I have a 2002 Ford F350 Powerstroke. In the last 4 months, it had a variety of problems such as autolamps not working reliably and when they misbehaved then the radio would stay on, the key fobs quit working, the interior lights stayed on, and various other problems that many others have described as VSM related. I also learned that most of these problems would "reset" if I pulled the battery cables and/or pulled fuse 19. The problem is that they would return. The most common pattern to "force" it would be operate the truck with the heater on "high" and as soon as the interior got "toasty", the autolamps would cut off and all the gremlins would reappear.

The VSM is mounted on the firewall in a place that is difficult to reach. After searching, it appeared that most people recommended using replacement/upgraded part number 4c7t15k602aj. So, I found a used VSM from a 2006 donor vehicle that had almost the exact same features as did my 2002 F350. I installed it this weekend (first time into the dash) and it took about 4 hours (part of that was I had to make "keys" for an aftermarket radio).

Once installed, it appears that almost all the features have returned to normal - almost. What I am seeing now is that the interior lights and bed light think doors are open when they are not. Forscan, for example, reports from doors "ajar" when they are closed and closed when they are opened. Interior light and bed light stays on after existing vehicle for about 20 minutes then turn off. If you open a door when all the lights are off - the interior light and bed light stay off until you shut the door and then they turn on.

My conclusion is that the replacement VSM still unfortunately has to be programmed. Its almost as if the 2006 model expected the door switches to be "normally closed" and on the 2002 the switches are "normally open" - or vice versa.

Many of the posts on this topic say you have to take it in to a dealer to have the VSM programmed either by downloading the data from the original VSM (which I know was malfunctioning) or with "as built" data from Ford.

So, this morning I started calling dealers in the Nashville TN area. So far, I have been able to talk with one service department. He said its about a 2 hour job to download the as built data and reprogram the new VSM (again, its already installed - there is nothing to do but plug in an download the as built data to the VSM). Price quote for 2 hours is about $285 just to program the VSM. In my reading of some of the posts on this, it sounds like 30 minutes at most to do the job - certainly not 2 hours.

So, I am hoping someone has experience with Ford dealers in the Nashville area who can recommend favorably such a dealer.

John
Nashville, TN
2002 F350 Powerstroke 4x4 Crewcab