I have a friend who owns a used car lot so I asked him to sell my 05 F-250 with 6.0L on consignment. The truck was coldblooded and ran a little rough until it warmed up so I told him to keep the engine blocker heater plugged in which he did. He finally sold the truck yesterday and told the guy to keep it plugged in overnight. The buyers calls him this morning saying the truck won't start and that he didn't plug in the heater.

Friend calls me and I have him give my number to the buyer and I talk to buyer and he says he found on the inter web that if you have to plug it in overnight to get it to start that indicates the glow plugs are going. I replaced all the glow plugs back when I did the BPD mod. He's asking me to pay for half of a glow plug change thru Ford dealer. He's going to take it and have a diagnostics done.

I could hear him cranking the engine while we were on the phone but couldn't remember the details on how to work the Scangauge to check the pertinent info. He had plugged it in but for only 30 minutes or so.

I changed the IPR valve back in October and it was finally running again after six months. My friend had driven it every week or so to make sure it was running ok. They also took it out for a test drive.

I live about 250 miles from him.

HELP!

 

check the volts a FICM

 

Buyer called me back says the truck is running but now the AC/heater control isn't working. That happened to me once about two years ago and it started working after turning the ignition off and back on.

What would the block heater have to do with the glow plugs?

He still wants to take it to Ford for diagnostics.

 

Silly question... did he buy it "AS IS" ?

 

Nothing... Plugging in actually heats up the FICM

My money is on dying FICM and nothing on the glow plugs.

Josh

 

Stick it to Him Bud

 

I was speed reading so may have missed it, but the part of your dealer friend driving it once a week stuck in my mind. I've seen batteries taken down pretty quick if it's short drives w/ a low output alternator. How old were the batts and have him check them independently and charge them fully independently.

The combo of stock (standard) 110A Alternator, cold weather and short drives will kill batts and in-turn the FICM and in-turn injectors -- it's a cascading problem. Most here are putting high output Alts, High quality batts, having their FICM gone through (or at least watching voltage closely) to help avert the injectors going one after the other...

In CA it's an assumed AS-IS sale on (used) cars by state law. Maybe the one good thing we have... No recourse of a buyer back to the seller...

 

Dont think id pay for squat. Used is used anyway you look at it. He should be happy youre helping him diagnose it. Like said before it sounds like the ficm is on its way out.

 

I have an Idea, Once you find out that the FICM is bad, ford will charge a min. of $1000 to fix it. Tell the new owner that if he removes the ficm from the truck and mails it to you,along with his half of the $1000($500) that you will pay the rest.

Then you contact ED@ficmrepair.com he will fix it for around $300 and it will be better then new.So yuo will make $200 of the new owner and he wont even know.

As far as the ac/heater not working I assume you have a lariat or king rancher with the electronic control unit, if so this is a very common problem with 2004-2007 excursions and f250s and f350s lariats and King ranchers.My truck has done it two or three times a year for 8years now. All you have to do to fix is turn on the head lights thats it.

 

As Is means just that , and you are a good guy for helping him but dont throw any money out , what green tree said that will only bit at you for doing it , but you could give the guy Eds number and feel alot better about the prob.and go on with your new Truck.

 

I really like that idea and agree sounds like FICM.
and AS-IS is just what it sounds like. Don't pay one dime.

He should of checked it out better when hearing that it had to
be plugged in over night all the time.
It his mistake and he wants you to pay for it. No, Hell No.

Sean

 

So the buyer decides to take the truck to Vegas, towing a trailer. He makes it as far as Flagstaff and it won't start. He takes it to a Ford dealer and, surprise surprise, the FICM is going bad. $1200+ later the truck is fixed and he paid towing and lodging, etc. He called me and I had him call the dealer. Dealer told him that the lemon law requires him to give the dealer the first opportunity to repair the vehicle but out of good will, he, translated I, would pay a part of the cost. It is going to cost me $800 more to get rid of the truck.

Good riddance.

 

i would not pay for fixing his truck. its nice that you have helped him but when you sign over the papers it's not supposed to be your problem anymore. and its not like you screwed him over, you told him it had to be plugged in over night and its his fault for not inspecting it. hasn't happened to me, but to a friend who sold a truck, the guy is having so many problems with it and asking him for help, what a nightmare that is.

 

I'm paying the portion of it because I don't want my friend to be out any money as he was doing me a favor selling the truck.

 

I agree^^^
"AS-IS" is just that

When you buy an Auto that you Know NOTHING ABOUT you have the Option to take it to a Mechanic of your choice to have it Inspected

In Fact my Aunt just sold a 1952 MG-TD Last week

The Guy wanted His Mechanic to Look at it so Fine My Aunt has Houses in just about every state from Colorado to California the MG happens to be at the house in Utah by me. SO I GOT STUCK taking this car to the Guys/Buyers Mechanic to get it looked at. Of coarse the Buyer Paid an hour Time for HIS Mechanic to look at it.

so he tried to cover his butt however his MG-TD Guru really didnt do him any favors. I did alot of work to it so I had an advantage. She wanted her Money out of it so it was what it was. For 1952 Vintage it was Good condition But Kinda Shocked me what the Guru missed

But my point is the guy that bought your truck certainly could have done something like this But Opted NOT TO so he missed his chance

Hell he knew something was up when it didnt start up that day!!
Its his Own Fault he took the chance and took a roadtrip and ended up breaking down and ended up getting an expensive repair & tow bill with a Hotel room on top of it

Your a Good guy to entertain the thought of helping him out

But IMO if you still feel compelled to help him only give Him 400.00 because you could have fixed it for around that anyway