Ford electric towbar problem

[Pumalhd]

The car is a 2017 Ford Grand C-Max and the towbar has worked faultlessly until now. This evening I pressed the towbar retract button while the trailer electrics were still plugged in. The towbar remained in place and the controller emitted a constant high-pitched noise until the doors were closed then restarted when the engine was started. I have tried disconnecting the car battery for 15 minutes but the noise comes still back whenever the engine is started, and the retract button does nothing. The red light in the button flashes while the noise is sounding. Any suggestions please? I've now tried disconnecting the vehicle battery for a few hours but it has made no difference. (Already posted in the electronics and Ford forums - not sure where the best place is.)

[tendown]

I had an issue with a 2018 ford auto boot opener. Similarly disconnecting the battery overnight had no effect. I found and removed the control box and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. Refitted it and it was all magically fixed. A joyous and frustrating moment!

[Pumalhd]

Thanks for this. I`ve tried taking out and refitting the controller (or at least what I presume is the controller - photo attached) but it has not made any difference. I've also tried resetting the trailer control module in Forscan.

[Richard-D]

have you red the manual to determine what a flashing light with warning beep is alerting you to?

[Pumalhd]

Thank you - problem solved! So now I feel an idiot - indeed the handbook says a constant flashing and beeping can be fixed by holding the operating button down for 15 seconds to reset the system.

[Richard-D]

Thanks for updating. Hopefully it'll save someone else some head scratching in the future.

[normalbloke]

Pumalhd said:

Thank you - problem solved! So now I feel an idiot - indeed the handbook says a constant flashing and beeping can be fixed by holding the operating button down for 15 seconds to reset the system.

RTFM and all that.

[E-bmw]

Pumalhd said:

Thank you - problem solved! So now I feel an idiot - indeed the handbook says a constant flashing and beeping can be fixed by holding the operating button down for 15 seconds to reset the system.

As above I was told on a computing course many years ago.

"If all else fails read the instructions".