[PGK357]

This all started as I made my drive up from California to Idaho on January 14th, 2015 in my 2006 Ford F-350 6.0L. I had just taken the truck into the downtown dealership in my hometown for a tune up and some other miscellaneous repairs. They seem to be a little sketchy in terms of repairs, as they couldn't even plug the chips for my auxiliary power correctly. As I was about to pass up a big rig in a passing lane up in Central Oregon (middle of nowhere, bad place to break down!) my engine seemed to lurch as soon as the check engine light came on. It felt as if I had greatly reduced acceleration. The RPM was still high, but didn't seem to climb beyond 2,800 RPM, and the turbo PSI gauge was reaching high 30 PSI (although the stock turbo PSI redlines at around 40 PSI) and nothing else seemed out of the norm, other than the lurching of the truck upon driving. I called my friend who is very knowledgable on cars and trucks, and he hypothesized I was stuck in gear. As soon as I got to the nearest town, I pulled off and tried all gears (D,N,P,R, etc.) didn't work. The only thing that worked was turning off the ignition and firing it back up again. I completed my journey to ID without any more trouble.

It happened again the other day while I was driving from Lewiston, ID to Moscow, ID. There is a very steep 7% grade, and climbing it causes my engine to really work to maintain highway speeds (about the same as the first scenario: 2,800 RPM and the turbo spooling at 30 PSI) and bam, the engine light flicked on as the engine began lurching with reduced power. I had to pull over in a small, sketchy pull off to power down and fire her back up again, with no further problems the rest of the way up the hill and on back to Moscow.

My assumption is possibly the truck getting stuck in gear, or maybe a leak in one of the turbo pipes or something somewhere in that area, but I'm really not sure. Has anyone else encountered this problem or does it sound like a problem you could narrow it down to?

 

[Jason99]

In order to really help you, you'll need to get the codes read. This can be done, usually, by a big chain parts store. However, you really need to be able to do this on your own, pull codes, and you need to be able to check your trucks vitals. I would suggest getting a ScanGauge II at minimum. Any suggestions as to what your truck's problem is will be guessing and speculation at best. You can get the ScanGauge II from Autozone, Ebay, or BPD carries them here...

ScanGauge II Digital Data Monitor

 

[john galt]

^^^what he said. ]it is impossible to diagnose your codes without knowing what those codes might be.
and guessing and tossing parts at these trucks gets real expensive real quick :nod:

 

[PGK357]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it. I'll be sure to record the instance the next time it happens (hopefully not on my long 15 hour drive home in May) but I'll be sure to further educate myself on code reading!