Hello All!
I have a 2011 F-250 with 112k miles.

On 11/25/2016 at approximately 110k miles: my truck was 100% stock. I was about a half hour into a 3 hour drive and I got a Check Engine Light. I stopped to get some food and my truck was idling for about 10 minutes when the light came on. My code reader said it was for P0278 "Cylinder 6 Contribution/Balance". I cleared the code, restarted the truck and drove away.. I drove about another 5 minutes until I started hearing a real bad air leak and the truck just didn't feel like it was driving right. Check engine light never came back on, but it just didn't feel right so I towed it home.
The truck went to the dealer, they said they found the EGR Inlet Tube was cracked, and that explained the air leak sound I heard when I continued driving, and they said the truck was probably running rich from the lack of air and that set the P0278 code. They replaced the tube and everything was fine.

On 12/14/2016 with around 111,500 miles: upset that just one pipe breaking could take down the whole truck with no one having that part in stock to get me back on the road, I "deleted" my truck. Removed the DPF, installed "block-off" plates for the EGR (which goes in place of the EGR inlet tube), a Cold-Air Intake, and H&S MiniMaxx. (Exact parts can be found in my signature).

On 12/25/2016 with around 112,500 miles: I was getting ready for work and I started my truck using the Ford Factory Remote Start that was original equipment on the truck. The truck ran for about 10 minutes when I hopped in it and took off. As soon as I got in it, The Check Engine Light was on and I had a code for P0278 "Cylinder 6 Contribution/Balance". I erased the code and restarted the truck.. drove to work (around 50 miles) with no problems. Truck ran fine, I never felt any problems, and no smoke or anything like that.
10 hours later I'm getting ready to leave work and let the truck run on remote start for 10 minutes. I hop in the truck and drive away.. there's no check engine light, but, my tuner says there's two DTC's.. P0278 "Cylinder 6 Contribution/Balance" and now P0281 "Cylinder 7 Contribution/Balance"... I cleared the codes, restarted the truck, and drove home with no problems.

12/26/2016 I started the truck on remote start again for 10 minutes. No check engine light, but the tuner says there's one DTC for P0281 "Cylinder 7 Contribution/Balance". Cleared the code, restarted the truck, and drove to work with no problems. Got back in the truck after 12 hours, drove home and didn't get a DTC or Check Engine Light on the drive home.

12/27/2016: No DTC's or Check Engine light.

Anyone have any ideas of where I should start looking to fix this?

 

Maybe injector 7 going bad?

Maybe this will give you some ideas about the problem...

http://www.fordservicecontent.com/fo...DOBDSM1101.pdf

 

time for some injectors. It is telling you they need attention even though they are still performing.

 

I'm with Scott on this one... Injectors could be starting to go or are clogged up.

Maybe one of the techs could chime it to see if a good injector cleaning works or is worth it? Not even sure if you could do this on a diesel. My feeling is that this would be spending money for nothing.

Since I am adverse to spending a lot of money at first. Depending on your risk tolerance as this is something Ford doesn't recommend and assuming you can get it. You could try running a couple of tanks of B99. (Biodiesel). Ford only recommends up to B20 which is why I say it isn't Ford recommended. Biodiesel is a great cleaner. However, if you live in a cold climate area you probably can't get it and I wouldn't use B99 in the cold. It has a high CFPP/Cloud point.

 

First off, I'm sorry everyone. I didn't notice you all replied until I went back to this page today. For whatever reason I never got a email notifying me of the replies...


Well guys, when I posted this I cleared the DTC's.. nothing came on. Until tonight.. got P0272 for cylinder 4. Same scenario on this one.. started the truck with remote start (it was 47 degrees outside).. let it sit for 5 minutes, got in it.. no CEL, but pending code on my code reader for P0272.
What are the chances all the injectors are going out?

 

I'll try running injector cleaner through it and see if that helps.... sadly, I've never seen a gas station near me that offers B20, let alone B99... but I'll look around.

Any suggestions on a injector cleaner?

 

So I used FORScan to check the balance, here's videos of the data I saw.
Does this look right?

https://youtu.be/bxY1H4BR1YY
https://youtu.be/pNXUCh7SBdo
https://youtu.be/GK0yWUun4_k

This is the info I saw at idle, after old start (oil temp was 61 degrees):
Cyl 1 was around 1.5mg
Cyl 2 was around -0.2mg
Cyl 3 was around 1.3mg
Cyl 4 was around -1.5mg
Cyl 5 was around 1.5mg
Cyl 6 was around -1.6mg
Cyl 7 was around -1.7mg
Cyl 8 was around 0.7mg
(All the values consistently changed and stayed pretty consistent.. see the video)

 

Here's some better videos (I found a screen recording program.. should be easier to see)
This was after I drove the truck to work and it's sat for about 2.5 hours.

https://youtu.be/UyNRtS9KkjY (at idle)
https://youtu.be/x_CBzbon6PI (idle - graph version)
https://youtu.be/F3ioZmUnRuQ (Engine off, then started)

 

This was a recording of the data after the truck sat for around 8hrs. Unfortunately, my screen recorder died a couple seconds into it and I didn't notice... so it's really short.
https://youtu.be/XCwq97mig8Q
What the recording doesn't show: I saw Cylinder 7 dip down to -3 consistently for a few seconds, Cylinder 5 dipped up to +3 for about the same time.

 

So I've been driving the truck to work every day since the last time I got a DTC on 01/14.
I've put on about 1,500 miles since then and haven't gotten a DTC... until today. I got a DTC for Cylinder 4 Contribution/Balance. No Check Engine Light, just a DTC. Truck was running fine, I didn't feel or notice any problems.
I tried to pull up the DTC in FORScan, but it says no DTC's.. but my MiniMaxx is showing it's there.

Over the last 1,500 miles I've been adding the Motorcraft Diesel Fuel Additive.. and this last tank I tried the Hot Shot's Diesel Extreme additive.

So far over the last 3 months:
Two DTC's for Cylinder 7 Contribution/Balance, 1 set the CEL, 1 didn't.
Three DTC's for Cylinder 6 Contribution/Balance, 1 set the CEL, 2 didn't.
Two DTC's for Cylinder 4 Contribution/Balance, no CEL for both.

I'm at a total loss of what to do here..

 

Fuel Knock Type Noise at Idle Illuminated MIL with Multiple DTCs ? 2011-2016 Ford F-Super Duty | ford.oemdtc.com

I found this TSB, not sure if it's what's going on in my truck. I'm not exactly what a "Fuel Knock" sounds like, but I don't notice anything abnormal on how my truck sounds. Maybe it has it and I don't notice it?

 

Did you ever figure it out? I am getting the same codes.

 

Yes, I did. I found a TSB for this exact issue.. I had a friend of mine with a pretty expensive Snap-On computer to erase all the "adaptations" on the PCM.. I can't remember exactly what they were, but it was for the Injector Adptations, Crankshaft Position Sensor adaptations, and everything else.. basically everything the computer has learned over the last few years. Been several months now and I haven't had the CEL come back.

 

Fuel Knock Type Noise at Idle Illuminated MIL with Multiple DTCs ? 2011-2016 Ford F-Super Duty | ford.oemdtc.com

Check that. That's what I did.. it fixed it

 

thanks
today driving to work it was running rough and got a CEL
P0269, P0281, P0263, P0269.