vttk17a1

There is a nav and a no nav version for this update. The difference is the nav version has smaller files. Could be that this is causing the problem, though any number of other things may also be wrong. Service department time?

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Dear Mmoretti, See the PM I sent you.

Going the whole route (all the way, no deals). Doesn't mean Lincoln gets to stop "trying" to fix the problem either. They get to keep at it (complete with loaner) even as I take the case to arbitration and sue. It is my way of "not letting the bullies win". If i'm going to wait, it will be to see Lincoln held accountable. Good luck to you.

FYI: 3 failures in last week brought to my dealership alone. My dealer is seeking help from the ford engineering team as Lincoln's engineers were "less than helpful" as the dealer described them. It is becoming a less "isolated" problem. Early adapters should at least get some honesty from Lincoln.

Yes I am. Aren't these the same people who reacted so strongly when I suggested that Lincoln puts people on these sites to misdirect and distract people? I choose not to play any more. The whole thing is both funny and sad. People will say what they say. My thoughts about it are best kept to myself. As you have likely discovered, sharing your problems with Lincoln on this forum is a waste of time. It only gets you attacked by these so called "moderators". No point to continuing. I sometimes wonder if the site was created to misdirect dissatisfied customers so they don't take any effective action. I would suggest that you take Lincoln to arbitration and then sue them in court, Check your state's lemon laws. Auto companies lobbied to create the arbitration process to keep their legal costs down. Use it against them. Lincoln is likely liable for your legal fees. There are entire legal practices devoted to filing lawsuits against auto manufacturers at no cost to you. It is the only way the problems with your car will be addressed. Fill out the 3rd party surveys and share your Lincoln "experience" with others. Your responses may extract a cost for shoddy product support that cannot be spun by Lincoln. No point in doing it here. Don't waste your time arguing with these "moderators". They are here to provoke and distract you. Even if their claims about not being Lincoln shills are true, how sad must their lives be that this is the center of their existence. Don't engage. By the way, did you see the fun Lexus owners are having with the last software upgrade? It bricked a bunch of navigation units and audio systems. Lexus is not quite sure how to fix it. (Remind you of someone?) Why should we be the only ones having fun with new cars? Good Luck and goodbye, Vttk17a1

Had a heating/cooling problem when I first got the car. It turned out to be an alignment issue between the padding and the air ducts. Works fine now. My 2014 MKX had a similar problem and was fixed in the same way.

Agreed

It has nothing to do with franchise laws or being "happy". Lincoln sells you a product and takes your money. If significant problems arise Lincoln stalls and hopes that the clock will run out on various lemon laws. In order to force them to provide the product they promised, you have to sue them. Just because you believe that it is "real world" to just "take it", You don't have to. Lincoln is just betting that you won't sue. You are correct that franchise laws determine how Lincoln and dealers interact. Contract laws and lemon laws can also force Lincoln to make good on faulty products.

All Lincoln boards have monitors paid by Lincoln, and some of them actively write entries hoping to minimize or discredit those who complain about their new car. I hope you are not one of them. Cute comment. Interesting how some continually misdirect readers so Lincoln never owns the problem. They blame the dealers and incompetent mechanics. Some imply that " It is your imagination, it is not really happening". "You must be doing something wrong". Sometimes you hear "It wasn't documented properly on the R.O. so it didn't happen" or "Lincoln can't help you because it is against "franchisee laws"". The bottom line is that Lincoln is the name over the door. They warrant the product. Why are Lincoln's engineers never held to account? Could there be something wrong with their design or code? They designed this stuff. Why don't they know what to do? They are paid to know. There is even a service bulletin about software problems relating to these issues, but no solution ever gets to where it needs to go. Month after month goes by but nothing changes. Ask the Lincoln owners with modem problems. The blame is directed anywhere but at Lincoln. To answer the question, the faults happen while driving down the road, with no input being made at all. The faults have been documented both with photos and video. The faults have also happened in the presence of dealer service writers and mechanics. Lincoln has a problem with how this was engineered. It has happened in different cars with the same audio and SYNC 3. Three examples at one dealership over three weeks. After as much as admitting that they don't know how to fix it, Lincoln's attitude seems to be. "Too bad, wait till we figure it out". If avoidance and blame shifting is their only strategy, they won't stay in business for long. So far I have received three surveys in the mail about my new car. One from Maritz CX, one from Strategic Vision, and one from RDA Group. Needless to say my ratings for infotainment and warranty were poor. I'm with MMoretti. It is just over the top. And no, I did not "route the car into the water".

Navigation unit update: I took my car into the dealer yesterday for another attempt to solve the mysterious recurring navigation unit fault. In my absence, another customer has been experiencing the same intermittent fault. No one seems to know how to solve that issue either. After picking up the loaner (which has Sync 3 and The Revel audio unit just like mine) guess what happened. It developed the same navigation fault message even though no route had been input. Bluetooth also decided to drop the connection with the paired phone. So now there are three documented failures just at this one dealer in one month. I wonder how many more are happening that we don't know about? Could it be that there are problems with Revel / Sync3 that Lincoln doesn't want to talk about? The Navigation unit runs in the background all the time. Maybe there is some problem in the integration of the bluetooth, audio, and navigation. It would appear that it is not an isolated problem with one car. Who knows? Stay tuned.

Talked to the Service manager to arrange attempt 8 to repair. He told me he has encountered another car (MKS) with the same problem. He is hoping to find a way to solve the issues for both with a software update for a particular model. Apparently the issue is starting to pop up regularly.

Will attempt more warranty fun next week. Wish me luck!

Still off the grid till next week

Dear Mmoretti, Lincoln is still Lincoln. It will never be their "problem" until you make it so. I have had some health issues to deal with so I let the Lincoln Issues wait. There was a new TSB about Revel radios and DSP software updates because of "issues" with sync3 faults. I guess I'll look at that next. The dealer has been frustrated with this turn of events, because even though Lincoln has known about the issue for months, it said nothing to them until the actual publishing of the TSB ( the dealer brought it to Lincoln's attention). Have documented three separate fault occurrences including video of techs looking at it. I guess I'll just keep chipping away for now. Hope you are well despite the Lincoln frustrations.

Off the grid this week

Dear Akirby and mmoretti, Thanks again for your interest and suggestions. I guess the key element here is who you believe "owns" the responsibility of remediating product defects. We can discuss back and forth the shortcomings of dealer service departments, concierge service, or consumers. At times, any of these variables may affect how or even if the repair of a defect actually happens. I will certainly try twitter and Facebook. But it always seems to come back to the same place. Here is how I see it: I was sold a product that Lincoln warranted as free of defects. The product failed almost immediately upon purchase. The failure began in January. It is now almost May. I did not get what I paid for. Lincoln warrants the car. Either Lincoln can fix it's product (and honor it's warranty) or it cannot. In my experience, Lincoln seems to think that I "own" the defects, not them. After 6 tries, whether Lincoln is reluctant to "throw parts at a problem" is irrelevant. Lincoln needs to honor their warranty by repairing or replacing the defective system. The "We don't want to throw parts at the problem." concern should NEVER become the customer's problem. They have had 6 tries to not "throw parts at the problem". At this point, the defective parts or entire system should be promptly repaired or replaced. I too have spent significant time troubleshooting intermittent problems in electronic networks. I understand Lincoln's reluctance. That is why they were given 6 tries. The "we don't want to throw parts at it" argument ends after a while. When a network is down (and your Quality of Service agreement starts costing you thousands of dollars a minute) the issue becomes "fix it!". On the 7th try I am at "fix it!" If Lincoln lacks the capability to diagnose and repair a specific defect, (even if that service is provided through a dealer) the warranty is not worth the paper it is printed upon. If Lincoln can't honor it's warranty, it should not be selling the product at all. You can try to blame the dealer, but Lincoln's name is hanging over the door. Lincoln "owns" it, whether they like it or not. Stonewalling and deflection of responsibility to the dealer by Lincoln makes me wonder if Lincoln has issues with their cars that they are not sure how to fix. Is the consumer being used to troubleshoot problems "on our dime" rather then on Lincoln's? Not exactly "World Class".

Dear Akirby, I have considered your suggestion, but not gone to it so far for the following reasons: 1) My present dealer sold me the car. I have done business with them for many years and trust them. They have put forth much time and effort (at their own expense) to try to solve the problem. Their shop is considered one of the best in the area. They take the car in whenever the fault happens on the spot, (even when it is disruptive to their schedule). 2) My observation and experience is that Lincoln has been "unhelpful" in their support of the dealer's efforts. Lincoln always has the same response: Reset and bring it back if it happens again. Trouble codes, pictures,videos and data (from both the techs and myself) seem to make no difference in Lincoln's response. Outside of some call in phone support, Lincoln has provided little information (even when they have some) that might help solve the issue. When information comes to light later, Lincoln support acts like it is a surprise to them, when they have known about the information for weeks or even months. (ex. the T.S.B. on Revel radios/software patches and recurrent control problems with the D.S.P. software upgrade fix. Lincoln was well aware of these problems, but said nothing. Why is Lincoln so reluctant to share information? It is always a game of 20 Questions. Where are Lincoln's field engineers or the I.V.T.? 3) Lincoln pays dealers NOTHING for expenses related to diagnosis. The dealer fronts everything. Lincoln only pays for warranty (at a reduced rate) when they choose to. What motivation would another dealer have to even try? That is not to say that a new set of eyes looking at a problem is a bad idea. But it could also be another opportunity for Lincoln to continue to delay, deny and obfuscate, with a whole new paper trail hiding the old one. I'm not ready to go there. Lincoln needs a supervisory tier over their Concierges. The motivation of their present system is to clear names off their computer screens, not to help customers with vehicle defects. I can find no one. No phone numbers. No addresses. Everything just goes right back to the same person in Central Florida. There is no contact available in Dearborn. No one I can find that monitors what they do. I see that as the problem. Not the dealer.

Dear d4dewu, I too do not fault the dealer. I fault Lincoln for expecting its customers to suffer through weeks and months of a malfunctioning product because they "need" to figure out what is really wrong on MY dime rather than their own. That is not fair to me. I paid for a car that works, not for a car that might work properly some time in the future if they can finally figure out what is wrong. I have now brought the car to the dealership 3 times with the malfunction actually happening. The dealer has worked on the problem on 6 different occasions for a total of 41 days. The navigation unit still faults out. How much is enough? Lincoln still plays the same "game". When I talked to them on the phone yesterday, the concierge said to keep bringing the car to the dealer whenever it happens (as the problem is happening) so that maybe they can get a better idea what is wrong. I guess maybe the 4th time will do the trick? I call this the "infinite loop" because they never figure out how to fix it. (How about just replace it?) This has been going on since January 18th. It is now the 21st of April. They reset the system and say "come back when it happens again". Real "World Class" warranty. Not. There is no one to appeal to for help. Try some time.

More fun with SYNC: Unit reset Monday and today after the accessory power timed out. Tried it again today checking the "phone" theory. Used Pandora and MP3 files on phone, as well as MP#s on USB stick. Pandora and Phone both faulted. USB did not. Videoed each failure.

Dear Enigma-2, Thanks for the idea. Makes sense to me. Anything is possible with the new unit apparently. I got the car back on Friday. The unit faulted again on Monday. They had the car for 21/2 weeks and couldn't get a fault. Drove it hundreds of miles. Lincoln tech support was no help. I have it 3 days and it happens . Only about the 25th time or so that the unit has faulted... Videotaped the event as it happened in the car, took the car to the dealer with the fault still in progress (again). Videotaped the dealer service writer looking at the fault. Third time they have seen it in action. Made the Service writer record on the work order that the mechanic has verified the fault, gotten codes and other information, and that it was the third time they had seen it in the shop while faulting. That goes to Dearborn with the work order nightly upload. Hopefully, now the warranty people in Florida can't make believe it is an imaginary problem that just might go away if they ignore it long enough. One tech thinks a bad antenna? One thinks "bluetooth problem? Who knows??? GPS shows car traveling at 265 MPH while sitting still in the garage. But even after 31/2 months of a recurring problem, since Lincoln doesn't know WHY it happens they don't see any need to try and fix it. My kind of customer service and warranty support. Not.

Given their warranty practices: NO, I would not purchase another one. NO, I would not recommend the vehicle

My mistake. you may still be there. Or not. Another account was created with the same name. The only difference is you are mmoretti and the other one is Mmoretti. Pretty slick on their part. When someone searches for you, they get the other account. You must have made them angry.

Dear MMoretti, I looked to try to see your posts on the MKC forum. The forum has wiped all your posts but the one about going to the proving grounds.

Unfortunately, I purchased as well. If I am going to incur a cost, I will wait until the next model year and buy something "Not Lincoln". Or I might just bite the bullet and take them to court.