Occasional starting issue
 

I have an 09 gt/cs mustang that occasionally won't start. The fuel pump primes, all lights and battery are good, and the anti theft light turns off when in the crank position. This occurs about once a week and when it does happen there are no clicks and doesn't even try to crank over. Turning the key off and retrying a few times usually gets it to start up.

Couple notes - the anti theft has been acting a bit off. When locking and shutting the doors the lights don't flash like they usually would to indicate it was activated (this specific thing started 2 days ago and the starting issue has been 3 weeks since it first did it).

I don't have a spare key so I'm not able to simply use the spare to see if it is a chip error.

Off topic but, anyone know how to figure out which vent actuator is bad and clicking? (Thanks Ford for the poorly constructed actuators).

Any help/suggestion will be greatly appreciated,

Thank you.

Bad PATS sensor in the column, possibly. However, the lock/lights thing indicates more it's the SJB or the alarm module itself. Possibly a loose connection somewhere.

Anti-theft perimeter diagnosing: http://iihs.net/fsm/?d=408&f=Anti-Theft.pdf

Anti-theft PATS diagnosing: http://iihs.net/fsm/?d=412&f=Anti-Theft.pdf

---

The actuator: put your fingers on it while it's doing the noise, and you'll feel it. However, the actuator may have broken because the door is not happy, so you might want to remove the actuator(s) and ensure the doors move correctly before attaching a new one and breaking it as well. They're made to intentionally break if stressed beyond a certain limit, it's why the gears are made of plastic. Best to break them instead of the system itself... irritating as that is. So you wind up with stripped actuator gear teeth and not a broken blend door, which I'd say is a better overall situation, but that's just me...

So anyway, if the door in question is sticky, you might need to address that first is all I'm sayin'. It's probably just the actuator gears are old and brittle, like me some days. :p Problem is, I can't replace me... can I? :dunno:

Hope some of that helps! :nice:

And welcome to the forums! :wave:

Awesome, thank you! Lots of good info! Have watched countless videos and read forums and nowhere does anyone mention the actuators are designed to fail under that situation.

Was doing some troubleshooting this morning and I think the not start issue might actually be the ignition switch itself. Pushing the key in solid gets it starting every time. No pressure gives me the no start. Will do some checking on fuses and connectors for the anti theft system. Will update when I get around to it.

Thanks again!