I finally got an audience with the service manager and the diesel tech at the local dealer ship. Actually, they agreed to take a ride with me while I towed some of my heavier loads. I held them hostage, and told them they weren't getting out of my truck until it acted up with them in it. Every time since new, they have driven the truck and have been unable to duplicate my symtoms. Before even starting the truck, the tech had pulled two codes, a P0341 (camshaft sensor) and a P0478 (exhaust pressure).

They best part of the whole thing, within 15 minutes of leaving the shop, the truck was going through its routine. At least now, they do not believe I am crazy. The explanation the tech gave me is the turbo may be sticking (see P0478), and then releasing after overboosting. When the plate or cam or whatever it is releases, it goes to far in the opposite direction and dumps boost in the intake. This happens repeatedly some times as the gate starts oscillating.

Anyway, the truck is scheduled to go in tomorrow and they will check out the turbo and other parts and pieces to determine if something is sticking, not functioning, or just worn out. The tech did say a turbo replacement is a common fix for this problem. Only time will tell, and fords approval to allow them to work on the truck/change parts.

I am really curious if what they are telling me is legit? And second, my truck is over the original 36k warranty. But the symtoms have been plaging this truck since new, they just havn't been able to duplicate or diagnose it. Should I be expected to pay the $100 service charge typical of just the engine warranty?

My original post is as follows:
I havn't posted on this site for some time. I had just chosen to live with my bad luck, but this last episode is to much. I have had many problems with my latest 6.0, a 2005. Check back in the posts and you should be able to find a pretty complete list. One of the most annoying problems originally was a bucking and jerking the truck would go through when the truck was going about 65 mph @ 1700 rpm, and under load, such as going up a hill. This has been a problem since the truck was new, Ford even sent two engineers out to drive the truck. They left, and I quote the service manager "They were estatic. They have had reports of this same problem and have been unable to duplicate it while they had recorders in the truck, they were jumping up and down whith joy." Well, it is 4 yrs and several attempts later, and the truck still does it to some extent. I havn't done any towing until now with it due to other life committments. Well, this weekend I towed about 13,000#'s. At 65 mph, the truck went into its bucking phase. I didn't want to go faster, so my only choice was to slow down. Then, when returning home Sunday evening, on the interstate, NOT over a pass, just a little hill, the truck engine temp. shot up off the guage, and then the dash came out with a warning to check engine temp. Up to this point, the temp stayed miday between the cold and hot areas on the guage. Previously when towing with the truck and pulling a pass, the truck would kick in the cooling fan and scream from the cooling fan. This time the fan would start out screaming, last for a short time and shut down to be followed by a high pitched wistle. This repeated itself maybe a half dozen times before the temp guage went balistic. I did back off the throttle when the guage was that high, and coasted to the top of the hill, and then coasted down the other side. Within about 1/2 mile, the temp was reading normal again and never did overheat again. Does anyone have any ideas as to what this may be. The local ford dealership just tells me they can't find anything wrong, and until ford comes up with a reflash, they can't help me.

BTW, truck is completely stock.

Just a footnote, the truck had no code for overheating, and the tech indicated the truck should show overheating if the sensor saw 232 degrees. He thinks some fluke signal may have caused the guage and information center to show a temporary over temp without actually seeing any high temps. Any Thoughts? Could there be a problem with the code generator since this is the first time the truck has actually left any code for their code reader to read?

 

I'm thinking possibly two things here. Turbo as the tech suspects, and maybe some kind of wiring problem. Broken/chaffed fan wire or something related to the temp. sensor giving a false signal to the PCM. The cam position sensor code is probably due to something else being out of operating range.....they very very rarely go bad. If you have documentation that it's been a problem since the truck was new then I'd fight the $100 deductable as long as I could, but be prepared to pay it anyway.