2020 Engine Surge, Turbo Gauge Fluttering and Check Engine Light Flashing

[tex599]

2020 Max with 75K miles, currently on a trip in the mountains and yesterday went to pass another vehicle and all of sudden my car started to shake and engine light started flashing, felt like no power was available. Check engine light went out, but as soon as you start to accelerate the engine feels like it’s missing and the turbo gauges starts fluttering. I am not anywhere close to a place to pull the codes yet, as car still has original spark plugs and coils, so thinking it’s either a bad coil or spark plugs. Anyone else have this issues, could it be a turbo issue?

 

[JasonH]

Really, it could be anything. Your best bet is to stop at a an auto parts store in the area. They usually have scanners available.

 

[99WhiteC5Coupe]

2020 Max with 75K miles, currently on a trip in the mountains and yesterday went to pass another vehicle and all of sudden my car started to shake and engine light started flashing, felt like no power was available. Check engine light went out, but as soon as you start to accelerate the engine feels like it’s missing and the turbo gauges starts fluttering. I am not anywhere close to a place to pull the codes yet, as car still has original spark plugs and coils, so thinking it’s either a bad coil or spark plugs. Anyone else have this issues, could it be a turbo issue?

From afar and without any trouble codes - I’d bet one or more spark plugs are bad.

The plugs seem to last about 50 or 60 thousand miles in the 3.5 Ecoboost engines.

 

[tex599]

Took it to Autozone and it did not have any codes, active or stored. It idles smooth, runs great, until your on the highway. At highway speeds when trying to accelerate, the engine seems to start misfiring, running rough and if you keep giving gas it will start flashing the check engine light. Seems to into a low power mode, then check engine light stops flashing and goes back to normal until you try to accelerate again. It seems it would have a stored code, really kinda of confusing.

 

[rd618]

Took it to Autozone and it did not have any codes, active or stored. It idles smooth, runs great, until your on the highway. At highway speeds when trying to accelerate, the engine seems to start misfiring, running rough and if you keep giving gas it will start flashing the check engine light. Seems to into a low power mode, then check engine light stops flashing and goes back to normal until you try to accelerate again. It seems it would have a stored code, really kinda of confusing.

If you shift manually and put it into the same RPM band, but drive at local speeds, does it react the same way?
Is it possible to get the truck to do that with a code reader connected?

 

[JasonH]

The fact that it's intermittent suggests plugs. But once I got an intermittent stumble when a shop towel I used to check oil got sucked into the filter housing. Only flashed when my wife floored it. Try plugs first.

 

[LokiWolf]

Plugs, Check all the tubing is all tight and intact. Check the connections to the Intercooler first. Use a better Code Scanner, you need something other than the 19.95 Special. It needs to be able to communicate on MSCan and pull the Ford specific codes.

 

[2020-MAX-Limited]

https://www.expeditionforum.com/threads/flashing-check-engine-light.53587/

 

[tex599]

Happens in all gears when doing manual shift, idles smooth and runs fine until you get into the 3,500 or greater RPM’s. If I keep pushing the check engine light will flash, but goes away once you start driving normallly. Still hasn’t set a code, so next step will be to drive it with the scan tool hooked up and see what code is being thrown when check engine light is flashing. Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[rd618]

Happens in all gears when doing manual shift, idles smooth and runs fine until you get into the 3,500 or greater RPM’s. If I keep pushing the check engine light will flash, but goes away once you start driving normallly. Still hasn’t set a code, so next step will be to drive it with the scan tool hooked up and see what code is being thrown when check engine light is flashing. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I Agree with everyone else then, this is a plugs or injector issue. As for code reader, get a good one or get the MX+ with forscan app on your phone. Even without forscan the readers primary app can get more detail than most obd readers.