Ford E-450 Chassis with Brake, ABS, Stability Control lights with no Cruise Control

[DJ in Mich.]

On March 22, I pulled my E-450 chassis on my Entegra Esteem 27u out of storage. Storage was indoors with the heat maintained at 55 degrees all winter.

The chassis battery was dead and I had to use the alternate battery button connected to the house batteries to start the engine. Once the engine was running, my instrument cluster glowed with the Brake light, ABS light, and Electronic Stability Control light. The display also scrolled through messages saying "Service Advance Trac" and "Hill Start Assist."

Since the brakes worked just fine after testing them outside in the parking lot, I drove her an hour home. On the highway, I tried to turn on the cruise control only to find out it would not work.

Eventually, I got her home and parked her in my outdoor storage lot by my house.

I called three local Ford dealers and Ford Motorhome. No one knew anything and could not help even after I gave them the Ford TSB SSM 49349 that I found from March 2021 that matched the description of my problem.

I got one dealer to make an appointment with me and who was willing to look at it tomorrow (March 29). However, I went to my Esteem today to make sure she would start and she started immediately. In addition, my cluster panel had no lights glowing. So I took her out on the road and tried the cruise control. Good news -- the cruise control worked just fine.

Once home, I called Ford Motorhome again. Nothing. They just tell me the same thing every time I call, which is to take to a dealer. (Does anyone know why Ford Motorhome exists? -- That is a rhetorical question.)

I called the dealer with whom I have an appointment. I explained what happened. They said they could not explain why everything works now. We cancelled my appointment since there was no need to have them look at it. They said there is no memory when the warning lights glow unless it's the check engine light.

Here are my questions: I know this has been a problem with many other E-450 chassis owners and F-53 chassis owners over the last two years. Has anyone had a Ford dealer find a solution to the problem and fix the problem? If so, what was the fix?

The TSB says Ford engineering is working on it. But when I told this to four different people from Ford, all of them said they knew nothing about it and their computers don't show anything either.

[code2e]

Thinking your whole issue is a result of running the chassis battery dead. Your Ford chassis has a multitude of modules. They each have their own systems to monitor and control. Each has its own memory including a learned memory that takes driving time to reset itself. All those modules do communicate on a CAN-Bus. By running the battery dead, all of the modules discharged their capacitors and lost memory.

You jump started, which began recharging the chassis battery and the modules capacitors. Driving the coach allowed relearn to occur. Once shutdown and restarted, life is good again. Likely there are several stored codes related to low battery. They will self clear over the next few dozen drive cycles. Most can't signal a check engine light until issue happens twice.

[Sweetbriar]

Reads like the ABS module needed time to reset after a long term power loss. The faults listed, brake light, stability control, hill start assist, cruise control all rely on the ABS to report the wheel speed to function property.

I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again and doesn't clear. A good code reader that can go deeper than just engine codes and should tell you the problem such as an ABS wheel sensor failed.

And to help with concerns, ABS is a fail safe function. You still have full braking but now you can lock the brakes up while before ABS will pulse the brakes if lock up is detected.