I towed using my SCT with ID Tow tune for the first time last week. About 500 miles round trip in 95+deg heat. The truck had better power than towing stock but nothing to really write home about.
I'd checked my fluid levels before leaving but when I returned I had to add about half a gallon of coolant. It is the first coolant I've had to add since the truck was new 45k miles ago. It didn't puke so it must have gone through the motor.
Me-thinks the heat and the tow tune either cracked my EGR cooler or lifted the heads. It's in the shop now and they tell me they have 13 trucks ahead of me with EGR problems so I should expect to wait... At least they gave me a loaner truck during the interim.
Bummer. I've towed many times in similar heat and never had a problem. I'm gonna be pissed if they pull the heads and see signs of the tuner and deny the warranty work.
Oh well I guess if you play you gotta pay. What's a few thousand in repairs for a couple thousand miles of fun driving
The diesel service adviser that they had up until this week was quite mod friendly but when I arrived for service this morning I found that he'd been promoted to a service manager at a dealership in another city.
I came to find out that the new diesel service adviser is very "by the book". I've been on the phone with him today and apparently they already got my truck in to start on the cracked Y-pipe replacement and since the turbo is off he'll put me ahead of some other trucks to have the tech research the coolant leak. He is having the tech follow all the Ford procedures to determine the "first cause". He said Ford's new procedure in EGR cooler failure cases is to pull the heads to check for a star pattern on the pistons. If there's a star pattern they claim that the engine was abused by modification and void the warranty.
I don't know whether ID's Aggressive Street tune leaves a star pattern but if it does "no Christmas for mama"
Any tuner will leave torch marks on the pistons. I don't see how they could say that would void the warranty though, a failing injector will leave the same torch pattern.
I would bet they won't deny warranty for star pattern on just one piston. But if they find it evenly on all eight (like others have posted pics on here or other forums) I would be willing to bet it's gonna cost ya a lot of $$$ money $$$ to get it fixed at the dealer. I don't remember exactly but the last time I had to have the head gaskets done on my old 04' the ticket was around $2000.00 or so. Good luck, hope fully they don't stick it to ya....
I got a call from the dealer this morning. They replaced the EGR-Cooler, Y-pipe and EGR valve.
They tested the oil cooler (some sort of flow test) and it was OK and the heads pressure tested ok so Ford didn't ask them to pull the heads which means they didn't see evidence of a tuner. Maybe they only pull the heads if the owner has repeatedly had EGR coolers replaced.
The service advisor was very helpful and navigated the Ford warranty requirements nicely.
I would agree. :nod: My truck was ran 40k miles on stock tuning before the head gaskets finally went (several EGR coolers as well) and their is a star pattern on my pistons.
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