I have a 2000 with a 5.4. Yesterday my son was driving it and it stalled out. I discovered the 30A fuse (#30 on the owner's manual diagram - responsible for the Passive Anti-theft Transceiver, Cluster, Ignition Coils, Powertrain Control Module Relay) was blown. I replaced it and my truck started and ran fine... for about two miles. Now, every time I replace the fuse, it blows as soon as I turn the key. I looked under the dash hoping to find an exposed wire somewhere - no luck. Anyone else have anything like this happen or have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

There are two radio noise reducing capacitors, one on each bank.
Disconnect them and see if it clears the issue.
If yes, one or both is shorted to ground.
An ohmmeter check will verfiy the short.
If yes, replace them both and not run without them.
Reason is the coils produce a large inductive 'kick' at spark discharge, the caps dampen as well as reduce interference to the rest of the circuits from that inductive kick.
The PCM also does not like this kick back into it's circuits.
See Haynes manuel page 12-18.
The fuse also powers the rest of the engine control by operating a relay and loses power as a secondary result of the blown fuse.
Good luck.

 

thanks, Bluegrass! i'll give it a shot!

 

Bluegrass,

thanks for the help! i checked all of the relays and everything else in the fuse box under the hood... started looking at all the wires under the dash and the hood... i found a braided ground wire running from a cluster of wires behind the battery to the firewall on the passenger side of the engine compartment... stupid thing was barely screwed in... now i'm back up and running!