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Bobbo's avatar
Bobbo
Explorer III
Jun 16, 2014

Bizarre problem, opinions welcome

I have a 2007 Winnebago Outlook on a 2006 Ford E450 chassis with the Triton V-10 engine.

Today, I was driving north on I-81 about 30 miles south of Roanoke, VA when I had a really BIZARRE problem.

I had the cruise control set at 60mph and was cruising along, when all of a sudden, the power steering cut out, all of the dash lights came on, the tach dropped to zero, and the power brakes failed!

I coasted to the shoulder of the road and stopped. I looked more closely at the dash, and all of the lights were still on. The place where the odometer usually is said "CHECK GAUGES." I looked at the gauges, and the oil pressure gauge was at zero, but the engine had been off for about 3 minutes then. The fuel gauge showed about 3/8 of a tank, the tach and speedometer both read zero. The engine temp gauge was right in the middle where it should be, and I don't recall where the alternator gauge was. I have a Scangauge II that read an engine temp of 198 and a transmission temp of 190.

I got out of the MH and raised the hood. The serpentine belt was fine, the oil level was fine, and the radiator reservoir was full.

I got back in the MH and used the Scangauge II to check for engine codes, but there were no codes, nor pending codes.

I then re-started the engine. It cranked right up and ran like a sewing machine. I drove the rest of the way to Charlottesville, VA without any more problems.

I thought maybe the key had turned off, like chevys do, but the dash lights would have gone out if that had happened, and they never did.

I don't have a clue what happened.

17 Replies

  • I hated to see what was happening when computers started running our motor vehicles for us, rather than electro-mechanical systems. As it was happening, I was already in the business of developing control programs for real-time industrial process control, understood the quantum leap in complexity for control of engine, transmission of a consumer motor vehicle, particularly when conformance to government regulations was taking precedence over performance and cost effectiveness for the consumer.

    Still, we gained 20-40% on fuel economy, huge increases in service intervals (100,000 mile tuneups?) paying in turn the cost of input sensor failures, programming bugs, and failure of software developers to foresee and program around every possible real world situation.

    Welcome to the world of high tech. You don't have a clue as to what happened. Likely, the team that programmed your engine control systems also don't have a clue as to what happened, and did not program for that scenario, whatever it was.

    Just wait to see what happens when robot systems start replacing humans as vehicle operators. Software complexity and reliability are inversely related, which is why the Apollo and shuttle programs got redundant but extremely simple systems when much more complex computers were already available and arguably cheaper.
  • Something malfunctioned and caused the engine to stall. Sometimes a generic code reader won't pull codes that the OEM scan tool can. I would have the Ford dealer scan for codes.

    Your power steering and power brakes run off the power steering pump. With the engine dead, you will loose both.
  • Possibly a mother board issue. It's amazing how many of them are in vehicles nowadays. I had one go out on my Durango - my headlights, power windows, power door locks all went out - all my other lights were fine. I replaced that and my remote control no longer works - it has it's very own board that went bad and they want $600 to replace it. Thanks, I'll use the key.

    Even though it's working now, I would get it fully checked out.
  • mobilefleet wrote:
    Momentary failure of crankshaft sensor


    We flat lost ours on the 99 F250 V10 and didn't lose brakes.

    I'd guess a power glitch also
  • I would look for corrosion on the battery connections and all the ground points around the engine compartment. This includes those bolts that thread into the body that have wires hanging off them. Unscrew them and turn them in and out a few times before re-tightening.

    I say all this because the exact thing sometimes happens to Dodge trucks and this is the cause.

    Good luck,
    Scott