OK, well went through a used FICM in about a month so sent mine off to a place in Wichita Kansas to be repaired. Wont mention the name of the place until I know for sure what kind of job they did. Anyway the repaired one is installed and so far seems good. Hoping to give this place a good review as it was less then $100 for repair and shipping and turnaround was real fast. Will keep everyone posted and give props to the repair if warranted.

 

Good to know, but when it comes to reliability and electronics, I hate taking risks just to save a few bucks. I want reliability for the long haul! I have seen the "learning curve" on FICM failures and repairs and I would only recommend FICMRepair.com or Swamps (or BPD when their unit is fully commercialized). Too easy to install comonents that aren't adequately heat and vibration rated (let alone the delicate nature of the required soldering). FICMRepair.com takes the "value nod" IMO. Keep us informed though.

 

I know the place that you have sent it off to and I'll be doing the same thing soon with mine. If it gets my truck running correctly it will be traded in that day after owning it less then 3 months. I'm sure I will loose money on the trade in but I will be ahead in the long run.

 

Sounds like you must have got one that was Neglected

Whats all wrong with it????????

 

2003 F250 6.0l 4dr short bed XLT. Stock with 113k miles
I bought it 3 months ago and the only real problem I saw was the alt light on and the door light icon which neither caused any real alarm for me, The girlfriend took it for emissions and they told her that the rear brakes needed replacing. I look at them and one side is using the caliper on the rotor to stop. My fault for not looking closer. Replace the brakes, rotors, caliper and two caliper brackets. Call it a stupid tax of $400.
I do some more reading here and see that the white stuff on the degas bottle is telling me I'm looking at head bolt/studs. Truck won't start on morning so I replace both batteries even with them showing 12.4v each. It starts later on a runs like crap. Take it to a diesel place and they say $1025 for a new FICM. I asked for the warranty so that's fine they can replace the alt also. Call the warranty place and they have no record of me. Call the place I bought it from and he forgot to add it......

So now I have a non working truck that needs in the neighborhood of $5k in repairs mostly because of the design flaw from Ford with the head bolts. I will never believe that regulator maintenance could have. prevented this. I saw 5 separate threads just today on head bolts. I also know of no other major car company that has a major defect like this. My old 4Runner had head gasket problems and Toyota had a national recall on all 3.0 V6's 1989-1995 and they were replaced for free.

So lets say I gets all this fixed and decide to keep it. It looks like a blue spring kit is good insurance, coolant filter, Scan gauge II, maybe a EGR delete, new fluids, so that I can see if the oil cooler is plugged. All easy fixes/upgrades that I have the tools to do but that is not the point.
So I have a $21k truck that is worth $15k at best? Sandy vag I know.

 

White stuff on the degas does not necessarily mean head gaskets are leaking.

I am sure that this will come across harshly, but it isn't meant to ..........
When you buy a used truck - how do you know what abuse it took prior to you? I know quite a few folks tuned w/ gearhead tunes and stock head bolts - no issues.

I realize that quite a few people bone stock had head gasket problems, but once the early issues were resolved (poor head bolt torquing, programming that led to overboosts/etc, turbo and EGR valve issues, plugging oil coolers due to casting sand and/or poor coolant maintenance), the issues w/ head bolts/gaskets have seriously diminished.

 

I had white stuff on the degas. replaced the rad cap and it went away!
And I run Gearhead tunes with stock head bolts!!

 

Fulley agree ^^^^^^^^^

It could puke from a Bad Coolant bottle Cap

it could puke from simply to much coolant in the coolant bottle ( For some reason these 6.0L are touchy about there coolant leval)

It could puke from a BAD thermostate

It could puke from a Bad/Plugged oil cooler

It could puke from a Bad EGR Cooler (But being a 2003 you already have the BEST OEM EGR COOLER) Its Guts are like a Upgraded BPD egr cooler from the Git Go)

And Finaly it could Puke from HeadGaskets

So the PUKE or whitestuff could be from a fewq things and not nessaserly the WORSE CAse Senerio

The BAd Alternator took out your FICM

Have you Already repaired the FICM Sending it out to ED would be the BEST OPTION HANDS DOWN even better than a New FICM Trust me on this I can elaborate more if need be but if its already fixed its to late (I beleive ED does them for 250-350.00$$ and his final product is Better than New) OH reread your first post that you sent it already GREAT hope they do Good work at least its not the 1K screwing at somewhere eles

I to Learned the Hard way about the AM Warrenty I will NEVER EVER Do that Again Manufacture warrenty or NOTHING. If they sold you a warrenty at the time of sale should it not be on the Paperwork you Signed. I tried to claim on one I bought for the truck I called in and It was the State on the phone taking record of the Claims as the Company Had went out of Bussiness. AM warrenty from anybody but the Manufacture are worthless many can atest to that on here.
When I found that I was getting screwed on the AM warrenty thats when I started my sear ch and ended up here Finding FTE was the Best thing I could have done.

Also would think a Brake caliper would have made a HORRIBLE Sound But I honestly dont know I have never drove anything that Bad its fixed water under the Bridge


IMO I would get some Gauges and see where the truck sits as it might not be as bad as you think. Before you go and trade it off. Cuz like I said the Puke/white stuff at Coolant bottle could be something minor I would check it out before I went HeadGaskets route

 

NOPE this happened to my 03 on the right rear, never heard a sound until the window was down one day, then i could hear this quiet scraping sound under light braking. same thing caliper seized and inside shoe is gone.

 

Like I said I Never drove anything that was that BAD

But from my past experiance when the Metal Backing on the brake pad hits normaly makes Horrible sound or grinding sound

But the way I took this was the semi metalic/ceramic Brake pad material along with the Metal Backing Plate was ALL Gone and was the Actual Caliper Piston making contact with the roter.

Is this ^^^^^^^^^^ how yours was

 

Thanks very much for the kudos! As I've said many times, we just take care of folks the way that we'd want to be taken care of - not really anything more.

 

Not hard at all and many valid points. I have zero information on the PO and what they did with it and they could have had a tune on it and beat the hell out of it for all I know and that is the risk you take when buying used and I accept that. The warranty part I'm still upset about on many levels and it might have been avoided.

My drivers rear made just about zero noise but wasn't stopping as well as it should and when I saw the rotor I was amazed because when the caliper came off one piston was in three pieces. The rotors came off with the help of a 8# sledge and both slider pins were frozen to the caliper brackets.

I fully agree that the alternator took out the FICM after reading all the great information on ficmrepair.com. I have done a ton of reading on the FICM and the repair for it and think that Ford selling replacment ficm's that have the same problem is borderline criminal. Just like selling a two piece O ring.

For now you are all correct that I don't have enough information so I will get a SGII, clean the EGR up, Do the blue spring, send my FICM to Ed (It will be the one marked POS), and replace the alternator and go from there. I'll also look into getting a higher amp alternator since I see no point in replacing a part when it can be upgraded to something better and the Ford's diesel's are picky about voltage.

Studs will still be a deal breaker and the truck will be sold.

 

You'd actually be surprised how many we get that are marked 'POS'.

So...if I could trouble you to print out the intake form on FICMrepair.com's order page and include that in with the module, we can ensure that we can get that module back over to you.

Thanks for the business! We'll take great care of you!!