2012 Expedition won't crank, intermittent

Hello all, 2012 XLT 4wd - 71000 miles - 5.4, floor shifter, Ford extended warranty, battery 18 months old Motorcraft from dealer. Repair history: bought used 18 mo ago at dealer 51000 miles. 2 owners. Original owner custom ordered this truck and it has their name on a plaque on the sun visor! Spoke with both owners and have every service ticket from the dealers. Vehicle had daily driver usage by old country folks.

On purchase of vehicle Ford did $7000 worth of factory warranty repairs that took 6 weeks. I know cars, my dad was a Service Manager for Fords for 50 years. I inspected it closely. They dropped the engine and tranny to replace a head gasket, did the plugs and timing service while it was out. Replaced the rack and pinion and about half the suspension parts and bearings. Even the cruise control button on the steering wheel.

They didn't fix the bubbled up tail gate paint!

Has driven perfectly since then on many road trips and boat towing.

Then "no crank" while on a trip and its towed in to Tallahassee Ford by AAA. But once there it cranked. No codes. Battery passed a real diagnostic. Not an issue with the security key. Hmmm. Problem kept repeating, generally first time you attemped a start in the morning.

If I turned the key to "on" and put the shifter in Nuetral it would crank. In the old days I would say it was a bad nuetral safety switch but I dont know if this truck even has one. My guess is the floor shifter is fly by wire.

I cleaned all the battery terminal and chassis ground ends so they were like new. No fix. No codes or diagnostics show a problem even with the ignition switch.

The largest Ford dealer in KY works on it and replaces the starter saying Ford techs said there were reports of corosion coming in. That didn't fix it.

So has anyone run into this issue? Any ideas? It would be good to have feedback before the mechanics start throwing parts at it.

thanks!

-=john=-

Welcome to the site.

They now have a "digital transmission range selector switch" which can cause no starts. Unless you have a scan tool that will display the selected transmission range you won't be able to test its function easily. Not 100% sure, but I think it is buried inside the transmission. If it is easy to get to you may consider tossing a new one in.

I got to second Stamp here. The fact that it starts fine in neutral every time, rules out starter, ignition switch/electrical part, starter relays. If theirs a way to jump/bypass the transmission switch to be sure, but your leaning that way.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

2024. how I fixed this in 2018

Here is a known issue with series 3 Expeditions my Goodyear mechanic knew about from fixing so many. He says it's common on Jeeps too. I had repeated no crank issues..new battery, checked neutral safety, computer, ignition switch, no codes, new starter. Towed to several dealers even in different states. All under warranty or extended Ford warranty.

This may be related to states with salt on the road, which my state has. Or near the beach which I do in Florida too.
My non Ford mechanic says "It's the connector on the end of the hot cable where it hooks to the starter."

After months of this the Ford dealer shop goes over some sort of written notes on this..not a TSB....and replaces the entire wire. And at my insistence removes all crud and oxidation there and coats it all in Silicone dielectric grease.. Problem solved!!! It did not need a starter. A new end could have been put on the existing wire. Bozos. So many car repair people these days can only do what diagnostics tells them.

The grease should be reapplied as needed to protect from corrosion. At the battery end make sure those felts with grease are on the terminals.

Note my avatar is being towed for this problem,.