Sorry for the delayed update....
I sent my wife to take a flight from Midland to Austin 230p Friday Apr 29 afternoon to ensure she made it home to start a new job on the following Monday since it was going to be a crapshoot whether the fuel pump arrived in time to get installed by EOB Friday.
Sewel was fantastic keeping me updated and after the fuel pump arrived around 11a Friday. The service manager got my truck next in line with his service tech. They called me at 5p to tell me my truck was ready and to tell me they were sending a car to pick me up from the RV park where I was waiting with our dog to get the truck back.
I got the truck back and was connected to the RV around 630p. After contemplating waiting until the following morning to leave, I said f'it and pulled out for Austin.
Everything was running great and smooth when I hit the road. When cruising at 65, I was able to go full throttle to test the conditions that previously caused it to choke and stutter into limp mode with good response and no rough shifting.
About 60 miles in just outside of Sterling City while in cruise control at about 70mph, it suddenly started missing and the truck slowed down to about 50mph. I pulled into Sterling City and found an Alon gas station and called my wife who unbelievably was still at the Midland airport to let he know the continuing problem.
I then tried calling the Service Manager at Sewell Ford (Michael Fabbri). He unbelievably picked up his cell at 730p on a Friday as he was driving to his lake house for the weekend. I told him what was going on and then he said he would call me back. He called back about 20 minutes later and said he spoke to his service tech that worked on my truck. The service tech believed that it was likely missing on 1 or more cylinders (I was due to replace plugs and boots 60k and I was at 70k). He suggested that I try to get to an Auto Parts dealer to get an OBDC code to confirm that it was missing on one or more cylinders, but he said that is that if it was I should be OK to keep on trucking.
I pulled out of Sterling City to keeping heading home. I was able to avoid any missing stuttering by keeping my speed at 60 and below. I arrived in San Angelo about 830 where I found an O'Reily's and after about 20 minutes waiting to get the attention of one of the parts desk guys, they tried to get the error code from my truck. After 20 minutes trying to get the reader to read the codes with no success, I said I needed to keep going and punted. I was able to get home by keeping it under 60 all the way to Austin. I pulled into my driveway at 230a overly caffeinated from Diet Dr Pepper and a salt pruned mouth from eating Sunflowers all the way home to keep from falling asleep on the road.
As for the comments regarding the lack of working brake trailer on the 4531 lb trailer, unbelievably I never really felt unsafe even when having to hard brake a few times while in Albuquerque and the only issue I had was the anti-locks kicking in. I am a conservative driver who always looks way ahead so I am very rarely surprised when driving and tend to have a very light touch on the brakes (I had a 15yo Isuzu Rodeo with 200k miles that had only one brake job at 160k miles). I will be getting and installing the Ford brake controller before I tow again though, I am not stupid.
It took me until Memorial day weekend to finally get the time to change out the plugs and boots. I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of the plug replacement especially after with dealing with 4 broken plugs on my Triton equipment 2006 Expy. After the plug replacement, the truck feels very solid and a slight bit more responsive on the throttle but until I can tow again, I won't feel 100% confident.
I can't say enough about the serviced at Sewel Ford... Michael Fabbri and Sewell Ford has been the best customer service experience I have experienced in a very, very long time. Do not go to Rogers if you are in the Midland/Odessa area. Why waste the time when there is such a better option available 15 minutes down the road.
