Randomly, PATS cuts Cobra off while driving

[66Mustang]

About every third time I take my 03 Cobra out, the car will cutoff with the security light blinking at me while I'm driving (like 30 mins to hour into my drive). All I have to do is push the clutch in and restart and the car is fine. Do you think the keys have gone bad? PATS system failing? Would love to hear what people think. These is very dangerous while driving, obviously!

 

[Jerryk]

First chip I got on mine was a switch chip (before flash tuners). The wires leading to the switch would pick up interference and the car would shutoff, clipping the wires made the chip default to 1 program (program in the first bank only) and eliminated the problem. Do you have a switch chip for alternate tunes on the car?

 

[Bockfipher]

I just responded to the other PATS post, but I had the same issues as both of you with my PATS.

This probably won't help you much, but a few years ago I had an intermittent PATS problem and I eventually traced the issue to a bad connection in the Ford quick-connect under the battery. You might want to check all your factory connections and check your volts at the CCRM in the fenderwell as a start.

 

[66Mustang]

First chip I got on mine was a switch chip (before flash tuners). The wires leading to the switch would pick up interference and the car would shutoff, clipping the wires made the chip default to 1 program (program in the first bank only) and eliminated the problem. Do you have a switch chip for alternate tunes on the car?

Yes, I have 4 tunes (0, 1, 2 & 3 and I believe 5-7 are anti-theft). The tune on the #0 is the dyno tune, #1 Bad Gas, #2 is Day to Day, and #3 All Out - Race.

Do you think its worth going the flashed route vice keeping the chipped setup? If the chip is the problem is there any other way around the cutoff problem? Thanks for the help. -Chris

 

[Jerryk]

You can try..

1. Rerouting the dip switch and cord so that they take a different path to the ultimate destination, hopefully avoiding the interference that is causing the car to cut out,

2. Try wrapping the length of the wire leading from the CPU to the dip switch with aluminum foil and shield it from interference,

3. Cut off the wire (antennae) altogether, chip will default to position zero, you lose access to the other tunes

4. Try a different chip brand (my first chip did this, my current one does not, can't explain why I got lucky, I just did).. shop said they have seen the same results, couldn't explain it either..

5. Go to a flash tuner..

That's all I got.