The "how to disable the data link to Ford" thread

[Tomster]

This just in.....

It appears that I was correct. The job 2 cars with the shark fin antenna do not have cellular antennas in the rear bumper area. I confirmed it with the shop and asked them to take photos of the areas where the cellular antennas are located on job 1 cars.

I will provide photos later. The antennas are not present and the system relies on the shark fin antenna to provide a cellular 4G data link.

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[Tomster]

So, as promised, photos of my rear bumper removed. @The Chairman, you asked if I had the cellular antennas in my bumper area.... Nope.

As I said in an earlier post, ever since I removed the shark antenna, I have had no cellular connectivity. The only time that I have had connectivity is when the car found a wifi network to grab on to.

Next step when I get the car back is to pull the TCU fuse and disconnect all leads from the TCU/modem. It was confirmed that the TCU and wifi receiver/transmitter operate from the single TCU module.

 

[The Chairman]

So, as promised, photos of my rear bumper removed. @The Chairman, you asked if I had the cellular antennas in my bumper area.... Nope.

Thanks. But you do have something I don’t:

 

[Tomster]

Thanks. But you do have something I don’t:

Yes, that is the blind spot sensor.

Edited to add:
Do you have photos of your cellular antennas?

 

[Tomster]

Would disconnect before the splitter at the blue circle:

I disconnected both wires after the splitter and pulled them though the body when I removed the rear cover.

Tom: Do you have one of these on each side (Cell antennas). They are below the side marker lights, right next to the muffler:

Yes, this was the post I was thinking of. Is this attached to your body or bumper cover?

 

[The Chairman]

Yes, this was the post I was thinking of. Is this attached to your body or bumper cover?

Attached to the bumper cover.

 

[corrieb]

Having the Fordpass conversation with my dealer today. Sales guy is a friend of my brother in law and a very decent guy. He's been awesome and I do trust him. He tells me that rather than an incentive program to sign customers up, Ford has created a penalty program that affects him directly if customers don't take it. At the same time, he admits that's his problem, that I don't have to sign up etc. etc.

He tells me he can walk me through the process to get unconnected and can even verify whether the modem is connected through the service system.

Torn on this. Anyone else hear something similar?

 

[The Chairman]

Having the Fordpass conversation with my dealer today. Sales guy is a friend of my brother in law and a very decent guy. He's been awesome and I do trust him. He tells me that rather than an incentive program to sign customers up, Ford has created a penalty program that affects him directly. At the same time, he admits that's his problem, that I don't have to sign up etc. etc.

He tells me he can walk me through the process to get unconnected and can even verify whether the modem is connected through the service system.

Torn on this. Anyone else hear something similar?

Incentive or disincentive - looking for the same result at the dealer level.
I have both Ford Pass and Lincoln Way apps active that cover my various vehicles. It doesn’t bother me as I know there is no privacy anymore in the real world.

 

[corrieb]

It doesn’t bother me as I know there is no privacy anymore in the real world.

I'm sure this debate has been done to death, but to me it's not black and white. I want a degree of control over what I give up. Eg. I'm OK with Google knowing where I am, but I'm not OK with my Fitbit data being bought by my health insurance.

I'd be OK with just Ford knowing the state of the internals of the car, but the privacy policy makes it clear that it's not just Ford and they're collecting pretty much everything they can.

 

[Tomster]

I did some more poking around today. I got the car back late yesterday. I took lots of photos and chased a bunch of wires. I'll edit and post them later. My finding is that job 1 cars are very different from job 2 cars. Job 1 has side cellular antennas, with a splitter connecting them (as published in the workshop manual) while job 2 cars have only 1 active coax leading to the sharkfin antenna for 4G comms. I found a secondary coax that I believe is part of the generic wiring harness for convertibles leading to the parcel shelf that is not used in the fastback coupe.

I pulled the data and power harness from the TCU as well as both coax connectors. I zip tied them back so that they wouldn't rattle around. I left the TCU fuse in the fuse block because the TCU has been [Schwarzenegger tone of voice] terminated. [/Schwarzenegger tone of voice].

No more Wifi and no more cellular

 

[foolwithtools]

I did some more poking around today. I got the car back late yesterday. I took lots of photos and chased a bunch of wires. I'll edit and post them later. My finding is that job 1 cars are very different from job 2 cars. Job 1 has side cellular antennas, with a splitter connecting them (as published in the workshop manual) while job 2 cars have only 1 active coax leading to the sharkfin antenna for 4G comms. I found a secondary coax that I believe is part of the generic wiring harness for convertibles leading to the parcel shelf that is not used in the fastback coupe.

I pulled the data and power harness from the TCU as well as both coax connectors. I zip tied them back so that they wouldn't rattle around. I left the TCU fuse in the fuse block because the TCU has been [Schwarzenegger tone of voice] terminated. [/Schwarzenegger tone of voice].

No more Wifi and no more cellular

Is the TCU in the same location job 1 vs job 2?

 

[Tomster]

Is the TCU in the same location job 1 vs job 2?

Yes. Job 1 and job 2 TCU are the same. The difference seems to be that job 1 cars have 2 cellular antennas that connect to a splitter and then go to the TCU. Job 2 cars have a sharkfin antenna that connects directly to the TCU for cellular reception. Again, the sharkfin antenna is really 2 antennas built into 1 housing. One antenna for TCU comms and the other for GPS/SAT reception (See earlier post).

I dont recall which version you have, but the solution is to disconnect the 2 coax cables and the harness for power and data comm. I dont see a need to pull a fuse.

 

[Tomster]

OK, so here is the downlow....

I disassembled as per the workshop manual (trim pieces and covers) to expose the TCU and related parts.

Here are the photos and diagrams

Below is a photo of my TCU. It is located in the trunk behind the LH luggage compartment (trunk) side trim panel. It can be accessed by removing the spare tire cover, then the luggage compartment scuff plate, then the luggage compartment side trim panel by pulling out the Christmas tree fasteners.

I pulled out the shark fin coax, parcel shelf coax, and the power/data harness. This step in itself should completely disable the TCU unit and all cellular and Wifi connectivity. The TCU contains both cellular and wifi transmitters/receivers.

I verified that the connectivity with the TCU was dead by actuating the settings sliders. With the TCU disconnected as shown above, the following error screen appeared below. With the TCU reconnected to all leads, the settings were able to change and cellular/wifi data was emitted. I quickly disconnected the leads again.

Here is a diagram of the job 1 setup. In a nutshell, the TCU has a data/power harness, and two inputs for coaxial leads. One lead connects to the splitter which then connects to the left and right hand cellular antennas located between your quarter panel and bumper fascia. The other coaxial lead is part of a common wiring harness that is there for alternate models, (convertibles, etc). Note: Job 2 cars (build dates Jan 2020 and later) can be identified by having a shark fin antenna. The workshop manual depicts a job 1 car (low profile roof antenna, cellular antennas in the quarter panels, and a splitter in the luggage compartment).

Job 2 cars (again) have the shark fin antenna which is the sole source for cellular communications. There are no cellular antennas in the quarter panels and the splitter is absent. So in summary, the best way to disable all communications from the TCU (wifi and 4G) would be to pull the coax antenna leads and data/power harness from the TCU. There probably isn't a shared circuit on the TCU fuse, but down the road, Ford may tap into that circuit for other loads that would then disable other devices. In other words, the best way to eliminate connectivity would be to isolate the device(s) responsible for the comms.

 

[Vlad Soare]

 

[dx2]

Hello Tomster, nice findings. Do you think it is possible to disassemble the TCU and make some photos of both sides of the PCB without destroying the module ?

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