)?

 

Thanks.

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Not able to open the gate is not an issue for me. My problem is with the gate coming down on it's own when you are working to organize the cargo area, or when there are little kids playing near by, potentially climbing into / out of the cargo area.

 

This is a safety issue that needs to be addressed.

 

Has anyone else in this forum have similar experiences / concerns about their 2015 Ford Edge?

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Not able to open the gate is not an issue for me. My problem is with the gate coming down on it's own when you are working to organize the cargo area, or when there are little kids playing near by, potentially climbing into / out of the cargo area.

 

This is a safety issue that needs to be addressed.

 

Has anyone else in this forum have similar experiences / concerns about their 2015 Ford Edge?

 

Something needs to trigger it to come down?

 

Is the hands free options causing this? Because I could see this happening while loading things in to the back after it has been opened.

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The fob has to be within 3 feet for it to automatically close - kids playing without the fob won't trigger it. You can certainly block or possibly disconnect the sensor to disable it completely. I thought the Edge had an option to disable the power liftgate completely? Our 2008 did but our 2014 Escape does not.

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I believe it's the hands free option that caused the gate to close in all of the instances. This happened once with me and twice with my wife.

 

In all three cases, we were doing something in the cargo area, with the fobe in my pocket. I was within three feet in all occourances.

 

The hands free is supposed to be relatively fool proof, according to the manual. However, it is apparently quite easily triggered.

 

This is not as much of a safty concern if the obstruction detection is smarter or more sensitive, or if there is a way to disable the hands free feature. There is a way to disable the power lift gate all together. However, the door is quite heavy to operate manually. Besides, what is the point of paying for a power lift gate if we are forced to have to disable it?

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I believe it's the hands free option that caused the gate to close in all of the instances. This happened once with me and twice with my wife.

 

In all three cases, we were doing something in the cargo area, with the fobe in my pocket. I was within three feet in all occourances.

 

The hands free is supposed to be relatively fool proof, according to the manual. However, it is apparently quite easily triggered.

 

This is not as much of a safty concern if the obstruction detection is smarter or more sensitive, or if there is a way to disable the hands free feature. There is a way to disable the power lift gate all together. However, the door is quite heavy to operate manually. Besides, what is the point of paying for a power lift gate if we are forced to have to disable it?

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Accident could happen just that one time you forgot to take the fob out of the pocket. And it's not a great feeling to tip-toing around the back of the car worrying that you might trigger the sensor ...

 

Does anyone know where the sensor is located and how to reliably disable it without having to cut wires?

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Accident could happen just that one time you forgot to take the fob out of the pocket. And it's not a great feeling to tip-toing around the back of the car worrying that you might trigger the sensor ...

 

Does anyone know where the sensor is located and how to reliably disable it without having to cut wires?

 

It's under the bumper - should be obvious. No need to cut it - just block it with something. My aftermarket hitch blocks most of it anyway on my Escape. Only works in a specific spot to the side. It can be done.

 

BTW - I triggered it accidentally 3 or 4 times while loading or unloading bicycles on a receiver hitch carrier. It's not that big of a deal.

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Sort of a big deal when the wife is the one who triggers it... The hands free feature is a talking piece for me, but a potential 'decapitator' in my wife's mind.

 

I know one of the sensors is under the bumper, around the hitch receiver, but it wasn't obvious to me when I looked in that area. Does anyone have a picture showing the exact location and appearance of the sensor?

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Look like the sensor consists of two pairs of wires that runs alone the length of the bumper: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/130852-hands-on-wii-like-sensor-plus-a-gentle-kick-opens-ford-escapes-liftgate.

 

In that case, there is really no real good way to just 'cover up the sensor' to disable the hands free feature.

 

Hopefully someone from Ford sees this post, and makes available a software upgrade to allow just the hands free feature to be disabled (e.g. just ignore the sensor input)...

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  • 4 months later...

As of Friday, my dealer did not have a way to disable this feature. This was after I had the lift gate hit me in the head hard enough to give me a quarter sized knot. I was loading groceries and stepped too close. The auto reverse feature did not work. This was on a 2015 Ford Edge SEL. I went straight to dealer from there but they were unsuccessful in turning off the feature. They disabled it from the menu, but it did not disable the foot activated lift. We did not try to make it auto reverse, but I am going to experiment with that after reading this post. Might be a flaw with just my vehicle, but I was hit hard it left a visible knot on my head that still hurts!

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  • 1 year later...

I completely agree that this hands-free feature should have a disable option in the menu and hereby request Ford to implement same.

Never mind the obstruction sensor (which still seems to require substantial physical contact to trigger) - the sheer shock value of it unexpectedly closing is enough to cause hurt back/twisted neck by reflexively dodging out of the way.

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I was attaching a bike rack to the hitch receiver yesterday and the lift gate came down on me. I guess the motion of the socket wrench I used to tighten the bolt triggered the kick sensor. I heard the dinging when it started to close, but wasn't sure at the time why it was dinging. The lift gate touched my back and then opened back up. It just felt like somebody tapped me on the back.

 

Having said that, I think it would be nice to be able to disable that feature. I usually can't get the lift gate to open or close by kicking anyway so I just end up looking like a fool dancing behind my car whenever I try to open it that way.

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  • 6 months later...

I have a 2016 Edge Titanium 2.0L Eco-boost. My problem is also with the lift gate; it spontaneously opened while I was driving out of the garage and caused over $2200 damage. It has been repaired but now the lift gate randomly operates: at times it opens to the 3/4 position but when that happens, you cannot close it except manually. It does not respond to the driver's pod, to the button on the lift gate, to the hands free under the bumper, or to the button on the dash. When this happens, I have to manually close it and then it may or may not open again.

 

Has anyone else experienced any of these issues-primarily has anyone else had the lift gate open on its own with the vehicle in motion?

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  • 1 year later...
On 7/17/2015 at 1:21 AM, Kevin Su said:

Sort of a big deal when the wife is the one who triggers it... The hands free feature is a talking piece for me, but a potential 'decapitator' in my wife's mind.

 

I know one of the sensors is under the bumper, around the hitch receiver, but it wasn't obvious to me when I looked in that area. Does anyone have a picture showing the exact location and appearance of the sensor?

 

Also looking for sensor disconnect location. Any progress?

 

On 7/17/2015 at 1:49 PM, punch-card said:

Most manufactures have sensors that if the tailgate hits or is impeded by something they automatically reverses.

 

Mine literally tried to kill me like a trash compactor.

 

On 5/22/2017 at 11:51 PM, Quila said:

I was attaching a bike rack to the hitch receiver yesterday and the lift gate came down on me. I guess the motion of the socket wrench I used to tighten the bolt triggered the kick sensor. I heard the dinging when it started to close, but wasn't sure at the time why it was dinging. The lift gate touched my back and then opened back up. It just felt like somebody tapped me on the back.

 

Having said that, I think it would be nice to be able to disable that feature. I usually can't get the lift gate to open or close by kicking anyway so I just end up looking like a fool dancing behind my car whenever I try to open it that way.

 

 Tapped on the back?! I was literally fighting to have it stop crushing me. 

 

 

Can anyone point me to the location of the sensor plug in? I would like to disable this foot thing....

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1 hour ago, joshtrel99@yahoo.com said:

 

Also looking for sensor disconnect location. Any progress?

 

 

Mine literally tried to kill me like a trash compactor.

 

 

 Tapped on the back?! I was literally fighting to have it stop crushing me. 

 

 

Can anyone point me to the location of the sensor plug in? I would like to disable this foot thing....

 

I actually was hit by the liftgate again last night and was a lot more than a tap this time.

 

The hands-free liftgate actuation module is behind center the section of the rear bumper cover.  That's the piece that is closest to the tailpipes and hitch receiver.  There are 18 plastic tabs that hold that cover in place and then you should be able to see the module on the passenger side of the car (North American) with three connectors plugged into it.  There's a connector for each of the upper and lower sensors and a power connector.  The connector on the left side is the upper sensor, the middle connector is the power connector and the right connector is the lower sensor.  I don't know if disconnecting these will cause any other issues, but I may give it a shot myself when I have some time.

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