stew22

2006 F150 Screw XLT 5.4L 2wd 188,000 miles


Porblem:

Ok, My truck has been sitting up for a while cause I have a company truck. I was going to sell my F150 but got no bites on side the road. I brought it to the ford dealer in town to let them sell it on consignment for me, but you guessed it no bite there either. Well I decided to go back to my old job which means no more company truck. One saturday I go to ford and pick up the truck and to no prevail the battery is dead. It was a brand new battery about 6-8 months ago from ford.

Anyway to get to the point, I get the truck started and get home. Tried to start it two days later, dead. I put in a spare battery I had and cranked right up. Waited 1 week tried to start and spare battery was dead.

I started reading posts on here about amp draw and killing batteries. I put batteries on the charger and got them good and charged. Put the motor craft battery back in and the truck started fine, so I shut off the truck and hooked up my digital multimeter (Fluke 87 v) and had .201 amp draw with the truck sitting, all doors closed, no lights on what so ever. So I get into the truck and start pulling fuses and I found number #21 and #24 when pulled the amp draw goes to .002 amps. It didn't matter which fuse was pulled (#21/#24) even with the other one in it still dropped to .002 amp. I looked in the book and it said fuse #21 was for (gauge cluster keep alive) and #24 said something about keeping power to the main cpu. I figured that was ok considering the description sounded pretty self explanatory.

So I put the truck back together and went for a ride.

This is when the next problem arouse:

I drove the truck down the hwy and was getting up to around 70 mph then the truck would not shift into the next gear then would not go over 70 mph. I turned around and headed home. On the way back home the truck was steadily losing power. As I pulled in the subdivision, the truck died and I almost went into a DEEP ditch. Luckily I missed it.

I am on side of the road now trying to start the truck again. Finally it started. I crept back home at 10 mph at about 3000 rpm. Finally got the truck in the driveway and let it sit for 18 hours or so, cause I was disgusted.

The next day I get up and start the truck and she started fine and idled great. I revved it up and it kind of sputtered and then was idling really ruff.

Also changed the plugs awhile back at about 83,000 miles. Before the battery died and reset the cpu I have a check engine light on and the scanner said "catalyst deficienticy bank 2".

Question:
Is it possible I may have slung a rod, burned a piston, cracked a head, blown a head gasket, or could the cats be really clogged.

Thanks, Stew

joshtowal

My initial thoughts are with the CPU or the wiring. Throw the scan tool on it again and make sure both the pre and post cat O2 sensors are operating properly. Unfortunately, that problem is probably just a result of what is happening elsewhere and not the main cause. If it was fine before you took it to the dealership, I would double check to see if everything is still original on the truck. I am very hesitant to do anything with a dealership. Most are very, very shady, at least in my area (IMO). There are good ones out there with good people working it, but I haven't been fortunate enough to meet them yet. Hopefully somebody will have better/more suggestions.

stew22

Yeah i wasnt to happy about bringing it to the dealer but then again I was hoping they were going to sell it........

stew22

What would be a good scan tool to use? I had a buddy of mine put his snap-on scanner on it once and that is when i had the cat code come up

joshtowal

Snap-on is more than sufficient for this. If you can get your hands on that again, use it. It could be a plugged exhaust, but if something was causing it to run rich or lean, that's more than likely a result. Take a 3x5 notebook card to the tail pipe. Hold it about two inches away while it's running. You should get strong steady puffs of exhaust out. That's the quick way to check for a plugged exhaust.

stew22

Hopefully my buddy bring home his scanner tonight..... Will post anything I find. Thanks again.