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We have a 2012 Ford Econoline E250 we use as a work van. My guys drove it to a job Tuesday, shut it off when they got to the job, and went to go get lunch but it wouldn't start. At first they thought it was the battery so they hooked up jumper cables but that wasn't the problem. They said that everything worked- radio, headlights, horn, etc except there were no warning lights on the dash and it wouldn't crank. They replaced the ignition switch but that didn't fix it.
We had the van towed to my mechanic's shop, who is also our neighbor. He did quite a bit of diagnosing on on it yesterday. When he was diagnosing it he unplugged the 2nd from bottom connector on the interior fuse panel in my picture to see if there was a corrosion issue. When he plugged it back in the dash came back on but it still wouldn't crank. He noticed the anti-theft light, located at the bottom left of dash indicator lights, was blinking rapidly. In the three years we have owned this van I have never seen the anti-theft light on.
My mechanic ran the codes and got code B10DA-86 which is for PATS Target identifier invalid signal. He also came up with P1602-00 and that code is an immobilizer ECM error. He did some research on the codes and he is thinking that the instrument cluster has possibly gone bad.
The van came with a regular key, not a security key and the key pictured is the key we have always used. My mechanic said on some fleet vehicles the PATS is not activated when the vehicle is built. I think this is the case with ours because it was part of a fleet of utility vehicles before we bought it. The million dollar question though is what made the PATS system activate? I'm guessing something failed and it went back to the hard code in the computer and activated PATS.
We are at a loss at this point. Has anyone heard of anything like this happening, know how to fix it, or what to diagnose next to narrow down what is causing the problem?
I made a post in a Ford van page on Facebook and someone recommended the following to bypass the PATS:
It is possible to bypass the pats system by disconnecting the battery, waiting about 15 minutes, turn the key to the on position, and hook the battery back up. The windshield wipers should cycle once, and then you can start the car. Keep in mind, that this is not a fix.. it will just get you home. You do need the security key.
We tried the PATS bypass but it would not crank. We are starting to think it could be a bad computer. We also noticed that the fuel gauge went way past full and it has never done this before so I guess it could be an instrument cluster issue also.
Does anyone have any ideas on our problem, know how to test, or tell if it is a bad computer or dash that is causing the issue and activated pats?
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