I was pulling into a gas station yesterday after work and as I coasted into my parking spot I heard a loud "beeeeep" and looked down and in the message center it said Engine Failsafe Mode.

By this time I was in my parking spot, so I shut it off. Cranked right back up 5 seconds later, with no lights or anything. Normal.

Now just before this I had noticed a little bit rougher idle than normal, but it wasn't bad, just noticeable to me.

A couple weeks ago I removed my MAF to clean it and I broke the tab that holds the harness in place, so I taped it up to the intake to make sure it wouldn't fall off.

After cranking the truck in the parking lot I turned it off, popped the hood, and wiggled that harness. Again, truck started up fine, and now the rough idle was gone.

Ran like a top all around Birmingham last night, smooth as she could be.

Would that harness being loose cause the truck to go into Engine Failsafe Mode though? I had only been driving it for almost a mile when it happened, and it was cold as it could be outside.

 

You need to get the codes that made it go into the failsafe mode.
Did you also clean the throttle body?

 

I did not clean the throttle body, and even when it was in Engine Failsafe Mode there was no CEL, and there is no CEL now.

 

Yes, I think the MAF out of place could cause that, but you have an 05, so pay close attention to the way it runs. If it starts acting as if it's running rich, it could be leaking injectors. If that is the problem, you do not want to crank the engine. Watck for codes.

 

Saturday I'm gonna put a drop of some hi-temp silicon where the harness meets the plug to keep it from vibrating, I hope that's all it was.

It was running amazingly good after I did a tune-up a couple weeks ago and didn't idle rough until I left work yesterday, and 5 minutes later it went into Failsafe Mode, but now idles and runs amazingly again. Nice and smooth. Gas mileage increase from my tune-up was very surprising also (in a very nice way), there are absolutely no indicators that anything is amiss other than the cam phaser noise and the ticking from the injectors, which as we all know is normal across the board for these trucks. Especially with mine approaching 88k miles!

 

Just called the local dealer in Birmingham (AL) to ask how much it would be to scan to see if any codes were thrown...$98!!!!

Are you kidding me? Sorry just wanted to vent for a second. I'll take it to Carl Gregory Ford in Auburn Saturday and get it scanned FOR FREE.

/endrant

 

The scan tool Ford requires dealers to have is about $14,000 for the complete rig.

I own my personal set up. I have about $5K in it.

I don't like using it for free.

 

I gotcha.

 

I had the failsafe hit me thousands of miles ago, was on a major parkway. Wasnt fun limping home. Had them tow me to the shop, but thats another story altogether when the dealership refused me. Supposedly was a problem with the intake, ford replaced it.

 

Go to Schucks/Autozone/Oreilly's etc...they will have a free code reader to plug into the OBDII port and give you the codes then look them up online to get an idea of why it went. With no CEL, I doubt you will have codes on the PCM. Mine would go into failsafe every few months, finally threw a CEL and it was my TPS sensor and dirty throttle body.

MAF sensor would def throw a failsafe and limp mode. Keep an eye on it, if it continues doing it check the MAF sensor, clean throttle body and check your TPS sensor. If you have stuck injectors like said DO NOT start the engine. 100K mile warranty from Ford and they will fix it for free and pay for towing.