My wife drives a 2003 Passat with a Turbo. There is nothing visible from the outside that it has an intercooler, not extra opening, etc.
We have bought the car new 9 years ago, and now after 93K miles, there has not been a single issue with the engine or intercooler.
But hey, I have not seen the issue with my truck either. Living in the pacific NW, one would think it has to be really bad here in the winter months with all the moisture and rain, but apparently not .... ? Maybe the temps are not high enough when it's wet, I don't know.

Now u know exactly where I am at as that is what ford did to thousands of 5.4 owners on a design flaw and would not help at all:-drink

What was the design flaw (I am new to Ford)? Would an extended warranty have helped? Did they eventually come out with a fix, just too late for you?

If so, then I am surprised you are still here, with a Ford. :)

Ford made it's blunders with the 6.8L, 5.4L and the 6.0L Powerstroke. All issues were eventually re-engineered and fixed but many customers got screwed pretty bad with having to pay for broken plugs, spitting plugs, diesel issues that should never have happened, etc, etc.

IMHO there was not one reasonable excuse for a single one of these issues and for a customer to have to come off the hip big to make the repair.

Does Ford keep a lessons learned folder? I'm not an engineer but, I rode Naval and Coast Guard ships for 24 years. At a minimum we kept very good records of things that worked and thing that did'nt, re-inventing the wheel can be painful.

Tseekins explained it real well, he is a fair and balanced guy and covered it all, I may very well not be back to ford next time I still have my 04 5.4 and have all issues fixed at considerable cost and am at 70K so am hoping for another year then will make a change.. I am also in the PNW close to u I suspect u may not have intercooler troubles like they have in hot humid climates keep fingers crossed:-drink

I think you might be right about this, a friend of mine has an Eco with 6000 miles on it and he hasn't had any problems yet. He doesn't run his truck hard all the time, but he gets on it more than most people would.

On a side note, I rode in his truck for awhile yesterday(in the rain) and he got on it a few times to show me how much power it has and I couldn't believe how much it goes. His truck is a Scab 4x4 with 3.31 gears and it easly blows away my 5.4 with 3.73's. He did a full throttle take off and we were up to 70 faster than any stock truck I've been in before.

I don't know. I did "baby" my truck for the past two weeks and about 250 miles to see if the issue would show up, but it has not.
As a result, I have averaged 19.1 mpg over those 250 miles, probably 50% highway 50% city, believe it or not. I am very surprised myself what you can do when hypermiling this truck, but I think I'll stop this insanity and have some fun again .... :) Not sure if I used my brakes at all during this, need to check if they still work, LOL.

i'm not willing to compare 250 miles over 2 weeks to 250 miles over 3.5hrs.

this problem seems to turn up with sustained driving, particularly in high humidity conditions.

i dont know if you guys are used to the vast open spaces we have here, but when we "go somewhere" we might have the cruise set at 70 for 6 or 7 hours straight, usually with only one stop to fuel or de-water, on an 8 hour drive we might stop twice, but that's it.

how many start/stops did you have in that 2 week period? I'm talking about 2. And i think that is what keeps the intercoolers "cleared out". heck, even a short drive around here is 20minutes of highway/interstate with only one start/stop .... it's pretty open for the most part.

i don't think this problem would ever turn up in a truck that only puts on 250 miles in 2 weeks ... not to offend, just that type of use does not lend itself to this type of problem, the way i see it anyway.

You could be right, I sure hope so. Yep, in those 250 miles (that mileage for me was low, too, for a two week period) I had significantly more stops than 2, LOL. Probably 20+.
Anyway, no problem here, and I hope it stays that way! :-X22

Just a couple hundred miles short of 15,000 miles on my Ecoboost...driving in all kinds of weather and conditions here in the midwest...I've never experienced this with my Ecoboost.

ok guys ive been doing some thinking and looking around the same theory used for air compressor lines to keep moisture out of your tools from the compressor could work if plumbed in right after the intercooler couldnt it? Check out the link the 2nd one down uses 2" fittings not totally sure thats large enough but how am i as far as theory and a starting place... Air Filter,Humid Air Filter,Air Filter Manufacturer,Air Filter from HYDINT

The issue is that those dessicant units cannot flow nearly enough air to work in the engine's environment. I bet the engine (at peak) requires roughly 700 to 800 CFM at full boost (assuming ecoboost maxes out at 14.7 psi). Those dessicant units can't handle anywhere near that capacity. The oil separators/dessicant filters used at my job's bus fleets are incredibly huge compared to those units and that's just for the onboard air compressors which don't flow anywhere near as much air as an engine would. However, the theory is sound, it's just that you can't find the dessicant filtration units that can flow that much air. I used to own a saturn sky before owning my 10' f150, GM added a little rubber hose on the bottom of the intercoolers. This hose was easily detacheable so you could drain out any moisture the intercooler collects real easily. I also wonder if the design of the intercooler for the EB engines encourages condensation. seems like the airflow would be really slowed near the top of the intercooler if there are no internal baffles in the end tanks. This would give the air more opportunity to sweat the moisture onto the relatively cool intercooler.

so essentially Ford would need to design their own water separator that would work or it would come down to making my own if i couldnt find one. Why couldn't we just drill and tap a whole in the bottom of the intercooler near the outlet pipe with a nipple to a catch pan of sorts that we would just drain periodically?

That would work as well. That's essentially what GM did with a rubber hose at the bottom of their intercooler (except no catch tank, just an easy to disconnect hose to drain it out), but you introduce more failure points into the intake system. If things are done right, it shouldn't be an issue. The thing is, I never had much in any way of buildup in the intercooler on that car, and the intercooler was only about 12" by 36". So it didn't have the tall rise that the ecoboosts' intercooler has. I'm wondering if the tall rise with the slower air at the top of the intercooler causes any phenomenon like more condensation. I'm betting that the slower air up top spends more time cooling, which means more opportunity for moisture to fall-out of the air. Because of the short stature and location of the pipes on the end tanks of the intercooler on my sky, air pretty much rushed evenly over the intercooler (no slow areas) so I never had much in the way of moisture buildup with that car. I'm pretty sure the big 3's HD diesel trucks tend to have the piping at the center of the intercoolers to have more even air flow and avoid a condensation issue. I know the Ram does this and I recall Chevy doing this as well. The Ford has a water to air unit so it isn't as big of a concern since the air flow through a fat core twice, very little area to flow through, so I doubt there's any relatively slow areas on the intercooler.

your theory washes with ford's TSB fix. IIRC, for the trucks affected, the TSB installs a shroud over the top half of the intercooler. To me this is a pretty poor fix. It may stop the problem, for the reasons you mention, but it is also reducing the efficiency of the intercooler in order to achieve that goal.

backwards thinking, in my book. the moisture problem is a sign that the intercooler is working very well. reducing efficiency of the intercooler is the wrong answer.

if one who did not drive often came in to complain about his fuel going stale in the tank(think chevy volt), would they fix that by reducing the fuel efficiency of the engine? engine uses more fuel, customer's fuel does not go stale in the tank .... fixes the problem in much the same way, IMO anyway.

I expect better.

a much better fix, and easy to implement, would be an electrically controlled drain valve. truck shuts off, drain opens to let water out. truck turns on, valve shuts to keep boost in.

this isn't rocket science.

heck, they could even have that fancy computer control the valve, and tell the truck to purge the valve under boost, which would be very effective at removing moisture.

like i said, i expect better. .. that's all

ok guys been working through diagrams, in theory only, on a repair for the best fix to make a repair to this with some friends who are techs at different dealerships. we are thinking that if we take the intercooler and invert it keeping it in its same current location so that the inlet is at the bottom and the outlet at the top then water build ups would stay at the bottom of the intercooler because there is not enough force to drive it upwards into the engine so it would only draw clean air with minimal moisture into the throttle body. we dont know will the boost be enough to push the water up into our outlet piping? what do yall think?

Yesterday we had a storm that dumped on average of 3 inches of rain per hour for several hours. Add that to the natural tidal surge that exists on the coast and you have extreme flooding.

I had to go to work yesterday since the mail seems to stop for nothing and I was literally plowing water for my entire 15 miles drive. I was going slow but made better speed when conditions permitted.

This thread had me quite concerned for my truck but I didn't experience any symptoms of any kind.

Was I lucky? Is the problem not actually that widespread? I don't know. I sure hope that a solution presents itself so everyone who has had symptoms can get a fix and those of us who haven't can get some preventative action.

The condensation in the intercooler isn't through water ingestion through the intake (although you can still damage a vehicle by sucking in water through the intake which is right above the driver side headlight), it's due to humidity in the air and the ability of the air to "Sweat" the water inside the intake. Seems to happen only in certain situations, most likely when humidity is high and the dew point is relatively high as well. I'm no meteorologist, so I can't dive into it any deeper than that.

I think this is to the point. It seems to happen when the dew point is close to the temp, not really related to moisture in the air or water intake only. That's why I have not seen this problem even in the wet NW winter here.

Yes sir, thanks for clearing that up but, this guy https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-ecoboost.html had an issue while raining that presented the same symptoms as high humidity and condensation buildup.

My knowledge on the intricacies of intercoolers is sub par to carry on a fluent conversation but we have the same symptoms caused by two related sources of moisture.

This has been a great thread, I hope it stays rolling till Ford finds a fix.

any thoughts on my last post with the idea to invert the intercooler so the inlet is at the bottom and outlet at the top so water sitting at the bottom stays and doesnt get sucked up all at once into the motor?

It has merit, but condensation could eventually pile up enough as you'll still have a slow-air zone, you could possibly be excacerbating the situation as well, as the slow-air zone will now have more air flowing over it to cool the air charge and cause the air to sweat more moisture. You'd have to deal with draining it eventually as well. Then you have the intake plumbing to deal with. I think the earlier idea of just a quick-drainage fitting (like an air tight fumoto type deal) would work pretty well, just drain every oil change or so. I wonder what would happen if you changed out the end tanks and had it so the air entered closer to the middle of the intercooler. Maybe add a little baffling in the end tanks to more-evenly distribute the air to begin with.

This was the same problem on the '08 Ford 6.4 PSD. Water collected in the Air Charge Cooler. The new Ford 6.7 PSD corrected this problem by using a water cooled turbo air cooler vs. the old air cooled design (same design as in the 3.5 EcoBoost).

I imagine Ford is working on a solution but it may be rolled out in the next major engine udpate just like on the diesel engines.

I've had this problem with my 09 F350 Lariat SRW Crew Cab 4x4 about a year ago. I found an older TSB on this site addressing the problem. The fix was to replace the "Cold Air Condensor". I took it to a dealer with the TSB in hand (I'd had it there several times before and was told they couldn't find the problem). They replaced the CAC and it cured the problem.......until about a month ago, It has started doing it again. Usually after a long run at a steady speed (Interstate), damp, rainy weather. When I slow down or stop then re accelerate to highway speed it would cough, spit, stumble at near full throttle blowing white smoke (I think it is steam) out the exhaust. I was pulling my 14k# 5th wheel.
I haven't taken it back to the dealer yet for this. I've just turned over 41k miles. Other than this I haven't had any problems with my truck. Been thinking real hard about tune/DPF Delete, but think I'll wait till the powertrain warranty is gone.

I'm following this issue. Wanting an EB.
Does anybody have a pic of the intercooler area with and without the deflector thingy?

I have a 2011 EB that just started having similar issues as described throughout this post. A while back I had an issue with the turbo's cycling on/off at lower speed with load which was resolved with a TSB. Everything has been fine until recently. Issue appears while cruising at 70-75 or so and you give it a little more gas to increase speed (not stomping on it). You can feel it surging almost like it did with the previous low speed turbo cycling issue, this time only at the higher speeds. I live in MA and it was a humid summer here. I don't do a lot of highway, mostly cruising, city driving and drive moderate to save fuel.

I don't want to get the TSB performed for this issue because I don't want them to reduce power (why the heck are they doing that to resolve issue...I bought it for the power!!).

My question is, after reading all the posts...has anyone taken the bottom intercooler hose off and attempted to suck out the water with a shop vac? Any other attempts to "fix" it yourself without voiding warranty (meaning, no major mods)?

Update...
I just looked at the TSB for this and it says:"Some 2011-2012 F-150 vehicles built on or before 5/24/2012 and equipped with a 3.5L gasoline turbocharged direct injection (GTDI) Ecoboost engine exhibit a steady or flashing malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) with various diagnostic trouble codes (DTC) and drivability concerns."

My truck was built in Sept 2011...does this mean this issue does not apply to me and the issue I'm having is different??

the issue is really simple, air passes through intercooler and as it cools the moisture comes out of it (condensation) and while at low rpm (cruising) that moisture instead of going through the engine with the air and burning through as it would in any engine when its humid out actually pools in the bottom of the intercooler. Now after a long period of low rpm in an enviroment that causes this issue you developed a pool of water, the next time you get on the gas the greater movement of air pushes that water into the engine causing it to sputter.

I've read that it may be only 10% of ecoboost owners that develop the issue because the enviroment that creates it isnt very common across the US... probably doesnt help that it was tested by ford in freezing temps and dry desert (low amount of water in the air), but the other issue is once a good bit of water gets in there if enough gets in it can cause a bad enough misfire to set off a code that can have the computer try to put the motor in limp mode and back off power to protect it and when that happens you have a computer backing off power and turbos trying to make it which can cause some pretty pretty noticeable surging

Some people simply get on the gas let that water get through the motor and once its pushed through you're good to go like normal its just a matter of getting through all that water in there first. Another suggestion I was given was adding water out into your gas that way the water out comes into the cylinder with the gas and the water that came in with the air burns right through in the cylinders no issue.

your's is under the TSB since it was built prior to may 24 2012.

Thanks FordMan...boy I must have been somewhere else when I posted that last part...got my dates all mixed up :-banghead

Ok so if you have a build date of August 2012 then maybe they cleared this issue up??

It doesn't get much more humid than Florida. As part of the initial testing, Ford pulled an 11,000lb trailer around Daytona for 24 straights hours at WOT.

Then the truck was driven back to the west coast. Clearly these tests were more about mechanical endurance an advertising than anything, but, Ford created endless opportunities to produce this symptom. I would love to believe that they addressed it and this is not a wide spread issue.

I've taken four 400 mile round trips this year in all weather, day / night / extremely humid and have not experienced any of these issues. :confused:

Great points....I think the WOT may have a lot to do with Ford not seeing this issue IMO. As I posted earlier, I was having possibly some of the symptoms of this issue. After I posted that, I went out and drove my truck again, this time (and for the first time since I've owned the truck) I mashed the right pedal to the floor a couple of times. After I recovered my face from an ear to ear smile...I noticed that there was a cloud of steam that came out the first time I held her at WOT. After which I did not notice any more "steam" and my truck actually seemed to drive a lot better. SO...as mentioned in some other posts, it appears that if I indeed had some condensation buildup, givin' her the WOT from a dead stop cleared it out. Hope this helps...

They will have a new designed Intercooler out very soon.

At least with in the next 4yrs or so, that would be soon in fords world..

From what I have heard, the TSB they came out with does not really fix the issue, but reduces power under certain conditions and makes the issue *less likely* to occur. That's what they are putting on the new trucks.

That would be good...hopefully it won't affect the performance at all. Let us know if you happen to hear any other updates...

My 2011 had this issue early August while towing a heavy load. though I was driving on the harshest runble strips! It was missing that bad. Infact when running in park would miss so bad the tailpipe would almost smack the rear fender!

Reflash, and new 'shield' installed couple days later and since no issues... Knock on wood.

Sounds like an excellent answer to the problem. Just one problem. Sounds like it will cost Ford too much to implement. You're talking structural mods, electronic mods, and even coding mods. On a truck by truck basis for a recall that would cost the company a ton = it ain't gonna happen. What pisses me off is that they could have figured that out and implemented it within the first few years the ecoboost was built. I'm pissed because I just got the 4th year (if I'm correct in saying the ecoboost was made in '09), and they still haven't adapted the engine for this. Like you...I expect a helluva lot better than the current state of things.

The 09-10 have the 5.4 and 4.6. Not sure when the ecoboost came out in the cars.

I hate it when they bandaid things!