A V-10, a Scan Gauge and lots of good karma...

Question

When my best friends sold their house in San Diego they needed to get a load of their stuff up to Angel Fire New Mexico, yep the same best friend that put in a custom RV site when he built his area, home up here 5 years ago. I having my 6 X 10' {8' tall} cargo trailer I drove from Tucson to San Diego towing with my Honda Ridgeline on Thursday, loaded their stuff and them and drove them back to our home in Tucson. They stayed with us for 9 days busting their humps helping us empty out our house in preparation for our move to the new home in Payson {we will close escrow on Friday}.

Last Sunday we all loaded up our 24' nexus Class C towing the trailer and set out for Angel Fire with a stop in Payson to show them our new place. We were maxed out with weight as the trailer was easily 2,600# and carrying 4 adults with lots of baggage. We made it to Payson {160 miles} when for the first time in 55 years of driving my I got a check engine light. We read the code with my Scan Gauge, and then took the 1071 code to the internet and the news was not good.

A detailed article documented about a dozen possible causes and none of them were good but…
That V-10 had never been worked harder or run better in the 7+ years and 59,000 miles I have owned the coach. We spent 70% of the trip at 6,000' + to well over 9,000'+ 6 times. I got a very consistent 8+ mpg and it had never run smoother. Having very few options on a Sunday in Payson I suspected that perhaps I had gotten a bad batch of fuel before leaving Tucson so being down a little more than half a tank of regular I added 24 gallons of Chevron Top Tier Premium and headed out for Angel Fire. I added another 12 gallons, cleared the code and hoped for the best and amazingly enough the V-10 continued to run flawlessly with no loss of power, running smooth as silk.

We overnighted at the Hoyer CG in Greer at 8,400' and rolled out at 7 on Monday morning. There is a lot of lonely road between Greer and Soccorro where we picked up I-25 and most of that ride was well over 7,000. I dropped Pual and Sherry off at the Albuquerque airport where he had left his truck and my bride and I headed on to AF with them passing us about about an hour up the road. After 9+ hours I pulled into his drive way nosed the the rig right up to his garage.

As I put the coach in park on came another check engine light… my comments at that moment cannot be printed {just as well} and I started to laugh not even believing the timing. Still the coach had run like a Swiss clock all the way, great smooth power, decent mileage, nice and cool and we had just come 730 miles of serious mountain driving fully loaded. The new code was 1074 which is closely related to the problem noted on the 1071 but specifically said one bank was running lean and then enumerating a number of possible causes.

Now I had three days of fun up here in AF planned but needed to drive back to Payson on Friday to take possession of our new home followed by a quick trip home to start loading for our next Payson delivery run. Paul knew of great mechanic in Taos {and hour down the mountain from AF} and I called S Point Tire and auto at 8 when they opened this morning. They said to bring it in and at 9 I explained the history and they immediately pulled it in and disconnected my SC and attached their diagnostic reader.

The tech spent about ten minutes checking everything while I held my breath then turned his findings over the boss who confirmed the results. With more than a little apprehension I asked what they found noticing that he had disconnected his device and was wrapping up the cables…

Enjoy your trip home Mr. Ford there is absolutely nothing wrong with you motor. The heavy hauling at such high altitudes was the culprit as the ECM is set for around 7,000' and that is what triggered the two codes. You said it yourself he added, it had never worked harder or run
better. I will have it serviced when I get home just for good measure, probably changing out the fuel filter and have the throttle body cleaned, MAF checked etc. but they both pronounced me good to go.

I asked what I owed them for the 30 minutes they had spent and he told me not one dime, have a great, safe trip home. "Happy Camper" does not begin to describe what I was feeling. No matter what it would have cost I was prepared to have it done.

Lessons learned: Get a V-10, add a Scan Gauge and good karma is your friend.

:B

dedmiston · Answer

Nice. Bullet dodged.That's a great area up there. Last year we spent Labor Day weekend up at Angle Fire at a friend's camp. This camp has been in their family for generations as part of a Spanish land grant.We rode mountain bikes and quads to the top of one of the local peaks and got caught in a crazy thunderstorm. We didn't have any choice but to ride out of it, but the lightning strikes were so close that you'd see them and hear them at the same time. Not fun.What a gorgeous area though. You're lucky to have a place to go up there.And what a piece of luck to have your coach perform so well and have the errors be no big deal. And hats off to that shop for helping you out without any charges.

partyof_five · Answer

Great to hear. I'm making notes for a future trip.Please do them the return favor and post positive reviews at rvservicereviews.com and whatever media you use: Google, yelp, fb, etc.

doxiemom11 · Answer

Our Jeep Cherokee always had the "check engine" light come on whenever we were above 4,000 feet in altitude , just normal driving.  The engine was strong and ran fine.  Dropped elevation and light went out and never came back on.

gdetrailer · Answer

I think you transposed a number, not aware of a 1071 code..

Should be a P0171 which is Bank1 Lean code.

Not fatal by any means, just means that the system has reached the max fuel trim on that bank based off of the O2 sensor data, in this case best to clear the code ONCE then see if it comes back after MANY complete drive cycles (drive cycles a from cold start to fully warmed and driven for a short period then shut off and allowed to fully cool off).

If it comes back THEN start searching for the reason.

Continued operation with Lean condition code will eventually poisoning and damaging the cats, O2 sensors.

Dump the Scan gauge for real diagnostics, they often cannot go deep enough for good diagnosis. Get a real standalone scanner, they are dirt cheap now days and they can give you much more data access than a scan gauge can ever do and not to mention no need to search the Internet for what the code means most standalone readers have that info built in (I have a $70 one from HF which tells me what the code means and what the most possible items may cause that code).

In this case, upstream O2 sensor is detecting a lean condition on bank 1, IF it was really from High altitude, I suspect you would have also had code for Bank 2 lean condition at the same time.

Now, you could simply have a lazy Bank 1 O2 sensor (they do go bad) OR you may have a vacuum leak near bank 2 intake manifold.. Or you could have a CRACKED OR LEAKING Bank 1 exhaust manifold or manifold gasket(extremely common on all of the "Modular" blocks) which believe it or not can leak enough to affect the Oxy level detected by the O2 sensor.. IF you have a exhaust manifold leak, this one can cause serious over fueling and running extremely Rich on that bank (computer turns up the fuel trim to compensate for the lean condition), this one you will smell excessively rich fuel smell on the exhaust and also will quickly poison your cats..

Or it could have been nothing more than a glitch.. Only time will tell.

desert_captain · Answer

Gdetrailer wrote:I think you transposed a number, not aware of a 1071 code..Should be a P0171 which is Bank1 Lean code.Not fatal by any means, just means that the system has reached the max fuel trim on that bank based off of the O2 sensor data, in this case best to clear the code ONCE then see if it comes back after MANY complete drive cycles (drive cycles a from cold start to fully warmed and driven for a short period then shut off and allowed to fully cool off).If it comes back THEN start searching for the reason.Continued operation with Lean condition code will eventually poisoning and damaging the cats, O2 sensors. Dump the Scan gauge for real diagnostics, they often cannot go deep enough for good diagnosis. Get a real standalone scanner, they are dirt cheap now days and they can give you much more data access than a scan gauge can ever do and not to mention no need to search the Internet for what the code means most standalone readers have that info built in (I have a $70 one from HF which tells me what the code means and what the most possible items may cause that code).In this case, upstream O2 sensor is detecting a lean condition on bank 1, IF it was really from High altitude, I suspect you would have also had code for Bank 2 lean condition at the same time.Now, you could simply have a lazy Bank 1 O2 sensor (they do go bad) OR you may have a vacuum leak near bank 2 intake manifold.. Or you could have a CRACKED OR LEAKING Bank 1 exhaust manifold or manifold gasket(extremely common on all of the "Modular" blocks) which believe it or not can leak enough to affect the Oxy level detected by the O2 sensor.. IF you have a exhaust manifold leak, this one can cause serious over fueling and running extremely Rich on that bank (computer turns up the fuel trim to compensate for the lean condition), this one you will smell excessively rich fuel smell on the exhaust and also will quickly poison your cats..Or it could have been nothing more than a glitch.. Only time will tell.It seems that no matter how positive a post is someone immediately has to go all doom and gloom… sigh, such is the nature of these forums.  Permit me a couple of observations:Yes, I transposed a couple of numbers and failed to put the "P" in, my bad, Mea Culpa, but you obviously knew exactly what I was talking about.The P0171 code covers a lot of issues beyond a bank running lean.  I chose not to list the dozen or so other problems it could be indicative of trouble.  Again, Mea Culpa.I did in fact clear the code once and while incorrectly attributing the code not reappearing to adding quality fuel the fact remains that it did not reoccur.  Had the same code come back I would have followed a different course.Your advice to "dump the scan Gauge" is absurd.  It has performed flawlessly for 10 years.  I merely reprogrammed it for the 6.8 L V-10 from the original settings from my 5.4L V-8 seven years ago when I bought the Class C.  In addition to scanning codes, yesterday being the first time I ever needed that function, it displays my trans fluid and coolant temps precisely along with the capability of nearly 2 dozen other displays, I like real time and average mpg's which quickly taught me to be a much more efficient driver and paid for the SC in about 6 months} with the data coming directly from the ECM.You enumerated a number of issues I "could" have had but given that I had NONE of the symptoms of these issues {such as rough idle, lack of power, running too hot etc.}, and in fact the V-10 was, while under the heaviest, most challenging driving conditions of its life performed better than ever kept me cognizant of the fact that I just might just be searching for a solution for which there was no known problem {the government does this a lot… but I digress}.For the record I like Harbor Freight, I buy a lot of their stuff but never their electronics. A "real Scanner" can not even come close to the multitude of functions that a Scan Gauge performs so well.  As far as having to look up the code on the internet that involved merely typing in the {correct and complete} number, no searching whatsoever and out popped a very detailed, lengthy article/explanation of all of the possible factors in play along with step by step instructions how to deal with each and the proper sequencing to do so.I can assure you that the scanning tools this large, very reputable shop used did not come from Harbor Freight. The technician had his diagnosis confirmed by the manager of the shop and after running every possible scenario agreed that I had no problem.  I had been candid with them to this point explaining that I was between the proverbial rock and a hard place as I had to get back to Arizona by Friday.  I told them that what ever it took, regardless of the cost, time and safety were the priorities.  I walked in expecting to drop $500 - $1,000 and would have had no problem whatsoever had that been the case.Knowing that, why on earth would this shop give me the diagnosis they did unless it was that fleeting commodity… the truth?  I greatly appreciate your sharing your vast store of knowledge as I'm sure many others here will as well and I do agree only time will ultimately tell the end of this tale. Currently being 730 miles from home I guess I will find out on Friday morning when we set out for our return to Payson {485 miles} and ultimately back home to Tucson.  I hope you will wish me luck in that endeavor.:C

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A V-10, a Scan Gauge and lots of good karma...

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