123brandy

hey guys, need some help. I have a basic, bare bones, 2003 F150 V6. Vinyl seat, work truck, crank windows...manual locks - etc

I swapped my battery today and somehow I tripped the god damn PATS system and now I have a no start and the stupid THEFT light is blinking

It had been fine. Always cranked. I have two keys

All fuses are good

I have got no idea what to do

thanks

formerjeepguy

Swapping the battery should not cause a PATS issue. There is probably something else going on and the only way to know is to interpret the flash code of the theft light or read the code that is being set.

Try disconnecting the battery for a few minutes and while disconnected touch the two cables together to discharge any stored voltages in the system. This should reset everything to a baseline state. Reconnect the battery and try again. If it is still tripping a theft status then you need to troubleshoot further.

The PATS module lives in the instrument cluster and reads the rfid code from chip embedded in the key with a ring shaped antenna in the key cylinder. They call that part the transceiver. If it can't read the key chip or if it detects an invalid key it will disable the fuel pump, flash the theft light, and set ODBII trouble codes.

Good luck.

akdoggie

https://www.scribd.com/document/1114...C-Service-Tips