My 2010 GT convertible that I picked up new in January has been having an interesting case of Advancetrac failures so I thought I would share about them while I wait for my service appointment.

I was driving over the mountain range on oahu on the H-3 and had just gave it a pull in third from about 50 to 80ish when I got all three yellow warning lights in the left gauge (ABS, Traction Light, and the Advancetrac off light) and the computer thing in the right gauge reading "Service Advancetrac". The car just hit 2000 miles.

On the way down the mountain I did a rolling restart (its a manual) and the warnings cleared. So this past weekend it lit up again on the highway and I brought it to the dealer while the lights were on to prove the problem and get an appointment. Since then it has thrown the failures intermittantly and at various speeds but never when the car is first started up.

Has anyone else seen this on a 10-11 stang? It's going in on the 11th to the dealer. I am going to make them document all the warning lights in case this thing becomes an ongoing issue.

 

Bad ABS sensor or maybe a defective plug is my guess. Shouldn't be a hard thing to track down.

Good Luck & keep us updated.

 

yeah, one simple bad sensor can cause all your lights to go nuts like that at the weirdest times. on my Lincoln I had a bad brake pressure sensor and it did the same thing. funny thing is it literally took less than 2 minutes to replace the thing.

things happen, I think it will be a simple fix for ya.

 

Hi Kiloton10,

This is Deysha with Ford Customer Service. If you need further assistance after your dealer visit, please message me with your VIN, mileage, dealer, and contact info.

Deysha

 

I certainly will and thank you for the interest in my issue. I am really hoping that Ford can take care of me on this as a failure of all the car's driving and braking aids is a very serious safety issue.

I have owned many new vehicles and after my 2007 Dodge Ram Hemi had many issues I will not buy another Dodge ever. My wife's current car, a 2008 Pontiac G6 GXP Street Edition, also has had a bunch of issues and we even had an actual Chevrolet dealer in Hawaii refuse to work on it (an oil change!) because it's a Pontiac. We have to drive to the other side of the island far from our home to a GMC dealer to get service for it. This rules out another GM purchase ever.

I have had 3 F-150s from 2000, 2001, and 2003 that I bought new along with a 2003 SVT Lightning and none of them had a single mechanical failure during my ownership. Ford is my last hope to continue to buy American and my wife really likes the Flex and new Taurus SHO so we are really hoping the ownership and dealer experience with this great Mustang goes well. The first test of the dealer is on Monday!

 

Wow..

 

"wife's current car, a 2008 Pontiac G6 GXP Street Edition, also has had a bunch of issues and we even had an actual Chevrolet dealer in Hawaii refuse to work on it (an oil change!) because it's a Pontiac"

If I were you, I would sit down and send a letter to GM. This is unacceptable. The Pontiac is a GM product and any dealer can, and should work on it. Make this loser's life miserable, even if you never go back. Also send a letter to the Better Business Bureau, in Hawaii. Bet that will also grab the dealer's attention.

 

I had the same problem, but not while street driving. During a trackday i had the same lightshow for two times after harder turns with wheelspin. The lights went off after a few seconds. ESP0 was switched to on.
I think that can happen while road racing, cause of different speeds at the tires.

I will keep an eye on it.

cheers Dennis

 

Interesting info Dennis. If you were spinning the wheels and/or sliding some you would think that is when the system is needed most and should be functioning. Spirited driving or wheelspin or sliding is what the system is designed for and shouldnt cause a failure when you need it the most. I wonder how the Advancetrac handles a snowy parking lot on the 2010+ cars.

 

^ Mine handled perfectly when I was playing with it in the snow.

 

Well the car is in the dealer's hands now and I'm driving a 2010 Mustang v6 convertible with an automatic. Feels really really weird and I keep trying to change the radio with the steering wheel controls that are not there and push the imaginary clutch. I didnt realize just how far the base V6 and the GT premium were away from each other.

Here is a pic I snapped of the guages while waiting in line to turn it over for repair. They started my rental for 5 days in anticipation of some real troubleshooting on it. I'm crossing my fingers on it being a simple repair that does not come back the first time I take it to highway speed.

 

Did you get flickering traction lights while the car struggled to get traction on snow?

 

I did some research into this "dealership". Turns out it's name is actually "Servco Auto Windward" even though it looks exactly like a Chevrolet/Toyota dealership it is some sort of re-distributor and not bound to the same rules as an actual dealer. I sold cars and I couldnt tell the difference for the 5 minutes I was there trying to convince them that my GXP was a malibu chassis with the base caddy CTS 3.6L v6 and 6 speed auto and should get service at a GM dealer.

It reminds me of the first oil change on my 2005 Pontiac GTO at the dealership I bought it at new in Oklahoma. When I come in to pick it up I noticed that the receipt says 10w30 oil. The car has the LS2 corvette engine and is factory filled with Mobil1 5w30 and it states this ON THE OIL CAP. The service writer assured me it was a typo. I then demanded to talk to the guy who changed the oil on my 400 horsepower car with 1400 miles on it. "ya I put the bulk 10w30 in it was his immediate response." I made them pour 3 quarts of Mobil1 through the engine then put the correct oil in it and watched the whole thing with the service manager who gave me like 4 free oil change coupons. I never used them.

I should have learned my GM lesson then but it took buying this GXP mainly because of 0% for 72 mo financing and a hefty discount and then watching the government bail out GM to put the final nail in the coffin. I will never purchase another American vehicle without the blue oval on it again.

 

Oh yeah! The TC was not happy with my shenanigans at all!

It was actually difficult to do a donut in the snow with the TC on, still hard to do in "Sport Mode". I basically only got a wide circle out of it. Had to send the nannies home to really get to play with it!

 

I have my car back after 4 days at the dealer and I ended up with a bill for $209 dollars to repair it. When I installed the Pype-bomb muffler deletes shortly after purchasing the car I made small adjustments to the position of the pipes by loosening the bolts at the factory H-pipe and obviously the bolts behind the axle that hold the exhuast on.

Doing this caused the pipes over the axle to be just a little too close to the ABS/Advancetrac sensor wires for the right rear wheel and the wire would basically overheat and the car would lose the signal to the system and throw faults that they were able to read.

This was approximately the THIRD or FOURTH 2010-2011 Mustang they had seen with the exact same problem, all with aftermarket exhuast. The mechanic knew exactly the cause and repaired and re-routed the wire away from the exhaust for me so the problem would not return. I made VERY small adjustments to the location of the stock mid-pipe and was very surprised to see that I caused this issue.

They checked with Ford but did not get a response based on them not keeping track of failures related to aftermarket components. Still I believe that this is an indication of a very small tolerance in the exhuast to wiring distance and is maybe something that should be addressed via engineering changes to the future Mustangs.

Cutter Ford here in Hawaii did an outstanding job on my car and was very fair about the entire issue. I cannot say enough how good of a service department it is and they have really taken care of me since I bought this car.

 

good to know hopefully the corsa exhaust im planning on getting doesnt do that

 

Hey All,

I am having an issue with my ADVANCETRAC/ABS on my 2011 GT/CS. I noticed it a few weeks ago when I applied the brakes and it felt as if the ABS was kicking in. As time has went on it does it more and more. I can be driving at 5mph and gently apply the brakes and it feels as if the ABS starts modulating. I also noticed it more when I am making a turn and applying the brakes(at any speed). I usually never get any lights or warnings telling me there is an issue with the system. I had some after market wheels on the car and just replaced them a couple of days ago with the stock ones, no help there. While I was changing the tires I checked everything over to make sure it was all tight, which it was. Then I noticed the rotor has some play on the wheel hub sliding back and forth maybe a 1/4 of an inch. I have also turned off the AdvanceTrac and drove around and it would come back on within a few minutes of turning it off.. Today it didn't do that so not sure there as well. Other than that, I am stumped. I plan on taking her to the Service Center here next week but unfortunately for me, being stationed in Korea, it takes 3 weeks to get parts in from the States and there is also a language barrier. I did add the Roush axle backs over 6 months ago and just recently started having this issues. So I don't think it is an exhaust issue as stated above. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

How many miles are on the car, and has there been any brake mods performed? My guess is that rotor play is most likely your problem.

I had a similar issue with my Harley that got progressively worse over time. With the bike in the air I could rotate the front tire and see a gap between the rear of the inner pad and the rotor, and looking at the brakes/caliper/rotor when lightly applying the brake I could see the caliper shimmy a little bit when I would apply the brakes. This is what was causing the modulation in the brake lever, and in my case a new set of brake pads solved the issue rather quickly.

Hope this helps, but if not the dealership should get you right.

 

I have had my service advance trac lights flash, nothing in particular sets it off, the abs and traction lights flash a few times, then after a few minutes, all the dummy lights come on, tach and speedo stop working, ac blows only warm air, it activates my theft deterrent as well, if I shut it off it won't restart. Wait a couple minutes, it starts back back up and no problems, no lights, sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for a few hours. Brought it to the ford dealership, they said I needed a new guage cluster, 885.00 told them to do it, they did it, drove it for 10 minutes and exact same problem occurred. brought it back to the dealership, they have had the **** thing for 17 days and still don't know whats wrong with it. Really getting frustrated. Had 2005 gt before this one and drove it for 100,000 miles with almost no problems, ( had to replace my 1000 shaker )


If they can't figure it out I think I am switching to a dodge challenger..


2010 gt brabber blue

 

Any ford reps out there? I love my mustang but can't handle this kind of mystery problems, you'd think the people that make and service them would be able to figure out whats wrong with it, How about making a model without traction control and abs,, nothing but problems....