I apologize in advance if this thread has been addressed and a solution posted. I looked at a couple of threads that were very similar but never did see a solution at the end. So...at the risk of being repetitive (sorry) I am starting another one in the hopes that someone out there has found a solution I can try to use to fix our problem.

We recently bought a 2013 supercrew Platinum with the 3.5 ecoboost twin turbo with 30,000 Km on it. We love the truck and bought it primarily to tow our boat as it has been touted as an absolute beast at towing.

I live in Edmonton, Alberta and every summer we tow our boat through the mountains to Kelowna, British Columbia. Our boat weighs 6,500 lbs but with all of our gear and luggage and my family of five the truck was towing around 8,500 lbs. Everything was perfect till we hit the steeper grades in the mountains. On the flat highways the truck towed like a champ, never seemed to work at all.

Once we hit the hills it was a different story. Was 34 Celcius with approx 8-12% grade. I was in tow/haul mode and only use premium fuel. About a third of the way up our first hill the dash starting flashing the "engine overheating" "reducing power to lower engine temperature" mode, I was doing about 110 km/hr the rpm's never got above 4300. All other temps (trams) etc were good. The engine temp went from normal to the red in a couple of seconds then the power was cut and I limped the truck and boat up the hill at between 60-80 km/hr. Once we hit the top of the hill the engine temp immediately returned to normal and the message on the dash disappeared. This repeated on every hill (5-6 in total).

As soon as we got to Kelowna I took it into the Ford dealer who has had experience with this on a 2011 Ecoboost and he told me there is nothing he can do for me as he replaced almost every part he could on his clients truck and nothing changed this from happening.

I now have to figure out how to get my family and boat home through the mountains. I am hoping someone else on this forum had the same problem and found a solution as I have no ideas how to resolve this. I have even created a file with the manufacturer who apparently did not give any help to this local dealer to resolve the same issue with the 2011 F150.

 

From what I remember the issue stems from the cylinder head temp sensor putting out a bad reading. The coolant temp never actually overheats. Since the truck never really ran hot no codes are thrown and the tech doesn't have much to go by. It was talked about a while back on here. I don't remember if it was all due to a faulty sensor or if computer programming was used to fix it.

 

Did you turn the AC off when it started overheating?

Maybe, perhaps there is a larger radiator that can be installed.

Maybe install a larger or additional transmission cooler. If there is a cooler in the radiator that is in series with the trans cooler, a larger trans cooler will help cool both the trans and the engine. I've seen this happen to my Mark VIII. The engine ran cooler when I installed a large trans cooler in series with the normal cooler inside the radiator.

 

^^^ the problem isn't with the coolant or trans fluid getting too hot. Both of them are staying well inside the acceptable temperature range. The issue stems from a secondary temp sensor going haywire. That's why the overtemp condition drops almost immediately once the load is reduced. That sensor is a little bit too sensitive.

 

Wookie is correct. Tranny etc were all normal. With the heavy tow package I have a tranny cooler and a secondary radiator as well. I will ask the dealership about the sensor.

My guess was that the longer hills with higher grades had the turbos working on a continual basis that caused too much heat in the engine that it could not dissipate over an extended period of the turbos working hard. Is this possible?

 

Nope, the turbos are using the heat the engine makes to spin a turbine and pump more air into the engine. The only heat they really put back into the engine is from the oil and coolant running through the hot section. If they were the problem your coolant temps would have gotten too high.

My memory seems to say there was a software update that turned the CHT sensor sensitivity down to eliminate this. It was set to be overly sensitive on some trucks. Do some searching on this issue and you'll find the answer.

 

Hey colbray,

I'm more than happy to look into this to see how I can assist. Please PM your name, VIN, current odometer reading, dealer, and best daytime phone number, and I'll get started.

Nick

 

Look up how to get into test mode on your cluster and it will show you a digital reading of your coolant temp. Watch this to see if you're actually getting the truck hot. The other thing you can do is to lock out 5th and 6th gear and let the engine spin more. That will actually help in several ways, your water pump is engine driven so the faster your engine spins the faster it pumps. Secondly, it will let the engine make more power with less boost which will lower EGTs. See what that does if your truck acts up again.

 

Wookie thank you so much. I am going to have the dealer where I am now look at the sensors as per your suggestion.

I greatly appreciate all the advice. I will let you know how it goes.

 

No problem, let us know how it goes with the dealer. I have a feeling his hands might be tied with FoMoCo as to how far he can go. The stuff in my post just above this should help on the drive home if nothing else.

The more I'm thinking about this it makes me think it's a combination of thin, hot air and low engine speed that does it. The EB makes enough power to stay in low gears when all the other engines are spinning twice as fast. Effectively every other gas engine in a half ton is pumping twice as much coolant because of their engine speeds. Drop down a couple of gears and I bet you will never have a problem. I'll try this in a few weeks when I'm in CO.

 

So what I am understanding is he needs to drive faster.

 

Seems I have had the exact same problem in the same place as you colbray. Was coming north out of Vernon last week and had the same issues except mine never did get to limp mode. It just came up on the dash as "engine overheat" and the gauge was pegged. I'm gonna get my mechanic at home to look into this CHT sensor issue. It makes perfect sense as I just had an "update" done on mine before going on this trip and it had never been touched in the past. I have also pulled the same trailer through the Okanogan and never had these issues before.

 

Let's see how I can help with this, 5land. Shoot me a PM with your name, VIN, current odometer reading, dealer, and best daytime phone number. Talk to you soon!

Nick

 

Thanks Nick. Just gonna let my local dealer take a first stab at this and see where it goes from there. I'll update once done.

 

My pleasure! I'll be here if you need anything. I look forward to your update.

Nick