Looks like i have the EGR coolant hose leaking. It left a puddle about 2 months ago. wasnt sure what it was but coolant was low. mechanic checked everything out and all he found was low coolant. Topped it off. I just checked again today and coolant is low again. so im pretty sure that is what it is. Trouble is my 04 CC Lariat is at 105K miles now so the warrenty is expired. Any body have an extimated cost to fix this since from what ive read it is about a 4 hour job which includes removing the turbo. normally id wrench this myself but i just dont have the time anymore.

AZChris

 

This happened to me also, I purchased the part for $29.00 however, I was scheduled to handle some work issues and couldn't gamble with having my truck down longer than needed given my novice on the repair so I let them handle it.

They quoted me roughly $200-$250 to install a $29.00 part (doh!). After all was said and done it was little over $200.00 minus the part. I received the do it yourself method and it looked like a reasonable repair, search the forms, its quoted on how to do it a couple of places by cutting the hose and slipping it off. I spoke to the tech and he done it the ford way (proper) he removed the turbo pedestal yadda,yadda.. and like he said may happened, happened.. stripped some bolts on the pedestal. He stated its a wrestling job. After listening to him, I felt I made the right choice by letting them do it. Not to mention the part and labor is warranted for one year nation wide. Being I too am out of warranty, thats a good thing.

Good luck, during this cold weather the hose will shrink and expose the crack which will make it leak more than in summer when its parked and cools down. This also may be a good time to do a coolant flush and/or any coolant maint if your in the need and more than likely the dealer will re-cycle the coolant and use tap water to top it off if needed, which from what many on here on say, is not good.

Reply back once completed and lets compare costs... JD

 

Finally got my truck into the dealer. Havent heard back yet for sure what they found. but preliminary is EGR Cooler Hose, which is what i suspect. Though they mentioned that there might be a head gasket leak.

My question is what diagnostic test should they run to confirm a head gasket leak. I want to make sure they are not just running up my bill with things that it could be and fix them all.

My truck is an 04 F-350 Lariat CC. 4" turbo back banks exhaust. receintly been running ASE and Extreme Tow from Matt at Spartan. Ive had no loss of power and no smoke in the exhaust and great fuel economy running the tunes.

Thanks

AZChris

 

Do you smell coolant while stopped at a stop sign or driving slow after a run on the freeway? Can you see water dropplets around the Degauss bottle? Does your truck over heat easily or run at a higher temp? Can you hear a whistling noise while driving? Do you here hissing noises around the turbo area after you have turned off the motor? These are symptoms I had when my head gaskets blew. Hope this helps.

 

Another thought, you might want to PM Blackhat620... his location says Arizona. Maybe he might know of a reputable dealer in the Pheonix area. It's worth a try.

 

to check for hg's pressurize the coolant system with a tester and see if it goes down. If it does then it is one of two things, cracked egr cooler or blown hg's. Also blocking off the egr gets rid of a lot of probs.

 

jmaskew

Pretty much no to all of those questions. No coolant smell, no the only thing l have so far is losing coolant (degas bottle is down on coolant after a week or so of driving. and the one time it puked a bunch of coolant on the passenger side of the truck one time.

I should know this morning on what they say. ill keep you all informed when i hear

AZChris

 

Just got the call from the service writer. ECR Cooler hose which i pretty much expected. But he also said I have a leak at the oil cooler. Is this common? so the damage is going to be about $2600. ouch. is there anything else i should be concerned about. They said though that they couldnt get the head gasket to fail. (small miracle).

AZChris

 

I'm curious - what was the condition of your coolant before you took it in? Was it clean or a bit on the murky side? If the latter, it could have been the contributing factor to both the EGR cooler and the oil cooler failing due to low flow/high heat.

Mark

 

When you get your truck back order the dieselsite filter. With the shut off valves and the filter kit I paid $149.00 but well worth the investment if you plan on keeping the truck. If you don't have gauges I would get some. I am buying 1 gauge at a time and installing them in a quad overhead pod. So far I have a 40 psi boost gauge and a Water Temp gauge. I am saving up for an EGT gauge right now. Just my 2 cents. Good news on the head gaskets, that would have been at least another $3,000.

 

Mark

Not sure if the coolant was murky. but i dont think so. When it puked the coolant, it did not appear murky. Wasnt sure what it was when it was on my driveway, too oily.

I just got a fax of the repair order. They are replacing both the EGR cooler and The Oil cooler. The repair order indicated the oil cooler is restricted. They recommend replacing both coolers. Does the EGR cooler get restrictions causing replacement?

Second question for the Techs out there. I am having them replace the serpentine belt at the same time. they are charging me 1 hour labor for that. Would the belt have to be removed to R/R the two coolers anyway or am i just picking nits.

Also they are replacing the degas bottle. do these go bad at 100K miles?

 

I'd suggest once you get it back to fully flush the cooling system and put a filter in. The oil cooler resriction is a by-product of "gunk" in the cooling system. It in turn restricts coolant flow to the downstream egr cooler and it then overheats/fails.

Mark

 

By the way, i do have gagues installed, pyro, tranny temp, and boost. Never obeserved an overheat problem, but this is arizona and i tow sometimes in the summer. I have already ordered the coolant filter kit from dieselite with extra filters. That will be installed next weekend.

I pretty much understand how the oil cooler can clog up and fail (my source is the 6.0L bible), but I'm still having a hard time understanding how the EGR Cooler can overheat and fail. Isnt it opposing flows of Exhaust gas and coolant. Or what am i not understanding on it

 

coolant first flows to the oil cooler. From there, it flows to the EGR cooler. If the oil cooler is restricted, then you get reduced coolant flow to the EGR cooler, contributing to the overheating/failure of the EGR cooler.

Hope that helps.

Also, when I got my filter from dieselsite, I got some of the RMI-25 to help clean the system out. I ran that a bit, allowing the filters to catch "whatever", and then flushed the system with distilled water, and went to Delo ELC coolant. My choice of coolant vs what Ford recommends has been debated, but I would recommend the same process. 50k miles later my coolant is still clear.

Mark

 

I did have the coolant changed at 50k miles. currently have 105k miles. my order form dieselite inculded the rmi-25 and multiple filters. looks like a pretty easy install. since they are having to drain the coolant and oil for the install, i should be in pretty good shape when i get it back.

AZChris