That particular code is a mess on Fords as it covers a lot of territory. U2023 is "Fault received from external node" and means that the powertrain control module received a bad data input from another module on the CAN network. With the ESP light on it suggests it could be a fault in that module but the only way to tell would be to use a scan tool and read the actual CAN signal to verify that it has bad data and then do a full system scan of the stability system and see if it will show what other issues are there. For that scan you need a scan tool that can show the topography of the network and if there is a data fault, similar to what this guide shows.
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/can-scan-controller-area-network-easy
However this code can be caused by just about anything on the CAN line from a loose or corroded connection to a complete module failure. That can make it hard to track down. The ESP light being on should however have codes stored for it, you just need a higher level scan tool to read them.
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Sunday, March 28th, 2021 AT 2:01 PM