Today I tried to start my truck and it would turn over but would not start the first 3 times. It finally started but I noticed that the first three times the odometer showed "-------" but on the finally time the odometer reading came on and it started. When it was running it ran fine like nothing was wrong but as soon as I turned it off it wouldn't start. Again I tried several times and finally it started. Drove it to the nearest Ford dealership and they replaced the battery and I drove off and it died this time in the middle of traffic! Got back to the dealership and now they say my PCM is fried Does anyone know of this happening before? The dealership says they are going to replace it for free but they don't have one in stock and will have to wait 2 days for them to get one due to the weather. Am I in for a bunch of trips back to the dealership for them to just to replace parts to try and fix it or is this normal? What codes should they have gotten to warrant replacing the PCM.

 

The question is how did they come to the conclusion the PCM is defective?
It's your call if they will do it at no cost.
IMO I don't think it would be the PCM but could be wrong.
Try seeing if the theft lamp will flash a code if you leave the ignition on for several minutes. This may give an indication of what kind of fault the system is seeing.
Still seems like a power or communications problem.
Good luck.

 

The dealership did say my battery was going bad, but when they replaced it the truck still had the same symptoms. Could it be that I may have gotten a short in the wire harness that hooks to the PCM through the firewall? I just had the truck engine bay cleaned about 2 weeks prior. As far as the battery replacement, I figure it was about time since the old one was the original when I bought the truck in '02. I still wish I could find out what code numbers they say they got to say it was the PCM. They kind of avoided telling me which ones when I asked them. That is why I think they are just replacing items to try to fix the problem.

 

When it died in traffic, did you loose all your dash lights or did you get all the red warning lights?

If you lost all the dash power I suspect the ground cable between the battery and the block or frame. Remove, clean, inspect, and retighten that cable and connectors on both ends. A bad or loose connection will cause all the symptoms you have described. If that's not it - you now have clean ground connections.

 

ATVTINKER what did you ever find out? I had the exact same problem with my 2001 F150 SCrew (- - - - - -) odometer and would not start. If I turn the key and it showed number I knew I was good.

I took it to the dealer and they told me it was the instrument cluster, so they replaced it for $650.00. When I went to pick it up I started it, made sure it was good, then went inside to pay. When I came back out it had stalled. Same problem (- - - - - -) no start.

They kept it for a couple of days and said it was fine. Not sure what the problem was for sure. They insist it was the cluster but that didn't fix it. Please let me know what you find out.

I have read in other posts that it is most likely a PCM relay (small black box in fuse box under hood?). Not mechanically inclined but as I understand it you can swap them out or even tap on them to see if it temporarily fixes the problem. Again, please let me know what you find out.

 

Yup, same thing happened to our 2005 Econoline 5.4L Work Van- it acted just like your truck... turns out the pcm was toast.

 

i kinda had the same thing happen, except in my case i had a fault code and took it by autozone to scan the codes. well the kid erased the codes(and those of you who say autozone doesn't erase codes, your wrong. they're NOT SUPPOSED to). needless to say, SOMEHOW my pcm was fried in the process. cost me $900, some court costs that i am still going through with autozone, and a good lesson

 

Crash, can you talk about the details of how the autozone scanner kid fried the PCM? Sounds like we all should be aware.

 

I find it quite difficult to envision anything the kid at AutoZone might have done that would have fried a PCM in the simple course of reading or resetting codes.

All they do is hook up a scan tool and talk to the computer. Unless the scan tool had a specific electrical defect, your circumstance was either a coincidence or you have failed to provide a complete accounting of what happened.

Of course, given that judges and juries would most likely be quite ignorant of the technical details of the process, would most likely side with the plaintiff against any corporate-owned store..... So, regardless of any merits your clim might have, you'd likely win anyway based on the prevelent bias against the retailer.

Getting back to the OP. You may well have an intermiitent electrical feed to the instrument cluster.

Steve

 

honest to god everyone says theres NO way it could happen. he plugged it in, checked the codes, reset them, unplugged the scantron, and we tried to crank it, and no go. towed my truck to my friends shop and we ran tests on it and the pcm was gone. sad day

 

I didn't say it couldn't happen, I simply said it was either a coincidence or the scanner was defective. Unless there was any evidence the scanner was defective, I'd go for coincidence as the explanation.

Coincidences do happen. Recently, I was on a service call where I needed to reset the customer's DSL modem. I followed the correct procedure to reboot it but it failed to come back online. Two days later, a new modem, and a service call from the phone company finally got everything back online. However, the modem failure occurred during an otherwise completely normal operation. Wasn't my fault and I certainly billed them for all my work in diagnosing and correcting the problem.

Stuff sometimes happens that isn't anyone's fault, no matter what their proximity.

Steve