Last Monday Aug 22nd, I was coming home from a race in NH towing my 28' enclosed trailer and mustang. When I was on I-95 in SC the truck broke down on me. Fans came on, Check Gauge clicked on and temp shot to the moon. Looked in mirror to pull over and white smoke is just pouring out the exhaust.

Get it towed to a dealer and they start to check it out. What he told me scared me half to death since I have another race in Topeka September 9th. "It's either the EGR Cooler or head gaskets. If its the cooler, next week it should be ready. If its the head gaskets, it will be at least 4 weeks. Since I go on vacation" Luckly it turned out to be the EGR Cooler and they just called and said it was ready. Visions of Lemon Law had been running threw my head ever since I heard 4 weeks. Course they didn't offer a rental car or anything.

Truck has 38k miles on it now, so I have to pay the $100 deductable on it. Part that makes me wonder tho, is they want me to pay $85 for an oil change due to the water getting in the oil. Shouldn't the oil be included since it was warranty work? Water shouldn't of got in the oil since it was just the cooler. Only way water should of got in it, is if he didn't drain the water from the intake before removing it. Shrug.

 

Personally, I would think so. Or at least pro rated to the next Ford recommended oil change.

Probably a lost battle though. Good luck.

 

when they replaced 4 injectors due to the o-rings leaking, they changed the oil for free. But it was a different dealership, and it was under the 36k mile warranty then. Just really glad it wasnt the Head gaskets, cause I didn't see any '06's I wanted lol.

 

You should get an oil change free. Generally the SD can just stick FMC with the bill on oil and filter. I get the feeling someone is trying to screw you out of a little dough.

As far as the cooler is concerned, its a fairly common problem under high heat/EGT conditions. They were at least correct with the diagnosis that it had to have been either the cooler or the head gaskets; the visual symptoms are quite close together for either issue. We always replace the EGR cooler on any truck that comes in for head gaskets, whether it is confirmed bad or not.

Some idiot at Ford had the bright idea to silver solder the cooling fins and tubes into the main cooler body. It can eventually melt through the solder, and cause exhaust to escape into the coolant system, and coolant to escape down through the cooler and into the passener side uppipe (and into the exhaust).

 

I was the one that told them it was the EGR cooler, the tech right off the bat said HGs. When it died, I let it sit about an hour and the rain let up enough to realize I was about 1/4 mile to the exit. Where I parked wasn't safe so I started it up and drove it off the interstate. Truck ran fine, just poured smoke out the exhaust. I had checked the oil and there was no water in it. So I started figuring it was the Cooler. It wasn't till the tech talked to Ford hotline about it, he was going to change it. They seemed to think I was an idiot or something about engines up there. I've built my own engines for my drag cars, so I know a little . I just know I won't recomend that dealership to anyone!

Another thing I worry about now, is the coolant that passed threw the turbo. Would that have any bad effects on it?

 

I just called the dealership back, he claims he asked ford hotline about it since he didn't know. And they told him it would not be covered, but it did HAVE to be changed. But he would look into cutting the price down if he can.

 

Question, if the egr is unplugged and presumably not flowing , would it presumabally not get so hot ,as no exhaust is flowing thru? thus hopefully it well last longer.

 

The cooler is before the valve in the exhaust stream, so it will absorb heat with or without an operational valve, unless the flow of exhaust coming into the cooler is physically blocked.

 

GT-358. Was the EGR valve "disconnected" before this occurred?

 

I had tried leaving it off when the truck had about 20k miles, but only left it off for 3-4k miles. Then hooked it back up, planning on removing it all togther in the future.

 

There's some fairly recent info in the "EGR Disconnect" thread on how to cut and weld the uppipe to completely block the exhaust flow to the cooler. If you do so, you can leave the cooler assembly under the manifold instead of having to reroute coolant flow, essentially making the cooler pressureless and harmless.

 

I was thinking about trying to make something I could slip inbetween and not have to weld it. Since I don't have a welder

 

You can, but it isn't nearly as effective in preventing residual heat from entering the cooler as actually removing the tube feeding it.

Home Depot carries some decent quality Lincoln Electric flux-core wire welders for a couple hundred bucks. You can do it with an air-powered cutoff tool and just a cheap welder.

 

Yeah, true. Would still need to seperate them totally for the full benefits.

Total for warranty repair and oil change was $167.21. So he did cut the oil change price down some at least.

 

Picked up my truck today and not sure what to think. I got the paper work and someone at the dealership (I assume the service dept) stapled a print out of this post to it. The service dept was closed so I couldn't ask about it. There was no note with it, so I can only guess it was a "We saw this post and didn't like it" or We are watching you. Shrug. It bugs me a bit they would print it out like I was being stalked or something. Think I will have a word with Ford directly about it and see what they have to say. It's almost like they are trying to intimidate me or something.

Don't jerk people around and they won't post the truth on the internet. Total labor hours listed on the ticket was 15 hours. I looked it up on Alldata and warranty time for repair is 4.5 and reg time is 6.8. The time on alldata is just the R&R of intake, but not much more to remove the cooler. They also replaced the EGR and had to remove the glow plugs to remove the water in the cyl. Appearently Ford's test is to pressurize the coolant system with the EGR removed and watch the intake/cyls fill up with water from the cooler (if it is bad). So the 15 hours adds up due to Ford's test.

To clearify the jerk around part and the I wouldn't recomend this dealership for service is. I never got told the truth (at least I don't think it was the truth) on what was happening. Truck was looked at Wed and "tested". EGR cooler came in Thursday. So that gives Thursday, Friday, and Monday to fix it. I called each day and was told it was being worked on. Based on the hours listed to fix it and the alldata hours (which I know 90% of the time alldata over estimates) it was not being worked on daily as I was being told it was. When time wise it seems my truck was done on the side as he had time, probably since I wasn't there waiting on it. I know they are busy, but tell me the truth. Don't tell me its being worked on and its just sitting. Add to that being told a special tool was needed to remove water from the intake ports.