Dashboard indicator light is a "wrench".

We had that wrench light on our 2005 V10 while pulling the 5th wheel. Only a couple miles from the dealer. Was told to bring it and they's look at it. No limp home mode. At the dealer's they checked and no codes, no issued they could find. Flashed the computer, wrench went away and never came back.

This is definitely good info to know.

Is the gummed up throttle plate caused by the same issue as what causes carbs to gum up (bad gas, gas stored for a long time, etc.)?

Thanks for setting me straight on that GDE. Admittedly not a Ford owner, but never guessed that they would have a light just for the electronic throttle control. My 8.1 is also drive-by-wire and there is no such little wrench light. I've also never had any issues with gummed up throttle plates and such.

Thanks for posting the details and OP would be wise to follow the info here from GDE.

BurbMan wrote:
The wrench has nothing to do with the electronic throttle body...it simply means that "service is required". If the wrench is lit, a code is stored, so you need to read the codes and find out what needs attention. Not any more complicated than that.

Absolutely WRONG for FORD.

Might work that way with your “BURB” but no dice on Ford.

You are talking about the SES or Service Engine Soon (AKA MIL, CEL) light which looks like a engine in which an emissions related fault happens and sets the light and a code which can be retrieved.

The OP is talking about a little Wrench Icon which has nothing to do with Emissions and from my own experience DOES NOT SET ANY CODES.

Before posting perhaps it would be wiser to LOOK UP AND READ the owners manual?

Here, I have looked it up FOR YOU..

PLEASE READ PAGE 13..

FORD OWNERS MANUAL

In case clicking on the manual link is too much work, I HAVE included SCREEN SHOTS of the PAGE I have referenced in the link above.





Let me repeat that the WRENCH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EMISSIONS AND DOES NOT SET ANY STORED CODES.

The WRENCH IS TO TELL YOU THE SYSTEM IS IN “FAIL SAFE” MODE OR “LIMP HOME” MODE.

Ford made this change with 5.4 engines around 2005 and up, I do not know when the V10s received this change.

But the fact that the OP HAS a WRENCH LIGHT they SHOULD have a drive by wire electronic throttle body.

The problem however is in HOW you TROUBLESHOOT this system VARIES from model year to model year.

In order to narrow down the troubleshooting having the exact year IS CRITICAL since some parts may or may not be there or locations may have changed from the various years.

It is also CRITICAL TO NOTE EXACTLY WHAT CONDITIONS AND SYMPTOMS YOU HAVE WHEN LIT.

I HAVE BEEN DOWN THIS ROAD, I HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS PERSONALLY.

The OP mentioned only 1,000 miles, on the OD, typically for MOST normal vehicles that is way too low of mileage to have this problem..

BUT with a Motor Home, that is a different story since many times the engine might be run for HOURS at a time WITHOUT MOVING THE VEHICLE just to CHARGE THE HOUSE BATTERIES (this ONE of the reasons I don’t recommend habitually using a big vehicle engine to recharge house batteries).

Typically when a WRENCH light is on, the system has detected a fault in the throttle body system. This fault is OFTEN A GUMMED UP THROTTLE PLATE, BUT there ARE other possibilities which can cause a fault which have nothing to do with the throttle body.

The throttle plate and inside bore of the throttle body get a sticky coat of oil varnish from the CRANKCASE VENTILATION SYSTEM which is PORTED INTO THE INTAKE MANIFOLD DIRECTLY UNDER THE THROTTLE BODY.

At power up (before engine start), the throttle plate is COMMANDED to open and then close, if plate fails to respond, move or go back to full closed position within a set time the WRENCH light is then lit. Once that happens the engine is put into limp mode which CAN also disable your gas pedal if fault is severe enough.

If you take this to a dealer, they won’t clean the throttle body, instead they will REPLACE the throttle body at a greater expense (my dealer didn’t have a clue about this light and a new fuel pump, filter, 8 plugs, one cat converter later we STILL had the WRENCH!).

Cleaning isn’t hard but getting to the throttle body is difficult since you have to remove the air filter housing on mine which also contains the MAF plus hoses and a bunch of hard to get to screws and bolts, not to mention on a truck the whole shooting match is up against the fire wall.. Layout may or may not be the same as mine so I can’t really advise fully on how to get the filter housing off to even look at the throttle body.

As I also alluded to there ARE OTHER possibilities that can turn on the Wrench light which may not have anything to do with the throttle body it’s self. A bad sensor on the accelerator pedal can cause this light as can a bad throttle body plate motor and many more possibilities..

That is why it is important to know the year of engine AND to note each and every symptom.. The OP NEEDS this info to narrow the search since these engines tend to have “improvements” made pretty much EVERY year of manufacture. These improvements mean that some parts and or locations were changed, this often results in a different way of troubleshooting for those changes.

Does the wrench light go out if you shut the engine down and restart?

Does wrench light come on immediately when you turn on the ignition without starting the engine?

These are specific trouble shooting questions/steps that will help narrow down the problem.

In my case, extreme cold winter temps, drive it a few miles and the wrench would blink.. Sometimes I noticed the engine idling extremely slow to the point of stalling when stopping or going from drive to park or reverse to park. Then eventually getting the wrench light with NO THROTTLE, you could floor the accelerator pedal and NOTHING, no rev above a slow idle..

Shutting down the engine and restarting it would clear the wrench light for a day or so in my case.

In my case it was a gummed up throttle body/plate at 80K miles.

This may or may not be the case for the OP. I don’t want to tell the OP to randomly throw parts at the problem which is often going to be the case if you don’t have some sort of understanding of this system.

By the way, I found out that the gummed up throttle body is NOT “exclusive” to Ford, it is a possible problem with EVERY DRIVE BY WIRE ELECTRONIC THROTTLE SYSTEM.

I am shocked that no "V10" owners have chimed in or had this issue :h I KNOW I am not the only 5.4 owner that ran into this crazy wrench..

The wrench has nothing to do with the electronic throttle body...it simply means that "service is required". If the wrench is lit, a code is stored, so you need to read the codes and find out what needs attention. Not any more complicated than that.

Rake wrote:
Thank you. Again, please tell me where to LOOK to determine the year the chassis was built.

Typically the you can determine the build date from the Ford OEM VIN number but keep in mind Ford is supplying what is known as a "incomplete" chassis. I am not sure if the Ford VIN is still in force or if the coach builder makes a new VIN..

If you have a Ford VIN, the VIN plate should be on the drivers side dash near the bottom of the windshield.

You can run the VIN through a decoder and be able to get the date..

Here is one decoder you can try..

FORD VIN DECODER

Here is another..

HERE

Here is a link for more info on VIN DECODING

HOW TO DECODE VIN

Thank you. Again, please tell me where to LOOK to determine the year the chassis was built.

Rake wrote:
To answer Home Skillet's question, it's a Ford 6.8 V10 with 362 HP. It has a TorqShift 5-speed automatic overdrive with Tow/Haul mode. If this isn't what you needed, please tell me where I can look to obtain more. Thanks.

Model year.

This will help pin down what version of V10 you have.

There have been many revisions among the model years and many of those changes have specific fixes..

5 speed may put you in the drive by wire, but I don't know for sure.

I do know that if you have drive by wire throttle then the wrench will lite and disable ALL throttle control IF the throttle plate is sticking or jammed..

I have delt with the wrench with a 2006 5.4 but the V10 and 5.4 didn't always have the same revisions in the same year. That is why it is important to know the model year of the engine/chassis (many motor home chassis are built and delivered to the builder can have a difference in the actual model year. Say your MH is listed as a 2006, the builder may have actually used a 2005 or even a 2004 vehicle chassis, many changes often happen between years.

There are others here that may be better help on the changes the V10 had through it's build so stay tuned.

Mean while as someone else noted, take your symptoms with the engine size AND the year of the engine and do a google search (better yet try DOGPILE search which will net you a wider search than google).

That is how I finally solved my issue with the wrench lite that my local Ford dealer could not (and THEY are supposedly "trained" on how to diagnose and repair these vehicles)..

googles rv and motor etc and the wrench lite ,see what pops up.

Here is what I would do considering the low miles. Disconnect the chassis battery either with the disconnect switch or by removing the negative battery cable for 10-15 minutes.

I had an ugly light on the Allison tranny on my maiden voyage. In the fall of '07. I killed the chassis battery for a period. Never had the light come back on till this very day. Also, got a Jeep that has had to have the cord cut a couple of times.

Gook luck and keep us posted. Do you and us a favor and put a description of your rig in the signature or profile.