Electrical system and brake issues among the top complaints received by the NHTSA from vehicle owners
Everyone around the country was excited about the release of the first 2022 Ford Maverick. This all-new hybrid pickup was hailed as a game-changer. In fact, the company even boasted that owners could “live like a maverick.” Instead of feeling independent, drivers ended up chained to the service center because of a defective electrical system, faulty brakes, and trucks that won’t start.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is a good source of information about complaints that consumers have about vehicles. Their records show that there are plenty of these, 80 in total so far, about the 2022 Ford Maverick.
These complaints apply to 16 component and system categories: airbags, backover prevention, the electrical system, engine and engine cooling, exterior lighting, forward collision avoidance, the fuel/propulsion system, lane departure, powertrain, seat belts, service brakes, structure, vehicle speed control, visibility/wiper, and the unknown or other category.
The electrical system has attracted the highest number of complaints. At 37 they represent nearly half of all complaints to the NHTSA. But in addition to these, there are another 2 listed as unknown/other problems. Next in line are the brakes, with 25 complaints. There are 10 complaints about the engine and/or engine cooling, and 5 about the powertrain, one of which is clearly an electrical issue.
There are also 5 recalls, only one of which relates to the most common complaints. NHTSA campaign number 22V193000 warns that the trailer brakes of the 2022 Ford Maverick may fail. Potentially, 391,836 Ford vehicles, including 2022 Mavericks, are implicated. If the trailer brakes lose functionality and don’t brake, there’s more chance of a crash.
There are also 30 manufacturer communications on record, including TSBs and special service messages (SSMs).
| Complaint Category | Number of Complaints |
|---|---|
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Engine
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Service Brakes
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Electrical System
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Power Train
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Unknown Or Other
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Air Bags
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Fuel/propulsion System
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Vehicle Speed Control
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Forward Collision Avoidance: Warnings
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Forward Collision Avoidance: Automatic Emergency Braking
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With all eyes on the hybrid Maverick, Ford should have put plenty of time into perfecting the electrical systems for maximum pleasure. But dead batteries, defective wiring harnesses, and trucks that go into deep sleep mode are spoiling the experience for many owners. There are also complaints about Mavericks losing 100% power overnight for no apparent reason. It is possible that all these issues are related.
Dead battery issues are reported as electrical system and powertrain problems.
One of the first complaints, in June 2022, was from an owner in California. After 3 days away on a trip, his 2022 Maverick was “completely dead.” The FordPass app messaged “that remote features were being shut off to conserve battery life.” Unable to open the door using the app or the factory keypad, they had to break into the car to get the key out of the glove box.
The Maverick needed a jump to start it. After driving about 20 miles and then parking, there was another warning via the app. After 9 days at the dealership, they replaced the battery. But before even collecting the vehicle, he got the same low battery warning. “I don’t believe that the issue has been resolved and it is being reported by a large number of other Maverick owners“ on the Maverick Truck Club forum.
An owner from North Carolina tells a similar story. After more than 3 weeks at the dealership, he was told that the part that connects the electrical system to the engine is defective.
An owner from Georgia has a high-voltage battery warning. The dealer had the vehicle for 2 weeks “and said they read some transmission codes but tell me Ford doesn’t know what to do to fix the issue at this point.”
There are also complaints of “dead” Mavericks that don’t relate to the battery. An owner from Arizona had to jump-start his Maverick to get home. Then, when he tried to restart it again, once again there were “no lights, no power, nothing at all.” The obvious route was to test the 12-volt battery. But it was “found to be in good condition so it was not the battery.”
According to Ford, their vehicles are designed to conserve battery power by automatically or manually entering what they call Deep Sleep Mode. They say it is activated automatically when:
An owner from Pennsylvania states: “My truck is never inactive for 14 days and has never been in extreme cold/hot weather conditions. Therefore I can only conclude severe voltage drops from the battery. The internet is full of complaints about this truck entering deep sleep mode and then failing to turn on again, even with a jump start. I’m concerned for my safety that this vehicle will leave me stranded.”
An owner from North Carolina had only had a Ford Maverick for 3 weeks. “Went to start the truck and it was completely dead. Couldn’t even use the key fob. It went into deep sleep mode. Had to have it towed to the dealer.”
Another complaint about the deep sleep mode is from an owner in California who says it happens “for no reason. The battery is fine, the harness is having issues.”
An owner from Wisconsin draws the same conclusion. After losing engine power on the road, he was alerted by the app that the Maverick was “going into deep sleep mode to preserve the high voltage battery power.” A few days later, he discovered that “there is a Ford TSB out to repair these battery cable, battery, electrical issues. The 12v battery cable to the engine fuse box connector has a bad weld connection.”
The first confirmation of a battery wiring harness issue was in early June 2022 after a Maverick “died in the driveway.” Since then there have been at least 20 complaints to the NHTSA that mention defective wiring harnesses. There is a good chance that many of the battery and deep sleep mode complaints are due to faulty wiring harnesses too.
Here are a handful of complaints that mention wiring harnesses.
An owner from Maine reported that after finding that none of the electrical components were working, the dealer found a “fuse had blown from the jumpstart of the truck. After the fuse was replaced, the dealer found a negative terminal connection from the harness had broken at the flat section. The harness is on national backorder.”
A Georgia owner reports that after stopping to get water, when he got back into the truck “ it had NO power. It was as if the battery was dead. I had it jump-started and drove home. In the middle of an intersection, while turning, the truck shut off completely. NO power. When this happens, you have no emergency lights and can not put it in neutral to push it off of a road. If you are on a back road with no lights, you can’t turn on the hazards nor push the vehicle off the road out of traffic. It was the wiring harness that went bad.”
An owner from Texas states, “Loose connection for positive cable on wiring harness under the hood causes intermittent complete failure of (the) electrical system. Car is unable to start when the connection is loose without a jump.”
But another Texas owner says that the “entire electrical system failed and couldn’t be jump-started by the Roadside Assistant.”
Sometime in September 2022, Ford issued a technical service bulletin that advises dealerships on what to do if Maverick owners experience this problem. An owner from Ohio shared the TSB number – 22-2340 – in an NHTSA complaint. The complaint itself states: “Vehicle has no power anywhere… as if the battery is disconnected.”
The TSB, which a member of the Maverick Truck Club has shared, applies to the 2022 full hybrid electric vehicle (FHEV) Ford Mavericks with a 2.5-liter engine. More specifically, it is for Mavericks built on or before 13 May 2022. It states that these vehicles may manifest a no crank/no start condition without a 12-volt power supply in the battery junction box. This may be due to a loose or detached eyelet terminal.
The TSB specifies the service procedure required to replace the wiring assembly and correct the condition. Batteries should only be inspected and replaced “if necessary.”
The no crank/no start issue is a common one with Ford vehicles. For example, TSBs show that some 2017-2018 Ford F-Super Duty vehicles built on or before May 2, 2018 had this problem. 2020-2021 Ford Mustang GT500s built on or before June 30, 2021, also displayed this condition. SSMs show that more recently, some 2021 F-150s “exhibit a no crank/no start with no powertrain control module (PCM) if the oil life is at or less than 20%. Some 2022 F-Super Duty vehicles that were built before March 3, 2022, and don’t have a telematics control unit (TCU), “may exhibit a no crank/no start condition due to a discharged battery.”
Even though the law requires manufacturers to share all communications, including TSBs, with the NHTSA, as ofOctober 11, 2022, the TSB was not yet available on the NHTSA website.
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Nobody can be safe in a vehicle that has brake problems. We have mentioned that there is an acknowledged problem with the Maverick’s trailer brakes. But there are also problems with the service brakes that control normal stopping.
In a complaint submitted to the NHTSA in May 2022, a Maverick owner from Puerto Rico describes an accident caused by brake failure. The driver was injured when “the brakes did not work, causing me to go over a cliff. The airbags never opened.”
An owner from Florida also reports a crash, but no injuries. “At very low speeds (﹤5mph) the brakes will grab very hard when you try to gently come to a stop.” At times there is a thud that sounds like the regenerative braking locking up. Sometimes the brakes don’t work at all.
Another owner from Florida, who narrowly avoided a crash says: “When driving at slow speeds the brakes seem to have a “dead space”. The brakes slowly engage, don’t engage at all (hence dead space) then abruptly stop the vehicle. There is also a loud clunk associated with it.”
The first dealership that tested the Maverick couldn’t replicate the issue. The second one could, but couldn’t “find anything wrong with the system to be able to fix it.”
Other typical complaints state:
Are you experiencing brake problems? Read more about our Ford Maverick Brake Problems.
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Brian Jones spent more than 30 years working as an ASE Certified Master Tech and Parts Specialist at multiple dealerships. Brian has become an authority in the industry, traveling across the country to consult for car dealerships and contributing his expertise as a writer for several major automotive publications. In his spare time, Brian enjoys working on pickup trucks, muscle cars, Jeeps and anything related to motorsports.
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