Originally Posted by
bismic
Hold on - are you sure the issue isn't self inflicted??
How healthy is your electrical system (batteries, alternator, loose belt, etc)? If you don't drive it much and you live in cold weather, that is hard on batteries. The alternators are marginal IMO - do you have any add-on electrical loads? Then if you are exposed to road salt, you can have ground wire corrosion that causes all kinds of problems.
No doubt FICM's are a high repair item, but MANY, MANY of them are a result of other issues and not the "root cause" item. That being said, it is one of several components that are disappointing in their reliability history (STC fitting, early ICP sensor, EGR cooler hose, fuel pressure regulator spring, to name a few others).
All I can say is that FTE has saved MANY folks thousands of $$'s by identifying self diagnosis and proper repair paths (the FICM is probably the best example of this). A quick FTE search could have saved you the bulk of your repair bill. I know that doesn't kelp w/ how you feel about Ford, but maybe others can benefit from it.
As far as Ford vehicles go, head studs, etc ....... IIRC you bought a used truck. You have to at least entertain the idea that the previous owner(s) could have contributed to your issues ......... I seem to remember that your head gaskets blew VERY early in your ownership time frame.
I'm learning a lot here but unfortunately it's 'hindsight is 20/20'.
If I had the foresight to program my scangauge to read FICM voltage I would have seen this coming.
Never thought of it because after casually reading FTE I never knew this was a big problem.
EGR, head gaskets, injectors, filters, oil --I am aware of; FICM I never heard of.
My truck died downtown 2 blocks from the dealer; I would have paid huge $300 plus to have my truck towed home. Then scowerd FTE looking for help.
If I guessed right then I would have saved the huge labour bill but - the tow bill would have wiped out most of that.
ficmrepair.com sounds interesting but up here in BC I would have been down for 10+ days.
Love the input, the sight is great just can't my head around the $1450 bill.
For such a sophisticated system one would think that a CEL would have fired from the low FICM voltage before stranding one pissed trucker!
Now going forward.
Batteries are not original but not dated so probably 3-4 years old; even though they load test well (on my cheapo) tester & my idle voltage on cold start only staying at 11.4-11.6 for less than 2 minutes then right up 13.5-13.8 within a couple more minutes should I just throw in new batteries?
Ford tech said they were fine 'now' but that that he'd see 'good one day toast a couple months later'.
Awesome that you guys share your knowledge so freely!!!