it has been unusually cold here. i work nights and i cant plug my truck in at night. my truck sits all night and when i go out to start it it take me about 15 mins to get it to start up!! any tips? do i turn the key and leave it turned for a few mins and then try and start it? or do i keep on try to crank it till it kicks over?.. i know this is killing my starter.PLEASE HELP

 

Mileage, Maintenance, Mods?

 

What oil are you using? Go to 5W-40. How COLD is it?

 

Bad GP or GPR? maybe ohm out the glow plugs if the resitancse is open then u have a bad gp replace as required

 

no mods just cut off the muffler.. it gets about 19 degrees for a few hours at nite

 

it has 109xxx miles

 

Do you try to start it as soon as the glow plug light goes off?If so wait 30 seconds afer it goes off and try it.

 

Check fuel pressure.

If you leave your car in a heated garage and it starts no problem in morning.

Suspect fuel gelling / wax dropout.

The vehicle is speced to start reliable to -20F

 

alot of people have had to fix their FICM , this also has the glow plug controller in it. my 03 had the same issues, i reflowed the solder on the 8 points that was showed and it now starts after the glow plug light goes out. my ficm voltage dropped to 27.2volts because of cracked solder joints.should be around 48 volts. there is a sticky in the tech. about FICM fixes. pretty simple fix

 

The FICM does not have the glow plug control module on it. Also, the glow plugs can stay on for up to a couple of minutes - even after the light goes out.

 

ok so no glow plug module in the ficm,, but arent the solder joints that crack part of the glow plug system? i thought that was the whole 48 volt thingy ,for heating the glow plugs ?? maybe i am misunderstanding. i know you know alot more about these than me bizmic, so sorry for the confusion.

 

http://www.fordtechservice.dealercon...FICM_Guide.pdf

The FICM drives the fuel injector solenoids based on fuel and timing commands (via *CAN2 link) from the PCM. It uses engine speed and position signals (*CKPO, *CMPO) to determine when the injectors need to be activated. The FICM internally generates 48V used to drive the injector solenoids. Each individual injector is controlled with four driver outputs from the FICM. There are high and low side drivers for the open and close coil of each injector.

To drive the fuel injector, the FICM produces two control signals for each injector.
The open coil is driven (via a 20A pulse) to open the injector. This shifts the spool valve in the injector to the open state. Once this has taken place, high pressure oil is directed on top of the injector intensifier piston. In result, fuel is being delivered through the nozzle of the injector.

Once the desired fuel has a been delivered, as calculated by the PCM/FICM, the close coil is driven (via a 20A pulse) to close the injector. This stops the distribution of high pressure oil to the top of the intensifier piston thus stopping the delivery of fuel.
The net time between pulses is equivalent to the fuel pulse width (FuelPW) used to provide fueling.

The coil on time is currently calibrated from “400us to 5.8ms”. The 5.8ms is for cold starts. As the engine warms up the duration decreases and settles around 800us depending on the amount of fuel being commanded.

 

The glow plug module is on the passenger side (usually valve cover) and completely separate from the FICM (which is drivers side under the degas bottle). The glow plugs heat the actual cylinders to raise the temp to improve combustion on cold starts. They operate at 12 volts and have a HUGE current draw.

The injectors are controlled by the FICM and are 48v units. The FICM uses the small coils of the injector spool valves as heaters to heat the oil in the injector so that the spool valves will move freely and the injectors will fire correctly when cold.

Two different systems completely that are being used to help with cold starts. Confused yet???

 

thank you to the both of you for the explanations. Bismic got a little technical on me though. but i see now where i was confused, i guess it is all in the FICM abbreviation . again thank you