Flashing CEL While Towing Uphill
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Flashing CEL While Towing Uphill
Vehicle: 2009 F250 SD 4x4 Crew Cab 5.4L
Took my 5th wheel out last week and noticed while I was making a sustained climb over a steep grade that my CEL started flashing. Once the grade leveled out the CEL turned off and remained off for the rest of the trip. Other than the flashing CEL, I had no problems, the truck drove great.
Just got back from another weekend trip and when coming up on the same climb I was watching the dash and noticed the flashing CEL while climbing the hill again. The stretch of mountains I'm driving through has several medium grade inclines but only one is very long in length. The hill I was encountering the flashing CEL on is probably the longest lasting incline of the trip (I would say it is approximately 3-4 miles completely uphill before the grade levels out). Again, as soon as I leveled out, the CEL stopped flashing and went off (the CEL never remained on constantly so I couldn't pull any DTC's from it). Again, aside from the flashing CEL, the truck drove great.
Did some googling and found a few results linking the flashing Ford CEL to a potentially bad catalytic converter problem. Do you guys think this is the problem? And is this something Ford can fix under warranty?
I ask because I had a problem earlier that I thought was a cracked exhaust manifold, but it turned out to be a bad Y-Pipe weld from the installers of my exhaust system. Because this was not a Ford warranty issue, the dealership charged me approximately 125 bucks for the diagnosis, and then I had to take it in to the muffler shop to get it fixed. If it is the cat and thats something Ford won't do under warranty I'd just take it straight to the exhaust shop and get it fixed without the 125.00 diagnostic charge from Ford.....
Any ideas??
Took my 5th wheel out last week and noticed while I was making a sustained climb over a steep grade that my CEL started flashing. Once the grade leveled out the CEL turned off and remained off for the rest of the trip. Other than the flashing CEL, I had no problems, the truck drove great.
Just got back from another weekend trip and when coming up on the same climb I was watching the dash and noticed the flashing CEL while climbing the hill again. The stretch of mountains I'm driving through has several medium grade inclines but only one is very long in length. The hill I was encountering the flashing CEL on is probably the longest lasting incline of the trip (I would say it is approximately 3-4 miles completely uphill before the grade levels out). Again, as soon as I leveled out, the CEL stopped flashing and went off (the CEL never remained on constantly so I couldn't pull any DTC's from it). Again, aside from the flashing CEL, the truck drove great.
Did some googling and found a few results linking the flashing Ford CEL to a potentially bad catalytic converter problem. Do you guys think this is the problem? And is this something Ford can fix under warranty?
I ask because I had a problem earlier that I thought was a cracked exhaust manifold, but it turned out to be a bad Y-Pipe weld from the installers of my exhaust system. Because this was not a Ford warranty issue, the dealership charged me approximately 125 bucks for the diagnosis, and then I had to take it in to the muffler shop to get it fixed. If it is the cat and thats something Ford won't do under warranty I'd just take it straight to the exhaust shop and get it fixed without the 125.00 diagnostic charge from Ford.....
Any ideas??
