Ecoboost question

[wing_zealot]

Can anyone tell me what years the original ecoboost had the condensation issue? Or in other words, what year did they fix the problem?

[eluwak]

mudfuel07 wrote:
Buddy of mine had the problem in his '11. But, we live in Florida in high humidity. He drilled a tiny hole in the intercooler to allow it to drain and hasn't had a problem since.

Ditto with our 2012. It happened several times during a trip while it was raining. It seemed like it would happen when the truck was running a steady speed with low boost for a while, and then when you stopped and pulled out with authority the truck would go into limp mode. It made pulling onto I75 a real pain as it happened 3 times before I finished the ramp and was able to merge. I called a dealer at my destination, and they swapped the intercooler for me in less than 30 minutes so it didn't impact my moving trip.

[Mike_Up]

Double post

[alexleblanc]

had this problem in my early build 2011, new intercooler as part of the recall or TSB or whatever it was and never experienced the issue again, FWIW I only had a problem with it during one instance, ready up and found the TSB and had the dealer put in the newer parts.

[mudfuel07]

Buddy of mine had the problem in his '11. But, we live in Florida in high humidity. He drilled a tiny hole in the intercooler to allow it to drain and hasn't had a problem since.

[SkiSmuggs]

AlmostAnOldGuy wrote:
By the late spring of 2012 they had added a shield to the intercooler to reduce the condensation issue. In 2013 I believe they had modified the intercooler however I see in the article from the NHTSA apparently it was not 'fixed fixed' until 2014. I ordered a very late build (July) of the 2012 and have not had any issues. I drive in Oregon and it gets damp on occasion, but not like the high humidity of the gulf coast.

Of those who own / operate the 3.5 on this forum some folks had the problem earlier on and I believe all of them reported they were fixed by the dealer.

Good luck,
Stu

As I just posted, it was a spark plug issue. None of the Ford shield solutions or reprogramming did any good. I replaced my intercooler at 30K with a Wagner Performance inter-cooler and had the problem after that because my plugs were over gapped and starting to fail.

[SkiSmuggs]

wing_zealot wrote:
Can anyone tell me what years the original ecoboost had the condensation issue? Or in other words, what year did they fix the problem?

The original 2011 Ecoboost and some of the early 2012 models had more of a spark plug issue than a condensation issue. The original plugs were not up to the task, plus were gapped way out of spec. Mine were beyond shot at 40K with center posts gone on two and the others gapped at .040 instead of the later recommendation of .030. With the weak plugs and too much gap, any intake of air that included some condensation blew the spark out causing bad misfiring.
I had the issue twice, and once the plugs were replaced with the new model plug and gapped at .030, I never had the problem again. I traded in at 68K. But even the newer plugs need to be changed at 30K instead of the Ford service at 100K. I developed a misfire in one of the second set at 20K as I did a lot of heavy towing.

[joshuajim]

No problem with my '13. Oh wait, I live in the desert where it's drier than a popcorn fart! :B :B :B

[Mike_Up]

My service manager just told me has seen the issue on the new '15s. The 15/16s even use the new lower active shudders to control the over cooling. Instead of the plastic stickers covering the intercooler, the shudders close when cooling isn't needed.

[wing_zealot]

Thanks for the info.

[tragusa3]

I have a '13 with 32k miles, about 10k of those towing. Not a single issue.

I was under the impression the problem still existed in '13, but was very rare by that point. Actually, in the grand scheme, it was pretty rare even on the first model years.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

🙂 Hi, my 2014 F-150 Ecoboost has about 25,000 miles on it and hasn't had any of those concerns. Last year, we took a cross country trip pulling our trailer for over 13,000 miles.

[sele]

I bought a 2013 and have over 60000 miles on it and have yet to have an issue and about 7500 miles of it have been towing. WE really like our F150 it does everything we expect of it.

[AlmostAnOldGuy]

By the late spring of 2012 they had added a shield to the intercooler to reduce the condensation issue. In 2013 I believe they had modified the intercooler however I see in the article from the NHTSA apparently it was not 'fixed fixed' until 2014. I ordered a very late build (July) of the 2012 and have not had any issues. I drive in Oregon and it gets damp on occasion, but not like the high humidity of the gulf coast.

Of those who own / operate the 3.5 on this forum some folks had the problem earlier on and I believe all of them reported they were fixed by the dealer.

Good luck,
Stu

[Steeljag]

No issues with our 2012 !