Excursion hit a pot hole, died instantly and theft light blinking
#1
04-12-2024, 01:33 PM
Join Date: Apr 2024
Location: Blue Springs, MO
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Excursion hit a pot hole, died instantly and theft light blinking
Hello everyone and first off, I thank you for any input or time you are willing to share. I did try searching and have found a lot of conflicting info and nothing that has helped so far in diagnosing my issue, but here goes the story...
2001 Ford Excursion 7.3 powerstroke Limited trim 4x4, 475,000 miles. I was driving down the road as usual and accidentally didnt see a pot hole in the road and hit it with the drivers front tire. Immediately, the engine shut off and I coasted to a stop in the road. I tried restarting the truck and noticed the "theft" light flashing rapidly and the truck will crank over just fine but will not start. I put it in neutral and backed it into a parking lot and out of traffic and started to try and figure out what might be the issue.
When turning the key to the on position, the theft light will blink rapidly for about 45 seconds, then goes off and long blinks a few times. In my searching I tried the PATS reset but turning the key to on, waiting till the blinking stops and then removing the key and reinserting but every time you turn the key to on, the "theft" light blinks fast again. I dont know if it makes any difference, but when the rapid theft flashing is done, it seems to long light up for a couple seconds, then slow flashes 6 more times before it goes to the 1 rapid flash every 3 seconds or so.
At that point, I was limited on what I could do roadside so had to bite the bullet and have it towed to the dealer (mistake). They took a look at it and said it would be $200 to diagnose the problem, but after they spent 3 hours looking at it (they have not told me what they have done or not done to it) they called asking for 6 more hours to diagnose at the cost of $1400 to see if they can figure it out which I told them no thank you and I would come get it from them.
My question would be, has anyone had something similar happen to their PATS enabled excursion or super duty after an impact like a pothole? I figure my next step is get it home and check wiring for cuts or rubs and perhaps remove the connectors from the PCM and other hardware and clean and inspect and go from there but hoped that someone smarter than myself could more narrow my aim on where to look first. If I get more info from the dealership on what they did or did not do in the time they used for diagnosis, ill post it up here.
2001 Ford Excursion 7.3 powerstroke Limited trim 4x4, 475,000 miles. I was driving down the road as usual and accidentally didnt see a pot hole in the road and hit it with the drivers front tire. Immediately, the engine shut off and I coasted to a stop in the road. I tried restarting the truck and noticed the "theft" light flashing rapidly and the truck will crank over just fine but will not start. I put it in neutral and backed it into a parking lot and out of traffic and started to try and figure out what might be the issue.
When turning the key to the on position, the theft light will blink rapidly for about 45 seconds, then goes off and long blinks a few times. In my searching I tried the PATS reset but turning the key to on, waiting till the blinking stops and then removing the key and reinserting but every time you turn the key to on, the "theft" light blinks fast again. I dont know if it makes any difference, but when the rapid theft flashing is done, it seems to long light up for a couple seconds, then slow flashes 6 more times before it goes to the 1 rapid flash every 3 seconds or so.
At that point, I was limited on what I could do roadside so had to bite the bullet and have it towed to the dealer (mistake). They took a look at it and said it would be $200 to diagnose the problem, but after they spent 3 hours looking at it (they have not told me what they have done or not done to it) they called asking for 6 more hours to diagnose at the cost of $1400 to see if they can figure it out which I told them no thank you and I would come get it from them.
My question would be, has anyone had something similar happen to their PATS enabled excursion or super duty after an impact like a pothole? I figure my next step is get it home and check wiring for cuts or rubs and perhaps remove the connectors from the PCM and other hardware and clean and inspect and go from there but hoped that someone smarter than myself could more narrow my aim on where to look first. If I get more info from the dealership on what they did or did not do in the time they used for diagnosis, ill post it up here.
#2
04-12-2024, 06:33 PM
Join Date: Apr 2024
Location: Blue Springs, MO
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
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Hello everyone and first off, I thank you for any input or time you are willing to share. I did try searching and have found a lot of conflicting info and nothing that has helped so far in diagnosing my issue, but here goes the story...
2001 Ford Excursion 7.3 powerstroke Limited trim 4x4, 475,000 miles. I was driving down the road as usual and accidentally didnt see a pot hole in the road and hit it with the drivers front tire. Immediately, the engine shut off and I coasted to a stop in the road. I tried restarting the truck and noticed the "theft" light flashing rapidly and the truck will crank over just fine but will not start. I put it in neutral and backed it into a parking lot and out of traffic and started to try and figure out what might be the issue.
When turning the key to the on position, the theft light will blink rapidly for about 45 seconds, then goes off and long blinks a few times. In my searching I tried the PATS reset but turning the key to on, waiting till the blinking stops and then removing the key and reinserting but every time you turn the key to on, the "theft" light blinks fast again. I dont know if it makes any difference, but when the rapid theft flashing is done, it seems to long light up for a couple seconds, then slow flashes 6 more times before it goes to the 1 rapid flash every 3 seconds or so.
At that point, I was limited on what I could do roadside so had to bite the bullet and have it towed to the dealer (mistake). They took a look at it and said it would be $200 to diagnose the problem, but after they spent 3 hours looking at it (they have not told me what they have done or not done to it) they called asking for 6 more hours to diagnose at the cost of $1400 to see if they can figure it out which I told them no thank you and I would come get it from them.
My question would be, has anyone had something similar happen to their PATS enabled excursion or super duty after an impact like a pothole? I figure my next step is get it home and check wiring for cuts or rubs and perhaps remove the connectors from the PCM and other hardware and clean and inspect and go from there but hoped that someone smarter than myself could more narrow my aim on where to look first. If I get more info from the dealership on what they did or did not do in the time they used for diagnosis, ill post it up here.
2001 Ford Excursion 7.3 powerstroke Limited trim 4x4, 475,000 miles. I was driving down the road as usual and accidentally didnt see a pot hole in the road and hit it with the drivers front tire. Immediately, the engine shut off and I coasted to a stop in the road. I tried restarting the truck and noticed the "theft" light flashing rapidly and the truck will crank over just fine but will not start. I put it in neutral and backed it into a parking lot and out of traffic and started to try and figure out what might be the issue.
When turning the key to the on position, the theft light will blink rapidly for about 45 seconds, then goes off and long blinks a few times. In my searching I tried the PATS reset but turning the key to on, waiting till the blinking stops and then removing the key and reinserting but every time you turn the key to on, the "theft" light blinks fast again. I dont know if it makes any difference, but when the rapid theft flashing is done, it seems to long light up for a couple seconds, then slow flashes 6 more times before it goes to the 1 rapid flash every 3 seconds or so.
At that point, I was limited on what I could do roadside so had to bite the bullet and have it towed to the dealer (mistake). They took a look at it and said it would be $200 to diagnose the problem, but after they spent 3 hours looking at it (they have not told me what they have done or not done to it) they called asking for 6 more hours to diagnose at the cost of $1400 to see if they can figure it out which I told them no thank you and I would come get it from them.
My question would be, has anyone had something similar happen to their PATS enabled excursion or super duty after an impact like a pothole? I figure my next step is get it home and check wiring for cuts or rubs and perhaps remove the connectors from the PCM and other hardware and clean and inspect and go from there but hoped that someone smarter than myself could more narrow my aim on where to look first. If I get more info from the dealership on what they did or did not do in the time they used for diagnosis, ill post it up here.
Update.
I got to the dealership to pick it up since they wanted an arm and a leg to guess. Paid and had a trailer but got to the truck and found the tech just dropped what he was doing, left fuse box cover off, new blown fuses, etc. And left a message to have the tech and manager call me about the situation ( as there were no notes on what they did for the time i paid for and leaving things worse than I brought it to them). I knew the blown fuse was new since I checked every fuse twice before the tow truck picked it up. Found the pcm fuse blown and replaced it and it did start and run for about 2 seconds then died ( better than it was). I had a check engine light on the dash for a while before the incident, and that has been cleared, along with now, the" theft" light no longer flashes, but it also no longer blinks at all, not every 3 seconds like it did. I checked the fuel inertia switch and it's still in place but can't get it to fire over again. Going to tear int wiring tonight.
#3
Yesterday, 10:41 AM
Update.
I got to the dealership to pick it up since they wanted an arm and a leg to guess. Paid and had a trailer but got to the truck and found the tech just dropped what he was doing, left fuse box cover off, new blown fuses, etc. And left a message to have the tech and manager call me about the situation ( as there were no notes on what they did for the time i paid for and leaving things worse than I brought it to them). I knew the blown fuse was new since I checked every fuse twice before the tow truck picked it up. Found the pcm fuse blown and replaced it and it did start and run for about 2 seconds then died ( better than it was). I had a check engine light on the dash for a while before the incident, and that has been cleared, along with now, the" theft" light no longer flashes, but it also no longer blinks at all, not every 3 seconds like it did. I checked the fuel inertia switch and it's still in place but can't get it to fire over again. Going to tear int wiring tonight.
I got to the dealership to pick it up since they wanted an arm and a leg to guess. Paid and had a trailer but got to the truck and found the tech just dropped what he was doing, left fuse box cover off, new blown fuses, etc. And left a message to have the tech and manager call me about the situation ( as there were no notes on what they did for the time i paid for and leaving things worse than I brought it to them). I knew the blown fuse was new since I checked every fuse twice before the tow truck picked it up. Found the pcm fuse blown and replaced it and it did start and run for about 2 seconds then died ( better than it was). I had a check engine light on the dash for a while before the incident, and that has been cleared, along with now, the" theft" light no longer flashes, but it also no longer blinks at all, not every 3 seconds like it did. I checked the fuel inertia switch and it's still in place but can't get it to fire over again. Going to tear int wiring tonight.
Any update? Did you get it figured out? Last night I hit a pothole in my 2003 6.0 excursion and pretty much the same thing happened. Engine shut off immediately, coasted to a stop in the middle of the road. Tried starting and theft light blinks rapidly. Tried the PATs reset quite a few times with no luck. Every time I put the key back in it goes to flashing rapidly. Had my dad bring the spare key and tried that also no luck, light is still flashing rapidly. Tried disconnecting the battery’s and waiting a little. Same thing. I left it on the side of the road with batteries disconnected overnight, I’m going to go try again now.
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