New to the forum and need some help with '02

[Wescrain]

Hello all I bought a 2002 Ford Explorer recently for 400 dollars it had a few issues I knew about but I figured it was worth the risk for the price. Right now I'm afraid I'm dealing with an unfortunately frustrating problem in hoping for some help and expertise on. I tried posting this in the Explorer 911 section but it says I can't post there yet. When I bought the car it had to be started by the guy selling it by touching a screwdriver to the starter while the key was in the ignition. After which it would start and run. He told me it needed a new ignition switch and that was all that was wrong. So I bought a new ignition switch and sure enough it still wouldn't crank unless I touched the starter. Also the power doors didn't work at all and while he was the legal titled owner the original owner had never given him the keypad combo for the door. I came on this forum, excellent advice, and read probably every won't crank won't start thread including the one that goes step by step through the issues and I'm afraid none of the steps fixed it. So while I was frustrated about the ignition I decided to back off and work on the automatic doors. Once again thanks to this forum I found where the central security module was on my vehicle and got the factory code for the doors. My neighbor hit the unlock button while those panels were off and now I can here that module click once whenever the unlock or lock buttons are hit but nothing locks, the alarm still arms and can be set off and the lights inside the vehicle still turn off if I hit the last two buttons on the keypad. I started wondering if the two problems could be connected and decided to reach out to y'all who have helped so much already for ideas. I forgot to mention while the key is in the ignition the theft light stays off. Any help would be great I'm running out of ideas

 

[Paulyy___g]

Sounds like a PATS issue

 

[Wescrain]

Sounds like a PATS issue

I felt the same way but from what I see on the forum of it was a PATS issue I should have a flashing light and light the engine shouldn't turn over or run if I bump the starter right?

 

[Paulyy___g]

I felt the same way but from what I see on the forum of it was a PATS issue I should have a flashing light and light the engine shouldn't turn over or run if I bump the starter right?

Yeah your right, sorry kinda skimmed thru reading your OP. Ive never come across your problem, least not yet, so myy advice is to just keep reading, searching diff keywords. Good luck

 

[Wescrain]

Thanks anyway for offering the help do you know how I can move this to a more appropriate section of the forum... also an update I bought a key remote on amazon went through the sync process and it synced fine it can activate the alarm and try to unlock and lock the doors but all that happens is the click at the ECM so if my PATS was acting up would it let me sync a new lock remote

 

[07gtman]

did you check the starter relay..this is relay #12 under the hood on the drivers side behind the battery... and check out my post key fob issues