The other day as I drove out of my driveway I noticed a new noise. It sounded like rushing air. I thought it was my intake because I had been messing in that area and hadn't buttoned everything back together quite yet.

The next day on a quick run to the orange auto parts store I noticed a significant lack of oomph in my seat when I pushed the petal, and it struggled to get through 2nd and 3rd gears. Shortly after I had an orange wrench on my dash telling me to get some Ford reading material from my glovebox, and a matching check engine light.

The orange wrench is a power train fault indicator for anyone unaware. It's basically to emphasize the check engine light as something more serious than an O2 sensor fault or something else benign.

I used my OBDLink MX Bluetooth adapter and my phone to pull the codes and I got a P0299 which is a "Turbocharger under boost condition."

On the scale of things I was hoping it was, turbocharger was not on the list. Remembering my air rushing noise, I tried to calm my thought of how much overtime a new turbo costs.

I remembered back to my days with a 7.3L diesel which leaks almost as much air as they do oil. I jumped up on top of my engine to inspect all of the topside intercooler boots. They all seemed tight and leak free. Underneath I looked at the hot side boots which seemed fine, and then looked at the single large cold side boot. Bingo. It was nearly entirely off of the pipe. I had to replace one clamp, but that's no big deal.

If that hadn't been the issue my next step was to look at the EBOV. I've heard these can tear and cause significant leaks. Beyond that, I was probably going to pray a lot. Exhaust manifold leaks could cause it, but I would expect a different sound.

Anyway, a long story to explain my process. Thankfully an easy fix.

I made a quick video showing my process too. Hopefully anyone else who has similar problems finds this helpful, or at least mildly entertaining.

 

Thanks for the tip and video!