Hello,
I have recently just bought my truck (2002 F250 7.3 ) from Georgia, I live in northern Illinois and whenever its around like 35 Fahrenheit or below I have trouble starting my truck, my neighbor has the same truck ( 2002 F350 7.3) and his starts on like the first or second try without being plugged in at 20 degrees outside. My truck will start up after like 15 min of being plugged in or on the first or second try, and on the first try with starting fluid not being plugged in ( yes I know its bad for the motor, I was just testing to see if it'd start), and if I dont plug in at all I have to sit there trying turning the key like 7 times. Is it a possibility my glow plugs are bad or something, since the truck did come from a warm area, maybe the previous owner didnt have a need for them? I dont know. Any ideas on what can be wrong? + I dont start this truck daily, I start it like ever 3 days or so...

 

sounds very familiar. I also have a 2002 7.3 from georgia. Could be several things. start with glow plug relay, next glow plugs. next injectors. Hope it isn't the injectors can get expensive. How many miles on truck? Do you have a way to do a buzz test. I have been where you are not long ago. check my old posts and I bet you will find your problem.

 

Just went threw this when I went to Wyoming. It ended up the relay. My relay was clicking but was bad. I also had one bad glow plug, after ohming out but it still started. Arounds 11 degrees then. Thing is I replaced diverside glow plugs before the trip and didn't check the relay or do the drivers side. I live in California so it wasn't a problem there. If you have gauges the light trick inside to show the relay is really working is trick. Let us know what you do.

Chet

 

More than likely your GPR is bad. Test it to see if it is allowing te 12v from the inlet side to go to the glow plugs. Look at my link below on testing.

Glow Plug System

 

Yea, I'm probably going to take it in for a computer check on the GPR and Glow Plugs, it shouldn't be the injectors the truck only has 120xxx on it and runs awesome. Better get this problem fixed before school starts, its a pain in the a** getting it started, time consuming. Haha.

 

You can swing by My house and Bobbydeisel71 will look into it for ya! plugging in for 15 minutes does nothing, usually its 2-3 hours before use. PM me Id be glad to help you out and im about 20 minutes West of Chicago. DO NOT USE STARTING FLUID, you can crack valves, a piston or bend pushrods!

 

The last links in my signature may help.

 

Ford is going to charge you between 90-150$ to scan your truck. Money better spent is to just replace that glow plug relay. Purchase it from a dealer. They may be around 50$ or so. Wasting money scanning. Put the money towards a new relay and save your money for Auto Enginuity. Auto Enginuity is software that can read our truck's codes and read live data to really pin point what is wrong in the future if you have issues. 360$ shipped here. Riffraff Diesel: AutoEnginuity Total Ford Enhanced Bundle
Buy the glow plug relay and install it yourself. Most of the time......that is the problems with hard cold starts.
As long as your batteries are in good condition and you know that they are good then the Glow Plug Relay is the usual suspect.
It is not a tough job. Would take a novice with basic handtools about 20 minutes from start to finnish. Save that cash for Auto Enginuity as it could save your wallet in the future. There are guys on this forum with 400K miles on these trucks. The time it would take to drive it to the dealer and check it in to those thieving turds is what you need to replace the glow plug relay. We can help you troubleshoot almost anything on this truck. We are a strong forum for these 7.3L trucks. Save yourself a lot of time and headache and do it yourself.

 

If the OP is willing I would help replace the relay! I did one last week it took about 10 minuites! I don't think glow plugs would throw a code. I'm still a 7.3 novice but I have fixed these issues on other trucks and mine thanks to FTE!

 

Being a GA truck, it should have federal emissions meaning that there is no way to check glow plug system with computer. All u need is a multimeter and about 30 mins to get a idea on the health of the whole system.

My truck has spent its whole life here (ga). At 40 degrees, with almost 200k, it cranks without needing glow plugs. At 30 and below, I have to energize them to crank but it will always fire up quickly. Mine has been reconfigured to manually activate the glow plugs by the operator, b/c of pcm issue. Since it only was the glow plug system, I chose to manually ground the relay rather than spending the money to replace the pcm.

Do the glow plug checks and save your money. It is most likely just the relay.

 

As many have already said. Replace the relay.
The following excerpts are dead-on.

 

I came to the conclusion that its a glow plug relay :P finally, can sleep in longer before school xD