Well this weekend I went out with my son for a little father son bonding! 16lbs of screaming boost always gives him a smile as well as me! After about 15 minutes of driving I noticed the boost had dropped from 16/17psi to 5 psi. After a little research I found some good info on these boards about the intercooler pump and possible issues. After 15 years as a Lexus and Honda technician I'm not afraid to dive into some diagnosing! Well 1st off we have no intercooler fluid flow at all with car running and reservoir cap removed. I immediately think bad pump so I check power and ground just to confirm and lo and behold I have power but no ground. I get my hands on a wiring diagram from a Ford technician and traced a few connectors and found this! The photo below is the connector next to the air filter that is relocated when you install a JLT Cold Air or anything else besides the factory air box. Notice the little burn mark at the end. A loose ground connection caused a lot of resistance and heated up the connector. I tweaked the male pin in the connector for a better connection and bingo the intercooler pump came to life, Im pretty sure this has been a lingering problem for some time. From time to time the car felt weak or lack of power and other times it feels like a beast. So I think this loose connection on the ground circuit would come and go! Once the intercooler temps get to high the PCM dumps most of the boost to help avoid detonation. I wonder if some under hood detailing/washing caused some water intrusion which started this problem. Hopefully this will help someone else down the road chasing the same problem! The Ford tech is checking to see if I can order the exact connector so I can replace it.
