Help, I don’t want to have to get rid of!

[caseymalynn]

I have an 18 Expedition Max Utility. In colder temps as in under 30 degrees it does not want to start. Stiff brake pedal will not allow you to press all the way down to turn over engine, but will turn on battery. Once the dash comes on, it then displays all the lights on the dash going through every function, as seen in video.
Now if you give it an hour or so to warm up after trying to start it, it will start up without a problem. And I’m talking about 2-4 degree difference and it will start.
It has been sitting at the shop for the last 5 weeks waiting for it to not start so they can run a scan on it while not starting to see what codes it throws but it has started every time! While there they did remove the PCM module and throw it in the freeze for a few hours to see if that was the issue and it started right up once hooked back up. So any suggestions?
We have already changed out the battery twice with two different batteries, so battery is not problem.

 

[2020-MAX-Limited]

Stiff brake pedal will not allow you to press all the way down to turn over engine, but will turn on battery.

So, you're saying you press the hard brake pedal and press the power button, but all you get is battery on, not crank? As if you pressed the power button without touching the brake pedal?

It has been sitting at the shop for the last 5 weeks waiting for it to not start so they can run a scan on it while not starting to see what codes it throws but it has started every time!

With the car at dealer, these suggestions will not do you any good, but: when you press the brake pedal, do you get the Green LED in the Power Button? This signals the car recognizes the key fob, the brake pedal is pressed and the car is ready to crank.

When you press the brake pedal, do the brake lights come on? This tells you if the brake pedal switch is working, signaling the car that the brake pedal is pressed?

 

[caseymalynn]

So, you're saying you press the hard brake pedal and press the power button, but all you get is battery on, not crank? As if you pressed the power button without touching the brake pedal?

With the car at dealer, these suggestions will not do you any good, but: when you press the brake pedal, do you get the Green LED in the Power Button? This signals the car recognizes the key fob, the brake pedal is pressed and the car is ready to crank.

When you press the brake pedal, do the brake lights come on? This tells you if the brake pedal switch is working, signaling the car that the brake pedal is pressed?

Yes, brake lights come on, as well as the green light on the start button. The brake pedal will not allow me to fully push down for the vehicle to start. Just turn the battery on

 

[LokiWolf]

Yes, brake lights come on, as well as the green light on the start button. The brake pedal will not allow me to fully push down for the vehicle to start. Just turn the battery on

Pedal doesn’t need to go down. If the lights are on, and the green light comes on, that is not your issue. If it throws codes, they don’t clear unless cleared, they just might not throw a CEL. You have another issue.

 

[LokiWolf]

After replacing the battery did you reset the BMS? If you hook up a scan tool, what is the voltage? Also, any codes if you scan it with a real scan tool that can use MSCan? The basic scan tool at Advance will not do that.

 

[caseymalynn]

Is has not thrown a single code.
The times it has not started I have been at home and no way to hook it up to a scanner to see what it’s coding. If it even is. It sat at the shop for 5 weeks trying to start it every day and it started every time. Assuming it did not get cold enough to have the issue again.

 

[Deadman]

It could be as simple as bad gas you bought somewhere....

 

[caseymalynn]

It could be as simple as bad gas you bought somewhere....

Wouldn’t that continue to be a problem while that fuel is in the vehicle? I have drove it since those cold days where it didn’t want to start up and put gas in it plenty of times since then.

 

[Deep8174]

Something’s off - in your photos other than the level of gas indicated, all other indicators show nothing which suggests a software issue or recently dead battery (esp. with the warning indications). If the shop can’t recreate the issue as you have mentioned they started it every time, it could be your car was left out in the cold for a while or something weird happened like a ecu reset. Just speculating. If you could post an update to this thread it’ll be good to learn what happened.

 

[caseymalynn]

I agree and understand what you are saying, but that’s why I’m asking here. Clearly there is some kind of communication issue with the vehicle which has us thinking it very much well may be a module, but after trying the PCM module we are not sure which one to go to next and really didn’t want to start sling $600+ at modules playing to guessing game if this is it. And heading into the warmer weather we are also concerned we may not see the issue again until next winter.