I have a 99 f250 4x4 with 236000. I went outside to start it this morning and it would not start for like 15 minutes and the whole time it was chugging white smoke. It was so much smoke that it filled my apartment's parking lot. When it finally started it was still blowing white smoke and a little bit of black smoke. The truck has never done this before and I don't know why it is doing it now. I know that white smoke is condisation and black smoke is fuel. The smoke went away once it warmed up but it worries me because it has never done this before. Any advice would help. Thank you.
-Alex-

 

sounds like you have glow plug problems...do you know how to test them??

 

Glow plug issues from either a relay (most likely) to a burned out glow plug or two (least likely).

 

I am not sure how to test them. If anyone can tell me how i would appreciate it.

 

Same thing happened to me last winter. It was the relay, not the plugs. Very common and by far, most likely.
Tom

 

where can i find this relay?

 

In the valley right behind the fuel bowl.. there are two and it's the one closest to the firewall.

 

I just went and took a look under the hood and I could not find it. I only found the the glow plug solenoid.

 

That's it. Can you check it?
Tom

 

how exactly do you check it?

 

It has two large terminals. One should be hot with the key on and the other hot only when the glow plugs are on. Check this with a test light.
Tom

 

Thank you. I will test it first thing tomorrow.
-Alex-

 

The big terminals on the relay you want will have a big black with orange tracer wire on the passenger side terminal and the driver's side terminal will have two smaller wires...one brown and one yellow.

The big black one should have 12 volts all the time.
The terminal with the yellow and brown wires will have battery voltage when the key is on....and if it's cold out, don't hurry......the relay will be on for nearly 2 minutes.

If there isn't any voltage (or significantly less than battery voltage) at the driver's side terminal with the key on then you have a bad glow plug relay. What happens is that every time the relay is turned off, there is a HUGE arc due to the current drawn by the glow plugs. This arc burns the internal contacts in the relay causing high resistance or an open circuit so the glow plugs don't get warm....or even energize at all.

 

Oh, and if you end up with power on the output terminal, try a few more times (with a few more key cycles). Sometimes the relay will have an intermittent bad contact and work sometimes and not others.

 

Mine did that aq couple of years ago. Had to take it to the dealers and leave it overnight as it didn't set any codes. They found a sensor that was out of range low when cold but came back in when the truck warmed up. Said they had never seen that one fail before. Don't recall which one but it fixed the problem and wasn't that bad to get it repaired at the dealer.