I just returned from Lake Havasu and found while towing my 20ft boat up some small inclines the temp gauge ran up to just under the red so I let off and it went back down. It kept doing this on all grades. 05 psd 4x4. any thoughts? my expedition doesn't even think of overheating in the same scenerio.
Thanks for any thoughts, I just hit 10k miles. I also found my electric mirrors are also malfunctioning.

Steve

 

Mine does the same thing. You should hear (clearly) the fan kick in and it will reduce the temp without backing off.

I am surprised a bit that it doesn't take too much to heat things up. Of course, I'm pulling a little more than you are.

Jim

 

Is this a v10 or 6.0?

 

My 05 6.0 does the same thing, but only when I'm towing my boat. (13600# full of fuel and water). I notice it most on acceleration, and on an incline. It never gets to the red, but gets pretty close. The more horsepower you make, the more heat it generates. I think the cooling system is not designed to get rid of that much heat. What I don't know is if it's the weight or the wind resistance. My rig is 13 feet high by 10'6" wide, so it's a pretty big cube being pulled thru the air at speed.

 

Hey there Hjudge49...hope you have been doing well.

Have you hitched your boat to your fence post? Looks like you guys could be in store for another bad one out there. Might need that big boy boat pretty soon just to get down the hwy.

Good luck...take care and stay dry if you can.

 

I had this problem on my 2005 F-550, the dealer had to replace head gaskets, best way to tell is see if there is coolant being blown from the radiator cap. Sometimes it is as simple as a radiator cap needing to be replaced.

 

I opened the hood and the coolant level is down to the bottom of the resevoir and there is white splotches all over like it has blown out onto the underside of the hood and top of engine. Good or Bad? should I put more coolant or just take it in like it is?

 

If your going to drive the truck you need coolant, but only ford motor yellow gold coolant from the dealer if you put anything else in they will blame the foriegn coolant. Take the truck to the dealer the will start by replacing the cap, this fixed my 04. Then they replaced two reservoirs, and finally the head gaskets. The white stuff around the cap is coolant that blew out.

 

I towed my new toy hauler for the first time this past weekend. I have 14,000 miles on the truck. The fifth wheel trailer is about 13500 lbs loaded. I ran up the Cajon Pass (a long incline that tends to slow the big trucks down) in Southern California this weekend in about 95 degree heat. The truck seemed to want to pull just fine. Plenty of horsepower. I wasn't pushing it by any means, but I was able to pretty easily stay between 55 and 60 mph. I was in Tow/Haul mode. I was in the first lane to the left of the slow truck lane. My temp gauge has always stayed planted just a hair under halfway in all of my other driving. I watched my temp gauge start to climb and I shut of the A/C. It started to go down just a bit and then climb quickly to just under the top white bar on the temp gauge just under the red. I heard a high pitched sound which I hadn't noticed before and thought it was a fan that kicked in. At that time I pulled into the slow truck lane and backed my speed down to about 45 mph. The temp whent back down to about halfway of the gauge. I started steadily increasing the speed and the temp increased accordingly. I didn't want to keep pushing it to see if the fan would keep the temp from going into the red.

The way this thing drives without a load made me think it could pull a house up a cliff. I was very surprised to see the temp gauge react that way. I was going to take it into the dealer to see if I had a thermostat or programming problem or something, but I wanted to search this forum first. Is this a common thing that I will have to put up with? Two times I was passed (quickly) by Ford V10's pulling similar sized trailers.

Thanks.

 

FYI:

Temperature Gauge Reads Hot, 05 F-Series:
Some trucks built before 12-10-04 may have a temp gauge reading at the top of the green normal band or into the red hot band, with normal coolant temperatures. If no overheat condition is present, the instrument cluster should be replaced. If there is a code in the engine computer for ECT over 240 degrees, or if coolant is being expelled from the degas bottle, do not replace the cluster. Diagnose the overheat condition.
TSB 05-1-2

This is from: http://www.intellidog.com/dieselmann/60bulletin.htm

 

I'm taking my 05 in tomorrow for this and a few other things. He told me that they have been replacing gauge clusters for this, but now realize it doesn't fix it. so there not sure yet. He told me that the fan kicks on when it gets up there and that it isn't an issue of overheating. Mine has expelled coolant but I'm not sure when, so they'll check for codes on overheating. I'm going to Fairview Ford in San Bernardino, Ca where I bought my truck, they seem to know what they are doing and probably sell more diesels in a month than most dealerships sell in a year. He said on the 05's the reflash often fixes a lot of the issues without harmful side effects. Like the sputter at 60 going up an incline. I'll post this weekend with my results.

 

Mine is an '03 and I tow 20,000 with it and have never seen the temp gauge even move, it always run about halfway up.

 

I just made a long trip last week with my Slide-in TC and towing a 5k boat and noticed the same thing going up hills if I didn't push the throttle enough to drop it out of overdrive. As soon as you dropped out of overdrive and the boost jumps up it would cool down. I noticed it because I thought I blew something...all the sudden this awful howling noise started and I made a diamond in my shorts... finally realized it must be the electric fan.

Hjudge, you may have some other issues if your boat is full of water...

 

If your temp is getting high it probably is a bad fan clutch. It is not engaging fully when hot. Take it in to the dealer and have it checked. When the engine heats up you should hear a roar when the clutch is engaged. We did - in the mountains pulling our trailer in 95 degree heat.

 

You should NOT be experiencing overheating with the loads you are pulling. If anything, the heavier the load is, the lower your top speed will be up inclines, but the truck should not overheat. Are your trucks stock? If not, what do you have done to them?

LB