Help Needed Dash went crazy & no power!!
- Thread starter VinceJE
- Start date
Sure can. The PCM can go in to a number of modes when the right Voltage & Amps isn't detected. Codes get set. No power, and the like.
Frankenstien
Frankestien
Things to check....
Cross over Battery Cable, check for chaffing. a momentary short to ground will cause a lot of the symptoms you describe.
Cables to your GP Relays, same scenario, chaffing on the intercooler pipe, passenger side.
Water entering the GEM or ECU.
Gremlins.... you may need to get some gremlin spray.. if you do, remember no food after midnight, :-D
Cross over Battery Cable, check for chaffing. a momentary short to ground will cause a lot of the symptoms you describe.
Cables to your GP Relays, same scenario, chaffing on the intercooler pipe, passenger side.
Water entering the GEM or ECU.
Gremlins.... you may need to get some gremlin spray.. if you do, remember no food after midnight, :-D
W4RLR
High Tech Hillbilly
Yes, that will do it. Either a bad ground or a bad positive connection somewhere. Our 2004 E-350 had the same symptoms. There is a circuit that controls the injectors that amplifies the voltage. If the voltage going to that controller is less than 11.7 volts, no power, and your dash instrumentation goes into test mode. Been there, done that, replaced positive cable and all was well.
VinceJE
Full Access Member
Well... Here's an update...
After talking to my wife more, I think the loss of power was her imagination. I took it to Powerstroke Magic last week and had it checked out. They test drove it, checked connections, & checked the codes, but could not recreate the problem or figure out what caused it. The problem had only happened the one time up to that point. We drove it daily since then & drove it about a 800 miles over the weekend (round trip from Houston to New Orleans) with no problems. Then...
My wife took it to work this morning and it started again after about 5 miles down the road. The battery light flickered and then cam on steady (everything else was fine at this point.) Then the instruments & the radio all went dead after about 30 seconds. They came back on after a few more seconds and then went dead again. This went on until she got to work which is just a few more minutes. Only the instruments & radio are going out -- The a/c & blower continue running. The truck was running fine otherwise -- smooth & normal.
Anymore clues?
After talking to my wife more, I think the loss of power was her imagination. I took it to Powerstroke Magic last week and had it checked out. They test drove it, checked connections, & checked the codes, but could not recreate the problem or figure out what caused it. The problem had only happened the one time up to that point. We drove it daily since then & drove it about a 800 miles over the weekend (round trip from Houston to New Orleans) with no problems. Then...
My wife took it to work this morning and it started again after about 5 miles down the road. The battery light flickered and then cam on steady (everything else was fine at this point.) Then the instruments & the radio all went dead after about 30 seconds. They came back on after a few more seconds and then went dead again. This went on until she got to work which is just a few more minutes. Only the instruments & radio are going out -- The a/c & blower continue running. The truck was running fine otherwise -- smooth & normal.
Anymore clues?
I would go with the ground problem in the dash. There a pain to find but most of the grounds are by the fuses. Try putting another ground on the radio and see if it does it again. If it does it again and the radio does not dead and the rest of the dash goes dead then you know what the problem is.
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bigrigr
Real trks hv 3 pdls
I don't kow if this will be any more help, or just a repeat of the previous posts, ut my brother in law has a '04 that did the same thing. Periodically the dash gauges would "wig" out like you describe, but the truck runs normal. We cleaned all the connections, replaced some cable ends, and finally found a bad diode in the alternator. The alternator was a recent replacement, and always tested ok. But since we replaced it again, the truck has not done it. Check everything again, till ur positive it all works(connections, batterys, etc) and then replace the alt. Good luck
VinceJE
Full Access Member
Thanks for the pointers, but... geez... I hate electrical gremlins.
I guess I'll pull the instrument cluster this weekend to check grounds etc. Who knows maybe it will be an obvious bad connection, but I doubt it since we drove for so many miles over the rough roads in La.
I guess I'll pull the instrument cluster this weekend to check grounds etc. Who knows maybe it will be an obvious bad connection, but I doubt it since we drove for so many miles over the rough roads in La.
VinceJE
Full Access Member
So some time has passed since we first had this problem. I took it to PowerStroke Magic and they looked at everything. Test drove etc etc. Left it for 2 days & they did put some miles on it testing. No codes were found, alternator & batts tested good & they didn't see any chafing or grounding issues. The problem never happened since I first reported it... until now. It happened 4 or 5 times today. Sounds like a relay clicks when it happens too.
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