I guess my vacation could have been worse (problems on road trip)

[sirben711]

I went on a 5k mile road trip over the past two weeks seeing difference cities and national parks. It was great...except for two problems I encounter with my ecoboost. I would like your opinion on what you think was happening.

1. About half way through my trip I arrive in Las Vegas on a +95 degree day. Traffic was awful around the strip and I was struck in traffic for at least an hour. The car, never failed on me, but it really was not liking the stop and go traffic. The engine felt like it wanted to die and under idling conditions stared to vibrate the whole car. I got worried and started to check the gauges on the setting screens. Heads, coolant and trans were all normal temps - but inlet air temp was ranging form 140-160. I suspect the engine was pulling timing due to the heat. I will also note that when I turned off the AC, the car felt better (but I felt worse!) in terms of power and vibrations. After getting out of traffic things went back to normal.

2. More concerning was what happened next. Two days and 700 miles after leaving Vegas I am in Utah on a nice 65 degree morning heading east on Highway 70 going uphill passing traffic at about 75mph. All of the sudden two warnings pop up on my dash - Service Vehicle Soon and Pre-Collision assist not available. The car stops making power and feels super weak. I start checking temps and stuff and all appear normal except for the boost gauge. The boost gauge wouldn't go above 2psi with lots of throttle (because I need to apply more to compensate for lack of power in the traffic conditions). I pull over to the side of the road, pop the hood and look for anything out of the ordinary but everything looks normal. I turn the car off and back on again. Same messages and lack of power. I get my Pro Cal 3 out to scan for codes - BUT NOTHING CAME UP. NO CODES AT ALL. I try reading codes AGAIN and still get nothing, but I decide to use the clear DTC feature just in case. I turn the car back on again and everything was back to normal.

-Was this limp mode? If so, why did it happen? Why were no codes stored/readable to my Pro Cal 3?
-Do you think it just didn't like me accelerating in 10th gear, at 75mph, while going up a hill? So I stopped me form doing so?
-Did LSPI occur? I the engine was perfectly smooth and never made any weird noises.

Edit: I forgot to add, I got a notification on my phone about the Pre-Collision assist not being available. But nothing about the Service Vehicle Soon.


What do you think? The second event is what I am truly worried about. The car is stock except for Ford Performance tune installed by a Ford Dealer over 6 months ago.

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[Fury_Sauce]

Sounds like boost leak, check Wastegate, check clamps (charge pipes) and make sure that your turbo is not leaking oil around it.

if PSI does not go past 2 or so, sounds like the waste gate may be faulty

 

[sirben711]

Sounds like boost leak, check Wastegate, check clamps (charge pipes) and make sure that your turbo is not leaking oil around it.

if PSI does not go past 2 or so, sounds like the waste gate may be faulty

That's what I thought too at first. But as soon as I "cleared" the nonexistent codes - to get ride of the "service engine soon" message. And boost came back.

Everything is normal now. But I still have no idea why it happened.

 

[Fury_Sauce]

That's interesting - Likely a temporarily issue, if you have a ford oriented DTC scanner, you should be able to read the ford hidden codes that would likely register an error to the PCM and give us a better idea - Did you verify for any misfires by any chance?

 

[sirben711]

That's interesting - Likely a temporarily issue, if you have a ford oriented DTC scanner, you should be able to read the ford hidden codes that would likely register an error to the PCM and give us a better idea - Did you verify for any misfires by any chance?

I didn't hear or feel any...though, that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

But it really bothers me for the lack of codes.

I doubt it was altitude or gas related - because later that day on the same tank of gas I made it to 10,000 feet with no problems.

 

[Adam the Lighting Guy]

I also have an EB, 2020 that does the vibration thing with the A/C on at idle. I'm in S.Florida so the air is on 9 months of the year. I brought the car to the dealer it was purchased from and without any CEL's, there was nothing they said could be done. If the car's idle speed with air on could be bumped up 100 or so RPM, it would make it go away.

 

[Ecto1]

I'm not familiar with the "Pro Cal 3" Scan Tool but ... Make sure that whatever scan tool you use can actually communicate with all of the computer modules in the car. Most of the hobbyist scan tools can only read "Generic OBD II" codes. These are primarily emissions codes only. Anything important are vehicle specific and the hobbyist scan tools are worthless. The professional scan tools that are WAY too expensive for my budget can & will read all the computers in the car. My guess is that your scan tool can't read everything it needs to. On the bright side there's a category of codes referred to as "History" DTCs. Even after you clear the codes there may be a record of it in the "History" DTCs. This depends on whether your scan tool has the capability to clear "History" codes or not. Most hobbyist scan tools do not. So if you can get access to a professional scan tool you may be able to find out if there are any "History" DTCs related to your problems. Here's hoping.

The only place I know for sure you'll get access to a professional tool is at a automotive repair shop. Doesn't have to be a Dealer shop but an automotive repair shop will be able to read any and all codes from the car. It may cost you a few bucks to have it scanned but if you can't find any answers elsewhere I would give it a try. I haven't found any of the scanners at the automotive parts stores to be any better than the hobbyist scan tools.

 

[Eyesac]

May be unrelated, but I also drove to Vegas once, and day 2 down there, my car freaked out in a similar way. Whole dash lit up, with messages about what was no longer available (no ABS, Traction, etc., Cruise Control stopped working, no outside air temp display on the dash) and then went away for the rest of the trip. When I checked, there were zero engine codes. Turned out it was a rear wheel speed sensor that was touching the tone ring because the hub was bad. It happened two more times after that and the list of things that stopped working were different each time...?

 

[sirben711]

May be unrelated, but I also drove to Vegas once, and day 2 down there, my car freaked out in a similar way. Whole dash lit up, with messages about what was no longer available (no ABS, Traction, etc., Cruise Control stopped working, no outside air temp display on the dash) and then went away for the rest of the trip. When I checked, there were zero engine codes. Turned out it was a rear wheel speed sensor that was touching the tone ring because the hub was bad. It happened two more times after that and the list of things that stopped working were different each time...?

I cant remember if my dash lights lit up... its been almost a year and has not happened since..

 

[K4fxd]

Get forscan. If it happens again hook it up and scan for codes before you shut off the car.

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