My wife's 2008 Mercury Mariner suddenly reset the displayed date and time. The date is now showing in 2004 (before the car was manufactured). I've been able to change the time to the correct value but not the date.

Anyone else have this happen? Is the 12v battery giving out?

I haven't run FORSCAN since it happened, but thought I'd see if anyone else has seen this.

We've owned the car for 10 years and about 120k of the 170k miles, but nothing like this before.

 

Hearing nothing, I'm guessing either this is a weird thing, I've communicated poorly, or my life just sucks.

I realized I didn't state clearly that it's a 2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid with the navigation system and 2005 maps dvd. GPS utilize clocks/timing for their core functions, so I assumed the date might be set automatically based upon the GPS reading. Either way, 2004 is way, way off.

And just for fun, right after posting this, the driver-side front window regulator gave up and left me with a rolled-down window for a couple of days.

Hearing nothing and not knowing the age of the 12v battery, I'll try swapping it out this week and see if that makes a difference.


Taken August 28, 2023

 

Did you contact them about this ?

 

FYI: This has apparently happened to ALL 2008 Ford Escape Hybrids/Mercury Mariners with the audiophile/NAV package, all exactly the same on the same date. When I noticed it on my Ford yesterday I searched for the issue and found this:

https://www.fordforum.com/forum/ford...-escape-47646/

Short version (quote from that thread):

‘I have a theory that the date is set by GPS for those of us with the navigation system. We have been bitten by the week count rollover. If I am correct a fix would be unlikely as if wound require a new GPS device.

Agreed. January 01, 2004 is 1024 weeks (210) from August 18, 2023. This is a classic GPS rollover bug. Only a firmware update (unlikely at this point) or new hardware could fix it.’

Several people have tried calling Ford about this issue and they are (so far) refusing to address it. Which is nuts.

I will try calling them on Tuesday myself (after Labor Day) to see what they say.

The thing is that Ford no longer has the development team for this system, since they created the SYNC system to replace it just a few years later.

Does anyone know how to find out how many pre-SYNC HEV audiophile Fords are still on the road today? Because it seems like Ford is intentionally orphaning a lot of our cars ….