Truck has been running perfect and is my daily driver. Went grocery shopping with the wife and made two stops and drove it home. Parked in the driveway. No hint of any issues but when I went out a couple of hours later we went to head out to dinner and it cranks and doesnt start. Nothing out of the ordinary anywhere. No check engines lights, no theft lights flashing, nothing to indicate an issue. Engine sounds perfectly normal cranking, I can hear the fuel pump when I turn the key. I cleaned the battery terminals today because they had some corrosion and I checked all of the fuses that have anything to do with fuel or fire and nothing was blown. I also went and bought a Fuel Pump Drive Module and installed it and still nothing so I took it back. $113 for that thing so I wasnt keeping it. This is a pretty pampered truck, not a torn up beater. Any ideas what else I should check? Will probably town it to a shop tomorrow if I dont have anything else to try but I am at a loss at this point. I tried to listen with a stethoscope and I dont hear the injectors firing or the COP's. Oh I also shot it with starting fluid and nothing happened so I dont believe its fuel related. I think something is keeping it from firing the COP's or the injectors arent firing. But what could it be? nothing happend to the truck last time I drove it. Oh I did check the fuel pump cutoff button as well. Nothing there either.

 

you put the key in, turn it on, but not to the START position... the THEFT light comes on, then goes out in about 3 seconds ?? Try your spare key.

 

I only have one key for the truck. Thats all I got when I bought it. Yes the theft light goes off after about 3 seconds, however something i had not tried. I locked the truck with the remote just now and armed the theft system and after just a second the alarm started sounding. I unlocked the doors with the remote and had to put the key in the ignition and turn it for the horn to stop honking. So probably something to do with the pats system. Why would it be working fine up until now? And how do I fix this? Will ford have to make me a new key or something?

 

That is not a symptom of a PATS system fault, it's a symptom of a remote controlled alarm system that's been triggered. Completely different animal. While you SHOULD have another key, making one won't solve the current issue.

If nothing happened, then you don't have any spark.

 

But why would the alarm go off right after I armed it? It never does that. Wouldnt that indicate something wrong with the theft system? So far that is the only thing I have seen the truck do out of the ordinary.

 

PATS and any other theft security system are SEPARATE functions and are not inter-related in any way (unless a remote start feature is included). You must keep that separation in mind when approaching the issue.

You'll need to investigate the alarm system separately, whether aftermarket or dealer installed or whatever. The factory service data has nothing on this feature.

 

Just so were clear. I am not talking about any kind of aftermarket alarm. I am talking about the built in anti theft that came on this truck new and is armed by hitting the lock button twice on the factory remote. it makes the horn honk once and the headlights go out when it is armed. On other fords I have owned it was tied into the PATS stuff I thought. But until this issue it has always worked perfectly.

 

As I said previously, PATS is NOT part of the same system as the perimeter security alarm. Never has been.

 

Have you checked the battery strength/charge? Borderline voltage level could allow some electrical things to operate while others (starter) might not. These trucks get all sorts of weird symtoms when batteries are about to die.


Edit; Didn't have my glasses on and failed to see the "cranks" part of the not starting.

 

Went out last night to tow it to a shop and it acted like the battery was totally drained. No lights no nothing, just the little red blinking light on the top of the dash was still slowly flashing. Put the charger on it and the headlights came on as though the battery had been connected but the charger was only at about 1 amp as though the battery had juice and then it clicked and went to 0 and the truck was dead again, then it clicked and went back into charging mode. Did this a few times so I took the charger off of it and checked and the battery showed 12 volts on the posts. took the positive terminal off and still 12. Put it back on and then the truck had juice again. Very strange. Did not have enough to crank, just click the solenoid but very odd. The terminals are clean, I had just cleaned when the problems all started just to be safe. Very odd. Could a bad battery still allow the truck to crank just fine but not fire up? We didnt tow it just in case its the battery. Dont want to waste money for a shop to tell me but it makes as much sense as anything else.

 

I just saw this as I was posting the statement above. Were probably going to throw the battery from my dads truck into it tonight and see if it changes anything. If so then crisis averted but right now I am pulling my hair out.

 

I'd do a voltage drop test on both the positive and negative battery cables while attempting to crank, with your meter probes on the posts, not on the cable ends. Ideally you'd like to see only 0.3/0.4 volts on each side.