Sometimes there’s no telling what’s going on with a car that’s acting up. And that mystery is clearly causing some laughs for online creator Flying Wrenches Automotive (@flyingwrenchesauto), whose given name is Mayson Dunsford. Mayson is a mechanic at Johnson Ford auto dealership in Atmore, Alabama and he specializes in videos that reveal the hidden secrets and eccentricities of modern automotive maintenance.
In a recent TikTok clip that’s been viewed more than 25,000 times, we see him seated in a Ford Flex SUV, which starts and idles perfectly, but appears to stall when he pushes the horn on the steering wheel.
This mishap causes Mayson to let loose with a prolonged laugh that suggests he’s seen this kind of thing before. He then just lets out an exasperated “That’s beautiful” as the clip concludes.
Having a car stall seemingly at random is a pretty alarming problem to have, especially if after stalling it refuses to start back up again (let this author’s misadventures with an early 2000s Chevrolet Monte Carlo serve as expert testimony on that matter). We don’t learn about the cause or extent of the problem from Mayson’s clip, and there’s no follow-up to let us know anything further about how he solved whatever the issue was.
A search for issues related to Ford Flex models stalling (if that is what in fact was happening in the clip) doesn’t bring up anything related to the horn, so perhaps Mayson was able to rule that out pretty quickly.
Why do Ford Flex cars stall?
Some of the common causes of stalling while idling or driving for the Flex include:
- A malfunctioning transmission
- Low fuel pressure
- Dirty or defective fuel injectors
- A broken fuel pump
- A bad oxygen or mass flow sensor
- Faulty wires in the wiring harness
- Faulty idle air control actuator
- Clogged or restricted exhaust gas recirculation valve
From his library of other videos Mayson, who also has a line of Flying Wrenches merchandise and endorses a variety of auto care products, seems like the resourceful kind of mechanic who would be able to get the Flex fixed up and running without too much worry.
Commenters on the clip seemed to be at a loss when it came to a definitive answer for what was ailing the Flex.
“Gotta be alternator it’s the alternator it’s the alternator,” one of them wrote in a parody of the alternator kind of the default problem point for many mechanics.
Another seemed confident they’d seen this same problem: “Just a fuse my neighbor has the same vehicle.”
@flyingwrenchesauto Whats going on here? 🤔 #ford #fordtech #mechanic #flyingwrenches ♬ original sound – Flying Wrenches Automotive
Or perhaps this issue is with the body control module, as one writer suggested. “What in the hell? I’ve had so many issues with wiring from bcm to horn.. but mostly on f150.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Mayson and Ford via email.
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