I have been dealing with black soot in the tailpipes for about the last 8k miles. First trip to dealership, they "checked" everything and could not find a problem. Said keep an eye on it and at next oil change if it's still black, we'll dig deeper. Well, took truck in Tuesday evening and dropped off for service work because I also experience a "shudder" some mornings when the engine is cold. They wanted it at night so they could check the shudder when the truck was cold which makes sense since it does not do it when the engine warms up. Got a call yesterday that they think they found the problem with the shudder and black soot - I have one bad injector. My question to you who know diesels is, could a bad injector cause both these problems?

Thanks for any input in advance.

 

I am no expert but if the injector is causing an over-fueling condition then it is likely that it is causing the extra soot production. How it gets past the DPF is the magic question.

The shudder happens under numerous conditions. Points to CAC problems, MAF, boost limit, overall engine limits under heavy load. The two conditions could easily be non related.

 

One bad injector would give you enough of a bad performance issue to be obvious(rough idle, poor performance, bad milage, ect. Im thinking you could have a cracked DPF which was a common problem that lead to the soot issue seen in the tail pipe.

Has the sudder always been there or does it shows itself more when the truck is loaded?

 

Just got truck back yesterday and they found 2 issues; 1) #3 injector was bad and was replaced, 2) DPF was cracked and was replaced. Great service from Courtesy Ford in Elizabeth City, NC.

Shudder only shower up going from 20mph to highway speed. Diagnostics showed #3 & #4 injector cutting out at highway speeds.

 

great that they got it fixed. Strange how you had both issues at the same time.

 

I agree, kind of unusual they both happened at the same time. Just glad my dealer took the time to make sure both problems got fixed correctly. I was without my truck for 10 days, but they gave me a loaner F-250 V10 so it was OK. I did notice upon getting my diesel back the difference in power between the two.

 

Is there any of us that has not heard a similar response from a service adviser? Or, it's "normal" to do that, sound like that, or look like that? I believe the hope is that the customer will give up and live with the issue. Anyway, glad they found your problem.

 

Well, to report back, I have put 1500 miles on the truck since the work was completed and exhaust pipes are completely clean, not black soot whatsoever. YEA! Also, shudder is gone and truck definately seems to have a little more power. Fuel mileage is a little better with the new injector, about .5 mpg better. So far, all is well.

 

great report!

 

not starnge at all that the injector would cause a dpf failer. The overload of the fuel can cause higher then expected temps and make that happen.