Bought her as a dealer demo with almost 5K on it, I know the business manager who was driving it, and trust him to break it in right.

I have put another 22K miles on it in the last 11 months. To begin with, everything was great. After a few months, I started noticing the slightest little "catch" in the steering when I turned it slowly to the right. Very strange, almost didn't notice it until it would surprise me on a nice smooth road, maybe merging back into the right hand lane.

It stayed the same way for quite a while....then one day, on a trip to the coast, it went from a slight "catch" to a easily discernable almost light grinding feeling, still on the same gentle right turns. On the return trip, we were pulling up the hill, and there was a loud enough growl from the front end, my wife heard it, and I certainly felt it through the wheel....and it was on a straight stretch. Pulled over, looked like a fool crawling under the rig trying to make it appear I might actually have a clue what I might be looking at. Started it back up, and took off down the road. No issues the rest of the trip, and not for several more months. And then it slowly started up again.

Around the same time, I began noticing that when lugging down unloaded, going up a gentle hill, etc., you could feel the engine almost coughing...never a very pronounced feeling, and you couldn't hear it, but certainly was obvious. Zero problems with power once it was shifted down and wound up. Ran perfect, still was getting same mileage.

I finally scheduled an appointment. I told them I had read up on the turbo moisture thing, and said that's not what it seemed like was happening. I also gave them instructions on exactly what conditions were to make the slight catching/grinding feeling from the front end.

2 days later, they finally duplicated the front end issue, and diagnosed bad wheel bearings. The diagnosis for the rough running lugging down, was, of course, moisture in the turbo.

After another week waiting, because both issues required backorder parts, they finally got it all back together.

Whether it was actually the problem or not, new wheel bearing fixed the front end issue completely. Very happy that it did, because it was pretty spooky. Pretty strange bearing would go bad that early in it's life!

The problem when pulling low RPM's, after replacing intercooler and putting in the air dam? Nothing changed. I talked to the service guy a few weeks later, he told me to bring it back in.

Question....is this rough-running when lugging down a common thing? I know for a fact it didn't do that when I got it, I would have noticed it. Granted, it's tough to not keep it spooled up all the time, so some people might never notice. Still no power issues when pulling trailer or hammering up the mountain passes.

Suggestions? I was told to bring it back in....I think I may go test drive one of the ones on the lot to prove to myself that I'm not crazy?

I absolutely LOVE the rig, what a change from my 08 V10 F350, but these little things are a tad disconcerting.


kh

 

Stay on the dealer and please keep us in the loop on the outcome. Sounds like your dealer knows what they are doing but I think some of Ford's fixes don't necessarily fit every scenario.

If you're spooled up all the time due to pulling or mountain driving, there shouldn't really be a moisture build up issue in the CAC.

 

I agree with Tim...also from what I have read you need to actually do some hard acceleration at times to keep the moisture from building up. So they installed the new designed CAC and it did not resolve the issue?

By the way...your truck should idle and run smoothly all the time...stumbling and power loss are NOT normal. Don't let the dealer tell you they are either.

 

best analogy I have heard is that it should run like a "scalded ape" aka fast and powerful. If you loose power mid pedal down, its a possible turbo failure.