Crooked dealer and a sick f350.

Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Messages
27,886
Location
Apple Valley, California
Had a 2020 f350 with a 6.2 and 10 speed transmission throw the wrench light up on the dash 3 weeks ago. It also had a few other things going on.

I took it to the dealer. Dealer called and said the transmission was bad and that it needed a clock spring behind the steering wheel.

Both under warranty.

Took a few days to get the new transmission shipped out.

Btw did I mention that it only has 31000 miles on the truck?

Dealer called yesterday said the truck was ready but it needed a battery. Odd as I put a new battery in it 7 months ago.

Battery is still under warranty so I told them I'd handle that. The girl kept pushing for a battery until I said I will bring one. Then she gave up .


Picked the truck up and drive it the 50 miles back to where I work. I was greeted with a check engine light about 10 miles from work.

Code is for the throttle pedal sender.

I cleared it and tested the battery which tested good. Not the first time this dealer has tried to upsell something we didn't need. A few months ago it was brakes. Brakes with 3/8 inch of pad left.


I'm here to tell everyone that the 6.2 in that truck is terrible! Come to a hill and it downshifts, revving to 5600 rpm and not going any faster and never shifts up till over the hill. What a joke!

The guy that normally drives the truck says he hates it and I see why.
 

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I have a 2018 6.2L F250 SCLB XL and love it. My close friend also has a 2018; 6.2L F350 CCLB Lariat and he loves it also. Both have been very good vehicles. I am not discounting your experience, but in general the 6.2L engine has a very stout and reliable record. It's significantly oversquare; it's made to rev and not lug.

The 10spd trans was fairly new in 2020; some of the issue may be the trans itself and not the engine. The engine does not decide how much it wants to rev; that's a function of the ECM and TCM talking to each other and deciding when to shift or not. I'm sure you know that.

I suspect, sadly, that your 2020 truck is a victim of the infamous labor and supply chain issues of CVD19. I know that when I was working at that time, the manufactuing and supply chain quality issues were rampant all across many industries. The quality issues were not unique to Ford, or GM, or Carrier, or Ruger, or LG, or Deere, any of a slew of other companies. I stay in touch with some of my old HVAC workmates, and they tell me that the warranty claims are through the roof from 2020/2021 already. History is likley to record that quality just really was terrible in those years across the board, and I'm not convined it's fully recovered even yet. Which is why I've held off of buying a new car, for now.
 
Keep in mind that a battery tester is not always a valid method for determining battery health. Some of the newer vehicles will have guided functions within the onboard modules for testing. MB does this. Not sure about Ford. Also, if a vehicle has ESS and it isn't working, there is an extremely high likelihood that your 12V battery is not functioning as intended....even if it tests okay.
 
Keep in mind that a battery tester is not always a valid method for determining battery health. Some of the newer vehicles will have guided functions within the onboard modules for testing. MB does this. Not sure about Ford. Also, if a vehicle has ESS and it isn't working, there is an extremely high likelihood that your 12V battery is not functioning as intended....even if it tests okay.
Ya I load tested it too.
 
Which makes it a bad choice for a 1 ton truck.
Why? Because it's over-square?
A lot of folks would tout the good ol' Lima 460 as a great truck engine, but it was very over-square as well. No one ever complained about it being a bad truck engine... The 6.2L makes more HP and torque per liter than the 7.3L gas engine. It just does so a bit higher in the rpm band.

I and my friend both have towable RVs. Never had a power issue whatsoever, even going through the Rockies. He came from a 6.8L v-10; that old Mod engine is way under-square and really doesn't rev out well. So when he got into the 6.2L, I told him to order 4.30 gears and be ready to spin the engine up when he needed "oomph". Now that he's understanding of how to utilize the 6.2L engine properly, he likes it more than the older v10, and he get's slightly better mileage to boot!

The 6.2L is very reliable overall; few reported problems in over 10 years of production. About the only thing you'll ever hear about the 6.2L is the older ones had some valve spring issues; it was rare but not unheard of. I've not driven the 7.3L gasser yet; I've heard good things. But I'm not at all displeased with the 6.2L. Obviously you've had a bad experience, and while that is unfortunate, that's the exception and not the rule. Most folks have nothing but praise for the 6.2L.

And again, the issues you're having really aren't related to the engine in any way.
- clockspring
- battery/charing issue
- tranny issues
- throttle pedal position sensor
- bad dealer experience
How are those things making you dislike the engine?

The only reason Ford did away with the 6.2l was because of costs; it's an OHC engine with dual plugs and some older manufacturing tech. The new Godzilla engine is simply less expensive to make. The OHV Godzilla is also easier package into smaller applications (E series chassis, for example).

Futher, the Godzilla engines are generally doing OK, but they've already exhibited some roller follower issues with low milage:

Failed cam/follower at less than 40k miles. Not the first failure they've seen of this mode. And in well cared for engines. He specifically metions that the issue is found in Econoline vans and trucks. So it's not a one-off problem he's showing here.
Here's some more info on the issue:


I believe the Godzilla engine is overall a good design and will last for a long time. I just want to point out that it's not without issues (most likely a material or surface hardening issue (quality issue)), and probably limited to a specific production period (2020-21) and not all of them.


None of this changes your experience; I'll agree to that. It sounds like you just got a "lemon" of a truck. That sucks. But the issues are unique to the engine, or the engine's fault. To cast general blame upon the engine series for issues it's not causing is disingenuous and misleading.
 
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The dealer told me that they had to jump start the truck every day. Funny how after sitting all night I was able to start it and drive it home. Then to the tire shop etc.

Maybe they left the key on and drained it? If so trying to sell a replacement battery when all it needs was a charge is not right. We will see if it starts tomorrow morning when it's 30 F. I'll report back about that tomorrow.

Maybe it is a lemon. The engine, gearing or something along those lines makes this particular truck miserable to drive. I don't have another truck to compare it to.

All I know is that on hills it would downshift then rev to 5600 rpm without speeding up then once on flat ground would take a long time to upshift to higher gears .

The guy that drives it daily has complained to me about it's lack of power and weird shifting but today was the first time I experienced it myself.

I wouldn't want to drive that truck daily as it was very frustrating waiting for it to shift.
 
There's got to be something seriously wrong with that truck, given your description of the driving experience.
I've been in several 6.2L equipped trucks over the years, and none have exhibited the driving behavior you state.
I'm not doubting what you claim; I'm just saying that's not typical of a 6.2L truck.
Assuming you're not heavily loaded, it shouldn't be running near peak HP rpm just to get up a hill.
Sadly, it sounds like your dealer is the weak link and so it's unlikely the problems will be adequately resolved.

Just curious ... have you tried putting the trans in manual mode and forcing shifts? Not that you should have to do that, but will the truck let you do that, or will it over-ride your command? If there's a problem with the trans and/or a sensor in the ECM/TCM system, you could rule out some things if you can manually force upshifts.
 
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Just curious ... have you tried putting the trans in manual mode and forcing shifts? Not that you should have to do that, but will the truck let you do that, or will it over-ride your command? If there's a problem with the trans and/or a sensor in the ECM/TCM system, you could rule out some things if you can manually force upshifts.
I didn't know I could do that. I did put it in tow mode for a brief second. All that did was make it shift harder and rev more.
 
You don't like the motor? Sounds like it's the transmission that is causing you to hate the motor. I still drive an 01 F150 and the best thing I ever did was a transmission tune. I can't stand the way they made a 4speed shift, I can't imagine how bad a 10 speed is.
 
I expected to hate the Ford designed 10 speed in my 2019 6.2L Yukon Denali, but have been thoroughly impressed with it (so far). It certainly shifts quickly and smoothly, especially compared to my E4OD, 4L60 or 4T60E.
 
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