Houston-we've lost the computer

[no-red 6 0]

Update: I got no phone call from dealer man today, so at 5 to 5 I called and said 'sup'. He says and I quote "we are waiting on a call from our parts supplier on when the new computer will arrive." Wha Wha What? my computer is toast. Not reading/working as it should - he says. Could take a day could take a week.

Has anyone elses 'puter puked? Heard of such thing? The sensors they replaced yesterday and today 'supposedly' are fine but the computer no worky. I don't get it. Did it just go bad all of a sudden or been going bad over the coarse of time or just not somthing they didn't catch 10k ago. Of course I will be asking those ?? to him too.
Secondly, they are blaming the fuel up here - a 30 cetane rating or worse. All because we are a farming state and need to put so much canola in the fuels to appease the farmers - so the answer I was told yesterday. And this is MY fault and I need to suffer because of it? Again, I don't understand. Mechanic told me yesteray that they have (in the past, and could to me) taken a new fuel tank off of lot truck just in from Detroit and swapped it, and NO smokability issues. Says Detroit fuels are way better than ours. Again HUH.

Calgon take me away!

 

[fordtrucker4life!]

Only the best fuels come to the motor city.

 

[powerboatr]

wow
they must have one helluva "smoke-up-your-butt" machine where you are?

you just have all the great luck with your truck
computer and now lower grade fuel sheeeeezzzzz
run forest run, somebody in your service department is on CRACK/METH/LSD

so does your fuel vendor stand by his fule quality ?????
merrrrrryyyy christmas

are yu sure you didnt date the service writers daughter or leave her at the beach ????

 

[no-red 6 0]

are yu sure you didnt date the service writers daughter or leave her at the beach ????

i have no recollection of that sir!

you bring up a good point robert - i should go to my fueling station and poke around a bit. and a thought just NOW fell into my head. they advertise on the radio about their fuel not causing any engine problems and if so they'll pay for the repair....HUH, think i ought a check it out.

 

[no-red 6 0]

The latest!!

is leading me to

The service guy called to day to say the pcm is out to lunch. Doesn't know when it wil be in and i could come pick up the truck and they would call me when it comes in. Trying to get information out of this guy is like pulling teeth. He is a personable as a wet napkin. He wouldn't tell me much. Soooo, I called the serv. mgr. who has since been promoted to another dealership to look into the situation. He contacted the tech. and got the skinny.

The MAP & MAF were replaced and once each was replaced the other failed or would not operate properly. He called FORD and they told him to replace the PCM. Of which my buddy said would probably be in tomorrow. I think. It is on back-order!! In this case, back-order means that the PCM is 1 of 3 parts that is not stocked anywhere, it must be ordered and programmed at FOMOCO w/ your trucks specific info. on it. In my buddies 4.5+ years this is only the 2nd pcm to be replaced. If the replacement of that does not solve the problem, my buddy said he has no clue as to where to turn next short of getting the FOMOCO guy to come down and see the truck. DEJA VU!!

Note to Powerboatr: I went to my fuel station to speak to the mgr. who said she'd take my name/# and would have a fuel tech. from the plant to call me. I spoke w/ this guy for 45 minutes and the short version is all fuel comes at a ~30 rating (every state). The statement about 45 in Detroit is untrue. However, I could get fuel at the big rig isle (premium) which is ~40-42. UMM DUH. I guess they don't post that on the public bulletin board. How the H E double L do we (the diesel general public) know that there are 2 different fuels. You can bet that I will be trying that + adding the cetane boost to see what that does for me. Call me crazy but I had no idea that 2 different fuels existed. I thought diesel was diesel - just a spot for big rigs to fuel and a spot for us little people. Even my buddy ser. mgr. did not know that...

They did however do the latest update to the injectors - upon shut down they de-fuel to purge out the fluid in the reservior - as to help starts/cold starts. It was funny to hear when I shut down. The injector pump ran for the count of 34-35 seconds. Not very loud but you can definately hear it. I did not think they would do it seeing as the new pcm was not in yet.

They other day when I went to see my service mgr. friend - got a tour of his new place and the shop - saw a big green banner for nitrogen filled tires. He then showed me the $17,000 machine. Told me to stop by when I get my truck back that he'd fill'em for freeeeeee. He said it takes out the tire roll and road noise. He said he did it to his car and it is like nite and day. Can't wait to try it out. He also said that his place and his old place are the only 2 in the state doing it. Figured they would get in on the ground floor b4 everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

More later, after whatever gets done!

 

[the_hammer]

similar PCM issue

I have an 06 PSD and with 2500km on it the computer died. Granted it took the dealership 2 weeks to figure this out. The fight with Ford was on, and my dealer was eager to please, so they pulled a PCM out of a truck on the lot and put it in mine. So that's BS about having to be programmed at the factory.

 

[Kleetus]

I'm still giggling about the Nitrogen tires... they're ready filled 70% of the way now with nitrogen. If someone would do a set of my tires for free I'd try it, but there's no way in teh world I'd pay any money to have it done specifically.

I can't believe they are that clueless on if the computer works or not. Jeeze... give me a plain old mechanical pump then, they can't screw that up can they?

 

[dpantazis]

:Note to Powerboatr: I went to my fuel station to speak to the mgr. who said she'd take my name/# and would have a fuel tech. from the plant to call me. I spoke w/ this guy for 45 minutes and the short version is all fuel comes at a ~30 rating (every state). The statement about 45 in Detroit is untrue. However, I could get fuel at the big rig isle (premium) which is ~40-42. UMM DUH. I guess they don't post that on the public bulletin board. How the H E double L do we (the diesel general public) know that there are 2 different fuels. You can bet that I will be trying that + adding the cetane boost to see what that does for me. Call me crazy but I had no idea that 2 different fuels existed. I thought diesel was diesel - just a spot for big rigs to fuel and a spot for us little people. Even my buddy ser. mgr. did not know that...

whom did you talk to? did you talk to the guy at the refinery or the depot? whomever he is, he does NOT know what he is talking about. find another station or distributor to get fuel at. better yet, use the nearbio.org bio fuel finder.

i have spent a few hours talking with the petro-chemist at BP in Warrneville, IL on this exact topic. ford guys are just now feeling the pain that the VW crowd started to 6-7 years ago with EGR systems and poor fuel quality.

better yet, ask the station to provide yo with a copy of their loading ticket. it will say the fuel met D975. below is summary of D975 i stole from chevron's site-

FACT: min cetane of 40 required by ASTM D-975 specs for D-2 and D-1. cetane of 40-45 for regular diesel. 46-50 for premium diesel. no benefit with cetane over 50. even bunker B fuel has a cetane of 35, and this is the heavy crud oil used in ships and boilers. D-4 has a cetane of 30, but that is so nasty, if you are running that in your truck, we are going to have to stage and intervention and take your truck away.

yes, ALWAYS fuel with the premium diesel. sounds to me that ford is trying to pin your problem on crappy fuel- thing is, you are not going to get it anywhere in the us with a decent station: clean tanks, no water, etc.. you are not going to get bad fuel on average from a station that even half tries to sell fuel. bad things happen to good people now and then, but not rot gut tar that this guy was trying to sell you.

the dirty secret is that ALL the refineries only brew up one fuel, dump it in the SAME pipeline and pump it north. then at the depot, it gets blended up. the raw base stock is the same.

dennis

 

[no-red 6 0]

grab a chair.......

WELL-
seeing as today is now friday it must mean a different answer must be given.
I went back to the truck stop i get fuel at and filled up at the big rig side of things. i looked at the pump - no ratings/cetane #/nothing other than sign stating about the blah blah blah 15 ppm ulsd blah blah.. filled anyway, pulled up went inside to pay. asked to speak to the mgr. again. asked her to confirm what the guy told me yesterday. she could not so she called the dude and i got to talk to him again. here is the kicker. the trucker island is no different than the homeowner side and the fuel is all the same, 40-42 cetane rating, he called it performance gold diesel. been that way since Nov. and will change back on 4-1-07. my response was oh, i thought you said most pumps were 30 and at the truck island it was 40. he said nope,it all is 40-42. i asked him again what the web site was to look things up and it is:

www.premiumdiesel.com

. i have yet to visit it. i have now. good stuff. this is a plant about 10-15 min. from my house. once made there, it is tankered to local sites, not pipelined. it's some interesting/good reading..

Dennis: great info. maybe i can call and get one of those. if i do i'll try and post.

the hammer: the only way they could have pulled a pcm from the lot was if it was the exact exact same truck (with all your specific options). example: 2wd/4wd, 2dr/4dr, auto lock, cloth seats, whatever, etc. etc. that is what the guy told me as to why it has to be programmed, mileage included. don't know how they did not do that to yours. what ever the case, did it solve your problem and is it trouble free?

kleetus: are you saying yours are partially filled now w/ nitro? yep, all for free. i had done some research on it so i am glad i ran across an opportunity to experience it. he said they only charge $19.99 for all 4, but hey $20 saved is $20 saved.

and the stealership DID NOT call today to say the pcm was in. on the downside of things, i am now getting a humming noise from under the truck behind me. do you know the sound a car wash dryer makes as you hear it from a distance. that is the sound i am getting. like a chebby fuel pump buzzin. and the dang vaccuum pump is slammin shut constantly at stoplights or in drivethru lines. that is starting to annoy me. stay tuned!

 

[Kleetus]

Yep... My numbers are a little off... This is what's in my tires, and everyone else's on the planet.

Nitrogen N2 78.084 %
Oxygen O2 20.9476 %
Argon Ar 0.934 %
Carbon Dioxide CO2 0.0314 %
Neon Ne 0.001818 %
Methane CH4 0.0002 %
Helium He 0.000524 %
Krypton Kr 0.000114 %
Hydrogen H2 0.00005 %
Xenon Xe 0.0000087 %

The only possible benefit you're going to see is there wouldn't be any moisture in the tire. Other than that, I can't see any benefit to make the tire rounder.