Game Show - What's wrong with the SHO?

[blaine109]

So, i have posted a few threads with some issues that I have been having with my SHO. I'll recap here...

-Lack of power. Seriously, feels like 165 of my horses died. The power doesn't kick in until I hit 35-40 MPH.
-Erratic tachometer. At times, during acceleration or sustained speeds the RPM needle will bounce up and down +/- 50 RPM's or so.
-Big drop in gas mileage. About 4-5 MPG decline in both HWY and City driving.
-Hesitation from a stop and during a rolling stop. Almost been t-boned 3 times from being "stranded" in an intersection for an extra 1-1.5 seconds.
-It does sound like the engine is not sucking in air during acceleration...sounds more like it is blowing it out until the power kicks in around 35-40.
-Absolutely no check engine lights or codes of any kind
-I do have an older build of the SHO; 02/2009

I took it to a dealer where I purchased the vehicle when the hesitations first started. I had an Airaid intake on it and they told me that it was causing the problems. BS. I took the intake off and it was still exhibiting some of the symptoms and they looked at it again and only reprogrammed the PCM. It drove awesome after that, for about 500-600 miles. The issued started to come back and continued to get worse. I now have it at a different dealer because I was not satisfied with the level of attention from the first dealer. Airaid not installed.

One thing about the Airaid, many of these symptoms were starting to present themselves before I put the Airaid on. So I know it's not the intake, that and there's no mention of anyone else having issues related to the Airaid intake on these forums.

I called back to the dealer ship today for an update and they said that they do see that there is a lack of power but are trying to figure out what the problem in since there are no CEL's or codes of any kind. Hopefully it will only be another day or so till they have it figured out...at least I talked them into putting me into a rental car.

So....the big question....

What do you think is wrong with the SHO?

I'll let everyone know what the verdict is when I get the SHO back.

Thanks,
Blaine

 

[SeanMc]

Who cares, it's under warranty and Ford's gotta fix it. When you get it back, you'll be happy as a pig in his own excrement .

If PCM was reprogrammed and it ran fine, then started acting up again, I'm going to have to point to the PCM again. Maybe something shorting it out? Really don't know.

 

[hamrtyme]

pcm is my bet... what kind of miles on the car?

 

[EcoBrick Bob]

Any chance you have leaky turbo hoses? Guy on Flex Net currently is having his fixed for this, and had some of the same issues.

 

[somedude_001]

boost leak to one of the wastegates.

 

[Retnavy]

You didn't say anything about the transmission being updated with new TSB and reprogramming. The latest TSB should take care of shifing issues and possibly lack of power issues. I'll need to get new programming from Livernois after it's repaired. BTW, the latest TSB corrects a mistake in the first one. Seems they covered an opening that should not have been covered causing tranny shifting issues to remain, but not as badly. From what I've heard from my tech, the SHO is 100% better than before. He just finished his dad's SHO with the latest TSB. If your loosing power due to leaking boost, any good tech should be able to find that! At any rate, a good tune installed from a good after market company(Hint: Livernois Motor Sports) does wonders for the car.

All of these issues have been well documented in posts on the SHO board. Search and yee shall succeed!

 

[blaine109]

I'll give you guys a ridiculous update....

The dealership has been on the horn with the Ford helpline regarding this. They did look and see that I do have a K&N filter on there. Ford helpline said that they need to install a genuine Motorcraft filter because it may be the cause of the problem.

I think it's kind of BS myself. A minimal airflow improvement should not cause these types of problems...

 

[SHOuMINE]

I'll give you guys a ridiculous update....

The dealership has been on the horn with the Ford helpline regarding this. They did look and see that I do have a K&N filter on there. Ford helpline said that they need to install a genuine Motorcraft filter because it may be the cause of the problem.

I think it's kind of BS myself. A minimal airflow improvement should not cause these types of problems...

Wow:banghd: Some people i tell ya....

My guess would be a leak somewhere alone the turbo hose's or something of that nature

 

[mjhpadi]

I'll give you guys a ridiculous update....

The dealership has been on the horn with the Ford helpline regarding this. They did look and see that I do have a K&N filter on there. Ford helpline said that they need to install a genuine Motorcraft filter because it may be the cause of the problem.

I think it's kind of BS myself. A minimal airflow improvement should not cause these types of problems...

Wow, you've got to be kidding me. This doesn't sound like advice from a company that understands either it's products or it's customers!

 

[black99lightnin]

I'll give you guys a ridiculous update....

The dealership has been on the horn with the Ford helpline regarding this. They did look and see that I do have a K&N filter on there. Ford helpline said that they need to install a genuine Motorcraft filter because it may be the cause of the problem.

I think it's kind of BS myself. A minimal airflow improvement should not cause these types of problems...

has anyone trying running without the airfilter. I tried in my Shelby when it was brand new at the track just to see if it'd pick up over the factory paper element. It wouldn't even get out of it's own way. Not saying this is your problem with the K&N, but you never know. I'd let them put it the factory filter back in and go from there, at least that influence would be eliminated.

 

[EB_SHO]

I understand why the help line is pointing fingers at the airfilter, but in this case it's bogus. It's a major pain for the dealers and for Ford when a customer comes in with an oiled air filter (i.e. K & N) that has fouled out the mass airflow sensor. The 2010 SHO doesn't have a MAF so that's clearly not the issue.

The help line people are not always the most mechanically inclinded....

My guess is either the transmission TSB (car doesn't shift down to lower gears) which makes the car drive like a dog, or some major boost leak somewhere.

 

[AREA 91]

The dealership is ALWAY's going to give you a hard time for any modifications. It's much easier and cheaper to point the finger at the aftermarket part, then to actually diagnose the problem. This is especially true when the car is still under warranty.

 

[yamahaSHO]

Who cares, it's under warranty and Ford's gotta fix it.

I'm with st00pid.

 

[blaine109]

So the dealership went ahead and put in a stock Motorcraft air filter. The service manager told me that it still showed the symptoms originally described. It wasn't until they did a "Reset Keep Alive Memory" when all these issues went away.

I still had to pay $175 for parts/labor because Ford said it was related to the air filter. I did a test drive before I signed off on it and it drove perfectly fine. I will say the last dealership that did work it drove like a dream for about 500-600 miles before the symptoms came back.

So we will see...

 

[nynd]

I think they will come back...

 

[mjhpadi]

Guess, I have to eat my words, but I hope it cures your problems. Did they do a reflash of the computer?

 

[blaine109]

Guess, I have to eat my words, but I hope it cures your problems. Did they do a reflash of the computer?

Nope. That had been done at the previous trip to the other dealership. Car was fine for 500-600 miles after that then the problems came back.

 

[blaine109]

Get ready to laugh....

How many miles did it take for all of these issues to return?

If you guessed 60 miles give yourself a pat on the back.

This is starting to get ridiculous...

 

[ChrisBnDE]

has to be a weird thing the computer is picking up, maybe a bad sensor or such... just a guess based on the time line after each change. (i'm not a mechanic, but i'm the son of a mechanic so i do know some things)

 

[ttrull]

Welcome to my world!