Hey folks. Been reading around on here for a few hours today and haven’t had any luck. Figured it was time to join up and see if anyone could help.

2011 F250 6.7. Yesterday I disconnected both batteries in order to work around the air bags in the pillar and head liner. I’m installing some cab lights. Anyway, today I hooked the batteries back up and truck will not start. Full power as far as electric goes. Dash warning comes up and says “Starting System Fault.” The truck does not try to start at all. No clicks, no cranks, nothing.

I have tried;

1. Pulling and reinstalling fuse 18 in the passenger floor area for anti theft.

2. Disconnecting batteries again for 15 minutes or so. Hooked back up and still no luck.

3. Spare key

Everything was fine prior to this. I’ve owned the truck for a bit over a year and zero history of this behavior. Any other guesses? This doesn’t seem to be an incredibly uncommon thing but i can’t find that quick fix trick here. Appreciate any help.

 

No one has any suggestions? Surely I don’t have to have this thing towed to a ford dealership because I unhooked the batteries.. dang.

 

Could be many things, none easy to figure out. Here’s one of many threads

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...tem-fault.html


For what it’s worth, I started having brake shift lock issues in my 2011 F350 6.2l a few months ago. While screwing around with that issue (new switch and solenoid didn’t fix it), the battery started draining. Bottom line that there were a few broken wires causing all of my issues (found and fixed by the dealer). I mention this just because it could be something as “simple” as a broken wire causing your problems; might nit be, but just throwing it out there

 

Okay, here is my thought and please don't be insulted because I am not trying to be funny, but whenever anything doesn't work after I fix something I always go back to what I last fixed. I am not saying you hooked up the batteries incorrectly or anything like that. What I mean is was there anything else that might have been disturbed during the change over. I can think back to the more than one times I was working on something for a customer and after I got done something that has been on the ragged edge of failing and was located near what I was working on, and all it took was a touch for a loose connection, etc. It seems really unlikely to me it is the battery connection since you already checked that, but one other thought I had is when you say "full power" are you just going by the dash lighting up or will the system carry a heavier load like the headlights?

I tried running a search online for this message and there are literally dozens of reports and dozens of causes so it is difficult to say "here's the answer". Good luck in finding the culprit.

Steve

 

So I checked/tested everything I could think of. Crazy scenario. Yesterday I had the truck loaded up and towed to a dealership. My guess is anti-theft, keys need programmed again. Something like that. Hopefully it doesn’t cost too much for them to figure it out. What a damn shame.

 

I would have suggested running for codes and see what it said.

Sounds like anti-theft issues. Did you have both keys with you? Might want to see the dealer with both sets.

 

There were no codes to run. I don’t have any sort of scan tool. Yes, dealer has both keys right now.

 

well, folks, Ford just called me. I was correct. They had to reprogram the BCM as if it were a new one. It was no longer recognizing my keys. Lol. Damn that suck. Cab light project cost an extra $250. $100 tow bill, $150 key programming. Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Hope this saves someone some time in the future.