I want your opinions on the Ecoboost.....

[motrhed]

This might be a rare case, but holy cow, this poor guy!

first-time-my-eco-blew-up

OMG, I read all 60 pages and am more wary than ever of Ford and it's dealers. It's just been in the last year that I decided to give them another try.
I own a 2012 F150 FX4 Ecoboost and this story now has me concerned about my engine and about Ford in particular. I like the truck and it's features way more than my previous Chev but have had a surging issue lately, the RPM's will drop from 2500 down to 2000 then surge back up (repeatedly) when on up hill grades of 8+ degrees or more. They have replaced the intercooler with a new updated design that was supposed to cure the build-up of condensation within but the problem has now returned after 1000km. I have an appointment to have it looked at again in a few days.
That being said, I have traditionally been a GM guy that got upset with a 2011 Chev 1500, 5.3L that would only get 13-14MPG and had pathetic power. The best I ever got was 16MPG after a 2000KM round trip and GM insisted that it was normal and nothing was wrong... I even tried a controller... it did absolutely nothing (luckily the controller works perfectly in my '07 Duramax). I owned a '99 1500, 5.3L and it consistently had mileage in the low 20's... I had a 2000 2500 and a 2004 2500HD, both with 6.0L's and they averaged 16MPG! My pre 1999 GM's (5) all had reasonable power and mileage and with all the new technology, GM wouldn't or couldn't fix the poor power/mileage of the 2011 so I traded it in on the Ford. I use the F150 for work so it needs to be reliable, if I start to have issues with it... it will suffer the same fate as the 2011 Chev.
I have owned primarily GM trucks (10), 3 Fords (a '78 Bronco that was awesome, an '89 F250 Diesel that was a lemon, and this Ecoboost), a '94 Dodge 2500 Cummins (awesome truck but 2wd), and a '94 Toyota 4Runner (solid unit but uncomfortable seating position for me and poor fuel economy). I liked Toyota (had 3 excellent cars) but their quality, fit, and finish has dropped in recent years (the domestic trucks hold up much better on the roads I traverse with work than the Tacoma or Tundra).
I hope this helps "Huntsonora"... good luck with your search.

 

[motrhed]

Update...
The surging issue continues: first visit intercooler replaced, second visit pop-off valve regulator replaced, third visit computer reprogrammed as per Ford TSB... Still surges! Perhaps they can figure it out during the fourth appointment. Fingers crossed again. Kind of makes a person wonder if Ford knows what they are doing.

 

[FordGuy1]

I don't care what you buy or who makes it, you can find tons of examples of failure and failed repair attempts. 200k Mercedes are bought back because they can't be fixed. I think that the manufactures do a great job of development but fail miserably at repair procedures and real world testing. The 6.0l is a perfect example of failed real world testing. When a Dealer gets new product with issues it is not as easy as one would expect to repair, and don't forget these guys are commission techs trying to pay there bill's with factory flat rate times that would blow a persons mind. We don't even get training most of the time until we have had the new product for a year. GM sends out Tech people that have never been techs or engineers, they just guess and Ford is no better. Then there is the problem if you live in an area that is rural, good luck finding a top notch tech. The Dealership I run handles all of southern Cal's Buy-back vehicles and we get the worst of the worst to repair, some of the stuff we work on is challenging, Hand over a job to your master tech and tell him it only misses once every 3 months on a grade with a trailer at 90deg's, and has no codes!! and buy the way you get paid a hour or two for your work.