Sync 3 ambient lighting

On random days when starting my car ambient lighting doesn’t come on…however if I go into the settings for it I can easily turn it on myself. It’s a little annoying to have to do, and seems to do it almost every time when it’s cold outside. It doesn’t seem to be sync version related as it’s done it over several versions of 3.4. Anyone else also experience this?

Unfortunately my car doesn’t have ambient lighting but I’m sure someone will chime in soon :crossed_fingers:

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Your comment on the cold climate made me think about the battery’s health. Do you have means of checking its voltage?

I did recently have it checked and it said it’s in good health but could use a recharge…Low startup voltage possibly causing the lighting to glitch out and not come on?

You mentioning that this happens when it’s cold outside made me think about that, but only way to really check if that’s the case would be to measure its voltage before starting it up. I do not remember any case like yours.

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I will have to look into the battery as being the possible culprit.

Since you have a 2014 Fusion (CD391), this is a Sync 3 retrofit. Make sure that the settings for ambient lighting are correct in the APIM. You did not specify NAV or not.

For the APIM:
7D0-06-01 *xxx
Internal Gyro (IG), Gyro On Bus (GoB), Ambient Lighting Type (ALT), Reverse Gear (RG)
2018 and earlier vehicle with ambient lighting:
4=IG Not Present, GoB Present, ALT Pantone Color Scheme, RG Legacy (Non-NAV APIM)
8=IG Present, GoB Not Present, ALT Pantone Color Scheme, RG Legacy (NAV APIM)

7D0-06-01 x*xx
Enhanced Memory Phone As a Key (PAK), Trailer Backup Assist 2 Feature (TBA), Illumination Gateway Strategy (IGS)
0=PAK Not Present, TBA Not Available, IGS CGEA 1.3
1=PAK Not Present, TBA Not Available, IGS C1MCA

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I think my asbuilt is correct, but I will definitely check just to make sure. Thanks for the info! I have a with nav APIM. For that second part am I wanting it to be “0” since that’s in bold?

Yes, 0 for second setting.
8 for the first setting.
The line should be 805E.

Awesome, thanks. I’ll be checking/changing it around 1pm today.

My line read 905E so I changed it to 805E so we will see what happens tonight!

That did not seem to work, and now my display only stays at max brightness. Unchanged by the dash brightness switch and unchanged by the display brightness setting within the radio settings.

The display brightness setting within the radio (Sync) settings only works at night with Sync 3.4, with the vehicle lights on. It should be grayed out when the lights are off. If that worked before, just set the value back to 9. The APIM settings are not the issue.

I did find this:
Date Reported APRIL 25, 2014
NHTSA Reference #10056377
TSB Reference #TSB-14-0086
Description: FORD/LINCOLN: WHEN HEADLAMP SWITCH IS IN AUTOLAMP POSITION, AFTER ENGINE START UP, THE AMBIENT LIGHTING IS INOPERATIVE, INTERMITTENTLY AND BODY CONTROL MODULE (BCM) NEEDS REPROGRAMMING TO LATEST CALIBRATION. MODEL 2013-2014 FUSION, MKZ.

TSB-14-0086.pdf (240.6 KB)

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Yeah I tested it at night time since I work nights…I will set it back to 9, and maybe that BCM reprogramming is what I need to fix my intermittent ambient lighting problem then. Do you know if forscan beta is capable of BCM firmware flashing like it is for the APIM? I assume that’s what the TSB is referring to as “calibration”.

While I have a thread going, I have a separate issue that’s new (unrelated to ambient lighting forscan changes). I have reverse cam and rear sensors, but my sensor beeping no longer works and I dont have the overhead car visual on screen. All I have are trajectory lines and no beeping anymore. I DID have beeping so it was functional in my sync 3 setup, I don’t have a clue what has made it stop working.

Did you make any changes to the audio system? The alert audio, and NAV voice, are fed from the Sync APIM to the ACM or DSP directly for the alerts and voice.

Did you have Sync 2 in the vehicle before Sync 3?

FORScan can do this, but I would check with your service department first as this is a TSB and in some cases it would be covered regardless of warranty. But then it might not. The BCM updates are possible with FORScan, but back up everything and make sure you have all the present firmware files also, in case you need to revert for some reason. Use a good quality USB ODB adapter for firmware programming, like the ODBLink EX or equivalent. Do NOT use a Bluetooth adapter for firmware.

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I didnt make audio system changes. NAV voice works fine, as does hands free bluetooth voice, and yes I did have sync 2 with nav before upgrading to sync 3.

This could be related to the BCM thing, as the PAM (Parking Assist Module) is integrated to the BCM in your vehicle, I believe. You could try just a BCM reset first thru FORScan to see if the sounds return. In FORScan under the tab with the big wrench, find BCM Reset and run that. It will reset the BCM settings and reboot the module. WARNING: The car will go nuts and set a whole bunch of DTC’s when you do this. No need for alarm, this is normal. Just clear all the DTC’s after.

Did you have the 360-camera view in Sync 2? Settings for that will be:
7D0-02-01 xxxx xxxx *x–
Smart Data Link Connector (SDLC), Vehicle settings - B-car Only, Rear View Camera (RVC) Split View, 360 Camera View

Could you post your APIM asbuilt?

@anthonysmith93 any update from your part?, this thread has 2 topics going on and unless I missed something, there’s no update from either one of them.

Sorry I just now saw this response. My car didn’t have 360 view before, only a reverse cam. Do I just screenshot my APIM asbuilt from forscan and post it?