I have a 99 F450 XL with the 4r100 tranny, I have had the check engine light come on everyday lately during driving, though it is only after I have driven 15-30 miles most days. (I have a 30 mile commute to work) I have owned this truck since October of 2009, it had 165 miles on it then, and it has just over 180k now, It started pulling codes in Feb. of this year, only P1280, I replaced the ICP sensor then and it ran perfect till about 2 months ago. It started pulling the ICP 1280 code again almost daily. I pulled the code to make sure it was not some thing else. Well it started running rough while driving like it was surging, but if you go full throttle it would stop. Sometimes while sitting in gear at the light the idle would go up and the engine would surge, sometimes when you give it the gas to go it dies, but has always started right back up. I took it to my local shop they replaced the IPR and I had them replace the CPS at the same time. 600 bucks later I was about to back out of the lot at the shop and it did the same thing as before and the SES light came on. I pulled the code it was P1280 I tried clearing it with the truck running and it would kill the engine some times. I checked the ICP plug for the voltages with the KOEO it read correct for the TRP that my mechanic gave me.( so I could trace out my own wire harness. ) I have not finished checking the wire harness to the computer plug yet or the large plug on the drivers fender yet either.

OK now to the question that is bugging me... how ofter does the ICP sensor go out?

I have not changed out the NEW sensor as my mechanic seems to think that the plug might be bad, aka the clips are not making good contact on the sensor plug. He tried bending them back so they would make better contact it worked for about 5 miles, after I bought him lunch as a thanks for fixing my truck it pulled the SES light as I pulled out of the parking lot.

FYI after they replaced my CPS the mechanic did some tests and got a non contribute on #8 injector. When it was checked back in Feb. it was #5. I have not checked or replaced anything else.

 

I thought I could set up an auto signature with my vehicle details on here, I did not find where to set it up so here goes.

1999 F450 7.3 Powerstroke, 4r100 auto, 4.88 gears. 4"AFE air filter. 14,000lbs, 180K miles, and 10 mpg.
1998 Dodge 2500 QuadCab, 4x4, 5.9 Cummins, 5speed, ARP head studs, Glacier Raptor150 fuel pump, Blue Chip FMS box, K&N, 4inch exhaust, 3.55 gears and 35inch tires, 279k miles and 19 mpg and black smoke when i get on it..

 

P1280 is an indication of a bad ICP sensor. From what I have read, it is not uncommon for them to die at 80,000 miles. Six months is rather a short lifetime.

Poor contribution on cylinders #3 and 8 are not uncommon with the gray CPS. When I had the gray one, my truck did not perform well on #3 and even worse on #8. I replaced the gray one with the dark blue (almost black) one from International, but have not put the AE on it to verify contribution with the new CPS.

In order for you to have a signature, you have to have a minimum number of posts or be a supporter. I believe the magic number is 200, but I am not sure.

 

While driving today it was running really rough at times, I decided to pull off the connector for the ICP sensor and let it run in limp mode to see if it settled down. It was idling at the time and when I touched the connector the engine started running rough again. I am going to replace the connector tomorrow morning and see if it helps. By the way it ran perfect after pulling the connector off of the ICP. That is good I guess.

 

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Well I changed out the plug today, it seemed all my troubles were over, till I drove it for about 20 minutes, then it started running rough again and up popped the SES light again. I guess I will stop off tomorrow morning and pull the codes again.... this is getting old....

 

Well the truck had been running pretty good lately, till last night. I was driving and had between 1/8 and 1/4 tank of fuel left. ( i have ran it till the light comes on before). I was headed to a station to fill up, as I was getting on the freeway I heard what I thought was the Injectors rattling. It was pulling good and had decent power, as I started around a curve up a hill on the freeway it lost power and started running really bad then it died. I pulled over and it started back up but was idling really rough. I was on a level section of road and it started running a little better, pulled in to a station and filled up. it was still idleing rough but as i let it run it seemed to clear up. I drove back on the freeway. I made it about a mile or 2 and it lost power again but did not die. I pulled off as i had it to the floor and it was slowing down ( I could hear the injectors rattling) it was idling really rough. I called my mechanic and he said to check the filter drain to see if it dumped lots of fuel to see if I had pressure. It did. I started it and reved it up like 15 times it seemed to calm down and I drove till it started cutting out again, It did it like 4 times in 20 miles but it would only run like 40 tops if it was flat and would downshift if there was ANY slope to the road like a freeway overpass.

I limped it to my mechanics shop and scanned it. I got:
p1280 ICP ( I had pulled the connector off to see if it got better it didn't I put it back on)
p1247 turbo boost pressure low
p340 cam position sensor circuit fault
p1211 icp pressure above or below desired

I cleared all the codes and none of them popped back up.
when we ran the KOER test it pulled up cylinder 8 contribution fault ( I think, I am going from memory on that.) It has a grey ford CPS sensor on it so that is pretty common from what I hear on here.

while I was scanning it and turning it off and on i noticed the truck was starting to fun better and miss less.
My mechanic checked it with the scanner and looked at the readings and it all looked good I guess. He wanted to replace #8 injector and see if that helped . I was against that and told him that it was running better now then when i first got there, and that cycling the key and starting seemed to help it. (I had driven approx 30 miles since i got the fuel) he did it like 8 times and reved it up and it smoothed out and quit missing . We figured it was just air in the fuel line and #8 was at the end of it and would be the last to have it bleed through the injector.
I drove home and it ran great.

Then today it ran great all day till about quitting time and as I was about to head home I heard the injectors rattle again. I remembered it had been about 8 months and 18K miles since i had changed the fuel filter. I pulled off and changed it, it didn't help and I was stuck limping it home at 30-40 mph for 35 miles. It quit running like 3 times on me and started really hard and idled like it was only hitting on half the cylinders and would only rev up really slowly and never stop missing. ( I was wondering if I got more air in the rail since i changed the filter) it took me 2 hours to get home with all the time on the side of the road trying to get it to idle and run smooth. I probably cycled the key and reved it over 100 times to try to get it to smooth out. It never did completely, though it did get me home eventually.
I have been looking on here and am going to get a fuel pressure gauge on it so I can check the fuel pump and regulator.
Anyone else have any ideas?

If this crap keeps up I am going to get DE-STROKED mounts and adaptor and put a 95-98 p-pumped Cummins in it and be done with it. not that I want to spend the money but I know those engines. It will run forever and it only needs one wire to run. Now that, is simple!

 

I would be checking the under valve cover harnesses. Wiggle them while the engine is running and see if that makes a difference. Another possibility, could you be sucking air into the fuel line when the tank gets down to a 1/4 tank or so?

 

Update.... today I Drove to the mechanics. Put a fuel pressure gauge on it, it had 45 psi at idle. Drove it and it dropped to pretty much nothing at wide open by the time it hit third gear. So I replaced the fuel pump. It had 50 psi. Drove it and it still dropped down to like 20 psi. Next I replaced the fuel pressure regulator guts..... It had almost 65PSI at idle finally some good news! That was until I drove it, it dropped down to 25 PSI but stopped there... SO now I get to drain the FULL tank of fuel and then drop it down to clean out the pickup tomorrow. I would rather go to work, but it is my only way to get there. Oh and to make it even better, when I pulled out of the shop to head home it took off like I was whipping it down both sides and then shifted really hard into 2nd and then 3rd. Only thing is it pulled a code and went into limp mode right after I let off. So I guess the ICP still has issues it doesn't want me to forget about. That is just a guess since I didn't get a chance to scan it.

 

I checked the codes first thing this morning, it was the dang ICP1280 code again. This is starting to get old So anyways back to the fueling problem, I had to drain the tank, one of the guys at the shop was the lucky recipient of a full tank of diesel. I kept 2 jugs full to put back when done. I used my old fuel pump and some hose to pull it from the filler. Only after I pulled that much out I was told that there is a drain plug on the bottom of the tank. nice guys I could have used that info a whole lot sooner. I pulled the truck into the shop and had one of the guys help me pull the tank. We found the screens and the mixing bowl where FULL of crap, and it was packed in there. I ended up using a different one that the mechanic had already cleaned and gave him my old one. That was nice of him as we tried to clean mine and it was not working too well. So we reinstalled the tank and filled it back up. I turned the key on to purge it and HOLY CRAP it had almost 80 psi of pressure ! I started it and it jumped up to almost 100 psi. I backed it out and took it for a spin and the pressure settled back to 75 Psi. Wide open it held a solid 70 psi. NICE. I guess when you replace everything up it should have awesome pressure.....

Now anyone have any idea's on the ICP problem???
I replaced the sensor 7 months ago, I have replaced the plug for it, the IPR was replaced about a month ago. It ran about 2 weeks without pulling a single code.... now it is back to it's old habits.