Hello all, new to the site.
I have a 2013 F350 Crew Cab Long bed xl with 128000 miles on it.
I just barely bought it from a small dealer and had a check engine light come on for the cats.(P0420 and 0430)
I have spoke with the dealer and he assured me that he would replace the cats. He stated he had O2 sensors replaced and thought he had fixed the problem. Not sure if he replaced all sensors or just the fronts.

He has been avoiding calls lately and will not return my messages.
Anyways, My question is what should I be looking for to prevent future cats from going bad.
I just ordered a bluetooth OBD 2 scanner and bought the Torque Pro App.
Im not new to working on trucks but they have all been 1995 and older and i am new to anything scanner wise and do not know what I should be monitoring. If I can't get this guy to replace the cats I want to monitor everything to make sure the cats are bad.
BTW, Fuel Mileage is at best 12.3 with an extremely light foot, Driving normal it drops off to about 11.8-12. Is this a normal MPG in these trucks? I have seen post about people getting close to 16 unloaded not smashing throttle?

Any response is welcomed and appreciated!

On another note, I just remembered that my traction control light will come on with no wheel spin at times after starting the truck and driving away. Anyone ever see this issue before?

 

Dealer probably disconnected battery or erased all codes before you looked at the truck. It takes awhile for some codes to reappear.
I have never seen over 12.5 mpg myself with either of my 6.2s , but they are rarely empty.

 

I know he did, clock was not set correctly when I drove it. I called them back up today and said I'll be down Monday for them to fix it. He somewhat agreed and told me to call him before I bring it in. I'm going to call and just show up haha. The reason I brought up mgp is to see if I am losing any due to plugged cats or anything
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Drop the truck off and tell him to fix it. NO other way.
Grow a pair.

 

Thats the plan.

 

So the dealer decided to take it to a shop and they said all they had to do was something with the o2 sensor threads and it should be fixed. I have not seen it throw any new codes for the p0420 or p0430 but it still has the historic fault code for both when i check with my torque app.

I have a new code that popped up now. Its p2096. I checked for the codes when I made it home (roughly 160 miles after the shop said they fixed it.)
The p2096 was just a pending code and not setting off the cel.

I hooked up to my trailer today and it finally set off the cel for the code. I reset it and drove a little farther and it set again. I started watching fuel trims and noticed my ltft for bank 1 was hitting 22% under throttle. Ltft2 was staying under 10%

I reset the light, went home and unhooked the trailer. Ltft1 was fine at idle but as soon as I touch the throttle it jumps to 18% and stays there holding between 1500-2000 rpm. ltft2 acts normally.

I need help knowing were to look and what to do. I really dont know what im looking at and dont know where to start.

 

Crawl under there and take a look. Sounds like they just installed extenders (spark plug anti-foulers) on the downstream O2 sensors to fool the system.

Use Torque to clear codes. The cat efficiency tests may take a few days to run.

Most likely, you have a long-standing vacuum leak. The leak caused an overly rich mixture that, over time, ruined the cats. The PO is to blame, the dealer is unlikely to know much, if anything, about this.

 

Looks like it has an oxygen sensor after the catalytic convertor. This is on California models but perhaps newer models all have it.
Anyways, If I were you I'd give it to the dealer with a VERY firm message to fix the damn car right this time. He is jerking you around.
ltft should be close to 0, When it hits 10 it's not good and 18% is good sign something is wrong.
A high ltft at higher rpms means you have more air come in than what is normal so it has to compensate by enriching the fuel mixture (hence the positive ltft).The higher the rpms's , the higher this offset will be.
Take a good look at the intake , any hole after the MAF sensor ? Any hose disconnected? Also, what do the stft numbers show ? Anything really high or low ?
Also take a good look at the exhaust manifolds and intake manifold, any leaks?
I would also ask them exactly what they did the first time. Which o2 sensors did they work on and what 'thread ' issue??? Are they stripped ?

Why are you even trying to fix it yourself ? The dealer should.

 

I've looked to check for leaks, nothing obvious sticks out to me and I had a rain storm blow in that started to soak me so I went in the house. I can't see any vaccum leaks, there is one hose that runs on top of the plastic box in the center of the engine to the front and ends at the fan shroud pass side that's been rubbing but does not look to have any holes. It does look like they just added foulers to the back sensors.

Right now ltft1 is 5.5 idle stft is 9.4to10.9 idle
Ltft1 12.3 2000rpm stft1 .0 dropping sometimes to -.8
Ltft2 -6.2 stft2hovering around 0 idle
Ltft2 3.1 stft2 about -8.6 2000rpm

Arf stays around 14.59 to 14.75

I live 2 hrs out from the dealer I got it from and he just sold his lot that I bought it from. He's moving to Idaho and is being difficult to get ahold of.

If it's something I can do I'm just going to do it because I don't know if I will be able to get him to do the work and spend the money on it.

Btw while doing the tests it did set cel for the p2096 again

 

If they just put the extenders on the O2 sensors take it back and tell them to fix it right or you will report the shop and the dealer to the authorities. Tampering with or bypassing emissions equipment is both a federal and likely a state crime... Especially if a shop or dealer does it because it falls under willful misconduct.

Richard

 

Exactly, I would tell him to fix it correctly. No cheating or bypassing this stuff, it is obviously indicating a problem elsewhere that is going to bite you in the long term.
Personally I'd tell him to take the truck back. It is shady business. If he wants to fix it, take it back and once it is fixed you will drive it near the dealer monitoring the numbers and make sure it's correct.
Stand up for your rights, man.

 

I might be wrong on the O2 extenders, I took it to a local shop and he says it looks like they just redid the ports for the O2 sensors. He also says bank 1 downstream O2 sensor is not reading at all

 

redid ? As in new holes ? I think that downstream O2 issue is why you get the code.
Years ago I had the downstream o2 sensor on my excursion fail. When I looked at it it turned out the O2-wiring above the drive shaft wasn't tied up enough and had rubbed thru from hitting the driveshaft. Soldered it back together and worked since then.

 

WTH does that actually mean?

Crawl under there and take a photo and we'll take a look.

 

B2s2


B1s2

Did my pictures work?
Basically the shop said they will add new bungs for the O2 sensors because the threads become screwed up.
I noticed b1s2 was reading really weird but wasn't sure if I had it set up right in the app.