2015 F150 SuperCrew, 5.0 4x2, original owner, 115k miles on it. Has been a rock ever since I bought it new in July 2015. It was my daily driver until COVID, now on average I drive it once a week. It's my family's vehicle for long trips (fits us all, and all of our stuff better), but my job has transitioned me to permanent work from home, so I just don't drive it has much as I used to.

Recently i've had a couple weird issues where the thing just won't crank. i have gotten two different errors on the display each time it's happened.

First time was "Hill Start Assist Not avilable", then it came up with some sort of AdvanceTrack error. Turn key, nothing happened, no crank, just that error. Turned it off a couple times, opened door, put in Neutral and rolled it a little, then back in Park, the it started. No other issues for about a week or two.

This morning, same thing, turned it on, wouldn't crank, but I got a different error. This time I got "charging system service now", would not crank. Same thing as before, turned on and off a couple times, opened door, then it cranked, started fine, ran fine. No check engine light once it started.

Everything I have found online points to possible issue with ECM, Any ideas? I'm trying to avoid a trip to the Stealership...

 

How old is your battery?

 

I should have wrote before, it's not the battery, cranks fine when the computer lets the starter engage... it's not even attempting to engage the starter. I know what a dead battery acts like.

 

The battery may not be dead but if it's nearing the end of its life strange things like this can happen. I would go get it load tested. Parts stores can do it free in the parking lot.

 

I can do that, but like I said, i've gone through 3 batteries since i've owned this and know what a battery failing does. It attempts to crank, struggles or clicks, etc.

This thing when I turn the key, nothing, also the errors I mention on the display. Previous battery failures never did that. So I don't think it's that.

 

it's not the battery

 

Turned out to be the alternator

 

Ok, well this has been a whirlwind...

Thought this was fixed. I ended up replacing the batter, even though it was not that, it was almost 5 years old and was probably overdue. Ended up taking it to the dealership, they replaced the alternator. Everything seemed good for about 2 weeks, then it started doing it again. Same issues as before. "Charging System Service Now" displayed on panel, after a few attempts it would crank, and start right up. Remember, the issue is it would not turn over at all.

Now, it's stuck in my driveway, will not turn over and in addition to the "Charging System Service Now", i'm getting "cranking time exceeded", even though it has not actually CRANKED... I guess i'm going to have to TOW IT to the dealership...

Luckily it made it through my trip without issues, but this is getting ridiculous. This truck has been great for 7 years and all of a sudden is really having issues.

 

The way it's acting, to me, indicates a faulty, or corroded connection or cable/wire.
Understand that when requesting cranking, a lot of current has to flow to turn the engine over.
The drop in voltage across even a small resistance >under high current conditions< acts like an open circuit.
Voltage is dopped across a resistance leaving almost none for the function.
The system has to be gone over every section/connection or it keeps coming back the haunt you.
It's not really a big deal but the work has to be done to make it reliable after 5 years of service.
Good luck.

 

Little bit of an update on this, they have had the truck since Tuesday of last week. Got a call late Friday, and after almost 3 days of diagnosis, they said it was the starter, and that the part will be delivered Monday (today) and the truck should be done today. Guess we will see. The vehicle I have as the loaner rental car (from Enterprise, which the dealer uses) is a Jeep Cherokee and i'm not impressed.

 

Got the truck back this afternoon. The starter came in Monday, and they installed it, and when doing their test drive, the A/C blower motor stopped working, so they had to keep it another day to replace it. Seems odd thing to just break all of a sudden, but then again, the starter died with no warning too.

Hopefully this is the end of the saga

 

On these trucks, being a Canbus system, when you request cranking, a signal goes out on the Bus to a control module that does the function.
You may see this as instantaneous if it is done fast with no other system info that would alter the timing.
Example in point:
If the radio was being played and or some other drains were occurring with the engine off, for some time, then an attempt to crank the engine, you very likely will see a definite time interval delay before the starter engages, indicating another function is in play to cause that.
There could be other function changes noticed due to Bus signal application timing.
The start function is not hard wired like the old-time vehicles.
Good luck.