Just got back from the dealer $1450 lighter with a new FICM.
Truck died like it was running out of fuel; black smoke as it died; let it sit for 20 and cool down as I was 2 blocks from dealer. Crank, crank but no fire!
From reading here I first thought FICM; tow driver said fuel pump.
I've never had vehicle die before without several early warning signs- is it normal for the FICM to 'just go'??? Truck only has 65k on it & I keep up on all maintenance.

 

Depending on what flash was in the FICM and what kind of failure the electronics had the FICM could have been failing for a long time or it could have just had the wrong connection fail and BAM you're done.

 

Gental -
If you keep your truck for a long time and it fails again don't take it to Ford to have it fixed. There are people out there that will repair YOUR FICM for $350-400 and it will come back to you with better solder than when your truck rolled from the line.
I went the same route you did and paid $1,100 between parts and labor. Next time around I won't do the same thing. If you can, see if you can get the part back from the dealer unless they took it as a core charge. That way you could just send it off and have it fixed as a backup.

 

Well Since the new FICM Under warrenty take it back to them. they dont normaly fail that fast after replacement so Tim could be right on with a loose wire connection

The New FICM from Ford still has the same Soilder problems AFAIK

So +1 on sending it out to www.ficmrepair.com but wait to thewarrenty on the replacement runs out.

What was going on with truck that lead them to replace FICM

 

My challenge is 2 fold:
1stly-if a componant is a known failure item why not extend the warranty & or offer a 50/50 good faith deal?
With only 65k on a $60,000 truck & these items failing on a regular basis don't they wan't to keep us happy???
They take the core & for $100 have it redone; why do they need to make 700% profit on me?
Secondly-why does my neighbourhood dealer charge me 3.5 hours labour @$114 an hour ( 2 hours mandatory diagnostic just to open my hood + the repair). Do they think I like being ripped off; same dealer who did my $5,500 repair to my head gaskets (under warranty)---do they think at this rate I will ever buy another Ford???
Not only bashing Ford but the logic of all manufactures & dealers.
They cry that there is no longer any 'Brand Loyalty'---well Dah!!!
If any BRAND would actually be loyal to their CUSTOMERS they would have to be open 24/7 for all the customers clamoring to buy with them.

I hear Hyundai was really fare for years as they were building client loyaty & now that they are selling really well are getting as bad as the rest.

You can actually look up 'average life expectancy' for anything you can think of.
If it lasts a lot less time then the manufacture/dealer should prorate the repair---it would really cost them nothing as their clients would stay loyal.
I know crazy concept.

 

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 have about the same mileage you do and my ficm voltage slowly got worse over several months. It would be down to about 45V on startup, after a few months it was down to 35V. I did replace both batteries right when I noticed the issue happening. You don't say if you have gauges to watch the ficm but I'm glad I did as I could see what was happening from the start.

 

there are reasons Ford didnt take a Bailout LOL Sad its at the Price of its customers. They been building Auto for to long they should have a good Idea what works what dont.

next time stuff goes out need to search on here for a Fix it will be worth it

you paid 1400.00 for this New FICM now you should have sent it in and had repaired because it would be a Btter product in the end and you would have saved 1000.00 and had a better Part for shure

By swapping a ficm witth ford the new ones have the same problems

A rebuild FICM takes care of the problems and in the end you have a Solid FICM all you did is pay High Price for another Questionable unit

If you think your getting Picked on go spend some time up in the 6.7L forum they are all under warrenty supposedly but some do get rejected

I know its hard to be happey but be Glad you have a 6.0L there atr Fixes and updated parts for it to make it bullet proff and its cheap compared to the newer Diesels to fix

IMO this FTE Website is hands down the best resource out there. You Found it now Take advantage of it

And get some gauges as OP mentioned watch everything you can Some folks add gauges Cuz they think its cool but the ones that know what there reading on the Gauges are the ones that benifit this day and age you bout have to protect yourself Noone Cares every man for themselves IMO

 

I pulled my FICM in under 30 minutes and most of that time was the hose clamps and trying not to drop those two bolts on the back. Mine is being sent out to ficmrepair.com for $250. I was told $1025. After reading here how to take it off(thanks everyone) and who to send it to to get repaired I'm happy I save the $750.

 

Exactly^^^^^^^

its not bad to get the FICM out

 

The guys on here are exactly on track. To answer your question, it is far from 'normal' for a freshly repaired FICM (in this case, a 'from Ford' unit) to fail so soon, even if it DOES have a miserably bad heat inductive flash on it. That said, part of what Ford does as a standard operating procedure is re-flash to the latest as part of a FICM change out anyway, so I seriously doubt that that is the issue.

I would certainly go back to Ford and have them set you up with another replacement module, but would also check the health of my batteries and alternator(s) at the same time.

Good luck!

(And next time, when you are out of warranty, please consider sending it out to us for repair - the result is better - much better - than what you get from Ford and for far, far less. While we have your module, we can even apply a custom Power Hungry Performance tune on it to save you some $$ at the fuel pump!)

 

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!!!

 

Helping folks out is what the folks here on FTE do - that's what makes the site so awesome! People giving their knowledge with no expectation of anything back? Who knew such a world still existed?

Regarding the BC downtime, this is why we do core exchanges as well as service people's existing modules. The shipping delay sometimes just too much to bear.

As far as your batteries are concerned, just keep a close eye on them. Many 6.0 owners only get two years out of their batteries, but you can get them to last ALOT longer if you periodically place them on a desulphating charger like the BatteryMinder or BatteryTender. Check out the FAQ page on ficmrepair.com for more info as well as the link on there to batterystuff.com for way more information in that department than you could possibly ask for.

Good luck!

Ed