Hey everyone,

I've owned my 6.0 for nearly a year now. In that time I had an intermittent rough idle, usually when coming to a stop on the freeway off ramp just after a long drive at 65-70 mph. I thought at first it was a sticky turbo since full throttle acceleration would cure it and it wouldn't idle that way for long. Weeks would go by before it would happen again.

Fast forward to now, with that past history, I don't think I caused an injector to fail. However, I wonder about the possibility the others will fail. I still got a year or so on my warranty, but the thought of the other injectors going out outside of warranty (even if I do the work) is filling my mind.

I know injectors failing on these things are a pseudo-science, and I've seen in this and the 7.3 forum of them failing seemingly randomly. But I thought if they were abused, ie water, dirt, bad oil etc. more would go out at one time? If not they usually last into the 150,000ish range or so I gather. So, should I just figure this is a random one off or expect more to fail? Your experiences and conjecture on future injectors failing is greatly appreciated



Note: I change the oil at 5,000 and fuel filters at 10,000 and only Motorcraft/Racor. Blue spring has been done and I have fuel pressure gauge. I put in diesel kleen and 2 cycle oil (ashless) every fillup (although I started only a couple of months ago on that regimen).

P.S. The failure happened fast, went to work, got off freeway and truck continued idling rough. It would smoke (not much) until up to speed, but not at idle or at speed. No codes, scangauge reported all is normal for ipr etc. and my fuel pressure gauge was in the 60's. They are also replacing EGR and MAF as they found both bad during their diagnosis. They said all the other injectors were responding good and the contribution test was "excellent".

 

I would suspect the ICP sensor or connector before an injector for idle surge.

Although Having AE or Ford IDS along for a drive would pinpoint the issue.

If possible try to duplicate the symptoms and quickly unplug the ICP sensor and see if the surge disappears.


Josh

 

I would just change the one currently testing bad. I assume all eight were replaced for the previous issue? You're right on as far as your thoughts on injector life. As Josh pointed out above there may be other issues. If the shop that diagnosed the faulty injector done the previous replacement and it has a warranty, sounds like a no-brainier to me. Let them change it and see how it runs. I wouldn't worry much about the other 7 if they test good.

 

That was my first thought, but it turned into lack of power and smoke on acceleration plus the shaking idle. I also had a power steering leak and an oil valley leak, so I decided to use the extended warranty. The dealer said that the ICP appeared "fine", but he would take another look after I mentioned the valley leak. They still are going to replace the injector because they said it had failed.

Ford is doing just that (changing only the one) and said the others tested well. As far as I know the injectors are all original. It has 84,000 miles currently. The previous issue of a very intermittent surging idle turned into the current issue.


Thanks for the replies, it makes me feel better. I was trying to reassure myself as I got the usual ribbing of oh no your 6.0 is in the shop and my uncle's cousin's relative had X injector failures and 2 HG failures and could only trade it in as no one wanted it comments.

 

Well, hate to backtrack but I guess I should. In 2005(I think it was) the injectors got a nice update of a hard coating (DLC?) on the pintles. If I remember right, it was suggested in the Ford literature that injectors with and without the coating shouldn't be mixed on the same engine. I think only the coated ones are available from Ford. If I'm correct on this, maybe you could press for a full set if you had that TSB. Maybe someone here has more details on this subject?

 

Here's a reference to what I was thinking about (sorry, I was posting from work earlier and didn't have time to look around):

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...del-years.html

It was 2004 model year for the coating, and there were mechanical improvements to the injectors partway through the 03 model year. There may not be a TSB.