Lovin' my 6.0PSD

pjpvi · 02-21-2008, 05:03 PM

For those that follow the joys I've had with my 2005 6.0 PSD, I have been trying to put to rest the last nagging issue. I've had an engine oil leak that has been untraceable until today. Apparently it is coming from the Bed Plate and they have to pull the engine to fix it. I had not heard of a Bed Plate before, but sounds to be a spacer between the bottom of the block and the oil pan. Apparently this is a relatively common place for these things to leak.

On the plus side, my local Ford dealership has never so much as squeaked that the SMB conversion is the cause of anything and have performed all work to my van under warranty. On the down side, it feels like they have possession of it more than I do (Ok, I'm exaggerating).

Hey, at least it's been starting lately!

Later -
Phil

Ford_6L_E350 · 02-21-2008, 05:30 PM

Cheer up Phil!!

Our van spent almost 1/2 of its first year in the shop. It never stranded us and only stopped us once on the road. And since then it has been quite reliable. Teething issues I guess.

Ford offered to buy it back, but I settled for a PremiumCare 7yr/100K warranty. I really liked the van and wanted to keep it. Ayway, if I had sold it to Ford, then I would just have get another SMB and go through that waiting period again - no thanks!

Hopefully this is the end of any problems with your van.

Mike

pjpvi · 02-21-2008, 06:05 PM

I'm actually not down about this. I'm looking at the bright side and may be able to get into the engine compartment when the engine is out and add that extra layer of thermal / acoustical insulation I've wanted to do, but just can't with the engine in the way.

I just picked up the van for the weekend (visitation rights) and my service adviser took me back in the shop to show me what the bed plate is. They were working on two other 6.0PSD's with the same problem (not vans). All lower seals in the engine get replaced during the operation. It was interesting to find out that if it weren't for the conversion, they normally just lift the entire body off of the frame to gain access to the engine. There was an Expedition that was having the same work done with the body off. Given the conversion van factor, they are pulling the front off of my van to take the engine out.

Apparently, Ford's normal procedure to fix this does not include removing the engine, but the service advisor said they couldn't get a good fix unless they remove the engine and that Ford would only reimburse the dealership once for the repair. If it came back in for the same problem, it was on the dealerships dime.

BTW - The extended warranty is on my list to get in the next couple months. No way would I continue on without a warranty.

Phil

Scalf77 · 02-22-2008, 08:34 AM

I to had a bad start with my Sportsmobile, I received it the end of May and took it on a cross country trip. I get a sabbatical every 7 years so I had 8 weeks off. My think of course was to buy new to reduce my chance of problems. It first died in Yellowstone National Park, it is a real treat to get towed out of the park,it actually takes two runs,one truck from the concessions in the park, will get you to outside the park, another truck picks you up takes you from there. Anyway I spent 9 days in beautiful Livingston Montana. I never want to hear "it can't be to bad it only has 3000 miles on it again". Moving across country, a got a check light around Chicago, since I was going to Buffalo NY to see family I pushed it on in ( it was running fine) and took it to a shop there. One more night at a Ford dealer, this was just a sensor harness that got warn. It then died again a few weeks later in Virgina with the same problem I had in Yellowstone. After five days of not getting the part I asked Ford for permission to rent a car and get my family home as they could not tell me when the part would come in. They finally got the part a week later, I flew back and picked up the van. I was able to make it back to Portland started looking into what might be causing the problem. I will say that it took sometime but Ford did reimburse me for some of my expenses. They never really abandoned me ,they did say the thought it was caused by RV section towards the end. To close I found the problem and it has run great ever since,I even took another cross country trip, Almost 4 years old now 36,000 miles and no problems since the 6000 mile mark. Ford was very good but aggravating during the whole thing, and Sportsmobile was also helpful.

Greg

Ed in Montana · 02-22-2008, 08:58 AM

Greg, there are worse places to be stuck than Livingston, Montana! Just put on some old Jimmy Buffet tunes (Livingston Saturday Night) on the CD or IPod and hit one of the great bars or restaurants.

pjpvi · 02-22-2008, 09:30 AM

Quote:

To close I found the problem and it has run great ever since

.... so I'm on the edge of my seat. What was the problem that you found?

I tried to get Ford to reimburse me for rental car and hotel when I was stranded in Bishop last Thanksgiving and they wouldn't do it. How were you able to convince them?

Aside from the reimbursement issue, I have to agree that Ford has been quite fair to me so far (except they could have designed a better base van and spec'ed a more reliable engine).

My van goes in for elective surgery on Monday. Those never go well on me, hope it works better on my van!

Phil

Scalf77 · 02-22-2008, 10:48 AM

Ed,
You are right, Livingston was a great place, the people were fantastic, and we did visit of few of the restaurants. Got a little tired of the hotel room with two young kids. I do wish I had brought my fly rod.

Phil,

My van was blowing up PCM? I think that is what they call them ( the main computer ). The first problem is that it is not a high hitter on the parts to go bad list, so they are conservative on the diagnosis. We would have been out of there in five days but the new part they sent out blew up in the test drive. The second part arrived on the ninth day. Of course it was the same thing in Virginia. I think the only reason Ford paid for my rental car, was because I was basically stranded for a week in Virginia and they could not even give me a date when the part would arrive. It wasn't easy to get them even then to actually reimburse me for car. In the end they did come through.

I believe the actual root cause of the problem, was a loose wire going to the Starcool Air conditioning breaker. It was the wire that comes from the ignition to set all the relays to be running off of the 12 volt van source. This and the fact that I had my inverter on as I was charging a battery for my camera, and I had left the 110 air conditioning breaker on. What I believe happened was that wire opened up while the Starcool was running, this caused it to try run off of 110, the inverter tried it hardest to respond causing a very quick current surge on the 12 volt battery system, dropping the 12 volts to very low level that caused the PCM to fry. Of course after finding the wire, and tightening it the problem has gone away. I could probably test my theory out and put it back the way it was. In short I have painted the Starcool AC breaker Red, and it is part of my startup pre-checks along with top latched down, etc. So in the end I blame Ford for a bad design, the PCM should be better protected, Sportsmobile for the loose wire, and myself for leaving the AC breaker up.

Greg

pjpvi · 02-22-2008, 11:15 AM

My problems have been varied and unrelated to each other. I've had the High Pressure Oil Pump go out (no start condition), a blown high pressure turbo hose (drivable with reduced power), oil leak from the cam sensor, a wire short from the cam sensor to the PCM (no start condition), and now the leaking bed plate. There is one last nagging problem I have given up on. The cruise control will intermittently kick off. Absolutely no rhyme or reason to when it cuts out. I assume there is a wire somewhere that is shorting out, but it appears impossible to find. I just put this problem under the annoyance category.

Maybe I can have them sneak a Dodge or GMC diesel engine back in while the PSD is out!

**BroncoHauler** · 02-22-2008, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjpvi

... There is one last nagging problem I have given up on. The cruise control will intermittently kick off. Absolutely no rhyme or reason to when it cuts out. I assume there is a wire somewhere that is shorting out, but it appears impossible to find. I just put this problem under the annoyance category....

I don't know under what conditions you;ve had the cruise control kick off, but there is built in logic that will automatically kick off the cruise control if the vehicle is unable to maintain the vehicle speed within a predetermined number of MPHs of the speed you set it at. This would normally happen on fairly steep uphills, especially if towing. There is no advance warning.

Herb

pjpvi · 02-22-2008, 01:12 PM

There is no consistency when the cruise control kicks off. It can be on an absolutely flat section of road or on a hill or a down hill. My hunch is a short, but so far every hunch I've had about problems with this van has been wrong.

Ford basically said wait for a total failure then they can more likely find the fault. Since it is just my cruise control, I'm not as worried about it. Hopefully the problem isn't really with the PCM!