Cruise control not working - possible misfire/surging

[MikeR397]

I was driving 4 hours home from Pitt Race last weekend, empty tank, filled up 93 octane and within 5 minutes the car started surging while getting back on highway. It did this in all gears. It was a bit intermittent and I figured bad gas, so kept driving.

on the highway, my cruise control would not engage, hitting the button would not turn the indicator green, and if it did activate, it dropped itself out right away. At a toll, I got the wrench icon that said “see owners manual” and also a message “hill assist disabled”. The surging was not all that bad and mostly subsided so I kept driving home, cruise would not work despite restarting car a few times.

I drained all the gas and filled the tank with fresh gas. It was running smooth and cruise worked again and I scanned codes with my reader that came up empty (wrench went away). However, 1/4 a tank into the new gas today, I tried setting the cruise on the highway and it activated then kept dropping off, and now won’t activate at all. No wrench, no codes, and it’s not surging, but once in maybe 5-10 miles I feel a little “kick” as if the engine misfired.

any thoughts before I take it to the dealer? I’m concerned this might be intermittent they won’t notice the kick/surge, but not sure why cruise is not working.

Edit: car has 6800 miles, seems to run perfect if driving aggressive. The kick I notice seems during going more easy. I noticed the engine just started drinking about 1qt or more of oil per 500 miles recently, never used to consume any but have put in 2qts in the last 6 weeks now.

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[JAJ]

Here's a possibility:

 

[MikeR397]

Wow, now that is helpful!!! Thank you, will take it in and show them this.

 

[lightrules]

on a similar note, i wonder why i didnt get this TSB via email or alert? is it different from an official recall? anyway hope it works out for you.

 

[DCShelby]

Its not a recall, so they will not do it unless the problems happen.....

 

[Demonic]

Does it really only take an hour and a half to do? Seems like a job.

 

[JAJ]

Does it really only take an hour and a half to do? Seems like a job.

They have to replace the tailshaft nut at the back of the transmission - they have to take the exhaust system and the driveshaft out to access the nut, but the nut itself is only a couple of minutes work.

 

[MikeR397]

They have to replace the tailshaft nut at the back of the transmission - they have to take the exhaust system and the driveshaft out to access the nut, but the nut itself is only a couple of minutes work.

Presume you mean just mid pipes, or do the mufflers also have to come out for some reason? I ask bc i just masterfully zip tied my new awe switchpatch valve remote system all up in there ;)

 

[JAJ]

Presume you mean just mid pipes, or do the mufflers also have to come out for some reason? I ask bc i just masterfully zip tied my new awe switchpatch valve remote system all up in there ;)

As far as I know, everything from the x-pipe slip joint back is one piece, so the whole thing including the mufflers has to come off to access the driveshaft flanges.

 

[FogcitySF]

I had the same issue happen on my car pre-engine replacement. They also replaced that driveshaft sensor per the service bulletin. Even with the new engine it still had the issue. Then they said it was a bad spark plug (from the factory!!!) on the new engine (have no idea how this can happen in modern times!!!). Changed the spark plug, and still has the same issue! By that time I had lemoned the car (was on 3rd engine and was tired of this and other issues ruining my track days). I seriously think there was an issue with the wiring harness or throttle body. Despite my mentioning this, the dealer never investigated as it was not following Ford recommendations.

I have to say the dealerships are terrible when comes to diagnosis of such a high performance car and frankly, Ford Performance doesn't seem to have a handle on all the issues that are cropping up. If post the repair the issue shows up again (mine did only after about 200 miles) really push for the wiring harness/throttle body to be replaced.

 

[MikeR397]

This tsb was done (thank you so much JAJ, I am sure it would have been a wild goose hunt otherwise) and I picked the car up today. Drove straight 3.5 hrs to mansfield OH with cruise working great and no surging. Will hopefully round out a successful season of 20 or so track day’s tomorrow with the last, and my first time at, Mid Ohio with 5x25 min or more sessions .

if I don’t post any follow ups, presume this was indeed the culprit and the proper fix. The tech said the flange nut did feel “a bit loose”. It was not a small job, glad there was a TSB for sure!

edit: there were indeed no stored codes found, despite me getting the wrench icon

And fogcity I will keep your post in mind should I have further issues.

 

[Frank.Herbst]

This tsb was done (thank you so much JAJ, I am sure it would have been a wild goose hunt otherwise) and I picked the car up today. Drove straight 3.5 hrs to mansfield OH with cruise working great and no surging. Will hopefully round out a successful season of 20 or so track day’s tomorrow with the last, and my first time at, Mid Ohio with 5x25 min or more sessions .

if I don’t post any follow ups, presume this was indeed the culprit and the proper fix. The tech said the flange nut did feel “a bit loose”. It was not a small job, glad there was a TSB for sure!

edit: there were indeed no stored codes found, despite me getting the wrench icon

And fogcity I will keep your post in mind should I have further issues.

What year is you Shelby.
Thanks.

 

[MikeR397]

2017 R

 

[Tank]

This tsb was done (thank you so much JAJ, I am sure it would have been a wild goose hunt otherwise) and I picked the car up today. Drove straight 3.5 hrs to mansfield OH with cruise working great and no surging. Will hopefully round out a successful season of 20 or so track day’s tomorrow with the last, and my first time at, Mid Ohio with 5x25 min or more sessions .

if I don’t post any follow ups, presume this was indeed the culprit and the proper fix. The tech said the flange nut did feel “a bit loose”. It was not a small job, glad there was a TSB for sure!

edit: there were indeed no stored codes found, despite me getting the wrench icon

And fogcity I will keep your post in mind should I have further issues.

Congrats on the fix and thanks for letting us know

One quart of oil < 500 miles is out of spec. Did your dealer explain any of that? If you didn’t tell them, I’d get it on the record ASAP.

 

[MikeR397]

So this TSB has fixed the surging issue I had, but driving home from Gingerman yesterday, the cruise stopped engaging. It would turn on, and either refuse to set a speed or set and then drop off cruise within seconds. Later in the drive home, the cruise feature would not even turn on, and I ended up getting a wrench Icon "see manual."

Only thing of note I can add is that a large coolant hose clamp let go while I was on track and sprayed the entire system's coolant all over the engine bay and track (I re-double clamped it and filled with water and didn't have any other issues wrt to the coolant, but the engine did go into limp mode for about 20 seconds as I was pulling/coasting off the track, there is still a CEL on). I'm not sure if this would be related, cruise has worked fine for the past 6 months and on the way to the track and about 1/2 the way home before having these issues.

Just curious if there are any thoughts before I take it into the dealer?

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