2013 F550 Intermittent Stall

[wewille]

I have a 2013 F550 with knuckle boom crane on it in my bay. The truck is used for replacing and repairing large off road equipment tires. The driver stated that the engine would intermittently stall and not restart, He could disconnect the batteries and reconnect and it would usually restart. Below is the gist of what i have done so far. Needless to say we gave the truck back after running in the parking lot for hours and the first job he takes it to the thing stalls. I thought i had it nailed with the damaged wire. Today i wiggle tested, until i couldn't wiggle anymore and could not duplicate the concern again. Ive quizzed the driver on what he does and i have no reason to believe he is doing anything wrong to cause the concern. However i can never get the thing to act up for me. Which obviously makes it tough to figure out. The truck has roughly 167000 miles, 10,000 idle hours, and lots of time off road. Of course we are also in the rust belt.

 

Arrived onsite to Huston pit. Connected computer test equipment and retrieved diagnostic trouble codes. Recovered codes U0100-20, U0101-20, U0102-20, U0140-20, B1310:14, B10AF:11, B10B9:14, U0140:00, UO121:00, U0151:00, U0121:00, U0418:00, P2531. Checked for any available Ford  updates. Found updates available. Re-calibrated the PCM, TCM, and IPC to the latest software version available through Ford. Monitored Regen status and recent history and freeze frame data and found that it was possible that the vehicle had stalled during a regen. Performed a manual regen on site. The engine did not stall and the regen completed successfully. Spoke with driver and determined that it would be best to reschedule and to get the truck to our facility for further testing and repairs. Upon arrival of the truck at our facility, computer testing equipment was hooked up again and the diagnostic trouble codes retrieved again. The exact same codes returned. Referenced a wiring diagram and found that all the modules shared the same high speed can network circuit VDBO5. Began tracing the circuit. Removed door sill plates to inspect harness. No concerns found. Removed the driver side wheel well and began inspecting the harness. Found circuit VDB05 to be damaged at pin 13 of connector C1010. The connector locking lever was also broken from a previous repair. De-pinned the connector and removed the terminal. Replaced the terminal and soldered in a new wire. It appears that the wire would rub against a metal bracket shorting the circuit and shutting down the high speed CAN network. The intermittent rubbing would cause the intermittent stalling concern. After the new wire was soldered in and the wheel well reassembled a network test was performed and found all modules to be online and functioning at this time. Drove the truck to the fuel station and refilled the tank. Returned to the shop and let the truck run with the PTO engaged for several hours. The engine ran well, never stalled and no codes returned. On Tuesday 2/7/17 the truck was started at 730am and ran for 2 hours before driver picked up the vehicle.

[RyanG]

Which modules are your communication faults stored in? The B1310:14 is for the start/run relay circuit controlled by the bcm. I would look into starting with that code and the p2531 stored in the tcm since they are both pointing to the same concern. Check the sub harness going to the tcm on the frame rail under the driver side, have seen issues with wiring corrosion especially if the truck sees a lot of off-road.

[wewille]

Thanks for the reply. I did check that area out this morning and found that a large hydraulic return line to the PTO was pinching the TCM sub harness against the frame rail. So I pulled the hose hanger off, and pulled the harness down and found the VDBO5 white wire to have a very tiny chafe through the insulation. Fixed that, sent it down the road, three hours later its dead again. I drove to the job site where the truck was dead and retrieved codes right away, and of course it started when I got there, and I recovered a B10B9 blower control short to ground, and a U0418:00 tccm loss of communication. So i thought i was smart and disconnected the TCCM module and said drive it and see what happens. Well it died again 2 hours later. I'm supposed to be on site again in the morning to get it figured out. Owner is getting frustrated even after explaining the process and that these are very difficult problems to solve. Plus billing and approvals are going through a third party fleet management company. Im sure Ill get paid for 1/4 my actual time. So maybe ill disconnect the blower controller. Maybe something crazy is happening and the hvac module is screwing up the network. Who knows, although the HVAC is working properly all the time according to the driver.

[tonybullitt]

Check near the parking brake pedal. I have found chaffing there. Especially since it probably needs parking brake set to run pto

[tonybullitt]

The other thing to try is taking all connectors apart and cleaning with deoxit contact cleaner spray. All connectors in suspect circuit that is

[tonybullitt]

If you haven't seen deoxit before

[Matt Saunoras]

Sweet!

[8WA Sman]

I like the new style cans even better. I also just picked up a needle dispenser of the 100% stuff.

[wewille]

Hey, guys, just an update for everybody I finally figured it out. I spent an hour staring at diagrams and studying the network. Found the B1310 code interesting. I found that the run/start relay is grounded by the bcm and almost every module on the high speed CAN is powered by the relay. So I messed with the relay a bit and found that if I remove the relay almost all the exact same codes would return. Almost. According to the diagram most of the relay wiring is internal to the BJB, so I decided to chase the one that wasn't internal and found the Brown and Violet wire that grounds the relay from the BCM to have a break in the insulation allowing it to become corroded right about where it runs under the radiator. A wiggle test led me to the area and after pealing back 5 miles of tape I found the problem. There were only a few green strands remaining that were holding it together. It was wrapped up well in convoluted tubing, and electrical tape. Everything looked factory. So there's the answer for the next guy.

[wewille]

I do appreciate the help I received from you guys!

[wewille]

The circuit was CDC55

[wewille]

Which modules are your communication faults stored in? The B1310:14 is for the start/run relay circuit controlled by the bcm. I would look into starting with that code and the p2531 stored in the tcm since they are both pointing to the same concern. Check the sub harness going to the tcm on the frame rail under the driver side, have seen issues with wiring corrosion especially if the truck sees a lot of off-road.

Starting with the B1310 was a wise decision!