Hey guys,

I've got a good one here for you. Lately, while accelerating from a stop, my '01 Expy 4.6 will occassionally buck once or twice. The weirdest thing though is that when this happens, the Theft light flashes once. The flash occurs only once and the only way for me to explain it is that it looks the same as when your truck is off and the theft light flashes continuously every couple seconds.

This one really has me stummped. My CEL is not on and for the most part, the truck runs ok.

Anyone got any ideas?? Plugs are relatively new (~15k miles) as are the COP's.

Thanks,

Anthony

 

I had the same issue....ended up being that my battery was going bad. It was a long slow process but it finnally quit when the weather turned colder.

 

have u been listening to any rap music lately?

 

Ummm, no rap music.

Battery is about 1 year old so I doubt that it's gong but I will have it checked as a precaution. Last time the battery went, the guages would sweep through their full motion when starting the truck in the morning. I don't see that happening this time...

Anthony

 

Yep same thing, sweeping gauges.
Well let us know the outcome.

 

If you have a spare key, try using it and see if the problem persists.

A few times my truck would not start and the theft light would flash. When I traded the key on my chain with my wife's key (she never drives the truck) the problem went away. My guess is there is some kind of anti-theft microchip in the key.

 

You think?????

 

Also if you have alot of keys on your key ring they could interfere with the RF signal.

 

Good point.
I have my wife's Mercury key on mine and I have had some issues at times also...HHHHmmmmmm

 

that and over time the weight of the keys/ keychains pull down on the lock cylinder and wear out the teeth inside faster. On my dad's old 92 taurus back in 2000 you could take the key out of the cylinder with the car still running. In fact one time we were given the wrong key back by our local mechanic, it started the car, then the next morning the key wouldnt open the door lock (the car was unlocked when we picked it up at the shop)
-Patrick

 

I have the same frikkin problem. The truck was running. It satalled. Once I turned the key the theft light would flash (quickly) and truck won't start. Does this when use remote start as well. I let it sit for a few minutes( 10) and started... has bee doing this for a week

 

PATS cannot disable the engine once it's running.

 

Mine did the bucking/theft light thing back in the day, but not the gauge sweep.
Then one day, the truck just died.

My K&N intake that I had at the time came with the wrong mounting hardware, and allowed the filter to slightly rub the wires under it. Some wires to the ECU were chaffed, and eventually shorted out the ECU.

Thankfully, K&N paid for the repair.