Pats system faulty?

[electricgreendrock]

My 99 cobra was starting fine then one day I had to turn the key in and off about 5 or 6 times to get it to start then I get home and go to start the car to leave for work and the car does nothing at all. I try a few more times and notice that when the key is in the on position the theft light is blinking rapidly and when I turn it to the start position it stay solid. The car doesn't light up the dash or anything, the only light on is the theft light. I also tried locking the doors with my fob and it will lock then immediately unlock. Also I installed new headlights today and went to turn them on and the lights didn't come on. I can't find anything about the pats causing these symptons any help would be great even a starting point. I ordered an sct from am with tunes set to disable pats. Hopefully I'll still be able to use it even tho the car won't do anything.

 

[nxhappy]

first thing, test the battery and replace if necessary.

 

[electricgreendrock]

I havnt tested the battery yet but have had no signs of battery failure. I'll check the battery tomorrow tho to be sure.

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[nxhappy]

a weak battery will cause all sorts of crazy issues. Do that first.

 

[03Sssnake]

Do you have another key to try? Also check the steering wheel harness/pats transceiver...if you move the column a lot the wires could possibly be worn/torn.

 

[nxhappy]

also make sure all grounds are clean and tight

 

[electricgreendrock]

Unfortunately I only have one key I was wondering if it could be the column transponder ring. The weird part about the issue is that can find no other symptoms like mine out there. Everything I find is just the crank no start symptom. I'm wondering if the car will still be able to do the tune download through the sct even with it's current symptoms. Assuming that the battery checks out.

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[03Sssnake]

^^^^ I had a big PATS problem in my C5Z, finally said **** it and bypassed it with a resistor that was the same resistance as the pellet in my key, older GMs are easy. I also had to disable the column lock. The battery and grounds can definitely be a source of trouble. Before bypassing I did throw in a new red top optima and cleaned/checked the grounds. The problem did go away for quite sometime, till the car left me stranded at a gas station.

 

[03Sssnake]

Personally I would not mess with the tune till you sort it, though you could check for trouble codes with that SCT.

 

[electricgreendrock]

From my understanding the ford system used a frequency type system rather then the resistance type? If it does end up being the battery I'll still disable it so it's never an issue again.
How often do the actual pats componets go bad? Other then the freak wiring issues?

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[electricgreendrock]

Well the main reason in purchasing the tuner was to disable the pats system, the tuner should be here Monday since the world stops on Sundays....

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[03Sssnake]

Gotcha, try putting your instrument cluster in diagnostic mode, see if you see any DTCs stored etc.

Link:

http://www.mustangworld.com/ourpics/News/99hec.htm

 

[electricgreendrock]

Thank you for that link I bookmarked it. If for some reason when I attempt to enter the diag mode and it doesn't enter it would it be safe to assume the key sensor ring is messed up?

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[electricgreendrock]

Since the car may not realise the key is on?

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[03Sssnake]

Definitely a possibility

 

[electricgreendrock]

Well got it fixed thanks for all the help the battery did end up being bad which i guess is what caused the pats system to trip is the best I can tell what happened. I did still have to tune the pats out tho after installing the battery it acted like a normal pats issue and every time I retune the car I have to disconnect the battery after downloading the tune.

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