Triton V-10 pulsing

[waggintails]

I have a 2015 Winnebago Vista F53 Chassis, V-10. On a 1000-mile trip traveling Hwy 90 from Washington to 3 Forks Montana. Lots of mountain passes. It ran perfect until about Missoula. Then it started as I accelerated. It didn't jerk or idle rough it simply acted like I was taking my foot off the accelerator then pressing it again. We stayed over a couple of nights at a campground as I looked things over. There was nothing obvious so thinking maybe I had got some bad gas I put some additive in the tank and filled it with fresh gas. It ran pretty good from there to our destination, so I thought problem cured. NOPE. I drove the 500 plus miles home mountains and all dealing with the loss of power and pulsing. When I got home, I had a diagnostic test run on it and the only code was a fault in the instrument cluster. Exact readout "Fault received from External Node". The tech had no idea what that meant. I have checked all vacuum hoses and checked all the connections I can see and find no obvious problems. In researching the various sites and my manuals I find there is no external fuel filter, it is integral with the fuel pump in the tank. UGH. So, does anyone have any thoughts? I have an appointment July 11th with the shop that does my work I can't do, and he is well versed on ford engines. I am not a parts changer so have not replaced any of the sensors until I narrow it down. I did pull a spark plug and it was clean. The coach has 48000 miles on it. Any help would be appreciated.

[computerguy]

First, you can count your blessings it didn't self destruct like mine did a few weeks ago. I am stuck in Nebraska waiting a replacement engine at the cost of $18,000. It happened the day after my climb and descent over the Rockies in Colorado.
They say to check all the coil packs first at this age and mileage.

[chboone]

Originally Posted by computerguy

They say to check all the coil packs first at this age and mileage.

What he said. Best to just replace, cost less then taking to shop to have coils tested.

[tiffy2000]

Sounds like a fuel issue to me. Need to run a fuel pump pressure test at the injector rails, if possible while it is acting up. If you don;t have fuel filter on the left frame rail then it could be the filter in the tank which would be ugly, perhaps repeating a good fuel cleaner ( Chevron Techron gets good reviews or Royal Purple(expensive)) a few times will clean it off if that is the case?

[OldWEB]

Is it happening at one speed, or when accelerating or...?
My first thought was the throttle position pot., but I am no mechanic.


Good luck!

[waggintails]

Actually, it isn't an intermittent problem. It usually starts after about 10 miles then is constant. It does become less severe when reaching cruising speed on level roads but get worse as I hit inclines.

[waggintails]

I have about come to the same conclusion. I have the coach scheduled for diagnostics on July 11th and this will include both exhaust and fuel pressure analysis. I am finally where I can actually crawl under it and am going to look for the fuel filter today.

[SergioP]

This one is going to be tough to diagnose. The mechanics will need to drive like you do for 10 minutes or have ever long it takes to get it to act up. Unless there is a pending code they read.

If they don’t find anything after the fuel pressure and exhaust back pressure tests, you should take it and drive it til it acts up, then go directly to the mechanic for him to see it.

[OldWEB]

Interesting read here, makes the code sound like a "catchall" for CAN bus problems.
Does your "Check Engine" light illuminate when the key is turn "ON", but not started? Normally if something fails, it will light up.

[waggintails]

Originally Posted by OldWEB

Interesting read here, makes the code sound like a "catchall" for CAN bus problems.
Does your "Check Engine" light illuminate when the key is turn "ON", but not started? Normally if something fails, it will light up.

I have had two diagnostic tests run. One with a Cheepie tool and the next with a very expensive tool (Maxi Pro). the Cheepie didn't show any faults. The expensive one showed the fault above. The check engine light has never even flickered. Thanks for the response. This morning I pulled the batteries and cleaned all the connections including the main grounding bar, battery cables, etc. It felt better on the 20-mile test run but still has little power going on an uphill grade. I did notice that the pulsing seemed less? There is no external fuel filter so I am leaning toward a fuel pump problem or perhaps a coil issue. I am anxious to see the results of the fuel pump and exhaust analysis. However, based on the cost and accessibility of the coils and plugs I may go ahead and change them out. I can't keep my hands out of it waiting on my mechanic. I am just a little over 48k miles so!

[twinboat]

Take a sample of the gas off the fuel pressure fitting and pour it in a glass bottle.

Look for water or any other contaminants in it.

[waggintails]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Take a sample of the gas off the fuel pressure fitting and pour it in a glass bottle.

Look for water or any other contaminants in it.

Thanks, Twinboat. Now I am working my way through this and have no idea where the fuel pressure fitting is? When I thought it had an external fuel filter, I had looked for this fitting or something like it to relieve the pressure so I could change the filter. That didn't work since there is no filter outside the tank. It is integral to the fuel pump. Oh, so smart engineering.
Chuck

[danhannah]

Well, Chuck, you're not alone. I have the same rig, 2014, and exactly the same problem.

It started after a stolen Cat Converter, so my next thought was to replace the downstream O2 sensor on the new cat, which removed the problem for about 100 miles. Now the surging is back.

I left the gas cap off by accident for one of my test runs, which made the problem worse, so now I am going to focus on looking for a vacuum leak, but I don't know...

I ran out one tank of gas, and pumped a fresh full tank, so I don't think it is bad gas, but I will add an alcohol based dryer, just in case of water in the system. It did seem like a fuel problem under load, to me. My only fuel filter is the lifetime one in the tank, thanks Ford.

These test runs need to be long hauls to get the problem to appear, and at $5 per gallon this is getting expensive!

I also have thrown no codes. Best of luck to you and to me!

[OldWEB]

Here is a similar problem.