Hello gang,

I was traveling home yesterday from work and had a message appear on the dash that said "Engine Failsafe Mode". It happened right after I went to pass a slow-poke in the left lane, so I had to step on the pedal a bit as the rush hour traffic flow was a good 10 MPH more than the person I had encountered that I wanted to pass. It was near 100 degrees yesterday, so I also had the AC cranked. I have a hunch the combo of these two items is what spawned the message since it happened almost immediately after I layed off the pedal when I got back to the traffic flow speed.

The truck was of course less punchy after the message appeared, which makes sense if it was indeed in a safe mode. I took the nearest exit, pulled into a residential street and parked the truck, turning the off the engine. I let it rest for about 30 seconds, then started her back up and the message was cleared. The truck drove like its usual self afterwards and I have had no problems since.

Anybody have a clue as to what went wrong? Could this just be a fluke since the engine was probably pretty stressed at the time, or do you think there might be something else looming? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

2006 Eddie Bauer - 118,000 miles - routine maintenance *by the book* every 5,000 miles - plugs changed at 100K (but not wires - wondering maybe if a wire is bad?). Thanks.

 

Follow up - I should have done this before I posted. Since I don't like to clog up the boards with repeat posts, I found this after performing a search (it sounds like it may be the throttle body) -- https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...fail-safe.html

 

So? What was the cure? Did cleaning the T/B do the trick or what?

 

Hard to say. I did clean the throttle body on Saturday with some carbon cleaner like those posts suggested. Just basically took off the air filter and sprayed the he!! out of the throttle body while my dad was revving the engine (this was pretty much his idea - he was a locomotive mechanic for 30+ years so we pretty much follow whatever he wants to do on an engine . I haven't had the message come back, but then again after I shut the engine off and then restarted after I received the message the first time, everything was fine. So far so good I suppose.

 

Just basically took off the air filter and sprayed the he!! out of the throttle body while my dad was revving the engine (this was pretty much his idea - he was a locomotive mechanic for 30+ years so we pretty much follow whatever he wants to do on an engine .


That sounds like the safest way to do it. You gotta remember; "Old guys RULE"

 

Happened again today, although this time I was in a parking lot and when I started the car, after about 3 seconds I had the Engine Fail Safe Mode pop on. I immediately shut it off, then started it up again and all was fine. I drove it to work and didn't have any problems. I'm driving this thing very gingerly now. Also, after doing a google search, I found this:

2006 Ford Expedition Engine and Engine Cooling System Complaints

 

UPDATE. The answer to this was replacing the throttle body and positioning sensor. I had it done by an independent mechanic and problem solved.

HOWEVER, ever since then I would have problems with starting the engine sometimes. It always ended up starting, but sometimes it would start rough (almost like when you use to flood the carburator back in the old days) and sometimes it would take 4 or 5 seconds to crank like it was starving for fuel. I took it into the dealer today and turns out that the computer needed to be recalibrated after the throttle body was put on, and the independent mechanic didn't do it. It starts like it's brand new now. I never put the two together that this may be the problem, I just figured it was a whole separate issue. Just figured I'd post this for viewers down the road who might have had the same issues that I did.

 

I know I'm reviving an old thread but maybe better than starting a new one.

Is the throttle body issue on '06s only or are there other years? How difficult is it to replace the TB and TPS? It looks like the parts are about $150.

 

2005 was the worst model year for the throttle body issue.

 

Was there something different with the '05 TBs? How difficult is it to replace?

 

It seems that the problem was discovered and fixed in 2005 but some vehicles still managed to make it out of the plant with the issue. They can be swapped out in about 4 hours.

 

So, for the most part, the '06s were TB problem free? If that's the case, I'll limit my search to '06s. Were the '06s still plagued with the problematic spark plugs?

 

The 06s had the problematic 2 piece spark plugs. Considering an 06 is eight years old, then there's a chance they might have been changed. It's even more likely they were if the truck has over 100K miles since that's the recommend replacement interval.

 

Weren't the 2 pc spark plugs a problem with all the 5.4s? What about the TB issue on the '06s?