electronic gurus, enter here

Emery19 · Jun 29, 2012

alright so this truck has been one electrical issue after another and I'm getting sick of it. when i first bought the truck, i found out really soon that the tow haul doesn't work.. we found a roof leak, and that led to the discovery to the corroded smart junction box. thinking that, that was the cause to the tow haul issue, had that replaced when the roof leak was repaired. of course, none of this covered under our warranty.. also the dealer that we bought the truck from, wont take our calls or our emails nothing..

anyways. that sjb never fixed the tow haul issue, which now i don't know what to do about that.. of course right now I have bigger issues..

after the dealer replaced the box, the remote start doesnt work anymore.. they told me basically I'm sol because they dont know whats wrong with it.. for f***s sake, you re connected the damn thing when you put in a new box.. took it to a aftermarket electronics place who I know, as they installed the remote start on my dads yukon.. they wont even touch the truck, because its a brand they don't sell and to make matters worse, the company and brand no longer exists, and the only place that installed that brand in my area is no longer in existence..

so now, i have no working tow haul, no remote start.. i was kind of not even caring because i had bigger things on my plate with my job and my month in france.. well last night my dad had the truck and comes to see me when he gets home.. the remotes for the remote start, used to lock and unlock the doors fine even when though the starter doesnt work.. well now they don't work..

so, because the truck came with only one factory remote I'm down to two keys and one remote.. not a big deal but my dad drives it from time to time and its inconvienet having one remote..

now the easy answer to this buy another factory remote and program it. fine done, thats the plan.

so up to this point, no working tow haul, and a useless remote start system that is just sitting in the truck and does absouluteyl nothing.

today i was getting ratchet straps out of the truck as I was headed to work in the ranger, i needed some. grabbed them, oppened the passanger side front door to lock the doors and the lock button does nothing. so i tried the drivers side. the lock buttons dont work. in cab. the remote works, the keypad works, the window switches work. theres no fuses blown. what the hell is wrong with this truck?! its not that i use them all the time. its just annoying that stuff isnt working. I wanted this truck in 100% top condition before i modded it. which I didnt think would be hard. its a 2008 job 3 truck with 85k on it. i have about 2500 bucks into chasing electrical crap and it just keeps coming up. the dealer the truck goes too has finally struck out, and I'm on the look out for a new dealer with a competent shop. the truck has a warranty on it, and I dont have the facilities or time and thats why the truck goes into a dealer. I'm anal about my maintence and crap and I would expect wiht the money I'm spending i wont get screwed over. but thats an entirely different issue altogether.

sorry I had to vent, I'm just pissed as my electrical engineering buddy moved away with some dumb bimbo and now i have no one to help me. so I'm turning to you guys. if you have any ideas for me I would greatly appreciate it. and if anyone in the New England area has an idea of a competent Ford dealer i can take this to, or a shop or anything within decent trip from my house in maine please let me know.. there may or may not be cookies for the helping people

:fustrate:

cliffs
truck has some issues, remote start is kaput, now door lock buttons dont work, tired of chasing issues, need help.

also side side note, the truck doesnt really get driven that much during the summer, so i can afford some downtime, although I'm having some motor/fuelling issues with my ranger so this truck needs to be ready to go to work...or tow my stranded ranger home at a moments notice.

907DAVE · Jun 29, 2012

For the tow haul I would pull the column cover and inspect the wires coming down from the shifter handle. These are very prone to chafe and break, and can do some wacky stuff.

What type of auto start do you have?

Emery19 · Jun 30, 2012

thats probably my next step. I'll pull it apart tomorrow and see whats up.

as for the remote start, its Astrostart if I remember correctly.

chromehound · Jun 30, 2012

If your remote start is Astrostart-don't know where your shop gets that they aren't in business anymore

http://www.astrostart.com/

Emery19 · Jun 30, 2012

well they said they were bought out and folded into a parent company and so technically they don't exist anymore. and reading parts of that website, it hasnt been updated since 2009, the copyright on the bottom is 2009 and in the about section he last reference is 2009. but thats just what I was told. no place around me sells them apparently.

chromehound · Jun 30, 2012

Ok I didn't look that close at the site and didn't relize it was out of date - I just had it from when I had trouble from my my Astrostart a couple of years ago.

907DAVE · Jun 30, 2012

Astro Start is out of business? Wow!

What happened to Viper then?

Try and start the truck, then get under the dash and count how many times the LED on the autostart box flashes. We can take it from there.

Emery19 · Jun 30, 2012

chromehound said:
Ok I didn't look that close at the site and didn't relize it was out of date - I just had it from when I had trouble from my my Astrostart a couple of years ago.

thanks man, i appreciate it. and yeah i'm just going by what i was told and scrolled down and it caught my eye.

907DAVE said:
Astro Start is out of business? Wow!

What happened to Viper then?

Try and start the truck, then get under the dash and count how many times the LED on the autostart box flashes. We can take it from there.

its what i've been told. they were bought out, rolled into a company and disolved. my source could be wrong, but he's in the industry so who knows. and awesome. will do. I'm going out now to work on the ranger a bit and pull the cover off the column in the 350 so i'll do that as well

Emery19 · Jun 30, 2012

Went out to the truck to test starter. When I first looked at the box I couldn't see where there would be any lights. Well the box is in upside down but i could see a red light blink twice every five seconds or so. I press and held the start button on the remote, and the light flashed rapidly in sync with the light on the remote. Then the box made a noise and now there is no more lights.

Also I took the cover off the column. As far as I can see, the wire for the tow haul is intact.

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907DAVE · Jul 3, 2012

Sorry, totally forgot to check on that code today. I will try and remember to grab the book tomorrow.

907DAVE · Jul 3, 2012

Code 2:

Stopped by applying brakes/ ground outputs overloaded or faulty ground.

The autostart has only one ground (solid black wire), trace that out and see whats going on with it.

907DAVE · Jul 3, 2012

For the door lock thing, check the wire's inside the door jamb, these wires have a tendency to break. I would start with the driver side as this is the most used door.

Emery19 · Jul 3, 2012

awesome man, i'll run out to the truck right now and see whats up with it. also, as of now there arent any lights blinking on the system, so we'll see if the ground is messed up and if it changes anything. and ill check the doors as well

Emery19 · Jul 3, 2012

alright, so i went to try to go follow the ground, i got no where. i followed what i thought was the ground, then i got my hand stuck. and said screw it, ill show you the pics of what I'm working wiht and see if we can make heads or tails of it. bear with me. im terrible with wires and stuff...