My 2007 F150 5.4L would not crank at all the other morning. After checking the battery, I discovered that the ground wire to the starter was completely frayed and broken off right at the eyelet connector to the starter. I spliced it back together and the truck fired right up. However, the check engine light suddenly appeared and I got a P0453 code which apparently indicates a high reading at the fuel pressure sensor. The CEL never appeared until the broken wire happened. I took a quick look at the fuel pressure sensor and wiring and nothing appears to be obviously broken.

One other thing I've noticed for a few weeks is a miss under load while driving. I have not seen any codes at all for the miss. I was leaning toward replacing the coil overs but now I'm wondering if the miss is related to the fuel pressure sensor.

Thoughts?

 

So I found the fuel tank pressure sensor this evening and one of the wires coming into it was broken. I spliced it back together, reset the codes, and the CEL light did not come back.

Another interesting note is that the miss I was experiencing was gone as well during my post-fix test drive. I won't call this a conclusive fix for the miss, but I'll know more after my 45 minute commute to work in the morning.

I find it highly unlikely that the broken wire to the starter and the broken wire to the fuel tank pressure sensor both occurred on the same day, so I'm guessing the FTPS wire has been broken for some time and maybe having the battery unplugged for some time while fixing the broken starter wire somehow caused the PCM to finally recognize the broken FTPS wire and throw the code...?

If fixing the broken FTPS wire truly does fix the miss, it could be worthwhile for others who are having the miss under load condition to check the FTPS as well. Maybe it is causing a lean condition and is not really a miss, but a fuel starvation issue...just a guess.

 

Well this definitely didn't fix the miss issue so I guess I'll place the order for the new coils.