Hello all;

Sister in law owns a 2006 F250 Super Duty, has been diligent with oil changes, and service.
Has had some issues with dealership repairs and explanations lately.
Long story short we reside in the frigid north in Manitoba, severe cold temperatures this winter.
Last week she started her truck minus -20's celsius, -30's windchill.
Was leaving work and started truck the check gauges light came on, short drive home and all gauges appeared okay to her.
(Her daily commute is less than 5 minutes to and from work)
Drove okay home.
Went out awhile later and went out to dinner, all was okay.
Then after starting truck to go home again check gauges light came on again and the truck was clattering and whining..(I know).
Anyway then while driving the engine shut down.
It was towed to a dealership.

Dealership advises condensation in the oil from short drives, caused water in oil pan, which froze the "screen" dropping oil pressure.
They flushed engine twice, and did an oil change as there were metal flecks in the oil along with water.
They say everything appears okay, and they also replaced 2 variable cam solenoids? because it was running rough, and that was the test diagnosis.

My question would be is that possible?
If so how does she avoid the same issue again and avoid damaging the engine.

Any other suggestions as to what should be done as preventative maintenance.
Or is what the dealership has done sufficient.

Her faith in the dealership is low right now too many other repairs and some questionable.
Even concerned some other oil changes may not have been done.
She just had an oil change done 4 weeks ago and has travelled 1300kms since then, so all her driving is not short drives.

Could use some advice to try and understand what else she needs to do to protect her truck/engine, and how to prevent it from happening again.

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Take Care;

Terry

 

It sounds plausible, although I would question where the condensation came from in the first place.

Short trips are not good for the vehicles. The engine needs to get up to operating temp and stay there for 20-30 minutes. This allows the PCV system to heat up and remove the moisture and gasoline that may have collected in the oil.

1300 km (or 800 miles) in 4 weeks is 325 km a week, or 65 km (40 miles) a day on a 5 day work week. 20 miles one way, which might not be enough let the PCV system work reliably.

I would recommend checking the PCV valve for proper operation, then advising your SIL to take the truck out once a week or so and driving 50 miles.

 

Plugging in the truck would also help it reach operating temps faster. 5 miles trips in those temperatures are not good for any vehicle. Perhaps a stick-on heater on the oil pan could be added, too, to drive off the water and/or prevent freezing. Plug in both this heater and the block heater whenever it's not being driven.

Enough condensate to plug the oil pickup is a heckuva lot of condensate - you'd like to think that the detergents in the oil might suspend some of that water, too.

 

That sounds like a lot of condensation! I would also look for a quality oil pan heater or block heater.

I had a retired Crown Victoria Police interceptor a few years ago and I had a similar issue with it. It came equipped with a factory block heater and I was never sure it worked. I was on a job close to where I live about 3 miles away over winter . I had lots of moisture buildup in the top of the oil cap so I decided to test out the block heater one night. It actually worked and quite well! I would set it on a timer to go on 3 hours before I left in the morning. After about 5 days using the heater, the condensation residue in the cap was almost gone. It seemed to help the car get to temp much faster and started much easier.

 

see if there is any oil in the coolant...that would discredit the frozen water in the oil theory and take you back to basic blown head gasket which is very common in extreme cold conditions due to the heads expanding faster that the cylinders since they heat up faster...the slip causes a head gasket leak...collant in oil and oil in coolant.

also..run down and grab some of the coolant and have it tested for freeze protection to make sure the coolant mix was correct.

 

The OP doesn't say what motor is in the truck, but I have a 5.4 and have been wanting to put a block heater in it. I put a freeze plug type in my jeep and its great, what kind of warmer is recommended in these motors? I see on the passenger side rear of the motor there is a freeze plug that looks pretty accessible.