It's been a long time since I've been around...school and work has been literally dominating my life.

Anyways, I had a fender bender last night, and I'd like to just bounce some ideas off of you guys.
I rear ended a BMW 3 series car, they were at a complete stop at a crosswalk, and I was probably going 25ish mph when I hit them. I simply didn't see them stopping....looking down at the dash, and I obviously wasn't being careful or attentive enough.

Ok so now I've got a no start issue, as well as no coolant. The truck will turn over, just not start. I can hear the fuel pump kick on when I cycle the ignition, and the wts light comes on and goes off like normal. Brandon (bdrummonds) suggested I check the fuel bowl heater, because the impact might very well have jarred it and caused it to short out. So my plan right now is to start by replacing the CPS (might as well, and it was going out anyways so I'll rule it out for sure this way) and unplugging the fuel bowl heater. Hoping the truck will start after that.

Next step would be I guess pulling off the grill, bumper, etc, and replacing the intercooler and radiator. The coolant is gone, and they're both pretty banged up, so I figure that's a good place to start. I'm planning on going ahead and replacing the hoses, flushing the engine, and possibly replacing the water pump (depending on money).



Any other ideas on the no start issue, or any input on my plans? Input, suggestions, criticisms, whatever. I just figured I'd bounce my plans off of you guys. It's been a while since I really got into my truck, and I'm not very familiar with this area of troubleshooting.



One more thing. Ford trucks are TOUGH. The damage on my truck is completely limited to the bumper and grill (and obviously a few things directly behind them) while I pretty much totalled that BMW. Not saying I'm proud. It's a terrible feeling. I felt like the poorest excuse for a man you could imagine, seeing 3 sorority girls at the point of tears because I rear ended them. They were fine, but scared. HOWEVER. My statement stands, these trucks are tough. I really can't believe how much damage it caused, while remaining relatively unharmed.

 

Oh, and please send Brandon some reps his way whenever yall get a chance. My dad and I have both been on the phone with him today, just dealing with completely separate truck issues. It's been very helpful for me just to get his ideas on my stuff, and I know he helped my dad out as well.
It's good to be able to count on the FTE family!

 

ben sorry about your accident,, check on passenger side kick panel for( inerch) switch
not sure if our trcks have this but gas do will shut off fuel with front impact.
hope this help's


al

 

Sorry to hear about your mishap, glad no one got hurt. (or at least I hope)
The first thing that comes to mind is the fuel cutoff switch. I've never put my eyes on it, but IIRC its behind the kick panel on the pass side.
You might be hearing the vacuum pump not the fuel pump...at least on my truck the sound of the vac pump drowns out the fuel pump.
drain your fuel bowl, and cycle the key to make sure its filling back up.

Just thinking out loud...


EDIT: Al beat me to it...

 

Guys I should have mentioned it, but I actually already checked the fuel shut off switch, and it was completely intact and had not been tripped. Sort of weird, because from my understanding it SHOULD have been tripped. But it was in the normal operational position, so I can only assume that it's not an issue right now.

And thanks for the concern...I didn't even think to say, but everybody was thankfully completely unharmed.

 

flip it, then try again. If not, then i'd look at the fuses. maybe, the impact smashed some wires and now are grounding out.

 

Yes cycle it. And if its the fuel heater shorting out unplug and replace the fuse, I would think unlikely, but these do happen. Chet

 

Your CPS is right behind the fan. How does that connector look?

Mark

 

Ok. So I've replaced the CPS, and that connector looked fine before, but I went ahead and replaced it just to rule it out as a problem. I've unplugged the fuel bowl heater, although I don't think it shorted out, because there weren't any blown fuses.

Right now, it's still not starting, the wts light stays on when I try to prime it, and the check engine light stays on. The batteries are a little low right now, I'm going to charge them this afternoon.

I did find however, that I'm getting no fuel flow. I know for a fact that the inertia switch is in its normal position, it never even got flipped in the accident. I opened up the fuel bowl drain, and turned on the ignition (so the fuel pump would run). I heard the pump running, but it's louder than normal, and no fuel came out the bottom.

I'm officially stumped guys.

On a good note, I filled the coolant back up, and there aren't any leaks I can find. So I may not be as bad off there as I originally thought. Honestly my main concern right now is just getting the engine started.

Thoughts?

 

Are you low on fuel and/or could the accident have dislodged the pickup foot in the fuel tank? If you have tank issues, and need to drop it, then the Hutch mod would be a natural thing to do, at this point.

 

Put some fuel in a can and run a line to it from the pump and see if you get fuel to the engine.

 

Benjamin's at work right now, so it will probably be a little later before he can reply. Regardless, I appreciate all you guys pitching in on this because I simply am overloaded at the office and cannot even break free to run down to where he is. He does have a rental truck ('09 F150) which the insurance is covering, so he is at least not stranded, but the clock is ticking and he only has about 5 days to get the truck running before he has to turn the rental in (could get more time if we were willing to pay the $1000 deductible and leave the F250 at the body shop, but we think we can fix it ourselves for much less than the deductible).

Anyway, the Harpoon and Hutch mods are both already done, and the pickup foot is close enough to the bottom of the tank such that it should not be able to move enough to even crack where it connects to the pickup tube.

The CPS was changed primarily because it was already showing signs of dying. I actually though he had changed it last week when he and I were talking about his needing to do so.

Bonanza, I agree with you that Benjamin should cycle the inertia switch, and will make sure he adds that to his list of things to try. Tonight, he's planning on pulling every fuse and scraping the blades to make sure there is solid contact on all of them.

As for the fuel flow, he's also going to be checking for bent/crimped tubes, leaking lines, fuel level, etc., even though from the minimal amount of damage he's described, I cannot fathom that there is any fuel line damage unless it's purely coincidental and was getting ready to happen anyway.

Richard... good idea about putting the pump suction line into a bucket of fuel. Benjamin, like me, keeps a 5-gallon container of diesel in his truck, so he should already be primed for trying out that little technique. I'll make sure to let hhim know to pinch the suction line before he disconnects so that he doesn't lose prime for the pump.

If you guys can think of anything else, we're all ears open and willing to try anything.

EDIT... Do any of you think that the impact may have caused something inside the IPR valve to get stuck? I have AE, but since I cannot get down there right now, I cannot scan for startup conditions. Might be going down on Sunday, but not sure yet.

Thanks again,

 

I would try unpugging the inertia switch and jump the connector with a paper clip to rule the switch out.

 

Just something else to look at, check the battery connections. Maybe one of them came loose during the collision.

 

I have never seen inside the tank on one of these trucks but is there any chance that your pickup tube in the tank may have broken off during the impact? May be a stupid thought but sometimes it is just something stupid like that.