With all their advantages, touch screens have lately taken center stage in the entire modern technological landscape. The history of car touch screens goes back decades when Buick equipped its 1986 Riviera with a touch panel. Decades later, in 2023, the touch screen has become a non-negotiable feature for every to-be car owner. However, the experience of touch screens on cars is often not completely glitch-free.
If you own a Ford four-wheeler and have been experiencing an unresponsive touch screen for a while, know that you are not alone. Many car owners experience this issue more often than you might imagine. In other words, a faulty touch response is a fairly common issue in cars.
So, hang on tight. We will explain the issue in detail and provide the appropriate fixes. Read on to learn how to fix an unresponsive touch screen in your Ford vehicle.
Why is your Ford touch screen not responding?
To begin with, an unresponsive touch screen can stem from various underlying issues. A lot of components of the car work together in sync to provide you with a smooth, glitch-free touch response. As a result, a problem with any of these components can affect how your touch screen works.
These components include a lot of things. From the car’s system and fuse box to the car’s software and wires- and everything in between- a lot of little things play a role in facilitating the touch experience you love.
Let’s look into the most common problems that might prevent your touch screen from working properly on your Ford vehicle.
Cable issues
Wires are not going to go extinct anytime soon. In fact, they are still an essential component in most electrical devices, including the touch panel in your car. If something happens to the cables inside your touch panel, the screen can easily become partially or fully unresponsive.
Cable issues can include loose or broken cables. But sometimes, an overload can also lead to burnt cables that disrupt your touch screen. Therefore, looking at the wiring associated with your touch panel is always a good idea.
Faulty touch screen
Let’s talk about the gorilla in the room, shall we? You can have no real issues in your car’s system, cables, or anywhere else, but you still find your touch screen unresponsive or problematic.
The reason? The screen itself has got some issues! If your display has been damaged and disconnected or if it has become faulty for any other reason, the responsiveness will surely get hit.
Software bugs
Where there is software, there are bugs, and they are one of the most common and obvious causes of an unresponsive touch panel in your car.
Ford Touch Screen Not Responding to Touch? Try these fixes
We have talked enough about the problems. It’s time for the solutions. Depending on the underlying cause responsible for the touch screen issue, you can adopt different ways to fix the issue. Here are a few fixes for the problems we have just discussed:
Fix 1: Check the cables, display, and fuse box
External issues like wiring and blown fuses can be easily diagnosed, albeit with care. If your touch screen is not working at all, or if it just doesn’t turn on, it’s likely because of a connection issue stemming either from broken, loose, or burnt cables or from power issues like blown fuses.
We don’t recommend you try to fix these things yourself if you don’t have a sufficient idea. It’s best to contact a Ford professional for help. But if you think you can try this, refer to the user manual of your car to locate the fuse box and see if any fuse has blown off.
If you find any cable or fuse issues, you can get new cables from a nearby official service center or ask the professionals to repair them for you. If you choose to do it yourself, make sure to buy the original spare parts from a trusted dealer.
Fix 2: Reset your vehicle’s system
If the issue is due to a software problem such as bugs, glitches, or outdated software, your touch screen will go unresponsive occasionally instead of failing to turn on. In these situations, resetting the system is an easy and effective way to solve the problem.
You can reset your Ford vehicle’s system in two ways: by performing a soft or a hard reset.
As far as a soft reset is concerned, it’s fairly simple:
Step 1: Press and hold the Power button on the control panel.
Step 2: Keeping the Power button pressed, press and hold the Seek Forward (>>|) button you use to skip forward songs. You have to keep holding the two buttons until the screen turns black. This will only take a few seconds.
Step 3: Once the screen turns black, wait a few minutes. The system will turn on automatically once the reset process is complete.
A hard reset is a bit more complicated and hands-on; it involves sucking out all your vehicle’s power by disconnecting the battery. Once you disconnect the battery, let the vehicle cool down for a few minutes before reconnecting the battery again. Then turn on the vehicle again and see if the issue gets resolved.
Fix 3: Update SYNC
Soft and hard resets can help debug your system. But if your software is outdated, merely resetting your system might not help. You will then need to update the software.
You will find the specific update instructions for your vehicle on the vehicle’s user manual. In general, you first have to download the updated SYNC version into a USB device from Ford’s official website. Then, you will need to go through the instructions in the user manual to arrive at the update screen of the system.
The update might take up to 30 minutes to complete. Once SYNC is up to date, the problem will likely get fixed, and you should be able to use the touch panel without any issues.
Fix 4: Contact Ford professionals
The above methods can likely help you get rid of the faulty touch screen of your Ford device. But if you feel unsure about how to go through these steps, you don’t even need to try. It’s always a great idea to ask for professional help.
By contacting the nearest Ford dealership or service center, you can ensure your issue is addressed in the best way possible. The service executives will be eager to help and likely solve your issue from the core.
In the end
Your Ford touch screen can become unresponsive for various reasons and can cause problems with how you use the various features of your car.
To help you solve this issue yourself, we have shared some common underlying causes that are usually behind an unresponsive touch screen. But sharing only the causes is not enough, so we have also discussed the corresponding solutions for the problem.
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