Towed my 7000lb travel trailer up the Columbia River gorge into a headwind on Friday (its ALWAYS blowing through there!!) about 250 miles one way total drive. About 50 miles in, the little engine light came on. Never noticed any difference in power, nothing in the guages, nothing.

Dropped off the trailer at the leaking-like-a-sive-18-month-old-trailer-manufacturer (another story), and came home. About 30 miles into the return trip, light went off. No problems whatsoever, both ways.

Just had the latest flash done about 3 weeks ago.

05 CC LB 4x4 Lariat 6.0

Ideas?

kh

 

For your own peace of mind. Take it in to the dealer and have them check for codes that would have set off the light.

 

05 f-250 4x4. I had that light come on last year when I was towing. It also went off shortly after. It came on again this last weekend while going uphill. Like yours, it did not seem to have any effect on the engine performance. I took the truck to the dealer and they replaced the turbo.

 

Funny you say that about the turbo......I went back to pick up the trailer last week....and the boost would go up to about redline, then drop back, then redline then drop back. And, accompanied by a screamin noise from the turbo.

It goes in on Monday!

kh

 

Had the latest reflash done too and had the same cel while towing. The code showed low boost. The dealer replaced the vgt valve and reset. Headed back out and same thing. This time the cel went off on it's own. Third time, back to another dealership and the lead diesel tech put it through it's paces while observind a monitor of some sort. He could find no problems. The boost is great, despite the cel. The performance has never changed, it has never coughed, sputtered, hesitated, smoked or anything out of the norm. He and I had a nice discussion about the engine and he said these engines are extremely complicated and said the onboard diagnostics measure many things, including oil temp. He suggested I try motorcraft oil or Rotella T. Each time it failed, I had been towing hard and the engine was hot.
Evidently the flash disables some exhaust sensor and has something to do with California compliance. Perhaps the flash is making the diagnostics give a false reading under certain circumstances. The truck has always performed great, and despite a couple of attempts by certified techs at two different dealerships, no problem can be found. It's frustrating, but the truck is a great machine and I will follow the latest recommendations to see what happens..Hope this helps..Bob <><

 

My '04 F350 had an intermittent miss for the first 34K miles. The cel would come on and go off nearly every time a tow was involved, 20K GCVW. Dealers from CA to NY looked at it. Most had long wait times before any tech was free to actually work on it (does that tell you something?). I had it checked 15-20 times. Cel finally came on and stayed on. My local dealer finally replaced the turbo and EGR valve. Absolutely no problems for the last 5K miles. The truck is pure stock, no drive line mods of any kind. A complete set of gauges, EGR, boost, tranny and diff temp, oil pressure and oil temp. The first turbo would peg the boost at 30 psi routinely. Replacement doesn't quite hit 30 psi.

 

Oops!, should have added. My truck is an '06.


Bob <><