Ford's answers to the NHTSA 6.7 Investigation

The Mad Norsky wrote:
Well, glad that my "W" tongue in cheek question did serve some purpose.

Now to add fuel to the fire, and give the 500 pound gorilla in the room a nuke to play with:

there have been some cryptic hints, but this has not been said or asked straight out, so I'll do it.

Is the Bosch CP 4.x pump trouble just the proverbial tip of the iceberg????

In other words, is it really just the first indicator, because of its higher pressures and temperatures, of a systematic failure coming in ALL diesel fueled vehicles due to some as yet unknown problem with the fuel supply available in North America?????

Thats the 500 pound gorilla no one seems to want to notice.

An outlandish question. Or is it????????????

Not outlandish at all...The poor US diesel fuel is a problem for all the manufacturers. The two Detroit Diesel engineers that inspected my failed pump both commented on issues they were seeing with fuel lubricity shortfall across their product line. The fuel systems engineer mentioned that he had seen similarly failed pumps "hundreds of times".

It appears that the common rail systems that operate at significantly lower pressure are not having the problem. Dodge uses the Bosch CP3 series pump. IIRC, it operates at 1600BAR. IIRC, GM used the CP3 series pump until 2011. CP3 series pumps have an excellent track record. Is it coincidence that the 2012 VW diesels have dialed back the internal pressure from 2000BAR to 1600BAR? Not likely when they have been seeing these failures for 5 years...and they warranty their repairs.

You asked about systemic failures. Not yet, but the fleet is relatively new. The better record of success with trucks running on Canada's 460 scar fuel, Bosch's published minimum standard for CP4.x pump lubricity, proves that the pump will last longer when operated within the engineering specifications. US fuel standards require operation outside the published Bosch specifications. AS the fleet get older and the miles pile up, these failures will grow in number. This will become a huge problem because the cost to repair the fuel system will be more than the truck is worth.

Someone asked about the "out of pocket" cost of the HPFP debacle. The repair bill on my truck was $10,030. Incidentally, that was the lowest cost I have seen to date. I have seen repair costs from $12000 to $18000. I am unsure of the intent of the ask er of this question but the money came out of the pocket of someone.

Regards