Anti-theft issue

[Dave In Texas]

Got stranded in the Wal Mart parking lot over the weekend with a hot car full of groceries, 4 kids, and my wife. The anti theft system was flashing as if I had the wrong key. I tried both sets of keys and finally had it towed to the Ford dealership. They looked at it, and of course it started right up for them. They ran all of the diagnostic tests and found nothing wrong, so I'm going to pick it up. Is there any way to dis-able this system? I'm going to see if they'll do it for me. I'm wondering if this is going to happen again.

[keyman1070]

Originally Posted by Dave In Texas

Got stranded in the Wal Mart parking lot over the weekend with a hot car full of groceries, 4 kids, and my wife. The anti theft system was flashing as if I had the wrong key. I tried both sets of keys and finally had it towed to the Ford dealership. They looked at it, and of course it started right up for them. They ran all of the diagnostic tests and found nothing wrong, so I'm going to pick it up. Is there any way to dis-able this system? I'm going to see if they'll do it for me. I'm wondering if this is going to happen again.

dave In texas I was wondering if you discovered a solution to your problem...I have a 97 that is doing the same thing but I can let it sit with the key on until the theft light stops blinking and then turn the key off and then start and 3 times out of ten it will start and run until i shut it off

[Dave In Texas]

3 times out of 10? That's not real good. If I turn the key on and the theft light blinks really fast that means it's not going to start and run so I shut the key off and try again. The mechanic at the Ford dealership said they could replace the ignition in the steering column which would cost about 160 bucks or so. Next time I'll leave the key on until it stops blinking and see if that works.

[keyman1070]

Originally Posted by Dave In Texas

3 times out of 10? That's not real good. If I turn the key on and the theft light blinks really fast that means it's not going to start and run so I shut the key off and try again. The mechanic at the Ford dealership said they could replace the ignition in the steering column which would cost about 160 bucks or so. Next time I'll leave the key on until it stops blinking and see if that works.

Dave in texas I was dwon at the ford dealership today and was able to talk to a mechanic for about 30 min on this problem...he seems to think that it is the engine immobilizer (transciever) that is mounted in the column and reads the key.....I have ordered one for 66.00 + tx and will try that...if it works I will let you know

[~manuel~]

Originally Posted by keyman1070

Dave in texas I was dwon at the ford dealership today and was able to talk to a mechanic for about 30 min on this problem...he seems to think that it is the engine immobilizer (transciever) that is mounted in the column and reads the key.....I have ordered one for 66.00 + tx and will try that...if it works I will let you know

have seen those transcievers cause intermittent problems more often than not.

[Dave In Texas]

Thanks for the info. I'm sure the 160 dollar price I got was for installation too. I don't know how easy it would be to tear into the steering column. It happened again last night and I tried Keyman 1070's suggestion and let the light stop blinking then started it, and it worked. Thanks

[keyman1070]

dave...I replaced the part today.....will give it some time to see if it works...It ended up being 71.00 and some change...as far as replacing it....E.A.S.Y.....you should have no problem doing so......

[OxfordDawg]

my 97 was doing the same thing. Took 30 minutes to reset itself. hasn't happened again after 3 months.

[keyman1070]

Originally Posted by Dave In Texas

Thanks for the info. I'm sure the 160 dollar price I got was for installation too. I don't know how easy it would be to tear into the steering column. It happened again last night and I tried Keyman 1070's suggestion and let the light stop blinking then started it, and it worked. Thanks

Hey Dave...just wanted to let you know that I have not had another problem out of the expedition since replacing the part