About a month ago i started having issues with my truck dying. It started one night when i made a quick trip to get some chinese food. Drove fine there. got out got food got in it started fine started backing out and it died. tried to start back up but it was like it had no gas. finally got it started and made it to the exit and it died again. got a tow home. At home it started fine. drove to work in the morning and it ran like a champ. after work it wouldn't start.
No i will be driving down the road with the OD off (Light on Shifter On). while cruising with minimal gas pedal use the truck downshifts all of the sudden and the OD will come on (light off). runs great after this.
At some points while driving it will suddenly shut off like i turned the key off. I have to pull over and have it in park in order to try and start, that's when i get the flashing theft light and (--------) odometer reading. crank but no start. I have checked the relays for the PCM, and fuel pump. Removed PCM wire harness to check for corrosion and water, none to be found. All wires under fuse panel appear to be fine.
The only thing I don't like is there appears to be wiring fir an after market alarm under dash. A whole bunch of clip on slicers and two empty wiring harnesses. i Had to fix a ground wire hear but that did not fix my issue.
I have also done a KAM (Keep Alive Memory) reset which fixed the issue for almost a week.
issue seems to be getting more frequent. I don't have the money at this time for a $150 diagnosis. trying to save it as a last resort.
173,500 miles, new plugs, new intake manifold (old one was cracked at crossover)
Air intake and magna-flow cat back exhaust
all of this was done about a month before the issue arose.

I am decent with a wrench and am not scared to get dirty, I know it is going to be something stupid, so if youu could offer some pointers please do
Thanks in advanced.
and i have also read through just about all of the forums associated with this and cant find anything wrong with the stuff that fixed theres.

I"m In Tucson AZ no rain recently so i am pretty confident that is not a factor.
We did go from 96 to 103 when this started so maybe the Heat
Sorry for the long post

 

Replace the PCM power relay. It's the most common (but not the only) reason for intermittent loss of PCM power.

 

That was the first thing I tried. But no dice

 

You said you "checked" it, you didn't say you replaced it.

 

whoops sorry about that. I replaced the relay. then after it continued to do it i went ahead and replaced the FP relay.
All this time have had no codes until today so here they are
p0750
p0755
p0153
p0758
p0750-c
p0755-c
u1262
c1284
b1428
p0500

 

All the P07xx codes are transmission monitor codes.
P0500 VSS sensor output.
153 is Ox performance.
All the above go back on a harness.
Two are instrument cluster fault codes.
Looks like you have a big harness fault some place.
Is the PCM plug bolted down, Rodent damage etc?
No wonder he decides to lay down on you. I would to!
Good luck.

 

I am trying to help a friend having the same or very similar problem. (2003 4.6L)

We worked on it last year..... checked fuel pressure etc. Changed fuel filter.

Ford dealer could not find a problem or duplicate problem after having it a couple of days.

Problem seemed to go away and no problem during the fall/winter..... now it's back.

Changed relay and fuse this AM. Started 7 out of 8 times cold in driveway.

Observation:
-- If it's going to start......the odometer shows on dash
-- If dashes show in place of odometer ...... it won't start

This could appear to be a problem with PATS system. But, I read somewhere that PATS would not cause it to shut down if running. PATS would only keep it from starting. Not sure how accurate this is..... I read it on the internet

Anyway...... we remain clueless. It's hell to diagnose an intermittent problem like this with no codes.

 

Whike driving with the OD off (light on) does it shift randomly and turn OD on. I am trying tk drive with OD on ti see if maybe the OD system could be shorting something out
I'm almost tk the pojnt of taking it to a mechanic

 

Yeah. I pulled the pcm harness off a few days ago. I saw no damage at all and it is seated tightly. I suppose I should by some ekectrical contact cleaner and gi over all of my connectors. Where is the OD controller or module?

 

So with the OD on (light on shifter off) I had no issues. I don't know if it was just coincidence or not. I will try again later and see if I still have no issue. If that fixes it the the problem would have to be in l ne with OD some how

 

This is 100% correct per Ford.


All the switch on the end of the shifter does is to enable or disable the operation of overdrive. It's a momentary contact switch that signals the driver's intentions as to how the PCM is supposed to handle shifting. If the light is "ON", then overdrive is disabled and the transmission will only go to third gear. If the light is "OFF", then the PCM will include overdrive in its shift scheduling.

That is an indication that the PCM and the Hybrid Electronics Cluster are not communicating with each other. Since the PATS system is co-resident in both modules, PATS will automatically fail if the two modules cannot communicate. If either module has intermittent power, then you'll have an intermittent failure-to-start and the THEFT indicator will be fast-flashing.

 

The truck has not been driven enough the past few weeks to determine. Right now he is hesitant to leave the driveway for fear of it shutting down or simply not being able to restart.

Anyway.... he read about the PCM relay issues several have had. He went out and checked. When he pressed on the relay it set down all the way into the connector/receptacle. He said it was very obviously not seated completely. He is testing this afternoon to try and determine if this was indeed the problem.

I will update as I have more info..........

 

That would sure do it if intermittent contact from vibration and engine bay heat was occurring.
Incidentally, if it failed during normal operation of the PCM, you have to assume the program running at that instant is stopped so you could possibly have any code set from a 'perceived' failure at that time.
The PCM has some small amount of bled-down time before it stops when the power is removed.
Good luck.

 

I wonder what causes the OD to kick itself on while I am driving with it off. That is one constant that I have. I always turn it off while not on the highway. So I will try and trace the wire from the column to whereverbit goes and see if I have a shirt. Probably start with a DMM and see what's goin on

 

OD is controlled by the PCM. The switch just tells the computer whether or not to use OD.

Pull your column shrouds and inspect the small wiring harness where it exits the shifter tube. It may be chafed and causing an intermittent short to ground that imitates the switch's action.