This thread was previously titled as "Turns over, won't start, no odometer/gauges, have cluster lights?". It's been updated now that I know the truck was hit by lightning. There's a picture in the 5th or 6th post down.

I've got a 2000 F-150 with the 5.4 V8. I just got back from a week away from the house and the truck won't start. I tried to start it and it turned over and started but died immediately. On subsequent tries, it just turns over and won't catch. I was thinking IAC valve or CPS, so I removed/cleaned/replaced the IAC valve but the problem persists. After I did that, I noticed that although my instrument cluster lights come on, the gauges don't cycle as they normally do and the odometer doesn't light up. After noticing that, I checked all the fuses (under dash/hood) and they're all fine. Is it possibly a relay or fuse that I'm missing?

On a side note, we had some storms while I was gone and I think the house may have been hit or had a near miss by lightning while I was gone. My (brand new) washer is fried and so is my garage door opener. The surround sound sub (house) was freaking out but seems fine after being reset. Maybe the truck took some of the hit as well? Who knows...I'm just grasping at straws.

I'm off to do some more research on the site but figured I'd go ahead and post while I'm at it. I need my truck back! If anyone has some advice, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

Is it possibly a PATS issue? Theft light does blink with the engine turning over and I don't hear the fuel pump cycle. My second key is at the in-laws, so I'll get it this evening and try. To clarify, odometer is BLANK with nothing in the readout. Gauges do not cycle. Cluster lights (4x4, ABS, etc) are on.

I don't think it matters, but my cluster was replaced in 2004/2005 because it had the crack in the circuit board problem.

 

None of my keys will start the truck....

 

You have a "Crank no start" problem. Use that for search. But yea, you have a PATS issue. How did that happen ?

 

I've checked all the fuses and swapped the possibly faulty relays with working relays and the issue persists. The only possible cause I can think of is that we had a lightning strike/power surge while i was gone. In addition to the items that got fried, I found two more GFCI outlets in the house that were tripped.

I've gone through a ton of searches without much luck finding the issue. Everything I find about the PATS issue says that they still get an odometer reading of "........." or "--------" whereas mine is completely blank. Is there a fuse or relay that I'm missing here or is it solely a PATS issue? Any way to verify before towing to a dealer?

When does the theft light stop blinking on the truck when you start? Mine keeps blinking, even when cranking. Anyone?

 

After hours of searching the forums, I decided to go ahead and try changing out a few relays (301 and 304 I think). With both relays in...no change. Decided to try jumping the battery since one person with a similar problem found that his low battery voltage was messing with the PATS system.

I rolled the truck down the driveway so I could get the Jeep out of the garage and in a position to jump the truck. Jumping the truck resulted in a faster turnover rate while cranking, but still no start. I did notice a strange sound a few seconds after turning the key from off to on, so I tried to isolate it. The sound occurred about 4 seconds after putting the key in the off position and lasts about a second.

I called the wife out to turn the key over so I could get under/over the truck to locate the source of the sound. As she's walking out to me, we both notice a strange smudge on the driveway. We walk over to check it out and after staring at it for a second, it clicked in my head. My truck was hit by LIGHTNING while I was gone on vacation. Further inspection of the truck shows that the lightning entered at the radio antenna and exited at the front passenger side rim. Sooooo....the root of the issue is now at rest. Lightning.

Back to the strange sound. It sounds like it's coming from the drivers side of the engine compartment, lower than the fuse box and between the block and master cylinder. I can't get my head close enough to isolate it further. THe sound occurs about 4 seconds after putting the key to "on". At the time the sound happens, the dash lights, radio lights, etc all flicker. Any ideas?

At this point, I'll be calling the insurance company tomorrow with hopes that they'll cover the repairs. If not...I'm thinking it's off to the dealer for inspection. Damn my luck!

BTW, here's a picture of the lightnings point of entry into my concrete driveway with the keys for size reference. The hole appears to go all the way through the concrete.

 

Damn, first Ive heard of that. Crazy

 

Oh yea it happens. Lightning nailed a tree next to me and stripped the bark off it, just the bark everywhere, weird as hell looking. Then about 5 seconds later it struck a concrete curb about 15' in front of me. Blew about a 2' section and over half the of the curbs thickness off, - all the way down to the re-rod, then stopped clean lol.

I figured it was a warning of some kind, -never could put my finger on it tho lol. That was the first and ONLY time I've seen something like that. I was just trying to eat my lunch :o

 

I spoke with my insurance today and they will cover the damages under my comprehensive policy with a $100 deductible. Neither of the two insurance people I talked to knew where to begin when I called. A combined total of over 15 years on the job and neither had dealt with a vehicle lightning strike. We settled on them sending out an adjuster even though they figured that the adjuster would be clueless on how to handle the situation as well. We'll see where this goes....

 

I love lightning storms for some reason. We got caught in a nasty one a while back. Lightning was striking about every 5-10 seconds for 2 hours straight. We were camping on a lake side and could see the lightning hitting at some points 20 feet away. The hair on your neck stands up and you can feel the static in the air. In the morning, other campers from the other side of the lake came by our camp and asked if everyone was ok since from where they were and what they say, they said it looked like it was hitting right in our camp. Pretty crazy.


How ironic is it that your user name is "storm" good luck with the insurance.

 

Hate to bump a thread from the dead like this, but my buddy's truck was just struck by lightning with these exact same symptoms.

Did you find what's causing the problem?

 

I would venture a guess and say that it probably fried the PCM and/or the PATS module.

 

With lightning damage, you'd be better off just getting a different truck unless you really, really like to troubleshoot and repair. The number of possible faults is very large, similar to a flood-damaged vehicle.