First of all, Hello everyone as I am new the forum. I just recently purchased a 2011 F250 with the 6.7 which was built on 01/2011. I absolutely love the truck and all that it offers.

This is my first diesel so please dont beat me up if I ask a stupid question. Now, over the last month I've had it, I have noticed some odd behaviors with the truck. First, when taking off from a dead stop, it seems like there is little power on the take off until the speed and rpms get up a little and then off to the races we go. Now, I know this truck is heavy and getting it moving from a stop is a feat, I am just wondering if this is normal. I have thought about it and figured maybe it is the fact that at those low rpms on take off, the turbo has not spooled up enough yet to contribute enough boost and as the rpms increase the turbo spools up which increases the boost and that is when I get the kick in the rear. Let me know if this is normal or not.

Also, when driving around at low speed (less than 30) and when just barely easing on the throttle, sometimes the truck will falter a little, like a little hiccup. It will hesitate quickly and buck a little and then return to normal. It may do this several times and when the engine is warm or cold. Any ideas what this is?

Anyone's thoughts or ideas on either issue would help. Thanks in advance!

 

First off congrats on the new truck, we need to see some pics of it ASAP. How many miles on it? Could be a fuel filter in need of replacement. Sounds like the short delay in power is the turbo but it should be very short this truck spools up quick and then is a bat out of hell. I am sure others with much more experience here will chim in soon as well. Welcome to the site. You will find a lot of people her willing to help out.

 

Couple of things to consider. If the truck is low mileage, you may be still going through the adaptive learning phase for the transmission. Mine behaved similarly for the first couple of thousand miles and then it began "smoothing" out.

If the truck has some mileage on it, you may be describing the shifting flares that were originally addressed in a TSB from April and then updated in August (I believe).

 

In my experience, when driving around really slow (35 mph) the transmission hunts for tall gears too quickly and sticks us in 5th gear, then when you coast and touch the throttle again it has to downshift and kinda feels funny. I am not a big fan of the way the truck drives unloaded and in "D". I usually use the manual mode in town.

And when you stomp on it, if you compare to the way a big gas motor launches then yes it feels different. We have a drive by wire system and fuel delivery to the motor is controlled by computer. When your right foot demands a lot of fuel right away, the computer will let you have it eventually. It's an emissions thing. You might be feeling this sort of delay.

 

Aww yes, I know what you mean. My truck does both has both symptoms from 0 miles to 9,000 miles. At startup it "shudders" until I get up to 10 MPH or so. Both pulling and not pulling. After that it is fine. Also at very low speeds (less than 15 mph) is seems to run rough. Especially when cold.

I just ignore the shudder as it does not appear to be a real problem. As for the rough riding at low speeds I lock the gear in 2nd or 3rd. No real problem.

I figure the only option I have is to ask the dealer to fix it. Then he will apply one of the tech bulletins (flash) that may or may not fix the problem. I am worried that the flash may do more harm than good. Right now the truck is running great and I don't want them to touch anything. The only problem I have is that my mileage is not good (10 when towing, 14 when not).

It is amazing how complicated these trucks are. I hope they don't fall apart after the warranty period.

ken

 

These trucks don't really allow you to throttle up slowly, mine does the all-or-nothing acceleration at low speeds and many others have reported it as well. Most noticeable when coming out of a slow turn, like around a corner. I think it's just how it drives, can be annoying at times, but not sure if there's an actual fix.

Also not sure about the second issue, I haven't noticed anything like that on mine.

And welcome to the forum!

 

I'm just grateful they don't build the fly by wire systems for our F16s'. Most of us would have hit the ejection system

 

Now on mine with build date 4-27-11 this thing is a blessing to drive. it takes off proper.no dead spot,if ya want tap her abit and she will bark the tires very easily. so far shifting is absolutly fllawless. doesn't have any of the above issues,now my 1st 2011 build date 3-2-10 was just a turd.it was just freaking ignorant on about everything. I dont know what they changed from my 1st one to second one,but its like night and day difference. Maybe hardware changes. maybe more advance software?

 

Thanks for all the responses thus far. I bought the truck from a close friend and co-worker who had purchased it to drive back and forth to work and found the ride to be "too rough" for his everyday hour long drive to and from work so he decided to go back to a half-ton pickup and I was glad to pick it up from him. The truck had 9700 miles on it when I bought it. All the maintenance had been taken care of tediously through the dealership at the required intervals and the truck is still immaculately clean and new looking on the outside.

Now, I purchased the truck knowing that it would not ride as smooth as my previous half-ton pickup, and with that in mind, I am very satisfied with the ride. I love the power and the towing capabilities it gives me. I don't have any good pics of the truck yet, so I will have to get one and upload later. We have a 34' travel trailer (8600 lbs.) we will towing around a good bit every month and that was the main reason we turned to the Super Duty. I have not hooked up to the camper yet, but can't wait to see how well it does.

As for the issues with take off power, it does not take long for the power to hit the rear wheels (about 1 to 1.5 seconds), it just takes a little longer to jump off the line (or from a stop sign) and that second was unexpected. So, since I had cut it a little closer than what was smart, there was a close call recently, so I was just wondering if you all were seeing the same behavior or if it was something I should discuss with the dealer.

And for the low speed hiccups, I too believe it may be tied into the fact that at low speeds, the truck is in a rather high gear with the rpms real low and i believe that may be the problem, so it may not be a problem at all. I can lock out all the higher gears except 3rd on down, as Kabur66 describes, and it will not do this, so that may explain it.

I do feel the shifting issues from 2nd to 3rd that others have posted about so I will be bringing the truck in to have the flash done for that and the rather hard shifting I have been experiencing. So I am confident that will help with the shifting irregularities and may help with some of these other issues, we shall see.

Thanks again for all your thoughts on the subject and look forward to reading more and more great information on this great site!