Fuse Box and Water

[Cybermig]

Well I just got bit by this... my truck has been having all sorts of electrical gremlins for a couple of years now. Shame on me for not taking the truck to Ford sooner but the issues I was seeing were so "out there" that I wasn't correlating this all back to the BJB (Battery Junction Box). This weekend I started doing some research and came across the same TSB posted above and that's when I went to Ford and spoke to a diesel tech there who told me he's probably replaced 30+ BJBs on the 2020+ Super Duty's and it's all because of water intrusion. It's a common enough issue that my local Ford store stocks up on spare Gas (B)/Diesel (A) versions.

Well my issue came to a head last Friday when after a 2nd time in about a month the batteries which are new (replaced after the first incident) were "Dead dead"... like sitting at 4v dead... Truck sat for 3 days but on the 2nd day it rained hard almost all day and in the morning the truck was so dead it needed a truck and another battery booster box to get it to crank.... but once it cranked all sorts of other issues happened like my DEF system threw a fault... I hooked up Forscan to the truck and all sorts of DTCs were lit up and I couldn't clear many of the faults so it was time to address it with Ford. I picked up the replacement BJB for my Diesel this morning and did the swap out... took me about 3 hrs (Ford only pays techs .6hrs if this were under warranty)... After buttoning everything up, the truck is happy as can be. It's a $350 part + tax.

I was a little worried that I had a different issue because when I first removed the BJB cover, there didn't appear to be any signs of water intrusion as I've seen other's picture postings of their fuse panel which looked much worse... mine looked super clean in comparison but once it took everything apart down to the circuit board, that's when I saw the extensive damage to all the circuitry, the board was all corroded. Definitely a situation where water enters from the top and not the bottom.

Ford should've made a small gasket for the lid similar to what they did on the low pressure fuel filter that just makes a liquid tight seal. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to prevent this from happening again because the Ford tech I spoke to says even a properly installed lid won't keep water out when experience heavy water draining as the water just pours on top of the lid and runs down the side and into the channel where the top lid and bottom case meet.

Here's some pics of the top fuse panel and board itself all corroded.

I strongly recommend if any of y'all have a truck acting "drunk" ever with electrical issues ( horn wont work or stays on, can't turn off the truck, batteries dying, weird faults detected when you check via a scan tool, etc... this is very likely your issue and it's covered under the B2B warranty and nothing else.

This is what the top of my panel looks like (old one)... pretty good right...

On the bottom side things looks pretty good but I noticed a small spot had some corrosion. So I took out all the fuses....

And this is what I found inside... basically a corroded mess.

This is the part # for the Diesel's BTW... the same part # ending in B is what you need for a gasser.

Unfortunately this issue needs more attention as Ford isn't doing their part to make us whole on this one by recalling and replacing these lids that don't seal well. I checked on mine and it's always been properly seated hence the panel on the top looked so clean... but my Diesel Ford tech assured me that unless I proactively "seal" the lid on to the base somehow, that I'm likely to experience future gremlins.

 

[Canyon Trekker]

Well I just got bit by this... my truck has been having all sorts of electrical gremlins for a couple of years now. Shame on me for not taking the truck to Ford sooner but the issues I was seeing were so "out there" that I wasn't correlating this all back to the BJB (Battery Junction Box). This weekend I started doing some research and came across the same TSB posted above and that's when I went to Ford and spoke to a diesel tech there who told me he's probably replaced 30+ BJBs on the 2020+ Super Duty's and it's all because of water intrusion. It's a common enough issue that my local Ford store stocks up on spare Gas (B)/Diesel (A) versions.

Well my issue came to a head last Friday when after a 2nd time in about a month the batteries which are new (replaced after the first incident) were "Dead dead"... like sitting at 4v dead... Truck sat for 3 days but on the 2nd day it rained hard almost all day and in the morning the truck was so dead it needed a truck and another battery booster box to get it to crank.... but once it cranked all sorts of other issues happened like my DEF system threw a fault... I hooked up Forscan to the truck and all sorts of DTCs were lit up and I couldn't clear many of the faults so it was time to address it with Ford. I picked up the replacement BJB for my Diesel this morning and did the swap out... took me about 3 hrs (Ford only pays techs .6hrs if this were under warranty)... After buttoning everything up, the truck is happy as can be. It's a $350 part + tax.

I was a little worried that I had a different issue because when I first removed the BJB cover, there didn't appear to be any signs of water intrusion as I've seen other's picture postings of their fuse panel which looked much worse... mine looked super clean in comparison but once it took everything apart down to the circuit board, that's when I saw the extensive damage to all the circuitry, the board was all corroded. Definitely a situation where water enters from the top and not the bottom.

Ford should've made a small gasket for the lid similar to what they did on the low pressure fuel filter that just makes a liquid tight seal. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to prevent this from happening again because the Ford tech I spoke to says even a properly installed lid won't keep water out when experience heavy water draining as the water just pours on top of the lid and runs down the side and into the channel where the top lid and bottom case meet.

Here's some pics of the top fuse panel and board itself all corroded.

I strongly recommend if any of y'all have a truck acting "drunk" ever with electrical issues ( horn wont work or stays on, can't turn off the truck, batteries dying, weird faults detected when you check via a scan tool, etc... this is very likely your issue and it's covered under the B2B warranty and nothing else.

This is what the top of my panel looks like (old one)... pretty good right...

View attachment 147244


On the bottom side things looks pretty good but I noticed a small spot had some corrosion. So I took out all the fuses....


View attachment 147245


And this is what I found inside... basically a corroded mess.

View attachment 147246

This is the part # for the Diesel's BTW... the same part # ending in B is what you need for a gasser.

View attachment 147247


Unfortunately this issue needs more attention as Ford isn't doing their part to make us whole on this one by recalling and replacing these lids that don't seal well. I checked on mine and it's always been properly seated hence the panel on the top looked so clean... but my Diesel Ford tech assured me that unless I proactively "seal" the lid on to the base somehow, that I'm likely to experience future gremlins.

Outstanding information! Thanks for posting this.

 

[Modman]

Well I just got bit by this... my truck has been having all sorts of electrical gremlins for a couple of years now. Shame on me for not taking the truck to Ford sooner but the issues I was seeing were so "out there" that I wasn't correlating this all back to the BJB (Battery Junction Box). This weekend I started doing some research and came across the same TSB posted above and that's when I went to Ford and spoke to a diesel tech there who told me he's probably replaced 30+ BJBs on the 2020+ Super Duty's and it's all because of water intrusion. It's a common enough issue that my local Ford store stocks up on spare Gas (B)/Diesel (A) versions.

Well my issue came to a head last Friday when after a 2nd time in about a month the batteries which are new (replaced after the first incident) were "Dead dead"... like sitting at 4v dead... Truck sat for 3 days but on the 2nd day it rained hard almost all day and in the morning the truck was so dead it needed a truck and another battery booster box to get it to crank.... but once it cranked all sorts of other issues happened like my DEF system threw a fault... I hooked up Forscan to the truck and all sorts of DTCs were lit up and I couldn't clear many of the faults so it was time to address it with Ford. I picked up the replacement BJB for my Diesel this morning and did the swap out... took me about 3 hrs (Ford only pays techs .6hrs if this were under warranty)... After buttoning everything up, the truck is happy as can be. It's a $350 part + tax.

I was a little worried that I had a different issue because when I first removed the BJB cover, there didn't appear to be any signs of water intrusion as I've seen other's picture postings of their fuse panel which looked much worse... mine looked super clean in comparison but once it took everything apart down to the circuit board, that's when I saw the extensive damage to all the circuitry, the board was all corroded. Definitely a situation where water enters from the top and not the bottom.

Ford should've made a small gasket for the lid similar to what they did on the low pressure fuel filter that just makes a liquid tight seal. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to prevent this from happening again because the Ford tech I spoke to says even a properly installed lid won't keep water out when experience heavy water draining as the water just pours on top of the lid and runs down the side and into the channel where the top lid and bottom case meet.

Here's some pics of the top fuse panel and board itself all corroded.

I strongly recommend if any of y'all have a truck acting "drunk" ever with electrical issues ( horn wont work or stays on, can't turn off the truck, batteries dying, weird faults detected when you check via a scan tool, etc... this is very likely your issue and it's covered under the B2B warranty and nothing else.

This is what the top of my panel looks like (old one)... pretty good right...

View attachment 147244


On the bottom side things looks pretty good but I noticed a small spot had some corrosion. So I took out all the fuses....


View attachment 147245


And this is what I found inside... basically a corroded mess.

View attachment 147246

This is the part # for the Diesel's BTW... the same part # ending in B is what you need for a gasser.

View attachment 147247


Unfortunately this issue needs more attention as Ford isn't doing their part to make us whole on this one by recalling and replacing these lids that don't seal well. I checked on mine and it's always been properly seated hence the panel on the top looked so clean... but my Diesel Ford tech assured me that unless I proactively "seal" the lid on to the base somehow, that I'm likely to experience future gremlins.

Thanks @Cybermig very useful post!

 

[bbrett]

Well I have had an interesting week or so. As you ,may or may not know winter in Utah this year is nuts. Record breaking snowfall, (75 to 80 degrees here Tuesday, snowing today) 900 inches at the ski resort, expecting flooding from all the water, cats and dogs living together - mass hysteria. Anyway, a few weeks ago my truck started having weird electrical issues and faults. Started with engine kept running when I turned it off. Took me opening the door to get it to quit. I tested this and it happened several times. Over the next week here are the things I had happen

Check engine light come on - no codes thrown
Check engine light come on - ECM error
When starting the mirrors would unfold and extend
Lost any settings I had made in options screen

And finally it last Wednesday morning after 2 days of storms and 15 inches of snow it wouldn't start at all. Not even try. Gave these errors or messages on the screen in order
Driver door ajar (it was closed)
Engine coolant over temperature (after sitting for 10 hours)
Service advance trac
Blind Spot system fault
cross traffic system fault
full accessory power active
Hill Start Assist not available
memory recall not permitted while driving
pre-collision assist not available
service advance trac (again)

Long story short after taking to be looked at they found that water apparently sprays up and hits the bottom of the fuse box. After 16 months of use this was enough to cause some corrosion, even on the fuses themselves. Two of them they pulled and replaced due to corrosion.

Apparently this isn't something new, you can find more info on the web ( I haven't looked bet the tech told me about it)

So the point of all of this is if you start having weird electrical issues check this out. They found errors on 3 of the computers inside The ECM and 2 others. (don't recall what ones he told me) they cleaned it all up, cleared the codes and so far it seems to be fine. I am going to look at other ways to avoid this in the future but thought it was worth sharing

Anyone else seen this?

BTW this is the very first issued I have had of any kind on my truck. 28K miles so far.

So I drove my truck about 2 miles, CEL came on after about a minute but drove fine. Stopped at the liquor store, I drove out of the parking lot made it into the street and truck lost all power and all of these lights came on. Wasn't able to turn it back on.

Engine coolant over temperature (after sitting for 10 hours)
Service advance trac
Blind Spot system fault
cross traffic system fault
full accessory power active
Hill Start Assist not available
memory recall not permitted while driving
pre-collision assist not available
service advance trac (again)


So it seems like I may have this issue as well..

see video

 

[bbrett]

Well I just got bit by this... my truck has been having all sorts of electrical gremlins for a couple of years now. Shame on me for not taking the truck to Ford sooner but the issues I was seeing were so "out there" that I wasn't correlating this all back to the BJB (Battery Junction Box). This weekend I started doing some research and came across the same TSB posted above and that's when I went to Ford and spoke to a diesel tech there who told me he's probably replaced 30+ BJBs on the 2020+ Super Duty's and it's all because of water intrusion. It's a common enough issue that my local Ford store stocks up on spare Gas (B)/Diesel (A) versions.

Well my issue came to a head last Friday when after a 2nd time in about a month the batteries which are new (replaced after the first incident) were "Dead dead"... like sitting at 4v dead... Truck sat for 3 days but on the 2nd day it rained hard almost all day and in the morning the truck was so dead it needed a truck and another battery booster box to get it to crank.... but once it cranked all sorts of other issues happened like my DEF system threw a fault... I hooked up Forscan to the truck and all sorts of DTCs were lit up and I couldn't clear many of the faults so it was time to address it with Ford. I picked up the replacement BJB for my Diesel this morning and did the swap out... took me about 3 hrs (Ford only pays techs .6hrs if this were under warranty)... After buttoning everything up, the truck is happy as can be. It's a $350 part + tax.

I was a little worried that I had a different issue because when I first removed the BJB cover, there didn't appear to be any signs of water intrusion as I've seen other's picture postings of their fuse panel which looked much worse... mine looked super clean in comparison but once it took everything apart down to the circuit board, that's when I saw the extensive damage to all the circuitry, the board was all corroded. Definitely a situation where water enters from the top and not the bottom.

Ford should've made a small gasket for the lid similar to what they did on the low pressure fuel filter that just makes a liquid tight seal. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to prevent this from happening again because the Ford tech I spoke to says even a properly installed lid won't keep water out when experience heavy water draining as the water just pours on top of the lid and runs down the side and into the channel where the top lid and bottom case meet.

Here's some pics of the top fuse panel and board itself all corroded.

I strongly recommend if any of y'all have a truck acting "drunk" ever with electrical issues ( horn wont work or stays on, can't turn off the truck, batteries dying, weird faults detected when you check via a scan tool, etc... this is very likely your issue and it's covered under the B2B warranty and nothing else.

This is what the top of my panel looks like (old one)... pretty good right...

View attachment 147244


On the bottom side things looks pretty good but I noticed a small spot had some corrosion. So I took out all the fuses....


View attachment 147245


And this is what I found inside... basically a corroded mess.

View attachment 147246

This is the part # for the Diesel's BTW... the same part # ending in B is what you need for a gasser.

View attachment 147247


Unfortunately this issue needs more attention as Ford isn't doing their part to make us whole on this one by recalling and replacing these lids that don't seal well. I checked on mine and it's always been properly seated hence the panel on the top looked so clean... but my Diesel Ford tech assured me that unless I proactively "seal" the lid on to the base somehow, that I'm likely to experience future gremlins.

Same part if you had Adaptive Steering too?

 

[bbrett]

Verified it is the same part, found dirt and moisture in my fuse box this AM - I’ll finish pulling it apart tomorrow but more than likely it’s what it is.