Truck Ground to a Halt and Died - P068A and P2610

[ducktapeonmydesk]

Using this post as a log of events.

2024 Ranger Raptor

Ordered in August of 2023, delivered to dealer in August of 2024
32,800 miles on the odometer

------------------------------------

Incident

I went to go leave for lunch and as I was turning out of my parking space there was like a ratcheting sort of sound and it felt like the brake slammed on.

A warning message popped up and said drive mode not available. Another also said to put the vehicle in park. I did and then I got out to check to see if maybe I had hit/run over something.

I got back into the truck and I put it back into drive and the engine died. I put it back into park, restarted it and check engine light came on. I was able to back into my parking space and turned the truck off.

I then fired it back up, check engine light still on, and brought it to the Ford dealer right next door to my office.

When I dropped it off, they said the most important codes they saw were misfires (set last night), PCM codes, and a brake switch code.

The two PCM codes that got set today:

P068A - ECM/PCM power relay de-energized performance - too early (this is the code that set the CEL)

P2610 - ECM/PCM engine off timer performance

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Backstory to this, in case it's relevant:

Notably, I had misfires in November of 2024 that were audible while driving down the highway. They only lasted a minute or two. Dealer couldn't reproduce it and so we chalked it up to bad gas (I had just visited a cheap gas station the night before when I was in the middle of nowhere).

The dealer told me that they can see the misfire codes logged but unless they witness it misfiring, there is nothing they can do.

I never again heard any misfires, but I do see the codes pop up every few thousand miles in the vehicle history (always start up misfires; P0300, P0316, and one time P0302).

In December, the truck was parked for 8-9 days while traveling. 3/4 of the way through my trip, I got an alert that remote features were disabled due to low battery (this is called load shed). I got back and the infotainment told me the truck needed to be driven to charge the battery. I was able to drive with no issue.

Last Wednesday, January 14th, I went to leave work and the truck wouldn't start (didn't even attempt to crank). I got a boatload of warnings. I got out of my truck and tried to use remote start but it just honked at me in defiance.

After 3-4 more tries back in the truck, it fired right up. Interestingly, there was no load shed warning. This also caused it to throw 25 codes (mostly "lost connection" and "invalid data"). Battery SOC at time of errors was 69%.

I went home, put the battery tender on it, and got it charged up (didn't take long).

I brought it to the dealer the next morning (Thursday). They did an oil change, tire rotation, and inspected the battery and said it tested good. They suggested there might be some parasitic draw.

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Current Status

So, the truck is currently sitting at the dealer. They said it will likely be a few days, possibly even into early next week, before their electrical guy and front end guy can look at it. They did say they hoped to let me know about the CEL by the end of today, but considering I dropped it off at ~12:30, I'm not holding my breath.

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[superj]

oh no. that is the main thing i dread on new vehicles, electrical issues. i hope they find its something dumb like the battery is actually bad and it fixed everything

 

[ducktapeonmydesk]

oh no. that is the main thing i dread on new vehicles, electrical issues. i hope they find its something dumb like the battery is actually bad and it fixed everything

Here's hoping

I'll update the main post as a I find out more. That way, if people in the future have the same issue and come across it, it will give them some direction... hopefully.

 

[ADDGAMER]

I had a very similar scenario with my 24 (18K) FP tune, back in November. Was using it all morning, stopped for gas (crappier of the stations around me), went home for lunch then went back out. Made it 30 seconds down the street and is sounded like I dropped my driveshaft / ran over a chain link fence. Truck stumbled / bucked to a stop and died, every light on the dash went on. Couldn't even turn the truck off to turn off the lights. Checked it over but it wouldn't start. After about 5 minutes on the side of the road, it started, brought it back to the house. No codes from my code reader so I towed it to the dealership. If has the FP tune on it installed by the dealership I towed it to. I don't remember the code they found but it was so uncommon the tech said that he called in the code to corporate. The tech working on the truck was the same tech that loaded the tune, so he knew the truck. They cleared the code, saw no damage anywhere and the truck has been solid since. It's my weekend vehicle and I'm not nice to it, so the miles on it are somewhat harsh. Still a mystery

 

[stemplar]

I wonder how extensively they tested the battery. Dealers are usually pretty good at this, but sometimes are lazy and just check the voltage and if that’s ok they skip the load test. It might be worth asking just to be sure.

 

[embedded rock]

Using this post as a log of events.

2024 Ranger Raptor

Ordered in August of 2023, delivered to dealer in August of 2024
32,800 miles on the odometer

....

After 3-4 more tries back in the truck, it fired right up. Interestingly, there was no load shed warning. This also caused it to throw 25 codes (mostly "lost connection" and "invalid data"). Battery SOC at time of errors was 69%.

....

This sounds like a canbus connection problem. Also, suspect the battery and connections too.

 

[ducktapeonmydesk]

I had a very similar scenario with my 24 (18K) FP tune, back in November. Was using it all morning, stopped for gas (crappier of the stations around me), went home for lunch then went back out. Made it 30 seconds down the street and is sounded like I dropped my driveshaft / ran over a chain link fence. Truck stumbled / bucked to a stop and died, every light on the dash went on. Couldn't even turn the truck off to turn off the lights. Checked it over but it wouldn't start. After about 5 minutes on the side of the road, it started, brought it back to the house. No codes from my code reader so I towed it to the dealership. If has the FP tune on it installed by the dealership I towed it to. I don't remember the code they found but it was so uncommon the tech said that he called in the code to corporate. The tech working on the truck was the same tech that loaded the tune, so he knew the truck. They cleared the code, saw no damage anywhere and the truck has been solid since. It's my weekend vehicle and I'm not nice to it, so the miles on it are somewhat harsh. Still a mystery

Odd.
Mine is stock tune. My understanding is that the codes thrown are relatively uncommon

 

[ducktapeonmydesk]

I wonder how extensively they tested the battery. Dealers are usually pretty good at this, but sometimes are lazy and just check the voltage and if that’s ok they skip the load test. It might be worth asking just to be sure.

They said they put it on their big battery tester and gave me a CCA rating.

 

[ducktapeonmydesk]

Update: still nothing (of significance) yet. They completed the side curtain airbag shield recall while it was there. They looked at and cleared the codes. The foreman eventually looked at it and said he saw some codes that concerned him. I asked them to test the battery again since the truck had been sitting and the SOC was low. They tested it and said it came back good. It's now back in line for electrical diag. No movement on it yet.

Days in the shop: 10 (including the weekend)
Looks like I won't be getting it back any time soon

 

[mrmike7189]

That suks, making payments (I assume) on a $60K truck , that you cannot use for 10 days or more
I wonder if Bronco owners have the same issues ? since the Ranger and Bronco are built on the same assembly line and platform? Do they have same side airbags recall too?

 

[ducktapeonmydesk]

That suks, making payments (I assume) on a $60K truck , that you cannot use for 10 days or more
I wonder if Bronco owners have the same issues ? since the Ranger and Bronco are built on the same assembly line and platform? Do they have same side airbags recall too?

Still making payments, yessir.

I did a quick search for Bronco Raptors problems but didn't see anything similar.

I'm thinking it's either the PCM, BCM, a chassis harness, or a dying battery. Yes, I know their battery tester reads "good" but I've seen plenty read good that definitely aren't.

Edit: could also be a bad junction box...

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