Okay, so I have had a CEL on and off periodically for a while. It always would do it maybe once per day and stay off for months. Today, it came on and off several times and the truck seems to be low on power. It also surges periodically but not every time the CEL is on. There is no smoke, no abnormal engine sounds, nothing. It is at the dealer right now as they were the only ones to be able to get it in in less than a week.

START RANT: A week! I like my diesel, but this whole "I'll need it for a week" thing is annoying. Also, I truly hate every Ford dealer I have visited. Not a one seems to care to get anything done quickly or with the customer's schedule in mind. The service writers are extremely unhelpful, like today when I told him that all I want is a diagnosis. I will not have the dealer repair the truck, he still wants it for the rest of the day and can make no guarantees that it will be done today. "It takes 2 hours to diagnose a diesel." Really? It should take no longer than any other car. I have tried multiple Ford dealerships and have had the same problem with every one. No other vehicle brand that I have ever owned have I had the amount of problems with a dealer than with Ford. When I had my Chevy, I took it right to the dealer and it was taken right back to the techs and was worked on right then. Same thing for my Honda and the wife's Mini. I have never been told by a dealer to leave it all day except Ford. They see "Power Stroke Diesel V8" on the door and see excuse after another to delay and charge serious $$$. Having a diesel doesn't make me stupid. END OF RANT.

What is wrong with my truck?

 

i used to wrench in a dealership a bunch of years ago, its how they stay in business. no one is buying cars now a days, so they have to find revenue somewhere. selling a focus fer $10 every other day wont pay the bills!
my folks took thier grand cherokee in for a 60k: $1200.00 fer an over glorified fluid change! they walked out of there.

i feel your pain

kurt

 

Well, first off fire all of the "service writers". Hire one person at a flat wage ~$10/hr to be the "customer service representative" to meet the customers, write down what the symptoms are and send it back to the techs to diagnose. That would streamline right there. They could work it like a supermarket, train all the "porters" how to take service orders and if the one "customer service rep" gets backed up, they call for help to get the line down. Like wise with the parts counter. Fire all those monkeys and get one person to fill orders. The parts department can be run with just a "Parts Manager" and one assistant. Again the "porters" can help out if the lines get long. Only one cashier is needed, as out of all the dealerships I have been to, only one, maybe two people need to checkout at the same time. There are easy ways to thin out the staff of dealerships if they are having problems with revenue. Payroll is the easiest controlled asset. Maybe these dealers need to bring in "efficiency experts".

 

Seems reasonable to me. Only certain mechanics will be qualified to work on the Power Strokes to begin with so you have to wait until one comes available. He/she will have to pull the codes and then road test to try and duplicate the symptoms. Unless the truck acts up at that very moment then it will be a little bit of a guessing game to pinpoint the issue. Keep in mind the code is just a clue and not a diagnosis.

You can diagnose yourself and take the dealership out of the equation...
Riffraff Diesel: AutoEnginuity Total Ford Enhanced Bundle

 

Ok, now that the site is back up..., the dealer is telling me that I need a new EOT (Engine Oil Temperature) sensor. They said that they hooked it up and first it was throwing two codes, one for the Charge Air sensor (I think) and the EOT. After that they reset it and only the EOT came back. Does that sound right? Would that sensor cause drive-ability issues? How would engine oil temperature make the truck run poorly?

This goes along with my rants above; the dealer wanted $530 (part and labor) for this repair. The sensor is $20. It is located on top of the engine. How does that justify $510 in labor costs. Every independent shop I called stated that this is a one hour of labor job. $510/hr? I want that job. No, I will just do it myself.

 

Engine oil temp tells PCM info, combined w the others for fuel and whatever. Its ez to change. If u don't have a scanner u can clear it by disconnecting the batt's for 5 min. Double check the connector- clean & dry. I will check what voltage or resistance u should have when warm.

 

I swapped out the EOT sensor and used that as an excuse to clean the engine and replace the air filter. It seems to run fine now, I haven't had any issues so far with the short driving I have done with it.