Engine "locked up" on a 2003

  • Thread starter Thread starter gnorrell
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Fairview is south of Mckinney and north of Allen of 75 north of Dallas.

The dealership said today they are talking with ford on whether or not they need to replace the engine or tear it down before replacing and will know Tuesday. No word on what exactly went wrong. Just said again that the engine "locked up".
 
I have a question that may have an effect on this issue.
Does the "black box"/Computer store a history of driving habits, such has how fast you have driven the car or other facts that FoMoCo could throw in your face?
 
Rob1559 said:
Does the "black box"/Computer store a history of driving habits, such has how fast you have driven the car or other facts that FoMoCo could throw in your face?
Click to expand...

Yes, it does.

This is from the on-line owner's manual:

Data Recording
Computers in your vehicle are capable of recording detailed data
potentially including but not limited to information such as:
- the use of restraint systems including seat belts by the driver and
passengers,
- information about the performance of various systems and modules in
the vehicle, and
- information related to engine, throttle, steering, brake or other system
status.

Any of this information could potentially include information regarding
how the driver operates the vehicle potentially including but not limited
to information regarding vehicle speed, brake or accelerator application
or steering input. This information may be stored during regular
operation or in a crash or near crash event.
This stored information may be read out and used by:
- Ford Motor Company.
- service and repair facilities.
- law enforcement or government agencies.
- others who may assert a right or obtain your consent to know such
information.
 
Oh just wunnerful !!! Big Bro watchun...and keepin it safe for Big Business whilst keepin it hard for Us HotRods to have fun with our toys....

Just my .02 cents....

M386
 
RF Overlord said:
Barry:

Are you sure? I read somewhere that that data was stored in non-volatile memory...
Click to expand...


If it is for accident reconstruction purposes one would think that the loss of battery power would not wipe out this data.

By the way, the Car Chip that has been discussed on this site in the past serves the same function and the memory in that gizmo is non-volatile.
 
a little experience

TheDealer said:
Torque convertors lock up and cause the engine to die. Then the engine won't turn. You seperate the trans from the engine and the engine is fine. You said you smelled a clutch like burning smell. Did you smell the trans fluid? Guess we'll have to wait to see what the dealer finds. :up:
Click to expand...

During my early pee-on days where I work, we had an F150 come in. Stalls at every stop. To drive the thing, you had to rev the engine high and then neutral drop it. It didn't spin the tires but it ran like a manaul with the clutch engaged. We found out that some sensor in the trans went bad that controls the Torque converter clutch.

Just my .02 and then some.
 
So if disconnecting the battery won't erase the computer's memory, is there some way to manually erase it? Kind of like clearing your computer's cache and cookies? This wouldn't prevent LE from getting the info after a crash, because after a crash you probably wouldn't have time to go through the clearing process before LE arrived. It would, however, allow us to periodically clear the memory so a lot of irrelevant, long term storage of info would be gone. Any techies out there got a clue?
 
TheDealer said:
Here's what I stated in that thread!!!


We have never seen a broken crank in our dealership.

Well that part number fits 4.6 engines built after 1/2/02 in Crown Vics, Mustang GT's, Lincoln Town Cars and Grand Marquis including Marauder. Ford's average months sales for that part number is 12. That's for 1/2 of 2002, all of 2003 and 2004. That a lot of vehicles with sales of 12 per month?????? Doesn't sound like a big problem to me.

I forgot to check that it also fits Aviators, Mountaineers, and Explorers. That's a lot more units in operation!!!!! 12 per month is a drop in the bucket!!!!! We also don't know why they were replaced. Could be for wear. I think we are geting upset over nothing.
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You don't see 12 crankshafts per month as a problem ???

If the engines were reliable, I would say that maybe 1 or 2 cranks per month was not a problem.
12 cranks per month adds up to 144 cranks in a YEAR.

A reliable engine will had some failures since they are all created by man,
but at the rate of 12 per month, there is a problem...
 
Ross said:
So if disconnecting the battery won't erase the computer's memory, is there some way to manually erase it? Kind of like clearing your computer's cache and cookies? This wouldn't prevent LE from getting the info after a crash, because after a crash you probably wouldn't have time to go through the clearing process before LE arrived. It would, however, allow us to periodically clear the memory so a lot of irrelevant, long term storage of info would be gone. Any techies out there got a clue?
Click to expand...

Ross,

You are confusing the OBD (On Board Diagnostics) system with the Real Time Flight Recorder (Black Box) that operates with the Supplemental Restraint system.
The SRS system takes a snapshot of the last X seconds before the SRS system was activated.
This information can be used to determine if the system responded correctly or malfunctioned.
In many cases, the information is used to determine the speed of the vehicle, and which sensor first triggered the SRS system.

The Flight Recorder can't be erased, but the OBD can be reset by disconnecting your battery for a minimum of 20 minutes.
This will reset all of the parameters including the learned shift patterns for the automatic transmission.

When you reconnect your battery, your Marauder will drive like the day it was driven off the assembly line.
 
12 crankshafts assumes it was a quality issue. How many were replaced due to owner negligence hit somehting and otre off the oil pan, or shop negligence didn't titen the oil filter?

For the number of vehicles, over 200,000 per year 12 per month is nothing.
 
MENINBLK said:
When you reconnect your battery, your Marauder will drive like the day it was driven off the assembly line.
Click to expand...


CRAP! You mean I'm going to have to deal with the harness-slicing issue all over again???? :help:

:lol:
 
MENINBLK said:
.When you reconnect your battery, your Marauder will drive like the day it was driven off the assembly line.
Click to expand...

Disconnecting the battery won't do anything as far as "un-programming" an after market chip, will it? After reconnection, the chip will still do the same things it did before, right?
 
sailsmen said:
12 crankshafts assumes it was a quality issue. How many were replaced due to owner negligence hit somehting and otre off the oil pan, or shop negligence didn't titen the oil filter?

For the number of vehicles, over 200,000 per year 12 per month is nothing.
Click to expand...

For what it is worth, rebuilding an engine from the bottom up is more costly than a complete short block swap.

Owner negligence finalizes in a seized engine, thrown rod, etc..., not an engine rebuild.

To tear off the Oil Pan on a FWD car, requires also tearing off a big part of the subframe that surrounds the oil pan.
To tear off the Oil Pan on an SUV requires to drive the car off road which is something that less than 1/2% of all SUVs actually see during their lifetime.
Soccer Moms don't drive off road, unless they are chasing the soccer team...


I'll never forget the customer that came into the Buick dealership that I worked at.
He drove a 1990 Buick Century with the 3300 V6.
He had 30,000 miles on it and NEVER changed the oil.
When the Service Manager asked him about it, he claimed that the technology used to build the engine
was so good that it didn't require any service at all for 100,000 miles.
The Service Manager asked him if he had ever seen the Mobil Oil TV Commercial,
and then said to him, "You can pay it now, or you can pay later. Later comes much faster than you think."

The following day, guess who's Buick Century ended coming into the shop on a hook...
Threw not ONE, but THREE RODS through the side of the block.
 
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Ross said:
Disconnecting the battery won't do anything as far as "un-programming" an after market chip, will it? After reconnection, the chip will still do the same things it did before, right?
Click to expand...

Aftermarket Chips will 'reprogram' your vehicles PCM to a certain degree.
This reprogramming happens every time you turn on your ignition.
The reprogramming that is done is to modify the PCM's working parameters so that
whatever modifications you have made will be utilized within these new parameters.

The PCM by itself, has a set of stock calibrations, and a 'learning' mode to create its own set of working parameters.
These learned parameters have to fall within a range of specs set by the calibration in the PCM.
When the 'learned' parameters fall outside the range of the stock calibrations, your Check Engine Light is turned on.

The Aftermarket Chip takes care of the parameters and alters them so that the Chips programming
will not create a CEL unless the parameters are outside the range set by the chip's calibration.

Sometimes, even with the technology we have today, we need to cold start our PCMs
to clear any irrelevant data that may have been written to the PCM.
To do this requires a no power condition for 20 minutes or more so that everything
inside the PCM loses all charges and the memory is lost.

This does not affect non-volatile memory, such as the memory in the Aftermarket Chip,
that holds the chip's programming, or the calibration inside the PCM, that holds the OEM programming.
It only affects the 'working' memory of the PCM that holds the 'learned' parameters.

Have I confused you enough ??? :help: :help: :help:
 
Pete, I think I have it. If I disconnect the battery for awhile, it will reset what came from the factory, but it won't reset or change anything I've put on myself, right? What about things like my radio presets? Will I have to reset those?
 
Ross:

I think what MENINBLK was trying to say is that, NO, disconnecting the battery will not erase or otherwise affect your chip...but, YES, you will have to re-program the radio presets.
 
Ross said:
Pete, I think I have it. If I disconnect the battery for awhile, it will reset what came from the factory, but it won't reset or change anything I've put on myself, right? What about things like my radio presets? Will I have to reset those?
Click to expand...

There is a trick to doing this but I don't know if it will work on all cars...

If you take a cigarette lighter plug and wire it correctly to a 9V battery socket,
you can make yourself a 'keep alive' power source for your radio when you take off the battery terminal.

Like I said, I don't know if it will work, but if it does, it will supply just enough power to keep the memory alive in your radio.
Just make sure you keep the doors closed before you disconnect the battery,
and don't reopen them until after you've reconnected the battery.

Otherwise, you will lose the radio station settings as well as the clock settings.
 
Actually, they make a device like this that you put a 9V battery into and then plug it into your cigarette lighter. I have one at home. I wonder if using this device will keep your presets, but still erase the other black box info from the past?
 
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