Lift gate opens unexpectedly

Frank Mallette said:

My liftgate has been intermittently opening on its own whenever I launch my boat and get near the rear boat tongue. I had taken it into the Ford dealer twice over the last year but they can’t replicate it. It seems to only happen on the boat ramp. The dealer said I do not have the auto sensor. So I have no idea why it would operate without me touching the key. It opens unexpectedly and closes unexpectedly and sometimes continues and sometimes stops on its own. I was finally able to capture it on video in my driveway instead of on the boat ramp. You can see in the video I have my key is sitting on the spiral stair. The video clip is a short clip of a longer clip which showed the liftgate going up and down sometimes closing all the way sometimes not for a period of several minutes. OK so I write all of this in here and now realize I cannot upload a video. It seems to only allow uploading photos.

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gray_ghost said:

I had the exact same problem with my 2019 Expedition Platinum. When I wanted to open the liftgate with a kicking motion it would not open. Almost every time I hook up a trailer, the liftgate opens unexpectedly when I am am crouched down hooking up the hitch, chains, and lights, hitting me in the head unless I am quick enough to dodge it. The same thing happens in reverse. If I am loading stuff into the back of the vehicle with the liftgate up, it will close unexpectedly and try to hit me on the top of my head. It is a safety issue, so I talked to a service rep at the local Ford Dealership. He said they could not disconnect the sensor because the connectors would corrode. What I did to correct the problem was this:

There are lower and upper liftgate motion sensors located in the rear bumper. Only the lower sensor needs to be disconnected. I purchased a Hands-Free Liftgate lower motion sensor from a junkyard (P/N JL1T-14F680-DA). I cut off the connector. I removed the Hands-Free Liftgate Lower Motion Sensor from my vehicles rear bumper (it just clips on with plastic clips...very easy). I plugged the used sensor connector into the liftgate module...no corrosion problems. The liftgate can still be opened and closed with the key fob or buttons on the dash or liftgate, but the kick motion no longer works. No more dodging the liftgate while hooking up my trailer.

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