Hello. I was driving down the highway today in my 02 F-150 with 190,000 miles on it when the engine shut off. It kind of shuddered first then all the gauges went dead. I coasted to a side road and am waiting for the tow truck now.
I checked all the obvious fuses and they are all visibly good. The truck still powers on, radio, headlights, interior lights, door locks, ac blower motor all still work.
When I turn the key to run, normally the gauges all cycle. Now they do not move. I am about 95% sure it is an electrical problem, but I welcome any suggestions, advice and expertise that will lead me to the problem.
Thanks.

 

I am going to take 2 complete SWAGs.

1. Cab fuse panel fuse #30 - 30A = powers PCM power relay

2. PCM power relay in the engine compartment fuse panel or the fuse for it, Fuse #2 30A

This is a complete guess without you doing any checking of fuses in the truck with a meter or test light.

 

You nailed it with number one. It was fuse #30. I replaced it and the it fire right up.... for about 5 seconds. Pulled the fuse and the new one blew out as well.

The book says that fuse is anti-theft, cluster, ignition coils, pcm relay, coil on plugs, radio noise capacitor and ecc diode.

Relevant history on the truck is:
Numerous cop's replaced when the truck was much younger.
I used to have a Diablo chip in the pcm, but I pulled it around 100k miles due to fuel prices.
I have an supermarket Alpine stereo installed last summer. It works fine when the fuse is blown.

Edit:
After doing some research, I went and pulled the pcm relay. Put a 15amp fuse in and cranked it for a couple seconds. The fuse did not blow. I put the relay back in and cranked it and it stayed running for 15 minutes until I shut it off.

While it was running, I hooked up an OBDII diagnostic to it and got the following codes:
P0352 - Ignition Coil B Primary/Secondary Circuit malfunction
Pending DTcs detected
P1639 Not avavilable
P0175 - Fuel Trim too rich Bank 2

I have replaced about 14 ignition coils on this truck over the last 10 years (10 in the first few years under Fords warranty) so another one does not surprise me, but this is the first time the truck has ever died like this. Normally, it just starts running real rough.

Earlier when it was popping fuses, i took a resistance reading between ground and the non-powered side of the fuse holder. it read .700 ohms. After I did all the stuff and it started running again, the same reading was .0049 ohms. I am not sure if the parameters of both the test were the same so it may be irrelevant, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

 

That is the correct list from the owners manual. No easy answer, going to have to check them 1 at a time to see where the cause it at.

Is the rubber gasket on the edge of the engine compartment ( by the wiper cowl ) pushed all the way on ? Water can get into the back COPs if this is not seated all the way.

Other than that, maybe a search in this forum and the 1997-2003 and v8 forum might provide something.

 

It is usually one if the front ignition coils that goes out, but almost all of them have gone out at one time. I will start searching. Thanks. You were a big help in isolating this down.

 

Replaced the #2 c.o.p today and it runs great again. The old one did not read any resistance when I ohmed it out so I am certain that was the problem. I compared it to the #5 c.o.p.. the truck still has a very slight hesitation and a barely noticeable rough idle, but that has been there for years.

Thanks.

 

Thank you for the reply with the solution, the next member with similar symptoms will be thankful for the info