PIU 2013 Project

[Rattlecan]

I bought this about a month ago, took that long to have it shipped to me.
2013 PIU, 62k miles.
Has carpet front and middle seats area; has middle row seats, low back w/o headrests; center console w/o shifter.
No push bar, rear hitch, roof rack, fog lights.

This is a recovered flood vehicle from the Houston area. I have info from the PD and business cards likely from the officer that drove this PIU.
I also found some evidence bags (unused) and some other interesting items.
The siren, amp, and lighting controller were still in and attached. No radios.

It had about 2" of clean water in the spare tire well and the carpets were wet but no mud.
The battery was completely flat, and would not hold any charge.

No water in the oil and the air filter is completely dry.
I've replaced with a new battery and it started right up. Runs a drives OK but has error messages and codes.
Photo by Rattlecan2
Photo by Rattlecan2

Did make a clunking noise when driving. I found this bushing out of place in the left rear.
Photo by Rattlecan2
Photo by Rattlecan2

More tomorrow.

Rattlecan

 

[Rattlecan]

The blower motor was stuck, not spinning.
I removed the motor, cleaned and lubricated it. It spins now but vibrates a bit.
I've ordered a new one from Summit. Very easy to remove/reinstall. Remove one sheet metal screw, rotate the blower motor and it drops free.

 

[Rattlecan]

I changed the lube in the differential.
I lowered the exhaust from the hangers. Spray WD40 on the rubber hangers first, then the studs slide right out. The WD40 will evaporate and not harm the rubber hangers.
I used a cheap hand pump ($9 lube bottle pump from Harbor Freight) to extract the old lube thru the fill hole. Added 18" of tubing to get to the bottom of the diff housing.
I extracted 22oz of very black lube. It wasn't milky or cloudy so pretty confident there was no water in the diff.
I refilled with RP synth 75w90.
It took the full bottle, 32oz to fill the diff up to the bottom of the fill hole.

I've been a shade tree mechanic for a long time. I've never had a diff so low.
Is that normal to for the diff to be low by 1/3???

 

[kobresia]

That sounds like the kind of project I'd take on, high, but somewhat calculated risk, but pretty high reward, too.

Is it AWD? If so, you should also change the oil in the transfer case, that seems to go neglected pretty often. Looks like neglect might be a running theme on your PIU, with a low quantity of dirty fluid coming out of the diff and a very worn/displaced sway bar bushing, but at least its miles aren't so high that you'd have severely damaged parts, just mildly questionable ones which shouldn't be a problem as long as you're not hearing noises in the drivetrain and get it caught-up on maintenance.

If it was my project, I'd probably just replace all fluids to set a maintenance baseline since it's just over 60k, which calls for most drivetrain fluids to be replaced anyway. If the rear diff wasn't done (sounds like it might not have had its 30k change, either), that's a sign other things also aren't up-to-date on maintenance.

 

[Rattlecan]

Yep. Any used car is a calculated risk, but in this case it was a really good deal. The PIU is in really good condition, very minimal body and interior damage.
Flood water was below the bottom of the seats, less than 2" in the spare tire well.
No water in the engine oil, differential, PTO, or air filter.

I changed out the lube in the PTO. The drain plug was easy to remove with a 1/4" Allen key.
Drained out 10.5oz via the drain plug. The old lube looked like dark honey or molasses. Not dirty, cloudy, or foul smelling at all.
Metal filings on the magnet.

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I refilled with RP 75w140, 11oz thru the vent hole.
The vent was easy to reach from below. I pulled off the existing vent hose, attached 3' of 5/16" fuel line and a small funnel at the top.
I slowly filled it, waiting for the funnel to empty before adding more.
A few times it locked up with an air bubble. I used 3.5' of string trimmer line shoved in the hose to relieve the hydrolock. This worked really well as the string trimmer line is strong and flexible enough to go all the way down the fill hose but is clean, soft plastic that can't damage anything.
This took about 2 hours. I let it sit overnight to make sure all the lube had flowed into the PTO.
Next morning I removed my fill line and re-seated the original vent line.

The next item with be the trouble codes and dash warning indicators.

Rattlecan

 

[peterk9]

No pictures. I don't know if you took out a Photobucket membership but you can't use Photobucket as a free hosting site. That is why so many pictures on here have disappeared.

Peter

 

[kobresia]

Tinypic.com works to host images you wish to embed in your post, or a link to the image on Photobucket's website will also work.

 

[peterk9]

Tinypic.com works to host images you wish to embed in your post, or a link to the image on Photobucket's website will also work.

......Or you can help support this site and keep it operating by taking out a $20 Elite membership which will allow you to upload directly from your device AND the pictures are saved on the Forum's servers so they won't suddenly vanish like so many have.

Peter

 

[Rattlecan]

My PIU has a low-back middle row seat. The seat back will fold forward and will recline a bit.
Each side of the seat has a pictograph showing the seat back folding forward and then the entire back and seat rotates forward (I suppose to give a longer, flat cargo area), but the seat will not budge.
It looks like there's a spring-assisted hinge in the front of the seat, but the rear base of the seat looks to be secured in place with two large torx bolts on each side, T-45.
Do any other PIU owners have this?
Can I remove these torx bolts to allow the flip-forward function but not create a crash safety hazard?

Thanks,
Rattlecan

 

[peterk9]

.........It looks like there's a spring-assisted hinge in the front of the seat, but the rear base of the seat looks to be secured in place with two large torx bolts on each side, T-45.
Do any other PIU owners have this?
Can I remove these torx bolts to allow the flip-forward function but not create a crash safety hazard?

Thanks,
Rattlecan

Short answer, NO. Long answer, you will need to modify your setup so that you can secure/latch the seats when in the normal up-right position. The fold and tumble seats have anchor points and a latch system on the seats themselves. I've posted a link to the picture of my previous 2011 Limited to show what I mean. Second row seat question

Peter

 

[KayGee]

My PIU has a low-back middle row seat. The seat back will fold forward and will recline a bit.
Each side of the seat has a pictograph showing the seat back folding forward and then the entire back and seat rotates forward (I suppose to give a longer, flat cargo area), but the seat will not budge.
It looks like there's a spring-assisted hinge in the front of the seat, but the rear base of the seat looks to be secured in place with two large torx bolts on each side, T-45.
Do any other PIU owners have this?
Can I remove these torx bolts to allow the flip-forward function but not create a crash safety hazard?

Thanks,
Rattlecan

Not sure I follow - are you saying your rear seats fold/recline or they will not budge? Or, are you saying they fold/recline, but will not tumble?

Low back PIU rear seats should fold/recline, but they have no tumble feature. I can't say that I've looked that closely at either of mine to see what's under them or what markings are on them, but it would probably be safe to say that any bolts that are there, are for securing the seat to the vehicle. Is the pictograph you are talking about the stuff molded into the plastic side cover above the lever? If so, I would say that it is just a carry over from the retail model and doesn't apply to PIU.

Are your rear seats the same as the ones pictured below?

 

[kobresia]

I took a good look at the rear seats in a PIU I bought without them even being bolted down; it was such a lazy decommissioning job, the fleet folks just chucked some OEM seats (either from storage, or a newly-commissioned PIU) in the cargo area after removing the cage.

The seat frames do have hinges and springs where they'd normally be, and they will tumble forward on those hinges if the rear bolts are undone. It's not simply a matter of removing the Torx bolts, though, since there don't appear to be any latches, only the cables to connect to the latches. I guess Ford just left a lot in place because it was cheaper to make everything the same. I did not try removing the Torx bolts, so there could well be something I missed, but it looked like they simply secured the mounting plate to the seat frame.

 

[Rattlecan]

KayGee and Kobresia, that looks like my set up as well.
I don't really need the tumble feature as even if it did work I wouldn't have a true flat cargo surface from the rear hatch to the "bottom" of the tumbled mid seats.
Some day, if I'm bored enough, I may look for some latches to retrofit where the torx bolts now secure the rear of the seat base.

thanks, Rattlecan

 

[kobresia]

The way I'd see a tumble feature working in a PIU would be to buy a set of the regular seats and to modify the plate coming down from the K-brace which the seats bolt to with the striker loops. That way, you'd get the plastic covers as well. If I had to guess, the proper latches and whatever else attaches to the seat bottom just bolts into place with the Torx bolts, everything at the rear of the seats below those bolts is what is PIU-specific.

 

[peterk9]

Here are some pics I just took of the setup in my 2017. The anhor latch seems to be bolted to the frame as I believe I could feel a nut when I slid my finger under the carpet. The pictures of the actual bolted parts of the seat are L and R. The 2nd picture also shows the piston as I have the electric fold and tumble feature. Not sure if these help.

Peter