I only rarely tow anything. But a couple weeks ago, I was towing a trailer with a small tractor, total weight about 5000#. In cruise control, tow/haul mode, at about 65 mph, when going up a hill, as the truck began to "feel" the load it would start making a strange noise. The best I can describe it would be a raspy cough (ever hear a dog cough when he had something in his throat?). The "coughs" were short and at a regular interval of about 1 per second or so and I could feel the truck hesitate on each cough. I could ease off the throttle and it would quit. Of if the truck downshifted it would quit. I took it in after that for the E15 whatever recall hoping that would fix it. But it did not. I told them what it was doing, but I doubt they even checked it. Did it again this weekend. Now I need to take it back as the warranty is about to expire. Has anyone else had a similar problem?

 

I did not see what truck you have, but sounds exactly like one of my problems. It happens at approx. 1700 rpms, just coincidence the truck is going about 65 mph at the time. My truck in the last year has been in half dozen times, always fixed, until I tackle one of the passes, even empty, and the problem is back. I just about got killed by it last year, when it started its snorting on icy roads.

FYI
ford engineers flew out here, installed monitors in my truck and drove it over the pass several times gathering data and told me they would get back to me with a fix. That was 16 months ago. Still not fixed. Ford claimed they had a lot of complaints with 05 6.0 doing this, but could never duplicate the problem. they were exstatic when I could reproduce the problem at will.

 

I woud gather that the cough is the truck dumping the boost. Happens under a load sometimes when the truck is low in the rpm/gear/converter not locked.

 

I had/have the same problem. Not sure actually if I still have it or not as I haven't towed anything since the recall. I was hoping that the recall would fix this as well. Did they replace your EGP/R sensor when you had the recall done? Along with this, a similar, I thought related symptom was that my truck would occasionally, when coming off a coast or accelerating from a stop...at about 1300 RPMs, my truck would sort of choke and blow out a big cloud of smoke from the exhaust...then it would be ok for 30 seconds...repeat... When it did this...the Check Engine light was always on. Since the recall, the later symptom is gone...but I don't know about the other as I haven't towed my trailer since. They did replace my sensor...and that helped the problem after coasting.

I have an 04 F350 6.0 PSD.

Also, had the EDGE Juice with Attitude installed prior to the recall, reflash and sensor swap. I have not re-installed it yet. Do you have any add on modules like this or tuner installed? Not sure, but they may be related too.

 

I have the same problem as you guys. I cannot believe that a truck as good otherwise, and as expensive, as my 04 F-350 would have an annoying problem such as this. And what really gets me, is that, this problem is considered normal for the 6.0L diesel. I also tow a number of times each year, so I get to hear it more frequently. Also, this problem only began once I had about 20,000 miles on the engine.

Has anyone found a dealer who has fixed the problem? If so, what did they do?

Do other diesels have this problem?, such as the Dodge, Chev????. Somehow I think it is unique to Ford, but I sure hope they come up with a fix, and soon.
-- JP

 

How is the truck dumping boost? There is not a way to do this, boost is controled via the vanes in the turbo.

 

Maybe I just don't understand your terms, but I don't believe it is "dumping boost". The truck is under load, It should be looking for all the boost it can make. On my truck the snorting was very violent. Recent fixes have made it better, but have not cured it. The last time I tackled the pass, around Christmass, I just missed putting the truck into the guardrail on icy roads due to the VIOLENCE.

 

jfralph - mine is an 04 F250 SD 6.0 Crew Cab FX4 with 35K miles. When it "coughs" there is a noticeable hesitation, but nothing excessive as to be called violent. Just a momentary dip in power at each "cough".

 

I have the same "problem" occurring with my 05 F250. First noticed it when towing ~ 7000 lbs up hill. Once the truck crests the top of the hill and the transmission shifts back into OD the cough happens. It sounds like wapapapa. I used to get the noise whenever towing and the transmission downshifted from OD to 4th gear. That was corrected with one of the later flashes. Had it back to dealer several times, with monitors and transmission experts driving along. I am able to duplicate the problem without towing. Get into it and quickly let off the accelerator and you will also hear the same coughing wapapapa, sounds like it is coming from the front left wheel. 4 or 5 months ago there was a thread discussing the same noise. Someone even had a short movie clip of the noise. Lot of other opinions were that this noise is what is known as "Turbo Fart". Dealer couldn't explain what caused the noise, just said it was "normal".

 

it's called a turbo fart. in my case on my 06, the vanes decide to stick where ever they want, the turbo will overspool(not normal), and the air pressure at the outlet of the turbo is too much for it to keep pushing, so it momentarily goes backwards through the turbo and out the intake. chuffa chuffa chuffa or WA PA PA PA are two ways i could describe it. it's not right, although ford says it is. they band-aided our problem on our '04 by replacing the turbo TWICE on the THIRD engine, because they didnt want to go into detail with repairing it. swap in a new turbo, its good until it carbons up again.

 

My truck does that too... only in overdrive usually up a slight grade at about 60 to 65 mph with or without a load. Did it stock and with a programmer, only fix for me is to immediately downshift and it stops. Usually scares the tar out of me though because it always goes long enough between doing it that I forget about it. I've never taken it to the dealer because those sort of problems are usually a waste of time to take to the dealer. All they do is write "Could not duplicate problem" on the invoice and give it back to me.

 

This is really frustrating, so many customer complaints, so little action by Ford to correct this issue. I spoke with some owners of GM diesels and they do not have this problem. So what's up with Ford???

Tim, is there a way this Forum can pressure Ford to seriously act to rectify this problem???
-- Jim P

 

Could it be your over running the turbo? Pulling it down so much it can't keep up.
Try holding it in a lower gear (manually if need be) and see if it does it.
Keep the rpm's up till you crest the hill and are pulling on level or down hill grade then shift to higher gear.

 

I have a 05 F250 with the same problem, it makes the noise any time that you get enough speed to shift into high gear, and if you are going along and have to back off the accelerator real quick.
The other problem is starting off with a load while turning in front of traffic, it doesn't have any power at all till you build up some speed. This thing will get you run over fast.

 

I have a F250 and had a 4 inch banks exhust put on when it ias new . I have never experianced this problem. I wonder if the exhaust size has an effect?