Are you the original owner of the truck. Let me give you a little story of a situation I was in shortly after I got my truck. I have an '11 Lariat supercrew that I special ordered and took delivery on in Jan. '11. In Dec. of '11 I had a Go Rhino series 7000 brushguard installed. Looked nice but looked naked without any lights mounted on it. So in Jan. '12 I bought a set of PIAA RS600 HID driving lights. I have back issues, so I had to enlist the help of my brother-in-law to install the wiring. So I went to his place to do it, an almost two hour ride away. I did the connections and ran the wire to the firewall. But I had to have him get the wires thru the firewall because I couldn't do all the stooping and bending to do it. So I decided to put the wires thru next to the main plug harness that is located by the brake booster, the big main harness. Well, he was bent under the hood for a while, himming and hauling when he finally said "Got it thru!". So we got it all hooked up and it all worked. So I went home. A few days later I started getting some lights flashing on my dash. Airbag light, wrench light would flash sometimes. A few others a can't remember. I was do for an oil change so I took the truck in to my dealer. While it was there I asked them to check. After a few hours they came to tell me they couldn't find the problem. So I thought for a minute, and that's when I thought about my Bro in Law running the wires thru the firewall. So I mentioned it to the tech. Sure enough, my Bro in Law and forced the wires thru, and in the process, stretched some of the wires in the main harness. So, the tech had to trace which wires were effected, then had to by pass those with new wires. Don't know exactly how they did it, but it's been fine since. SO.....................maybe, from all your off roading, you might have some stretched wires? On the outside the wire looks OK, but internally the copper has separated. Maybe the main harness plug has come loose? Just some food for thought.....

 

Hey Scarlet, Thanks for the info about your similar issue, glad you figured it out! Yes I am the original owner but I did poke a backup cam wire thru the firewall hole on the drivers side and the guy who installed my alarm did the same, so I think I might just have a similar issue going on. I did already tug a little on the harness going thru the firewall to try and see if I could cause any partial open/short to fail all the way but no luck, I'm pretty sure the communication bus goes thru that firewall. I did also pull the instrument cluster to inspect the connector and circuit board, did not see anything suspect. Truck it going back to the dealer on Tuesday as I am pretty tired of pulling over to restart/reset my truck when it goes into limp home mode which is pretty much every time I drive it now. I will ask them about doing some rewiring but I think they will tell me something like they will install a new harness for $$$$

 

I hope you get it figured out. Stuff like this sucks. If you have a suspect harness or plug, maybe you can turn the key on, or running even depending on, grab one wire at a time in the harness, maybe at the plug and tug and pull some to see if a light in the dash flickers, or something goes out, beeps? Hears a story, when I was in high school, I went to a Vo-Tech school. Family business was Appliance repair so that's what I studied. I was a member of VICA (Vocational Industrial Club of America). I won the state championship in Appliance repair that year ('78 I think, been a long time, lol), and was the first in that field to go to the nationals in Georgia. During the competition, one contest involved an electric dryer that was rigged with a no heat problem. As a judge watched, I had to diagnose and repair the dryer. They had rigged two problems and it was the same for all contestants. One was an easy fix, the other was sneaky and underhanded, Lol. On the sneaky part, at the time, electric dryers had a centrifical switch in the dryer motor. Unless the motor was running, the heating elements would not get power. They had removed the feed wire from the switch, cut the spade terminal off, then put one back on "without" stripping the insulation back to expose the copper, and put it back on the switch. I was the only contestant that correctly diagnosed the problem........Man, I could of been working for GE if I played my cards right, they were the sponsors....Oh well.

 

GE sold their appliance division to China.

 

Picture won't work, you should be able to directly post it from your phone or computer onto this website.


If there is any oil on the big transmission plug, clean both the inside and outside of the connector with electronic safe spray cleaner, and the connector side inside the face of the transmission too.

The CAN bus goes in&out of the trans, and that connector can cause issues if trans oil is present

 

Patman, here are the two connectors pic files I saw, one is clean the other is NOT! Which one has the CAN bus on it?

 

Well, another $600 bucks and.....the truck is still f..ked up. Dealer said the transmission connector had fluid in it and replaced it again. Did not even make it 5 mile before it went into limp home mode again and cluster went haywire.
Drove it right back while in limp home mode and showed them what was going on. Now they think it's the transmission control module. I tried to find a part number to get an idea on the cost of the TCM but could not find anything. Anybody know what a TCM should cost?
This problem is getting old!

 

I can't find a listing for a TCM, but a PCM/ECM is about $750 list from Ford.

 

He also called it a molded lead frame which I think is inside the tranny.

 

Looks like the part is the lead frame and valve body which is one unit for the R680, so they say. The part # is 9L3Z-7A100-C which is $1200 bucks, ouch. They said they will do the labor and fluid for no charge since they missed it last try. Fingers crossed!

 

That's a pretty hefty markup.........

https://www.tascaparts.com/oem-parts...ion-9l3z7a100c

 

yep I saw that price on-line but it includes the credit for the old part return and it needs programming, but yes I'm still getting hosed by the dealer. If it works I'll be happy and then I can start my new truck savings fund! For some reason no matter the brand I have never been able to get much more than 100k out of my trucks before they start needing constant repairs.

 

Well they had my truck for a full week to swap out the lead frame valve body to the tune of $1200. Did not even get 5 mile before the dash freaked out again. Just about time to cut my losses!

I'm thinking it still might just be a instrument cluster gone bad, might send if off to this place as a shot in the dark.

https://circuitboardmedics.com/2009-...luster-repair/

Anyone know if you can drive without the cluster installed?

 

Well.......... The way I see it is
If you are going to buy a new truck you should get one already assembled. This one part at a time it will cost you way more than getting a complete truck already put together.

 

Any refunds from the dealer? if they replace something that doesn't fix the problem why should you have to pay?