Ok guys last time this site really helped me out and I sure could use it from you guys now. I have a 2004 F150 with the 5.4 liter V8 I recently went and bought ourselves a travel trailer which I was told by the ford dealerships and the travel trailer dealership that my truck would pull this trailer very easily the trailer weighs roughly around 3000lbs dry and no more than 6000 lbs .... Anyhow I was pulling my trailer the other day up a 4% grade hill and all of the sudden my truck beeped at me and said to check gauges as I did so I noticed that my oil level dropped all the way down to low then my coolant level went to the left and my gas went from full to empty then the battery shut completly down. I was thinking the worst that maybe I had blown my engine pulling such a big trailer but going up this hill I had my a/c on, my radio, my tv's in the back, and almost everything was on inside my truck, and started to think what if I just messed up the alternator, or the starter, or even the battery. I took all those parts listed above off and took them to auto zone to have them tested and they all tested perfect. What more can it be did I lock up my engine??? By the way my father in law got a pipe wrench and tried to move the bottom pull and it wouldnt move at all. Can someone help??? email me please at farmijoaaca@gmail.com

 

Well, it sounds to me like your PCM may have put your engine into the highest level failsafe mode which is shutting the engine down to prevent major damage. You may have sprung an oil leak or lost engine oil pressure somehow, maybe your oil pump failed. Sounds like you need to take it to Ford so they can pull some things apart and check the condition of your connecting rods.
So turning the crankshaft pulley met resistance? Does not sound good.

 

And it doesn't sound like this is because you pulled the trailer, but maybe if an internal component was about to die the added weight may have done it in. Unless you threw a few thousand pounds more weight in that thing then you meant to.

I really hope someone has a better idea that does not involve engine damage.

 

I dont see any oil leaks or anything and like I mentioned its weird because now I try to crank it and it sounds like something electrical its weird? But thanks for the post.

 

On the modular 4.6 from the mustangs; if the motor starts detonating it, the vibrations CAN shatter the oil pump gear resulting in a loss of oil pressure.

 

Ok well typically in these situations your mind is obviously going to default to the worst case scenario but you should really start with the basics. If it were an oil pump failure then your oil pressure light would have gone off and then your temp guage would have started to increase rapidly. I guess the description of the problems you are having are relativeley vague but I would start with the battery... this might explain the guages going bonkers. I don't care what the machine at autozone says, batteries are wierd. They can short out internally and do some really funny things. Also consider that batteries are subject to alot of abuse even under normal conditions but temperature extremes are substantially worse on them. Sorry, that's alot of talk to just say try a new battery.

 

Does your truck start up when you crank it? There doesn't have to be oil leaking for you to have no oil pressure. Like i said, maybe oil pump gone bad. When you crank what does it sound like? Broken rods can make some weird sounds...bad sounds. Good luck man.

 

Have you pulled the codes?

 

My experience has been that when the guages suddenly start going bonkers, it's the alternator. I know you had it checked, but sometimes these checkout ok, but fail when they get warmed up.

Have you tried jump starting it?

 

Did you check the oil. My friends f250 cut off otherday while he was driving because his oill filer cap blew off. The engine wouldn't even turn over because of the low oil sensor. After we added oil it started right up. I'm sure f150s also have a sensor 4 them to cut off when they are low on oil. Its worth a try.