Help needed 2015 Forester 3171 dead (anti theft activated)

[Spleenstomper]

My friends were doing their first camp out with their brand new Forester By Forest River 3171 class C and they took it to a RV resort and a soccer tournament.

Everything was going great until they went to start the RV at the soccer tournament to go back to the RV park and the Forester is dead. Won't start. This was sat or Sunday so they couldn't get an customer service and so they had to wind up leaving the Forester at the soccer field and hitch rides home (an hour away) with various team members. The RV is stittng on the soccer field. It gave them a code and the code is the anti-theft code. They had a mechanic with them and he did things like unhook the battery for ten minutes, etc. Nope. Won't start for anti theft,

The dealership has been more than unhelpful stating the anti theft problem is a FORD issue and directed her to the local ford dealership for advice. serioulsy, there couldn't be a less involved dealership about this.

So my friend, a very petite woman is driving by herself as I am typing to The soccer fields to be sure it wasn't vandalized and then is going to a ford dealership that has nothing to do with anything to try and troubleshoot the problem.

Anyone have any serious tips or ideas to get this thing started?????

ETA: she texted me a photo of the key and it clearly is a valet key. Dealership gave them only a valet key.

Thanks!!!

[j-d]

The saga continues. Thanks for the update.

[Spleenstomper]

As an update, the PCM was replaced by Ford and then the dealership got it back to fix the satellite (installed wrong one-- supposed to be in motion satellite).

They haven't camped in it yet to see if it works. I'm not sure they have it back yet.

[Spleenstomper]

PUCampin wrote:
If the chassis is non-PATS and keys are not chipped.... Random thought.... Dealer installed alarm? All my Fords have come with one of those dealer installed KARR alarm type systems. If you don't want it, they just "deactivate" it, but it is still there, and can cause problems. I was doing some electrical repair to my 2001 focus, which had one installed way back when but never used, and after 12 years it activated. I could not start the car, and had no way to do anything with the system. I had to completely remove the KARR module and reconnect the start relay wire. Not too difficult but very anoying. There was one on my old 95 Ranger that did something similar. Now the one on our 07 Expy is malfunctioning. I hate these things. This is not likely your problem, but what the heck 🙂

I'll relay this to them, as you said what the heck.... Thanks.

[Spleenstomper]

jdog wrote:

navegator wrote:
They normally disconnect the drive shatf at the diferential and wire tie it to the frame.

navegator

Hope they did.

They did.

[Spleenstomper]

They have no answers yet.

So far the dealership has identified the PCM was damaged; my friends told them to also check the battery isolator.

That's all we have so far. My friends are super frustrated, as you can imagine.

[mlts22]

PUCampin wrote:
If the chassis is non-PATS and keys are not chipped.... Random thought.... Dealer installed alarm? All my Fords have come with one of those dealer installed KARR alarm type systems. If you don't want it, they just "deactivate" it, but it is still there, and can cause problems. I was doing some electrical repair to my 2001 focus, which had one installed way back when but never used, and after 12 years it activated. I could not start the car, and had no way to do anything with the system. I had to completely remove the KARR module and reconnect the start relay wire. Not too difficult but very anoying. There was one on my old 95 Ranger that did something similar. Now the one on our 07 Expy is malfunctioning. I hate these things. This is not likely your problem, but what the heck 🙂

I never thought of that, but some dealers will do exactly like the above, and slice wires almost willy nilly to install one of these type of systems, as a second method for theft prevention. For them, it works well, as it keeps the vehicles on the car lot. However, these can cause nasty problems if the wires are not soldered/crimped right. A bad alarm system install can make a vehicle undrivable, and take as much money to fix as a blown engine.

[carringb]

jdog wrote:

navegator wrote:
They normally disconnect the drive shatf at the diferential and wire tie it to the frame.

navegator

Hope they did.

I disagree. For a trip within fords specifications, removing the driveline just means the potential for clock it wrong upon reassembly (or even damaging it) which can cause vibration.

[jdog]

Spleenstomper wrote:
It was only a few miles from the soccer field to the Ford dealership.

Too many bad things going on.

[jdog]

navegator wrote:
They normally disconnect the drive shatf at the diferential and wire tie it to the frame.

navegator

Hope they did.

[Spleenstomper]

It was only a few miles from the soccer field to the Ford dealership.

[carringb]

navegator wrote:
They normally disconnect the drive shatf at the diferential and wire tie it to the frame.

navegator

Ford does approve of limited towing in Neutral. I believe it's 50 MPH up to 35 miles. But yeah dropping the driveline is best for freeway or long distance tows.

[PUCampin]

If the chassis is non-PATS and keys are not chipped.... Random thought.... Dealer installed alarm? All my Fords have come with one of those dealer installed KARR alarm type systems. If you don't want it, they just "deactivate" it, but it is still there, and can cause problems. I was doing some electrical repair to my 2001 focus, which had one installed way back when but never used, and after 12 years it activated. I could not start the car, and had no way to do anything with the system. I had to completely remove the KARR module and reconnect the start relay wire. Not too difficult but very anoying. There was one on my old 95 Ranger that did something similar. Now the one on our 07 Expy is malfunctioning. I hate these things. This is not likely your problem, but what the heck 🙂

[johnwalkerpa1]

Spleenstomper wrote:
Wow about the computer failing.

She is at the Ford dealership and they have verified this is not a chipped key. (Didn't look like one)

So looks like we are back to a key problem.

I was wondering about that...I have a 2015 Forest River Sunseeker on a 2014 E450 chassis. The keys are NOT chipped on mine. I have spare copies I had made at Wal-Mart that work fine.

[jonthebru]

That is one beautiful RV. I hope everything works out well. When you buy a new vehicle you get two, maybe three keys. Lets hope the RV dealer says oops, here are the rest of the keys and they work.