Good Morning,

Just took delivery of my 2017 F250 Lariat on Friday. Immediately took it on a two hour trip to North Carolina from VA. Couple issues/concerns I have and am looking for advice.

1 - Have a vibration that appears to be tire related at 65mph. sometimes it does not start until 70mph. Saw a older post on here about the same thing, as said appears to be tire related. I have the stock Michelin Tires.

How wide spread is this and would just a simple balance take care of it?

2 - Sync 3 rebooted yesterday out of the blue when I tried to do a voice text to my phone. I would assume I need to check my version of sync and update it? Thoughts?

3 - I have a metallic burning odor in the cab after the truck comes up to temperature and I am stopped at a stop light. Smells like a new truck burning off something. Its not a diesel exhaust smell but more metallic, like the exhaust pipe getting real hot and burning of a residual newness. Anyone have this happen?

I am a little miffed at this. I traded my 2015 F250 diesel lariat in to get this truck and had ZERO problems with it, nothing. 65K for a new truck and it already needs to go back to the dealer? WTF?

Any help/experience would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

I would give the below advice regardless of brand or forum.


1. I would definitely get the tire balance checked. One thing I cannot stand is vibrations. Hopefully that cures it, but at the very least you can rule the simplest, cheapest area out, and then move on to further troubleshooting, if necessary.


2. I would just watch it. Wouldn't hurt to check to see if it has the latest flash, but a one-time reboot wouldn't cause me much grief. Inconvenient, yes. But nothing over which you should throw in the towel. If it continues with regularity then by all means get it checked.


3. In my experience, diesel or not, it's not unusual to experience these types of "aromas" on a brand new vehicles. There's always some assembly lube or similar burning off or such. I wouldn't worry about it unless it doesn't go away in the next couple hundred miles.

 

Congrats on the new truck!

For #1 - depending on how long the truck may have sat on the lot it’s not uncommon for tires to flat spot if they sit for an extended period. From my past experience the dealer will probably tell you to fill the tires to max pressure and run it like that for a couple hundred miles. If it’s flat spots often times that will take care of it and sometimes not. If not then they will decide what to do. My dealer always makes me run them for a couple hundred miles before going any further.

Can’t help you with #2 other than to say my Sync is a little flakey at times.

#3 - the burning order will probably go away after some more use. My F250 diesel was like that at first but it didn’t last long.

Good luck!

 

Burning smell will go away. The first regeneration will be particularly strong, as well. Don't sweat it. My truck did the same thing.

Sync will crash and reboot on its own from time to time. I've had it happen to me a few times. It is a computer with a processor, memory, and a program...so occasionally it has a glitch and needs to reboot. I've only had it happen a couple of times with mine. No big deal.

As for the tires...it could be a flat spot from sitting (less likely with a 10-ply tire) but have the dealer check it out.

 

Thanks guys.

I will get the dealer to check out the tires. The trip we took this weekend was 200 miles round trip. If the tires were flat spotted I would have thought that would have worked itself out then.

The burning smell is interesting in that it definitely was when the truck was at temperature and you could smell it when we were stopped at a stop light or parking lot.

Also, does these newer trucks notify you of the regen when it starts? My 2015 did and I knew how to handle it while driving in the city. I would down shift the gears to keep the RPM's up while driving around in the slower speed areas. Seemed to work well.

 

I also have a f250 Lariat 6.7. In the 8 months I've had it the sync rebooted of if the blue one time. I have the same tires and the truck rides smooth all the way to 96. I've not experienced any odors inside the cab.

 

No they do not. You can use FORScan or have your dealer enable the exhaust filter screen, which will show when the filter is full (which triggers a regen) and will also show the %Full counting down during a regen.

Best place for a regen is on the highway. Higher RPMs does not necessarily help a regen...you need heat, and highway speed in top gear is actually putting more load on the engine than using lower gears in the city. Towing is definitely the best.

 

These are pretty minor issues. I'd get the tire balance checked. The rest is a non-issue. I have also had Sync reboot once since I owned the truck.

 

Since you only seem to notice the burning smell when stopped, it could be your brake pads. Semi-metallics will do that when brand new. But if it continues, a brake pad could be dragging slightly and worth a trip to the service department.

(addendum) A dragging brake could also cause the vibration you're experiencing at highway speed.

 

Interesting.....I have a call into the dealership. I will get them to check that as well.

 

pmichael, my F-350 had 1,000 miles on it when I did my first test tow of my trailer. I thought my truck was on fire it smelled so bad. The alarming smell eventually went away. I do get some slightly unpleasant odor if the truck is going through a regen and I'm stopped. It's not an exhaust smell so I'm fairly certain it isn't an exhaust leak. There are a few members that are complaining about an exhaust smell when stopped. They are reporting that there is a loose clamp on the system that the dealers are fixing.

 

Sounds like a brake smell. Mine did it for a while and now it is just once in a while. 4500 miles so far. Tire balance or flat spot sounds like the other problem.

 

Exhaust systems make a pretty good stink. I've got it memorized from doing indoor engine installs. It's different than brakes or clutch burning smell. I'd ignore that.

Tires may be flat spotted. See if it goes away, don't dwell on it.

 

Be sure that the dealer does a road force balance on the tires. I have had a vibration from day one. Dealer balanced tires twice to no avail. I finally asked them if the did a road force balance. They said no. I raised a stink through my salesman to the service manager and they finally did the road force balance and found out that I actually had a bad tire.

 

Took my newly delivered truck back to my dealer and they recommended that they road balanced the tires. Sure enough, that fixed my vibration.

I too had the bad smell when new. After a few hundred miles the smell dissipated and I haven't smelled it since. To me, it smelled like burning plastic. It was more than likely the regen cycle.