How to assess when clearing codes

[RedwoodRyan]

Four months / 3.7k miles with a ‘24 501a PB, I purchased an OBDLinkMX+ to gain better insight to what’s going on with the truck. OEM battery didn’t last, bought a Napa, almost all gremlins went away. But I see some codes are throwing. The keypad for example doesn’t work and makes sense I see a code. Screenshot of codes below.

How do you guys assess when it’s OK to clear the codes yourself vs bring to dealership?

I don’t want to waste a day or more with a dealer for a simple DIY fix. But I also don’t want to open a can of worms that Ford dumps on me. This is the first time I’ve considered doing this with a car. I work in tech (not a SWE) and generally can understand software and technical topics.

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[SilverPigeon]

Well, I clear DTCs both before and after a diagnostic or configuration session with FORScan, and also before taking the truck for service. If any DTCs are still present at either time, I look into the issue and see if I can rectify it. If not, I bring it to the dealer's attention.

- A DTC which is not present at the time of request should clear.
- A DTC which is maturing at time of request is either on its way to becoming a hard set DTC if the problem still exists, or, if the problem has gone away, the maturing DTC will eventually clear itself.
- A DTC which is present at the time of the request is a hard set DTC which needs investigation.

 

[Gros Ventre]

I carry a code reader. When the DTC light comes on I read and look up the codes. I then clear them. If its serious it'll come back. Recently I noted a set of codes pop up (& the truck went into Limp Home mode) after a very short but rugged drive over a washboard. After clearing codes and restarting the engine twice all was well and I drove on down the road. No recurrence of those codes. What happened? Something jiggled and briefly open circuited a circuit or two or three... At the end of the day without the code reader I'd have been in limp home until the dealer could get his hands on it. My take? carry a code reader, read out and interpret the codes, and decide on what to do from there.

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