PCM issue due to lightning?
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PCM issue due to lightning?
We had a very intense lightning storm come through our area last night, lightning struck the telephone line coming into my house. This morning I crank my truck and back out of driveway without any issue. Then when I placed the truck in drive and went to accelerate there was no response from the throttle. I checked the fuses and find #12 cigar lighter/OBDII is blown. I replaced the fuse with no improvement in the throttle. I then swapped the PCM relay with another, still no improvement. The truck will crank and idle, move in drive and reverse at idle. I hooked up my actron scanner and it shows that the throttle is producing a signal when I press the throttle the "accl %" will increase on the scanner and decrease when I let off. Is the PCM fried or can any of you suggest another possible issue?
2005 F250, 6.0L Diesel, AT, 330,000 miles
2005 F250, 6.0L Diesel, AT, 330,000 miles
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Jan 2007
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It's POSSIBLE that your PCM got a partial lobotomy from the lightning strike.
That you can get functional data from it, as well as that it runs at all, suggests that it's not completely toast. (I've had the external data bus on a different vehicle's ECM freak out and throw a code from a lightning strike close by.) Since the PCM can tell you that you're moving the pedal, it obviously knows that there's something going on. However, there are three actual inputs to the PCM for pedal position. It's possible that the PCM can't see all three of them; it won't work if only one of them is visible. There's a small but statistically possible chance that the lightning strike hammered the pedal electronics.
You may have to disconnect the batteries to give it a hard reset. If that doesn't work, maybe try a new pedal assembly, perhaps?
Firing from the hip....
-blaine
-blaine
That you can get functional data from it, as well as that it runs at all, suggests that it's not completely toast. (I've had the external data bus on a different vehicle's ECM freak out and throw a code from a lightning strike close by.) Since the PCM can tell you that you're moving the pedal, it obviously knows that there's something going on. However, there are three actual inputs to the PCM for pedal position. It's possible that the PCM can't see all three of them; it won't work if only one of them is visible. There's a small but statistically possible chance that the lightning strike hammered the pedal electronics.
You may have to disconnect the batteries to give it a hard reset. If that doesn't work, maybe try a new pedal assembly, perhaps?
Firing from the hip....
-blaine
-blaine
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I can see all three inputs from the throttle and all three are responsive. There was a code p2285 that was thrown so I unhooked the IPC sensor and the throttle would work, but the truck was hard to start and ran rough. I did pinpoint test the IPC per the Ford manual and all results pointed to a bad PCM. Any ideas?
Laughing Gas
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 939
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From: Central Kansas
I will say don't always take the Ford Pinpoint tests as gospel. On my 2005 (w/ the 5.4 though) it was dead one morning, no start no crank, nothing. After trying the easy stuff I subscribed to the ford service manual online and followed the pinpoint tests, after going all the way through it said to replace the PCM. I figured I'd take it to the dealer just for a second opinion and the tech initially reached the same conclusion but wasn't convinced - anyway long story short it was the fuel control module. He had to get help from the Ford tech hotline and they had seen it before. Point being, before I threw a $1,000+ PCM at it, I'd try the dealer. Maybe it's something they or the tech hotline have seen before. In my case the pinpoint test gave up way too early or missed an important step. YMMV though.
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