[kirch]

Wondering if anyone else has ever had the problem where their car is not starting from time to time, possibly due to an error between the Passive Anti Theft System (PATs) not recognizing the transponder in the key?

I recently had a dealership do a diagnostics on the vehicle and it showed an error code with the PATS, B1601, and with the transponder, B1602. The error codes were cleared and the car started okay when the car left the dealership however the car did not start again on two subsequent occasions. After waiting for a moment, the car eventually starts. When the car doesn't start, power to the lights come on, but the starter does not turn over.

Initially I thought the car may need a new starter or solenoid but the dealership doesn't think so. They said that maybe the two keys I have are conflicting with each other and this is preventing the vehicle from starting due to the error codes they were getting during the diagnostics. This is odd since the new key I had made was programmed off the original key. I bought the car recently and only had the one key so I had another one programmed and they both seem to work fine when starting the vehicle.

Does anyone have any ideas to rectify this problem? Is it possible to replace the PATs to get rid of this problem? If yes, is this expensive and would it have to be done at a Ford dealership or could I take it to a vendor that deals with PATs?

Other than the car not starting on occasion, I really like the car.

Looking for ideas.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[andrewjay84]

i really doubt its got anything to do with pats. you said when its not starting, that the vehicle doesnt even try to engage the starter. pats only allows the fuel system to turn on after it sees a correct rf code from an embeded chip in your key. if there was an issue with pats, your vehicle would still try to start, but it would just crank and crank and crank some more. if your vehicle isnt trying to engage the starter, i would definetly look into the solenoid or the wirng connections to the solenoid. it could be as simple as corroded connections at the battery or a bad ground.

 

[kirch]

Thanks for your ideas. The car is currently in transit so it will be a few days before I can get into another shop. Hopefully the car will get to where it's going.

I'll let you know what I find out.

Much appreciated.

Rob