Maintenance

Many days of travel are, “just fine”, or the weather may be an issue.  With the White Knight though, it seems that I’m getting more than caught up on my share of maintenance and repairs while on the road.

Yesterday, while traveling into a 20mph headwind (which does wonders for mileage), through hilly terrain, the truck’s power dropped, a wrench icon came on the dash, and it entered “limp home mode.”  I pulled over at a truck parking spot, checked on the code, and figured out what was happening.

DTC code: P0234 — Turbo Over-boost condition.  What this basically means is that the parts in the turbo are dirty and need to be cleaned.  Seems this happens every 50,000 – 100,000 miles, or so, depending on the deities.  I was still able to drive the truck, but to keep the code from coming back on, I basically had to baby the throttle and keep the boost under about 20psi.  Depending on hills and winds, that meant my speed maxed out at anywhere from 55mph to 70mph+.  Cruise control was out of the question.

I limped it another couple hours down the road because I didn’t feel like quitting for the day quite yet.  Found a walmart somewhere in Oklahoma, and headed there.  By pure luck, there was a ford dealership one block away from the Walmart.

The next morning I stopped by the Ford Dealership, and to their credit, they were really good about accommodating me and getting me fixed up right away.  Their prognosis was the same as mine, so we proceeded with the treatment of disassembling and cleaning the turbo.  $299 and a couple hours later, I had my truck back.

Right now it’s still relatively windy, so I’ll hang out for another hour or two, then continue on my journey.  Tomorrow looks like little to no wind at all, which will be a blessing.