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Any 1999 F-250 owners?
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Comments
I just got my F-250 SD 6.8L V-10, SC LB 4x4 3.73LS 5spd manual on Wednesday, I drove it
600 miles since then, and have noticed a problem with the engine. Engine noise gets extremely loud from 2200 to 2400 rpm with peek noise occuring at 2250 rpm. With the 3.73 axle and 5th gear, this occurs between 72-77 mph. The noise and increased vibration occur in all gears, but its most noticeable in 5th, as the engine spends more time
passing through this rpm range at the higher gears. Another observation to go along with this is that if coasting down a hill, and dropping from 2500 rpm through 2200 rpm without applying the gas, their is barely any noticeable increase in noise or vibration, but when going uphill and pushing on the gas trying to accelerate up through
this range, the noise is extremely loud, and the vibration is evident.
I know this is a problem, and it really feels like I would be damaging the engine if I maintained speeds within those rpm ranges, not to mention my hearing. If anyone can give me any help it would be appreciated.
Also, I got the trailer towing package. It has a 4 pin connector. But my friends 98 F150 with the towing package has a 7 pin connector with a 4 pin adapter included. Did I get screwed, or is this how the Super Duty comes with the towing package. I did get all the wiring etc in the glove box for connecting the trailer brake,just not the 7 pin connector mounted on the back of the truck.
Get the 4x4, even if you only use it a few times per year you will be glad you have it when you need it. I have the SOF and like Brutus said you have the option of locking manually if you choose. You have to lock manually if your stuck in a stationary position I believe. Case in point: I ran the SOF on the highway several times in wet weather thus far just to test the system. Everthing worked as planned in and out no problems. I was doing a land scaping job on the side of my house where I have a french drain. The ground was soft and I sank up to the axel in soft dirt and mud. I had 2 plus yards of wet mulch in the back so I had alot of weight. I knew the only way I was going to get out after spinning in two wheel was 4x4. I got out manually locked the hubs, put the tran. in low and pulled out with ease and I do mean with ease! The point I'm trying to make is two fold. 1. You never know when your going to need 4x4. If I did'nt have it I would have needed a tractor to pull me out, I was really sunk in. 2. You have the best of both worlds, I feel anyway. Your driving along you hit poor road conditions what ever they may be and you hit the SOF and your in after 3-4 rotations of the tires. Your stuck in a stationary position and you manually lock in. Also if the SOF for some reason fails I think the manual will over ride the SOF.
I hope this helps.
Mroffshore
MAXHVAC: The Triton engine line has one coil for every cylindar, sitting directly over the spark plug. Thus, there are no wires, and the coil only fires 1/8 (or 1/10) as often as it would have done. A very nice system IMO.
P.S. It was a 88' 2wd F150 4.9L
I had the old SOF in my 92 F-250 and I never had any problems with the shifting on the fly in the winter. I lived in Alaska. I used to shift on the fly when it was -20. I can't believe that Ford would make a system that would freeze up in the winter since a high percentage of the 4wd use by most people is in winter conditions. Why would they design a system that didn't work as effectively as the previous system?
I guess another question I have is why would it take two days to thaw anything out in a heated garage? I'm not trying to be a smart #@%. I'll be plenty disappointed if the ESOF doesn't function properly in the winter. Based on my past experience with Fords and 4wd in winter conditions, I'm just having a hard time believing that the problems you mention are normal and only with the new ESOF.
Can anyone explain to me which tires to order and why (the LT235/85R16E vs. LT 265/75R16E)?
I'm not that familar with the new ESOF on the 99 trucks. My 92 F-250 truck with the SOF did not have the manual overide. If I shift on the fly to 4wd, and then I'm about to hit some really rough stuff, wouldn't getting out and manually locking the hubs pretty much insure that the hubs will stay locked? As I mentioned, I would have already been in 4wd before locking the hubs, so the transfer case would already have shifted.
I was under the impression that the point of the manual override was exactly for situations like the one I mentioned. In other words, it kind of sounds like a fail-safe to ensure that the computer (or whatever it is) won't overthink and decide it's time to get out of 2wd when you get in some really tough stuff. If the ESOF attempts to shift out, the hubs would relay the message that they are locked and it can't be done. Am I way off base here? If that's not the case, any idea what the point of the manual override is?
Of course by that reckoning you should be running a manual fuel pump, stick shift, carb., etc. Of course, if you're into way-outback off roading, this is not a bad idea... they're all able to be repaired out in the field. For the rest of us, its not as big a concern.
Here's a quick test. Are you happy trusting your automatic transmission and fuel injection? If so, you might as well trust your ESOF. Yes, its another part that could potentially break down... but its by no means the most likely one.
The hubs themselves on the new SDs are the best of both worlds. Automatic, yet manually lockable should the automatic function break. If they're not broken, you don't gain anything by manually locking them though.
As for tires, I'm assuming that you went with SRW. In that case, by all means get the 265/75s from a visual standpoint at least. They have the same weight rating and do a slightly better job of filling those cavernous wheel wells.
If you have the older brochure (the SD only one) you can take a look at them on the regular cab 4X4 featured on the Ford accessories page. IMO the SRW 4X4s with the 235s look a little odd. The extra width isn't really enough to make much of a difference in performance, mileage, or noise.
I agree with Brutus and I'm not so concerned with the tranny as I am with the hubs themselves not engaging when needed. Thats what I wanted to covey. If you can manually lock the hubs and asssuming the tranny is working properly your ok.
Stirling,
Get the bigger tires, 265/75r16e, I added them as an option when recommended by professor Rich. They give a very smooth ride. It was worth the extra money.
Hey, do you have any Quail hunting deep in the heart of Texas? I've been trying to get down to Abelene, Albany, Roby area in west Texas for the last 4 years. My pointers want me to make the trip also but my wife and kids don't! HAHAHA I'll get there one of these days, my heart is in Bird country!
Mroffshore
I agree totally with everything you said but keep one thing in mind, as I mentioned yesterday. I think with the SOF you must engage the hubs manually if your stuck in a stationary position. I believe even with the design of this system the tires must make 3-4 rotations to engage 4x4. If your stuck in mud, etc. obviously you must manually turn the hubs. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Mroffshore
Are you kidding me? Do you think I want to get out of the truck? I refused my first truck in May because it came through with out the SOF feature!
I love the feature I'm just saying there will be times when you will have to get out of the truck and manually lock the hubs in. I thought I read in the Ford manual that the hubs operate through a vacum system and the tires must rotate to fully engage the system. I'm sure thats what it said in the maunal, check it out.
I hope I never have to get out of my leather seat also! Brutus said it best earlier when he dicussed Ford engineering, it should work and work properly! Peace
Mroffshore
I need help! I am in the process of ordering a Ford F-250 Super Duty, V-10. I'm trying to decide on tires. I've been reading the messages here. I've read pros and cons on the tires. Should I order LT235 OWL A-T or LT265/75R16E SBR OWL A-T? I've read that the 265 gives a much smoother ride. My dealer told me that the 265 would affect the torque and pulling power of the truck (not be as good as with the 235). I will be pulling a 5th wheel, about 13,900 pounds. I'm stuck....which tires do I order? I need to know quick. I also read somewhere that with the 265 tires you wouldn't be able to get the fender covers? Go figure. Well, thanks.
bingram
thanks for the tire advice. I haven't ordered yet, but it will be SRW. All the banter about ESOF is fairly confusing. But the bottom line appears to be that it works as designed.
mroffshore,
plenty of quail hunting in south texas. I've also hunted west of fort worth. but not much here in the hill country. right now the focus is on deer season, our area is #1 in U.S. for deer population.
Your dealer is full of it. The only way that your tires can affect towing power is if they have different outer diameters. 85% of 235 is almost identical to 75% of 265. For all intents and purposes, these tires are the same height.
As for the fender covers -- don't worry about it. The tires are not that far apart from one another even in width.
SRW eh? Sounds easy to park :-) I went with DRW mainly for stability, and the fact that I've seen more than a few SRWs blow out a rear tire during a tight turn with a loaded trailer. Then again, they were older and I'm probably fooling myself. However you spec 'em out, these are great trucks.
Does anyone know if the 2000's are slated for an early release date, like the 99's were, or are they coming out Fall 2000?
Does your dealer have any information (such as a TSB) about the ESOF problem? This is the first I've heard of it.
He didn't mention a TSB, but if I find out more I'll let you know.
On the one hand, the added convenience (for women with children especially, as is in our case) and safety by easily toggling 4x4 from the inside, makes it well worth the minor cost of the option, and potential added cost and hassle for the potentially rare time(s) it might break. Just as we don't rely on hand cranks to start motors, but rely on complex starting systems, so should we accept progress and learn to rely on automatic 4x4 systems. (Some of these arguments are paraphrased from an interesting thread on the pros/cons of ESOF on another msg board that's under construction now and so can't be used to check my quite fallible memory.)
On the other hand, the lack of manual override for transfer case en/disengaging, and only partial override capabilities for hub lock/unlocking
can be considered a significant, potentially much more severe, though admittedly not nearly as likely, safety risk. As I understand the SD ESOF,
failure could leave the front drive shaft engaged, or dis-engaged, with no remedy to change, or could leave the hubs locked, with no remedy to unlock. (I take the ESOF hub settings "on" and "automatic" to mean hubs are either manually set on, or manually set to automatic, and then subject completely to the whims of the ESOF operation. Can be forced to be "locked", but can't be forced to be "unlocked"). The only manual override capability in case ESOF fails is to "lock" the hubs. If these assumptions of it's operation are correct, I see the potential for disaster in a few scenarios. First, one could be at the bottom of a snow covered hill, or otherwise stuck, and not be able to engage the front driveshaft, and be stuck. Second, one could be on dry pavement (snow ended, roads cleared, middle of long Winter highway trip) with no way
(Still on the other hand...) Although I realize I'm being a little too paranoid about failure when
cotemplating our own decision, I feel some amount
of it is justified. If the SDs were barely out the door when ESOF problems started to pop up already, that tells me either insufficient testing was done, even short-term testing, or, a change was made to the design late in development stages after much or all testing was done, or ESOF wasn't tested in all configurations if problem was configuration dependent (I don't know, not does it matter much). That also tells me that long-term (ie stress, duration/longevity) testing was not done, or not done sufficiently, otherwise, this short term-occurring problem should have
surfaced, in all liklihood, along the way in long-term testing. Granted, I'm still a little too paranoid but the evidence of quickly-appearing major problems, combined with my assumption that this is (?) a new system (ESOF on SD) with little or no long-term field exposure, makes me feel that
anticipation of problems within it's useful (relied upon) life is justified.
I don't know for sure exactly how all the mechanisms involved in ESOF operation work, and I think that's needed for a lot of my arguments above. For example, if it were the case that there's no way hubs would get stuck in "locked" position, but that in case of any failure, they "must" revert to unlocked, unless manually overridden, it would totally shoot down disaster scenario #2. I doubt however that much of
this provisioning exists because I would guess it takes extra engineering, beyond the extra already
required to implement ESOF. Automakers aren't renowned for this from what I hear. The above are only my perception of how it ought to operate based on the possible settings of the system (ESOF dial knob settings and manual hub override settings), the brochure, and other msg board or email list info come across. That's all I have to go on for now in order to make our decision. If anyone's got some concrete info on how the system mechanically works, fire away. I gather I'm not the only one somewhat in the dark.
For what it's worth,
Dick Dorff
lives at the bottom of a steep hill in Mass.
Ordered: 10/27; Est Time to Delivery was 4-8wks (we're not holding our breath)
'99 SD F250, CC, SB, 4x4, V10, 3.73LS (so far), XLT, Auto, 235/85 AS, Tow Pkg.
I wouldn't really worry about the hubs on a new Super Duty for at least 50K miles. My concern is with the electric transfer case engagement. A blown fuse, chafed wire, burned out solenoid, rusty connection, etc could cause the four wheel drive not to work, and leave you stranded, possibly to freeze to death depending where you are and how well equipped you are.(I am always prepared for the worst)
I don't use my four wheel drive very often, but when I use it, it is because I need it. I got the manual transfer case. It is not that much trouble to get out and lock the hubs if I need to. Also, if you live at the bottom of a snow covered hill, you can always lock your hubs before you go, and then engage the transfer case only when you need it. You can drive around with the hubs locked all the time if you want, as long as you don't engage the transfer case into four wheel drive. It will increase wear and decrease gas mileage a little, but not that much. I had a 77 Dodge Powerwagon with full time four wheel drive that always had the front driveshaft and axles turning. I put over 100K on it before selling it, with no problem with the front drive components. The early 4x4s with part time four wheel drive had locking hubs as an option. Many people had their front components turning all the time. So I think the manual system is better for me, and was $125 cheaper too. I would have paid $125 more for the manual system.
Ken
My concern is over the TRAILER TOWING MIRRORS that Ford offers. I have a super duty on order and also purchased a F550 SD last month for the company. I also read my first SILVERADO literature yesterday. Chevy has both heated and telescoping mirrors!! I wish Ford would get the "lead out" and improve the TT mirrors. The top mirror is great, but the bottom wide angle mirror is not adjustable and it really depends on your height if you can see anything in it or not. Being tall, I find the bottom mirror useless. I can't believe anyone makes truck mirrors that are not heated?? We are not talking a money issue here... I mean we are spending $30 k or so on these rigs, so what would a few extra bucks be for good mirrors? Anyway I ordered my 250SD CC with standard power mirrors and plan to add my own passing mirrors, problably something off an 18 wheeler... but not sure yet.
This is my only complaint on a fantastic vehicle from Ford.
I read your post from Thus. and I am not sure what part of ESOF you think might break. The early problems that ESOF had were in the GEM computer, they had a software problem where the computer would put your truck into 4wd. This was fixed back in June. I wish I could point you to where software problem but I don't remember where I saw it. The early problems were not hardware related Now if your concern is the durability of the hardware I think your concern is valid, since these trucks are only 8-9 months old.
called "System 6"? My dealer said that if I have a third party alarm system put in that Ford may not warranty my electrical system if they think someone has played with it. He said the Ford System 6 alarm is just as good as any of the third party systems and the Ford alarm system is warrantied with the vehicle's warranty. I am trying to figure out if it is worth paying about $120 more for the Ford alarm system or have a Viper alarm system put in by a third party vendor. Your opinions are appreciated.
I was actually speaking quite generally, about the ESOF system as a whole, and all it's little pieces parts. If anything in it breaks, it could lead to one of the two bad scenarios described. It's the testing of the system as a whole, and all it's little pieces parts that I'm not yet comfortable with given the early problems found (even though fixed). --Dick.
Your dealer is trying to pull a fast one on you. Aftermarket alarm systems in no way shape or form void your warranty. The only exception would be if there's a problem with the installation itself that causes other electrical problems, which is highly unlikely. Go to a reputable alarm dealer and they'll take care of you.
I'm unfamiliar with the Ford alarm but after sales tactics like that I'd stay away from it. If it wasn't inferior merchandice they wouldn't have to sell it that way. In general the factory alarms are about as good as the factory stereos though. Decent enough, but nothing compared to a nice aftermarket piece.
As far as the alarm goes, do yourself a favor and get it installed at a nice shop -- not a Circuit City type of place and not one of these 'tint and alarm for $99' places. They'll be there if you have any problems with it and you'll end up with a better unit.
Oh BTW, I got approved from People First Finance http://www.peoplefirst.com/ filled out the form, clicked submit, 10 minutes later they called, I faxed them 2 papers, they called back 15 minutes later and gave me the approval for 6.9% 5 yr term.
They even FedX'd the check and paperwork out to me 2 days later. Seemed easy enough....anyone else get financing online?
I have an F250 CC PSD SB Lariat 2WD on order.
P.S. Did you get a VIN yet or a build/delivery date?
Oh Chippy, It wasn't ego that made me get the V10, I'm just not afraid of the power.... ;-)
With all this talk about the SOF system I'm wondering if I made the right move. I passed on a truck in early May because I wanted the SOF. Anyway you mentioned in an earlier post something about plastic gears. Are you sure and if you are where is all the plastic located? I can not believe Ford would make a cheap system. I will be all over them legally or other wise if there is poor workmanship, design or what ever. I've been through this with Ford before with the 95 windstar and prevailed. I hope I do not have to get into that down the rode over the SOF.
DDORFF,
Very impressive post, WOW!
Laverntonkin,
I agree with your last post and understand what your saying.
Mroffshore
Like I said, I had the old model of the SOF in my 92 F-250HD and never had one problem. I shifted on the fly in below zero winter temps and 100+ degree summer temps.
I'll find out for sure about the new ESOF in January when I make my trip from Texas to Alaska. If I end up in the ditch with my new camper in the Yukon territory because the ESOF failed, Ford will likely be hearing from alot of us. If not, we can probably put this subject to rest.
I understand your countdown... I have been in that mode for 4 weeks!!!
ChipGleas - concur with you, the 5.4L does a great job on the SD when empty and when towing moderate loads. You don't always have to go up the hills towing at 80...... Remember, we buy big trucks for good all around use and safety. If you wanna race around, buy a new Z28 for $22K...or buy a 1/2 ton with the big motor.
Again I agree with you 100%! I believe Ford has put quality in this system and it should last. We will see over time and we will see how you make out in the north country. Remember my truck was built a month or so after the ESOF problems were worked out. I assume everything is OK.
Mroffshore