Car dies and Odometer goes to dashes HELP

[1Slow97GT]

Hey everybody.

Hoping someone here can give me some insight. My 03 will die on me. Engine shuts off and odometer goes to dashes while I'm driving. RPM seems to be irrelevant. Has done it while I'm in the gas and it's done it with cruise control on. I've replaced the battery terminals and the battery. The weird thing is that all the lights and radio will stay on its just the engine loses power and the odometer goes to dashes. Been a pesky annoyance for a while now, if anyone has any insight/input i'll be very grateful as i'm electrically retarded. Thanks! :rolling:

 

[wckdvnm]

Did you try changing the alternator? Mine had every symptom in the book until I finally got a good alt. 7 changes in a month

 

[MalcolmV8]

Usually when the odometer goes all dashes and the engine is dead it's a PATS issue.

 

[03slaminator]

I had this same issue except my car wouldn't die. But my odo did go all dashes and the needles would quit working then sometimes they would make a full sweep then quit working again. I fought this issue for months trying to figure it out. Then one day I unplugged my abs module. And found that it was corroded really bad and the pins were rusted a little. I left it unplugged and never had another problem out of it. I got the motor yanked out of the car right now. So before it goes back together then I'm gonna get in there and clean it really good.

And don't ask me why or how this even matters because I really don't know lol. Maybe someone can chime in on this? I haven't heard of anyone else having the same issues I had. I thought it was bizarre though. I don't know what the abs module would have to do with making the gauges freak out but on my car it did. Lol.

I hope you get the problem figured out soon tho! Good luck.

 

[mhazelwd]

Hey everybody.

Hoping someone here can give me some insight. My 03 will die on me. Engine shuts off and odometer goes to dashes while I'm driving. RPM seems to be irrelevant. Has done it while I'm in the gas and it's done it with cruise control on. I've replaced the battery terminals and the battery. The weird thing is that all the lights and radio will stay on its just the engine loses power and the odometer goes to dashes. Been a pesky annoyance for a while now, if anyone has any insight/input i'll be very grateful as i'm electrically retarded. Thanks! :rolling:

Engine harness? I had something similar with my 2012 and the engine harness and battery had to be replaced. gases from around the battery post caused the wires to corrode.

 

[03cobra#2]

Check your vehicle grounds. The computer uses a separate ground wire and if it's a bit corroded it will do exactly what your are experiencing.

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[racebronco2]

When ever the dash flat lines with just dashes the ecu has lost communication with the vehicle. Me and several others have had problems with the SCT switch chip. My problem was only at wot. Removed the switch chip and car ran like normal.

 

[mustangcobratim]

I had the same thing happen to my 03. It was a bad ground connector on the driver side fender apron in the engine bay. Under the junction box where the fuses are. The connector has 2 wires in and out I believe. It is a ground connector.

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[BLU3VN0M]

it's not a PATS issue, its a wiring issue.. i've gone through this a few times now.
1) check grounds. (motor mount to chassis, battery to chassis, 2 harness grounds near the headlights, PCM ground in the passenger footwell, FPDM ground in the trunk)
2) What is done to your car? Fuel pumps? BAP? WOT box? etc.. all those have connections which if loose, will cause the PCM to produce dashes. Check all the wiring to any mods done to your car and make sure the connections are good.
3) If none of those fix it start pulling your connectors on the engine bay harness and checking for corrosion, bent pins, loose connections, etc. Make sure the C133 connector is tight (large connector with 10mm bolt on top near the firewall on passenger side). Also check the 10mm bolt on the PCM connector to make sure it is tight and no bent pins.

I just tracked down a major wiring issue with mine. It's a lot of headaches, but you'll eventually find it. If none of the above works you're going to have to resort to a multimeter and the Ford manual to check the resistance in each individual wire to the PCM to track down where the short is. Good luck!

 

[cobraetti]

this happened to me as well dashes on the gauge cluster and other weirdness, then i cleaned all grounds at he fuse box @ engine bay and weirdness went away

 

[mustangcobratim]

Yup. I will take a picture of the ground connector that wiggled apart on me today. It left me stranded in Kentucky on my way home to Michigan from florida

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[racebronco2]

On mine and two other peoples car it was the sct switch chip.

 

[MalcolmV8]

On mine and two other peoples car it was the sct switch chip.

Yup if PATS gets messed up or not right it'll do exactly that. The VIN and a few other things in the chip/tune has to match perfectly. Could be as simple as a bad connection between your chip and the ECU circuit board.

 

[svtshadow]

On mine and two other peoples car it was the sct switch chip.

Yup if PATS gets messed up or not right it'll do exactly that. The VIN and a few other things in the chip/tune has to match perfectly. Could be as simple as a bad connection between your chip and the ECU circuit board.

I was having this issue when I was using my SCT programmer as a gauge to read ect, AITs etc and every now and then I would get the odometer dashes and gauge sweep on my dash but car would not turn off. 3 months ago, my 10 year old program went to shits, and since then I have not encountered this problem at all.

 

[1Slow97GT]

Wow thanks for all the replies guys! Sorry i've been out of town for a few weeks + this being an intermittent thing = troubleshooting taking time.

Here is what i've done so far.

Replaced my aftermarket key with a factory ford one. Problem frequency MIGHT have changed but other variables so it's hard to tell. It still does it.

Replaced my old battery with new one. Cleaned all my battery wires. Not happy with how the negative turned out, so I'm going to replace that.

New alternator.

THE ONLY thing i've noticed is today, I was driving the car home and it started raining, and the frequency of the problem doubled to tripled.

I'm going to start tracking down grounds, hoping it is one of them and not the engine harness.

I appreciate all your feedback and I will keep posted and share my results when I do figure it out!


OH, and someone asked mods. No boost a pump, no WOT box, the only electrical mod that i KNOW i have is HIDs, and an aftermarket deck. No chip either. Factory Alarm, all that jazz.


-Ryan

 

[hotcobra03]

Only issue ive had that shut down car was ground by battery on radiator support..

1 closer to headlight. .eyehook cracked but didnt fully fall off..

Had all lights dashes and theft blinking no start.

happend while driving..

ive had a second issue but with charging..ground stud on engine mount snapped

 

[1Slow97GT]

Alrighty, I replaced the CCRM today and cleaned the battery terminals and ground by the radiator support. K member ground looked good. Problem is still there. Now i'm going to flash a tune from my buddies SCT on to the car ( car is pullied but not sure if tuned) and see if that does anything. Other than that i'm fresh out of ideas! Shoot the harness? Any advice is welcomed, thanks!

-Ryan

 

[mustangcobratim]

The black plug with 2 black wires in it. It is under the fuse box on the driver apron. Same r hung happened to me
It loosens up .clean it and make sure it is making connection

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[xxjaymanzxx]

I've had this happen make sure your battery connectors are tight on the battery terminals

 

[1Slow97GT]

Hey guys! Battery terminals are good and i checked ground under the fusebox. all good. Were thinking the ECU is fried, possibly due to corrupt tune? The consistency has gotten worse and the other night when testing car after CCRM install, went WOT for a 1-2 pull and car freaked out. Had my buddy come over with a known good 91 tune on his X3 and we attempted to flash. Odometer stays at "-------" permanently now and we can't flash car back to stock. We were careful not to open doors or anything like that when we were flashing. I ordered a ECU today and I'll have it Friday. I'll get the keys flashed and install it and let you know how it goes! Thanks!