Ford F-150 - 1997-2003 :: Truck Will Occasionally Flash Every Light On The Dash - Cranks But Will Not Start

I bought my 2003 F-150 XL (4.2L V6, 2WD, had 165k miles when purchased, 170k now, battery is a Napa brand manufactured in April 2012) in June 2012. A few weeks after I got it, I started having some weird issues. The check engine light came on and I went and had the codes read at Advance Auto. They were P0171 and P0174, lean bank one and lean bank two. The vacuum leak causing these codes isn't the issue I'm dealing with, it is the electrical problem.

The truck will occasionally flash every light on the dash (service engine soon, low fuel, oil, coolant temperature, seat belt, door ajar, and a couple others if I remember correctly) when I turn the key to power on the electronics. The first time I turn the key all the way to crank the truck up, it cranks fine, starts up, and dies within 3-4 seconds. The second time, it does the same thing. Third time, it just cranks and cranks, but will not start. After cranking and not starting a few times, the truck basically just clicks because the battery is run down.

This problem has happened randomly since June. It might be six weeks, one week, or only a few days between occurrences. The last two times it did it, I took the battery out of the truck, put it on a 6 amp charger overnight (about 8 hours), put it back in the truck, and it still wouldn't start, lights still flashing, etc. I gave it about 2-3 hours and both times the truck would start strongly and without incident, and the service engine soon light was off.

It rained here a LOT this summer, so I figured it might have something to do with driving through standing water at various speeds. The problem seems loosely associated with rainy weather (it rained last Saturday and I had to drive approximately 10-12 miles in it), but now it has started something new.

Yesterday afternoon, I tried to start the truck and it did the above described problem. I took the battery off and put it on a 10 amp charger for about six hours yesterday and left it disconnected overnight. Reconnected it this morning, gave it a couple of hours, still nothing. I remembered one time a while back that hitting the odometer reset button made the dash lights stop flashing. I held down the reset button and everything stayed lit up, but stopped flashing. Turned the key with the reset button held down and the truck started right up, but the dash kept flashing.

Turned it off, tried starting it without holding down the odometer reset, would crank, but not start. Tried starting it while holding down the odometer reset again, started right up. When I turned it off and tried it a third time, it just cranked for about six seconds before I gave up. This time, the oil, coolant temperature, battery, and service engine soon lights stayed lit (not flashing, they were solid) and the truck refused to start anymore.

Before it did the odometer reset BS I thought maybe I could figure it out because while it was a ghost of a problem that randomly came and went, it was always the same issue. Now I'm COMPLETELY lost.