I've taken my '21 F-150 XLT to two places. Take 5 did the usual Texas state inspection, and then had issues communicating with the OBD to read the Emissions readiness. They said they always have this issue with '21 and up F-150's. I went to Jiffy Lube, they did the inspection, and FAILED it because they couldn't communicate with it either. I called Ford, and they said I need to take it to the service department and pay $140 for them to diagnose, and possibly upgrade the OBD gateway. However, I have my own OBD Link EX and can connect with ZERO issues and show everything is OK (except the active air dam module is disconnected b/c it's removed...). Ford say's they have no TSB's regarding this issue on the F-150's (they DO acknowledge it on the Escapes). What are my options here now that Jiffy Lube failed it? This is frustrating to say the least.

 

Take it to a shop that has a capable scanner.

 

How many miles on the truck? I'm assuming because the Ford dealer wants to charge you $140, it is past it's warranty.

You may be able leverage Ford on this.

 

Emissions warranty is 8 years/80k miles. Take it to the dealer. If the dealer does state inspections, pay them for that but nothing else.

 

Does the truck sit a lot?

I have had something like this happen a few times with my wife's Acura. She only commutes a few minutes to work and otherwise we go everywhere in my truck. So her car sits most of the time on weekends unless she's grocery shopping or going a few minutes away to get her hair done. Almost no longer highway trips for her, very rare. On newer cars There is a process where the on board computer on its own initiative scans things at various points in the drive cycle to make sure everything's working. They're not just measuring what's coming out of the tailpipe.

Has to have stop and go, moderate speed cruising, and some highway so the computer can check off boxes under a variety of conditions and make a record that the various systems are all working properly. When your vehicle goes for inspection the shop's machine must be able to then go in and see all these checked boxes in your computer system. If a vehicle doesn't get driven much sometimes it doesn't get a chance to check all those boxes, at which point you take it for an emissions sticker and the shop doesn't get all the readiness codes they need. Both times it happened I had to take her car back drive it for a couple hours under a variety of hours and drop it off again and I was good to go. The first time we ran into it the inspection was being done at a dealer so they knew what needed to be done to get it to pass. The 2nd times I took it in again without remembering to tell her to drive it more, and MIDAS saw it and also knew it needed to be put through an extended drive cycle. But I would guess some shops might not. My 2016 Challenger RT also was not driven a lot as a 3rd vehicle that often went for awhile without highway time. About 30k in 5 years before I sold it. But it always passed without a problem, so it seems like some manufacturer’s systems are more sensitive to drive cycles than others.

If the truck sits a lot I would say it's worth asking Jiffylube if you can drive it for a couple hours under a variety of conditions and then take it back to them to see if it'll pass without an extra charge. I know in Pa if they fail you most places will run the test again and pass you without charging more if you get it fixed and return it to the same spot.