2004 Car losing signal to key while driving | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models

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2004 Car losing signal to key while driving

P

PNW05

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Reaction score
9
Thunderbird Year
2005
Hi all,

Took the tbird in for diagnosis after experiencing random engine cut-offs, at both idle and on highway, hot and cold engine. No check engine light. It would run perfectly fine otherwise. Trusted indy mechanic told me I need to take it to the Ford dealer because the car is losing signal to the key while it's in the ignition. Specifically, he noted the ring around the ignition is the receiver, and it's losing the signal to the transponder in the key causing the engine to abruptly cut off. He stated it's not the key itself, recommends replacing the receiver, and if that doesn't work, might need a new/rebuilt ECM which manages this.

Anyone ever heard of this before? I can't find any related posts on tbird forums, hoping you can help.

Tim
2005 123k miles.

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Please add the model year of your car in the subject on future posts. I have added this for you. Thanks for posting.
 
PNWO5, yeah I had "similar" problem. Mine started out as the battery light coming on. Then it got to where sometime the car would start and sometime it won't. Car would crank just wouldn't start. Come back in 10 minutes and car would start. Then car went into "limp" mode in front of local Ford Dealer so I pulled in there and decided to let them look at it and work on it.

Told them about battery light coming on - mistake. They told me I needed a new battery and an alternator. They changed that nothing corrected itself. Then they tried to tell me it was fuel injection, then COPs, etc.. They were just wanting to replace parts. Their computer told them all that stuff went out at once. I finally got hold of service manager and told him I thought it was highly unlikely that all major components went out and at once, and ask that another mechanic look at it. He agreed that it was unlikely all those things went out at same time and I suggested he look at main CPU.

Well it was the ECM. They told me Ford quit making that module and they couldn't find one. I spent 5 minutes on internet at home and found one at another Ford dealer 3 states over. But yeah that was my problem. Reason car would not start sometimes was because ECM wasn't receiving signal that car was being started. I ended up with a new ECM and had to get new keys. All that other stuff they were wanting to replace was okay. Just a bad signal from ECM to ignition.

That was probably 4 or 5 years ago. I've got an 03 and back then they said Ford had already quit making ECM. You might have to spend time on internet looking at Ford dealers part sites and other part houses to find one. I found one at an O'Reillys too, it was cheaper but local Ford dealer only wanted to replace part with original Ford part.

Good luck
 
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