I got my truck!... But...

[Royk]

Finally picked up my truck last night. What a fiasco! Aside from other issues I won't go into now, I have a few questions:



1. ) I got home last night from the dealer, plugged in the truck at 9pm and went to bed. It was 17 degrees outside. This morning it was 16 degrees and I went to start it. The WAIT light didn't come on, which I figured was because I had it plugged in all night. It seemed to idle all right and oil pressure was up in about 3 seconds. I thought that with the engine plugged in, it would blow somewhat warm air from the heater, but it was ice cold. The temp guage was just to the left of 140 (basically not showing any temp). Should this be?



2. ) The bigger issue is that when I went to pull away, I had NO power steering. I'm thinking this is not good. I can't drive to work with no PS. I grab the manual to see if it has any useful info on PS and checked a couple of pages that just told about filling PS fluid, etc. After about 30 seconds-1 minute I threw the book down and figured I'd hoss the truck back to my parking space and steal the wifes truck. Suddenly now I had PS! Whats up with that?!



3. ) My windshield doesn't have the blue stripe across the top and I want it. What recourse do I have?



Thanks for any help you can provide.



-Roy

 

[JHansen]

Hey Roy-I'm no expert but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night . JK-I'll try to help you out here as much as I can... .



1. I don't think the block heater will generate enough heat to blow warm air out of the heater. Can't really tell you for sure-mine's been plugged in a grand total of once since new! I've got an Espar on mine-after it runs for an hour or so it'll make warm air. It puts out quite a bit more heat energy than the stock block heater.....



2. Welcome to the cold-weather PS club! My pump howls like a banshee in the cold stuff-the colder it is the louder it is. Quite a few on here have switched to a synthetic power steering fluid on their own dime-supposedly it helps quite a bit. There is a TSB out from DC about the use of ATF+4 (which is synthetic) in the PS system-the TSB does not specifically mention our trucks but I plan to have it put in my system when they change out my steering box before the warranty is up. Hoping for an improvement-can't be worse than it is!



3. There's a thread back a few days about a fella that had the shaded windshield installed by DC under warranty... ... if you go back in the 2nd gen non-drivetrain forum no further than a week you'll find it. Should point you in the right direction anyways.



Good luck with your new truck-once you get a few of the little bugs worked out I'm sure you'll love it... .



Jason

 

[jwilliams3]

Remember the Block heater warms the Coolant that is located in an internal jacket in your block and the Engine block derives heat from the coolant that the surrounds the cylinders, and walls.



But, 10 quarts of ice cold oil is residing in your oil pan, and when you start the engine it has a counter effect to the heated temperature.

You will still need to let the engine warm up for a couple minutes

to get the oil warm and thinned out, and then your temperature will come up to par.

 

[Fireman Dave]

Originally posted by JHansen

Hey Roy-I'm no expert but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night Jason

You're killing me, Jason!:-laf



Roy,



It won't blow warm air right away from the block heater, but it will blow warm air much quicker than when it hasn't been plugged in. I usually get warm air within a 1-2 minutes of driving it when it was plugged in.



The steering issue needs to be looked at - that's not normal. It will howl sometimes when it's really cold, but it should still work. 17 deg. is not cold. Gotta get down around zero before it will howl, from my experience.



Like Jason said, once you get the bugs worked out, you will love this truck! For me, the bugs included a steering box and track bar, not to mention about 5 console boxes (that keep breaking tabs). I know, though - you shouldn't have bugs in a truck that costs what these do. Good luck.



Dave

 

[Royk]

Sorry to reply back so late, thanks for the replies guys. I'll have to bring up the steering problem to the dealer when I go back. It happened one other time since then when it was in the teens. Sat there for a few minutes periodically trying to turn the wheel with no success. Then I gave the engine a little rev and the wheel turned. Luckilly I was not in a hurry. Its been pretty warm since then, so I haven't had any more problem with it.



-Roy

 

[Pit Bull]

Originally posted by Royk

Sorry to reply back so late, thanks for the replies guys. I'll have to bring up the steering problem to the dealer when I go back. It happened one other time since then when it was in the teens. Sat there for a few minutes periodically trying to turn the wheel with no success. Then I gave the engine a little rev and the wheel turned. Luckilly I was not in a hurry. Its been pretty warm since then, so I haven't had any more problem with it.



-Roy

I would check your fluid level on the power steering, that is not normal, mine has never done that and does not even howl at 10 degrees. I do let it idle for 2 minutes in neutral before I take off. The wait to start light should alway come on even if it is just for an instant. I would also have the dealer check that out.