Waiting on Monitors
 

I just purchased a 2005 F-150 Lariat, no rust and fully loaded! I took it out for a test drive and found one thing wrong with it, cruise control wasn't working. The car lot where I purchased it sent it to their repair shop. While there they found the positive cable was bad so they replaced it. Now they are having trouble getting all 5 monitors up so it will pass inspection. They said every now and then they get a bear in that takes quite awhile for all of them to come up They seem to be genuinely concerned about their reputation but its been several days without any success. Do you suppose the bitter cold we've been experiencing here in NY would have anything to do with it? Has anyone else experienced or heard of this? Just wondering.

What is meant by getting "all 5 monitors up"?

In the 2004 to 2008 F150's, the cruise control could become inoperative if someone installed LED bulbs (or early cheap LED rear tail light assembly housings) that did not have built in load resisters. LED's have a much lower current draw, and the cruise control circuit uses the brake light activation to determine if cruise is allowed to activate or not. This current draw is a known measurement to the cruise circuit, so LED equipped bulbs or assemblies used for the brake lights have to have load resisters in order for the cruise to work.

Check the brake lights for LED bulbs, as well as the third brake light (on rear roof of cab) for LED's; if so, it may be this simple fix of replacing the bulbs or tail lamp assemblies back to conventional filament bulbs for now, until you can get LED's with built in load resisters to mimic the current draw of the conventional filament bulbs.

[QUOTE=Bucko;5128391]What is meant by getting "all 5 monitors up"?

In the 2004 to 2008 F150's, the cruise control could become inoperative if someone installed LED bulbs (or early cheap LED rear tail light assembly housings) that did not have built in load resisters.

So you are saying there may be LED bulbs inside the tail light housing? I will have to check to see when I get the truck from them. As far as explaining monitors what I understand is; When you hook up the state's SMOG machine for Inspection it tests 5 different sensors or something like that. If they don't come up positive the vehicle won't pass inspection. Thank you for taking the time to reply!
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...6ed189cad1.png

You are right - 'on top of it'. Youre talking about Catalyst efficiency monitor, evap monitor and so on, and low temperature can definitely aggravate getting them to complete.

Your guys most likely had the battery disconnected or cleared DTCs, reseting the catalyst efficiency monitor flag and the PCM has to go through the (rather lengthy) process again over several "drive cycles".


The PCM has a software routine called the Diagnostic Executive that schedules, runs, AND suspends "monitor tests" under unacceptable conditions, and air temperature is just one of them. THERE ARE SEVERAL conditions that will _suspend_ - or prevent the Catalyst Efficiency Monitor from starting, such as certain sensors being 'defective', and one such to watch out for the PCM 'stuffing' a default value for that sensor in order to keep running. Some of them are:
• Sensors OK? (ECT,IAT,TP,VSS,CKP) - but should result in codes which you do not mention not having.


Other conditions that must be met are:
• Engine Coolant Temp < 170º
• PTO (4WD) engaged ALL THE TIME. Engaging PTO suspends the test.
• IAT < 20º
• Fuel Level < 15%
• EVAP Monitor Completed
• The Diagnostic Executive suspends OBD monitoring when battery voltage falls below 11.0 volts.
• The Diagnostic Executive suspends monitoring of fuel-system related monitors (catalyst, misfire, evap,O2, AIR and fuel system) when fuel level falls below 15%


This information is taken from Motorcraft OBDII Theory of Operation Manual for my 2004 F150.


That document has a ton of useful information and is a VERY good read for lots of things. A copy for your specific year model vehicle can be downloaded from here: https://www.motorcraftservice.com/freeresources/obd


That link should get you right to the page to select your vehicle/model. If not - chose your country, then select > "Free Resources" > OBDII Theory of Operation.


Good luck.

Thank you for the link it certainly does have a wealth of information pertaining to the 2005 F-150 as well as many other Ford pick-ups and their year of build. I personally don't know whats going on with it besides their mechanic told them he found the positive cable end was broken and he replaced it. I didn't look under the little red boot covering it so I can't say their is BS or not. I did take it to Valvoline and told them I wished to buy this truck could you give it an inspection and tell me what needs to be replaced. They gave it the once over and said the truck was in pretty nice shape, brake pads were fair, rotors were glossy, will need tires by next winter, and the tie rods, ball joints were factory. They were tight now but they are over 10 years old and will need replacing eventually. So physically the truck passed inspection. Just waiting for it to really pass Inspection. Yes the mechanic should have gotten it inspected first before pulling the positive terminal now its costing the dealer quite a bit of money, so he say's.

Update: The mechanic drove my Lariat all the way to Scranton PA and back to Binghamton N.Y. on the two 50 degree days we had. Come to find out the transmission signal was keeping all the monitors from coming up. They asked me if I felt a shudder when I drove it? I said YES but I figured it was something I was doing. I did look for the over drive button to turn it off during low speeds (city driving) but didn't know where to look. Needless to say a transmission was out of the question and they promptly refunded all of my money. I now begin a new search for another truck of which their are several local that just came up on Craigslist. Thanks for all your responses.

THE tranny's don't last in the 2004/2005

The dealer and I worked it out. I now own a 2006 F-350 XLT with 92,000 so far it has been a pleasure to drive and I've driven it 300 miles.

:thumbsup:

You went from getting an F-150 to an F-350?