Hey all-

I was driving down a smooth highway in the work truck the other day at about 50 mph, truck was fully warmed up, when the engine shuts off and all gauges went to zero. Was able to coast safely to the side of the road. Put the transmission in park, turned the key to try and restart and nothing happened. No dash lights, motor wouldn't turn over. Nothing. Towed to our fleet shop where it appeared to start w/out a problem.
It did this about 2 years ago as well. The rig has only 10,000 miles on it, is a 2012 F250 4WD crew cab.

Has anyone else had this happen? Thanks in advance.

 

Is this the infamous harness connector near the parking brake issue?

 

Could be if it's a lower trim level, the Lariat and above doesn't have the connector mounted on the emergency brake mounting bracket.

Denny

 

"Work truck" - I suspect it's not a Lariat, but we'll wait for the OP

 

Rig is 2012 F250 w/a 6.2 liter motor.
Current theory put out by the fleet mechanic is that this is an internal short in the battery. When he first mentioned this I was pretty skeptical. I am personally aware of 2 batteries on separate occasions that went "Boom" when this has happened. However, I have since run across one person who had a rig that developed a periodic short in his battery. Everything in the rig would go totally dead: motor, instrumentation, etc. He spent close to a year replacing parts, checking connectors, etc. before he finally noticed that his battery was hot.
The fleet mechanic has replaced the battery. We'll see if that does the trick. I'm still a wee bit skeptical.
I will check the harness connector on the parking brake mounting bracket on Monday.
Thanks for the advice.

 

My first thought on this was battery as well. I had something very similar happen to me many years ago. Replaced the battery and never had issues after that.

 

The connector on the parking brake bracket issue is a well-known thing. Entire truck shuts down. You don't have to use the parking brake to have it happen, but applying and releasing the parking brake vibrates the connector enough that it starts to work again.

A connection in the connector is opening up, stalling the truck.

Not saying this is your problem, it might be the wrong year, but definitely look into it.

 

I saw this thread but did not pay too much attention to it. Yesterday, I was sitting at a stop light and my truck just went dead. I put it in Park and turned the key and it started right back up. I have a 2016 6.2 4X4 CC with 30,000 miles on it. Never had any problems before this. I stopped and started it a few more times after that an no problems. I had 3/4 of a tank of gas. The truck was warmed up. Weather was 85 and sunny. Weird. I hope it was just a fluke thing.

 

Well, this truck (note: this is a fleet truck, not the one in my signature) did the exact same thing as before with the replaced battery as it did last year. To reiterate, last year driving on smooth road at highway speed after having ran for about 15 mins, truck went totally dead. No dash lights, no radio...coasted to the shoulder, and could not get any functionality anywhere by turning the ignition key. No starter, no ding-ding put your seat belts on, no dash lights...it was like the battery was totally disconnected. So our mechanic replaced the battery under the hypothesis that the original Ford battery had an internal short.

Now, flash forward to last week, drove 1-1/2 hours to a nearby town for a meeting, drove 1-1/2 hours back home...smooth road, highway speed, outside temp about 40 degrees F...let passengers out, parked the rig, shifted the gear shift lever into park and then everything went dead...just like before. No dash lights, non-responsive ignition switch. I did try and rattle the parking brake mount and gently moved nearby wiring harness without regaining the ability to start. Checked the battery to see if it was warm, (another internal short???) but it was not. Following morning the truck started right up. Go figure. Faulty wiring (like intermittent connection) is the obvious go-to solution, but this truck does get driven on rough roads regularly without developing this problem. This 2012 truck has less than 15,000 miles on it.

Anyone else had this happen?

 

I was first thinking bad battery or battery terminals loose. But it is looking as if that is not the issue. The next thing I would check is ignition switch -- who knows, could be bad. The lasts thing I would check is make sure all the fuses are securely seated in fuse box. You may be surprised but that is one thing I check right off on any new vehicle. And believe it or not, there are quite a few fuses that are loose and not seated all the way. Plus check all the main electrical connectors to make sure they are seated. Keep us posted.

 

 

This is my experience also. My 13 is a Lariat and does in fact have the giant connector attached to the parking brake bracket. I've had the same thing happen where everything (dash, ac, ignition) all go dead and the truck won't restart like it has a dead battery. Wiggle the connector and it comes back to life.

I've also had the "Service AdvanceTrac" and "Hill Descent Control Fault" with the wrench come on several times as a result of the same connector.

I put dielectric grease on the pins, removed it from the parking brake bracket and zip tied it to something else under the dash. Always put my foot on the parking brake when releasing it to keep the shock down and I've never had a problem with the crazy dashboard and dead truck since.

 

Thanks for the response. I looked for the connector while the truck was dead, and did not see an obvious one to check. The truck is currently in the fleet garage having a new "battery fuse" installed. This is directly behind the battery itself. The parking brake connector has come up several times. I will definitely find out where it is in the event that this problem occurs again when we are out in the field.

 

I have a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer, 4.6L V-8 that will occasionally just die like you are describing. Mine would turn over at least though and didn't lose everything, so obviously different issues, but just odd.
Twice after pushing it out of the way it would fire back up after about 20 minutes.

Swapped out the crank position sensor. Same thing. It happened 8 months apart at the same intersection 2.5 miles from the house.
Started and stopped all day after that and no issues. Last time was about 4 months ago..

Griz

 

Well it was not the battery fuse, as the truck just did it again. Parked it after a drive, went out the next morning and the truck was dead as a door nail. Turning the key produced no responses. No lights, no ding-ding sounds. The radio would not come on. The dome light was dead. Light under the hood dead as well. May as well have been sticking a Popsicle stick in the ignition switch. H_o_w_e_v_e_r....the horn does work when the truck is in this dead state, and after the truck "woke up" as a result of just sitting parked, the radio presets were not lost as they would be if the battery was totally disconnected from the vehicle. Our fleet mechanic thinks that the problem is with the smart chip detector in the ignition switch. Interesting theory, however I have an all metal key for this truck, putting it in the ignition causes all of the bells, whistles, and blinky lights to go on as they should, but not ignition when the key is fully turned (no surprise there). Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Note: This is NOT the truck in my signature. The rig in question is a 2012 F250 4WD crew cab with a V-8 gas motor and only 12,000 miles on it. Thanks in advance.