My serpentine belt shredded itself into thousands of bits all over the engine bay on a two lane road 400 miles after the primary water pump was replaced. Had to call for a tow truck.

 

Suppose that decision is made by the technician. When my water pump was replaced the coolant was replaced also, or at least there was a line item for new coolant on the work order. I've heard some people say the dealer charges $400-500 for a cooling system flush.

I'm considering changing to the new yellow coolant when I hit the end of life on the Orange coolant. Drain the old coolant and refill will distilled water and drive it for a week. Drain coolant again and refill with more distilled and drive it for another week. Then drain and refill with the new coolant. Any reason why that wouldn't work?

 

I'll let the tech decide how to handle the coolant, and I may be too late for the serpentine. Service Writer called me this morning to let me know that Ford did approve the radiator with the water pump, and the truck should be done tomorrow. So he may have gotten the pump and stuff (including the serpentine) installed this afternoon. My guess is the radiator may be done 2nd, but regardless, I left a msg on the SW's phone asking for a new belt if the tech hadn't already completed that portion of the job. I said I didn't want the tech back-tracking to put on a new belt.

Thanks for the ideas guys!

 

A week seems long considering the additives help with pump seal lubricity, corrosion inhibitors, and managing system pH. If the truck is up to temp, id think 5-10 miles would suffice.

 

Truck work finished late yesterday, and I picked her up this morning.

Tech confirmed leak, added coolant, pressure tested coolant system, and "found coolant leaking from primary coolant pump and the left corner of the primary radiator". He replaced pump and radiator, flushed cooling system with acid following WSM procedure, and refilled with coolant. After he was done, one of the lower passenger side spring loaded hose clamps wasn't holding tight enough, and some coolant was weeping. Replaced it with a screw type clamp.

After pick up, the truck ran fine, but something really weird happened over the next 30 miles or so of driving a combo of 35, 45, and 55mph. When I dropped off the truck, I was at 77% soot and 470 miles since last regen, and then I watched the soot drop steadily to 46% with exhaust temps in the high 400's over the next 25 miles or so of normal driving! It dropped at about half the rate that it does for an active regen, which is hard to understand since it wasn't in regen until I was almost home (500 mile regen limit). Then it regen'd for a short time until the soot was at 24% when it turned off. By the time I got home, EGT12 was back down to 500* and the soot was at 8.5%. This whole experience with the soot after I picked it up was very odd, and it will be interesting to see what happens leading up to the next regen cycle.

When I got home and shut off the truck, the distance since last regen went to 71 miles, which isn't right either. I bet I only drove 5 miles after the regen shut off.

In the end, I'm very happy to have a new radiator and water pump, and it only cost me $100, which is my ESP deductible. And for those pondering the value of an ESP, since I bought the truck in Sept 2015 with 14k miles on it, dealerships have replaced the front driver's side spring (sagging); entire DPF exhaust assy (exhaust leak); moon roof (leaking); P207F fault code resulting in DEF injector cleaning, TSB applied, reflash PCM, and NOX sensor replacement; radiator, and water pump. The spring and moon roof were done under the normal warranty, but the DPF, P207F repairs, radiator, and water pump were replaced on the ESP. Ford's will pay the dealership for the latest visit about $2800 (I saw it but of course wasn't given a copy). I don't recall the DPF exhaust cost, but with labor that was probably $4k-$5k. I honestly can't remember what I paid for my 7 year 70,000 mile ESP, but I think it was less than $2k (wife told me $1800). Clearly, it was a good investment.

 

Good for you that it was taken care. That DPF experience you just had is intriguing. Keep us posted.

 

I'll bet the regen was due to the repair and probably some extended idling by the tech?

 

I don't think so. I don't think he idled it that much because I took a picture of the screen with engine and idle hours when I dropped it off. When I picked it up, the idle hours hadn't changed, and engine hours went up by 1. Also, the soot% was exactly the same when I picked it up as when I dropped it off. My truck does trigger regens at 500 miles since the last regen, and that's what happened today. I had driven about 13 miles since the last startup when the DSLR was 477.

The passive regen dropping the soot% from 77.1% to 46.4% is what's sooooo odd!

 

Update: After getting the truck back from the repair, the next day I popped the hood and saw the top bolt for the driver's side headlight was sticking up about 1/2". So then I started wondering what else he missed. Turns out he left out the bottom bolt for both headlights too. Decided I better look deeper, and I popped off the grill. Yup, all 4 inside mounting bolts for the headlights were not snug, and the top inside bolt on the driver's side was stripped. There was also a mid-radiator mounting bolt missing, but there wasn't a retainer for the bolt, which made me believe Ford had made a change (they did). The tech also failed to fix my TPMS problem by just replacing a tire sensor, and I told the SW and tech both that a sensor WASN'T the problem. So I took it back for re-work, and the tech admitted to leaving out the bottom headlight bolts as most techs do this because they are a pain to get in. I called him on that, and the SW did too. They are a little tough, but I've done it before without too much hassle. I also pointed out the DS headlight was only secured by one bolt as a result (top not seated, bottom missing, top inside stripped). Of course I snugged up all the bolts while I was at it, but they still had my bottom headlight bolts.

I got the truck back, and all points were fixed. I detailed the TPMS in another thread, but in a nutshell, they replaced the TPMS receiver after Ford's auth. It fixed the problem. Ironically, the same weird thing happened with the soot% and regen. Soot% dropped about 40% over normal driving, and then mileage caused a regen that ran short. No clue what the tech is doing to cause this, but I will ask.

Then just over 2 weeks after getting the truck back after rework (last week), I find silver dollar sized drops on my blacktop. The bottom PS corner of the middle radiator is wet with coolant. Pulled the grill again, and turns out the radiator/condensor for the a/c was leaking. The lower connection to the condensor was completely wet and had sprayed refrigerant on the front and also getting on the middle radiator, which made me initially think the middle radiator had something wrong with it. This was taken apart to replace the radiator, and I'm guessing the tech nicked the o-ring or whatever seals that fitting to the condensor. I also discovered fluid on my oil pan and axle, which looked like signs of a oil pan upper gasket leak. I wiped it clean to make sure it wasn't staining from the water pump leak. It was wet again yesterday morning. So, I have an appt again for Wed to fix the 2nd rework for the a/c leak, and confirm if I have an upper oil pan gasket leak.

Man, this has been the worst last three months for vehicle problems. On top of my truck issues, I've been chasing an unusual noise in my GT500 that's been very tough to isolate. Looking forward to coming out the other side of this.

Refrigerant leak:

 

Time for a different tech and service dept.

 

I can certainly understand why you would say that, but because this is a local dealership with a service writer that's been awesome, I am going to make this ultimatum time. On Wed I will have a heartfelt talk with the SW and tell him that one minor rework I could tolerate....occasionally, but no more! The latest leak must be fixed perfectly, and the tech needs to know he must pick up his game with regard to attention to detail. The oil leak...needs to be fixed right and the first time. Any more mistakes and I will have a meeting with the Service Manager and may even request the presence of the GM. I am not a rookie when it comes to turning a wrench, and each time the truck has gone in I've provided great details on what's wrong to help both the SW and the tech. Heck, I'm taking a picture of the current leak with me to eliminate any confusion.

We will see how this goes. If they fail this time, then yes, I will drive another 10 minutes to the next dealership for help.

 

It sounds like you've pretty much told them what was wrong and steered the tech in the right direction. But it sounds like he's either lazy or incompetent. Hopefully it's just lazy as he can move past that and start doing it right by paying attention to the task at hand. Good luck.