I took my F250 to the Ford dealer Thursday to have my tires rotated and new breaks installed, and my coolant checked for the 3rd time. My truck has 47000 miles on it, and no one but the dealer has ever opened my cooling systems. I work nights, so I get home around 3AM, grab some dinner and have a couple drinks and hit the hay about 5AM, Get up about 11:30 or so. My wife has never driven, and wouldn't know motor oil from shoe black. Any way the service writer calls at 8:30 AM and she answers the phone, he tells her that my truck will be done at 1:00 ready to pick up on my way to work. He tell he that they are flushing the break fluid and will need to change the coolant, she says ok she'll let me know when I get up, Well she let me know the truck was done and nothing more. When I got to the dealer and the service writer told me, I freeked out. He said my coolant had nitrites, and had to be changed, I asked how the coolant went bad he said high cylinder head temps. I told him I drive 250 to 300 miles weekly and have only towed once when the truck had 20000 miles, and that they had checked my coolant at 30000 miles and it was fine ,He couldn't answer my questions,But charged me $300.00 to change it. I'm going back Monday to talk to the owner of the dealership. My diesel owner manual says that the orange coolant will last 6 years or 100,000 miles, I got my truck in July of 2010, so I haven't used up 1/2 of the coolant life. Maybe I'm wrong but shouldn't Ford pick up the tab, And shouldn't the service dept. be trying to figure out what caused the nitrites in my coolant. Unless they tested it incorrectly, or just screwed me. If any one can offer any info. Please respond I'm really hopping I can get Ford to help, If not the owner of the dealership, maybe customer service.

 

I would help ya if I could.....

I don't know anyone off hand that needed new coolant at 47,000 miles.

I am not sure if I would be buying the "high cylinder head temp" thing.......

Let us know how it goes

 

What is your engine oil temp normally?
If you drive even as much as 50 miles, "high engine temps" are going to heat up the oil.
I don't think I've ever been over 205 F EOT towing.
I'm with Darren, I don't buy this temp thing just yet you got from the dealer.
There is something wrong and they need to investigate if that's the case with your driving style.

Unfortunatly, the change was "customer approved" in a way.
But the dealer should have been honest enough to share with your wife it was a $300 repair and she probably would have stopped the phone call.
That would be where I would begin the debate.
Coolant is a consumable and when the truck is used hard it will need to be changed on our expense but there is more to this story for your truck.

 

205 EOT towing? My truck runs at 203 EOT just going down the freeway. I often saw 220+ towing across country this year.

 

I run 195-197 empty highway.
I might hit 201 near the end of a regen on longer hills during these high 90's days but it usually remains around 199 during the AR.
Maybe I've seen 207 at times but I know I've never seen 210 on the CTS.
I tow less in the summer so my 7,000 lbs pulls have been on cooler days.
Nothing much over 5,000 lbs this summer and never across country.
Highest I've seen for EGT's was 908 I think it was on EGT1 up a grade but didn't last long enough to really get the oil drastically heated up.

 

If you are towing up steep grades, You will see 240° EOT. It's pretty common. Empty, I'm like the others 195-205°

So what do they consider High Cylinder Head Temps and how does that correllate to EOT?

I hit the 240-242° many times and my coolant has never had a problem with the Nitrites.
And how does cylinder temps affect the coolant? Are they suggestion you are boiling off the coolant or that there is a chemical conversion at a certain temp?

I thought the Nitrite test was basically to make sure nobody had added any of the old style Nitrite based coolant. Sice our trucks use a OAT based coolant.

 

From what I was told, the coolant breaks down and such after a certain temperature.

I have heard a lot of things about cooling related issues on 6.4's and 6.7's lately, as I've got several mechanics looking into issues and comparing different trucks.
We have found several 6.4's now, and 1 tuned 6.7 that run hotter on one bank than the other, leading me to think there could be cooling issues.

I thought I had an oil cooler issue, but after a few flushes, it's reversing the damage... apparently. Also both heads are closer in temperature.

So far, I think it seems that the coolant is boiling in the heads, from poor flow, or corrosion, and destroying itself.

 

I have been told that if you sit and idle a lot, high head temps are temporary but common. My F-250 6.7L has only 2000 miles but I am beginning to tow so I'll keep an eye on the coolant.

 

High temp spikes in the cooling system are not good, it destroyes the coolant.

How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

 

the corrosion inhibitor package in coolants breaks down over time, not heat. 50,000 miles (100,000 in class 8 stuff) is when "extended life" coolants need to be checked, i just did my work truck at 58,000 and the levels are low. you can get the additive from ford, the part number is in the manual as well as a part number for the tester, although i use test strips from donaldson.

flushing the coolant will work, but the additive is cheaper and the end result is the same.

high temps (within reason, basically anything cooler than a boilover) dont have any practical effect on coolant breaking down quicker.

 

The VC-12 additive rejuvinates the corrosion inhibitors but does NOTHING for the Nitrites. The only way to remove Nitrites is to flush and refill.

If your coolant fails the Nitrite test. You are just wasting your time & money to add the VC-12 additive.

 

Not exactly related but there is some information in here

The Basics of Diesel-Engine Coolant | Construction Equipment

 

see what happens when you dont pay attention...i missed the whole nitrite part.

flushing is the only cure for nitrites.