nickbuol Posted January 13, 2021 Share Posted January 13, 2021 (edited) Not even sure what to say about this, but it is a major problem. This has happened 3 times now. Once about a month ago, and I thought it was a fluke. Then it happened twice today about 2 hours between both instances. 2013 Ford Fusion Titanium with push button start and remote FOBs. Car is started normally sitting in the car, pressing the brake pedal, pressing the start button. Car is put into gear (forward or reverse) and start to drive. Car at an undetermined amount of time, but so far within the first 30-60 seconds of starting, will just shut off all electricity. Not just kill the engine, but everything on the dash or infotainment system turns off some times, but not all times. Then power will come back, and then off again, and then it will even start the engine itself, shut down again, sometime just start in "accessory" power mode (not full engine start), and off. Not only does it scare me that it is shutting off while driving, but if the key fob is in range, it actually seems to be able to start the engine. I took 3 videos of it happening. Videos 1 and 3 show more of what is happening. During the videos, I am just sitting in the car. Not touching the brake pedal, not pressing the start engine button, not doing anything with the key fob. I even took the battery out of the key fob, and it still does it, but at least can't start the engine. Thoughts on where to start? Battery is 2 years old. I checked for corrosion and connection tightness and that was good. Grabbed the voltmeter and am getting 14.3v when running and it is holding (no longer dropping) 11.9v after sitting overnight. That technically is a "dead battery" but it never has an issue starting or running anything when not having this problem. I was still able to start the car 2 days ago and let it run for about 3 minutes (while I tested the running voltage). Now it is reading 12.3v after sitting. So inconsistent... Yes, I tried two voltmeters. A newer one, and a really old one that I had, and they both read the same to the first decimal place (old one doesn't get more specific than that). Edited January 16, 2021 by nickbuol 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbf2530 Posted January 13, 2021 Share Posted January 13, 2021 Hi nickbuol. Internet diagnosis is a tough one, even with videos. However, I noticed: it seemed in the 3rd video that the engine would stop, then you could start the car again while it was in still in D, or it would start on its own while in D? But then it would stall out again? Blind Internet diagnosis of one possibility? The car should not start at all while it is in D. Only while in P or N. The fact the engine seemed capable of being started in D leads me to believe perhaps there is a problem with the gear position switch (TPS?) or neutral safety switch? Again, just a blind Internet guess. Perhaps one of our tech members will jump in with more expertise. Keep us updated and good luck. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickbuol Posted January 14, 2021 Author Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, bbf2530 said: Hi nickbuol. Internet diagnosis is a tough one, even with videos. However, I noticed: it seemed in the 3rd video that the engine would stop, then you could start the car again while it was in still in D, or it would start on its own while in D? But then it would stall out again? Blind Internet diagnosis of one possibility? The car should not start at all while it is in D. Only while in P or N. The fact the engine seemed capable of being started in D leads me to believe perhaps there is a problem with the gear position switch (TPS?) or neutral safety switch? Again, just a blind Internet guess. Perhaps one of our tech members will jump in with more expertise. Keep us updated and good luck. Yeah, in the 3rd video, if you listen closely, you can hear me shifting to park, start the engine, quickly shifting to Drive, and then if shuts down and tells me that the Transmission is not in park. I got about 3/4 of the way into the garage up until this point and our garage slopes outward slightly. I was trying to drive it in the rest of the way and document the odd behavior vs. putting it in Neutral and pushing it in. Every time the engine started in the 3rd video, it was in Park and I was pushing the button to start it. Yeah, internet diagnostic is tough for sure. I appreciate you taking the time to look and respond. Edited January 14, 2021 by nickbuol 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbf2530 Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 hour ago, nickbuol said: Yeah, in the 3rd video, if you listen closely, you can hear me shifting to park, start the engine, quickly shifting to Drive, and then if shuts down and tells me that the Transmission is not in park. I got about 3/4 of the way into the garage up until this point and our garage slopes outward slightly. I was trying to drive it in the rest of the way and document the odd behavior vs. putting it in Neutral and pushing it in. Every time the engine started in the 3rd video, it was in Park and I was pushing the button to start it. Yeah, internet diagnostic is tough for sure. I appreciate you taking the time to look and respond. Hi nickbuol. I was not listening close enough, only went by what I was able to see. Okay, sorry it was of no help. Again, hopefully one of our tech members will jump in with more expertise. Good luck. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickbuol Posted January 14, 2021 Author Share Posted January 14, 2021 No worries. I should have explained better. Thanks for your input. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickbuol Posted January 16, 2021 Author Share Posted January 16, 2021 (edited) UPDATE: I updated my battery statement in the original post. It seemed to be holding good voltage after a couple of hours, but overnight was below 12V, then just now (still sitting and not running outside of one test start for 3 minutes 2 days ago) it is at 12.3V. So I updated that. Ordered a parasitic drain "test cable" (yes, I could have built one myself, but haven't had time). Not saying that is it, but I did have an older 2006 Ford Fusion (my daughter's car) have issues with the airbag light, and a few other things and it ended up being that there was just not quite enough battery power when the system started, but enough to turn over the engine (odd, I know), and I did the old fashion method of charge the battery, pull half the fuses, check voltage the next day. If the voltage kept dropping, pull the next half of the fuses and try again. Continuing until you no longer get an overnight drop. If the voltage stopped dropping after it settled from charging, then one of the fused you pulled is for a system that is causing the drain. Put half back in and try again until it starts draining again... Then check one by one the fuses that went back in when it started draining again.... When I did that on the 2006 fusion, I found that there was an issue with the trunk light staying on when closed. Short term "fix" was to remove the trunk battery. Problem went away, and honestly I never looked for a long-term fix since that worked and my daughter didn't care. Takes a while to do this though, so I got the cable instead. Showed up today. Going to see if there is a drain on the battery. *IF* I can get the car running enough, I am also going to have the battery tested, but I am not 100% convinced with battery tests from Advance Auto or O'Reilly's... Had on 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix. Battery was 4 years old. Tested good at Advance, and bad at O'Reilly's. Couldn't sort out an electrical issue there either, so I replaced the battery and the problem was fixed. Anyone have any other thoughts or ideas while I try this out? Edited January 16, 2021 by nickbuol 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickbuol Posted January 16, 2021 Author Share Posted January 16, 2021 I completed the parasitic test and no unusual draw after watching the meter for about 10 solid minutes. Still stumped. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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