Vehicle won't turn on, forscan won't connect, cannot fix, looking for advice

[rugedraw]

I remember three years ago when I first fired up FDRS as a green pea and Jesse had to hold my hand throughout the process. Back then, I never imagined I would be working with him to help other people. It all started with me sending him a message as I was trying to help someone on the forum deal with a well-known issue that affected job 1 2021 trucks, and now that conversation is 221 pages long with 3,300 messages helping people on 7 different forums and 6 different vehicle platforms. I always tell people Jesse is Batman and I'm Robin. I can't do what he does, but if they just stfu and listen, we'll get anything fixed. lol

As long as it doesn't require the seatbelt to be plugged in for it to work, apparently.

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[Gimme_my_MME]

As long as it doesn't require the seatbelt to be plugged in for it to work, apparently.

 

[PJnc284]

Rule #4 of Zombieland: "Fasten your seatbelts"

 

[rugedraw]

I'm never going to live that one down.

 

[Pitbull2o08]

i bricked my 2011 F150 messing with forscan and flashing the BCM. Needed a new BCM, new door code

 

[Lightning64]

I wanted to share my recent experience with my 2023 Lightning Lariat, as it seems very similar to what has been described in other posts.

On Friday, my truck unexpectedly "bricked." I drove for about 30 minutes without any issues and parked in a lot. When I came back out 15 minutes later, I noticed something odd: the front light bar was on, even though I hadn’t remote-started the vehicle.

The vehicle wouldn’t unlock with the fob, so I used the physical key to get inside. Once inside, the dashboard was cycling through a continuous stream of fault codes. When I pressed the start button, nothing happened—it just kept cycling through errors.

I pressed the start/stop button again, which turned off the dash and screen, so I let the vehicle sit for a few minutes. After that, I tried a normal start (foot on the brake, pressing the start button), but the same runaway fault codes returned.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

1. 12V Battery Reset: Disconnected the 12V battery for a few minutes and reconnected it—same issue persisted.
2. Jump Booster: Attached a jump booster to ensure proper voltage—still nothing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a volt meter or other diagnostic tools with me, so I had to have the vehicle towed.

I’m leaning toward this being an issue with the DC-DC converter or a contactor failure, but I’m waiting to hear back from the dealership for more details.

Last year, I had a similar issue. At that time, the problem was traced to a faulty voltage monitor, which was replaced under the customer satisfaction program. The monitor had failed to signal the 12V battery to charge during software updates, causing the battery to completely drain.

Has anyone else encountered something similar? Any insights on what else I should be checking or asking the dealership to investigate would be greatly appreciated!

 

[rugedraw]

Has anyone else encountered something similar? Any insights on what else I should be checking or asking the dealership to investigate would be greatly appreciated!

Hard to say what is causing this on your truck. We'd need to see the codes it is reporting for a clue as to the cause. The dealer would see the same codes we can see with the VIN. This seems more like a hardware issue than software, so it is very unlikely that it can be addressed remotely.

 

[Scorpio3d]

Doubt Ford would ever lower their standards for someone like myself


Im not an actual engineer. So I dont meet the qualifications to be anything of any importance. It had been talked about at some point.

No offense to any engineers, but many times engineering forgets common sense! How many times when there is an interchange between two highways do you have on ramps and off ramps merging to the same Lane?

 

[Scorpio3d]

I'm never going to live that one down.

Yes, we all want to be superhuman or superheroes but at the end of the day, we’re all just people and occasionally or more often we make mistakes!
You have helped so many people on this forum, myself included! I don’t know how many you’ve helped on other forums. So don’t feel bad!!!

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

I wanted to share my recent experience with my 2023 Lightning Lariat, as it seems very similar to what has been described in other posts.

On Friday, my truck unexpectedly "bricked." I drove for about 30 minutes without any issues and parked in a lot. When I came back out 15 minutes later, I noticed something odd: the front light bar was on, even though I hadn’t remote-started the vehicle.

The vehicle wouldn’t unlock with the fob, so I used the physical key to get inside. Once inside, the dashboard was cycling through a continuous stream of fault codes. When I pressed the start button, nothing happened—it just kept cycling through errors.

I pressed the start/stop button again, which turned off the dash and screen, so I let the vehicle sit for a few minutes. After that, I tried a normal start (foot on the brake, pressing the start button), but the same runaway fault codes returned.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

1. 12V Battery Reset: Disconnected the 12V battery for a few minutes and reconnected it—same issue persisted.
2. Jump Booster: Attached a jump booster to ensure proper voltage—still nothing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a volt meter or other diagnostic tools with me, so I had to have the vehicle towed.

I’m leaning toward this being an issue with the DC-DC converter or a contactor failure, but I’m waiting to hear back from the dealership for more details.

Last year, I had a similar issue. At that time, the problem was traced to a faulty voltage monitor, which was replaced under the customer satisfaction program. The monitor had failed to signal the 12V battery to charge during software updates, causing the battery to completely drain.

Has anyone else encountered something similar? Any insights on what else I should be checking or asking the dealership to investigate would be greatly appreciated!

YOu have to be careful. OTAs can put the truck into inhibit and you can be walking out as an OTA hits. I believe a message will display on screen also.

Its always best to check your Fordpass app first before disconnecting anything because you can brick a module in the middle of an update doing a battery pull.

Also you can message me or RugedRaw to see if an OTA is hitting. I have had two people recently connecting with Forscan that couldnt. I knew right away they were receiving an OTA. I confirmed it in Oasis.

They were getting the enter PCM strategy Prompt. That is because the Interrogator/OTA shut down comms.

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