For the third time this month, I'm broke down on the side of the road. The first time was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. A user here hooked me up with a local mechanic, he diagnosed my problem as a bad injector and replaced all four on that side. Seemed to fix the problem and I drove back to Houston just fine. About 4k miles later, exact same symptoms left me stranded near Dallas. First mechanic I limped to said one of the new injectors was bad, but tried to charge me way too much to replace it. Called around and got a fair price elsewhere, took it there, and after he put the new one in, told me that the other three new ones were also bad.

So, I paid for 4 injectors again. Again, seemed to fix it, but this time only lasted about 200 miles. Same symptoms, and now, I'm broke down again on the side of the road between Dallas and Houston in 100 degree heat. I've spent $3000 on new injectors and got nothing to show for it.

All three mechanics claimed nothing else was wrong, but obviously something is making these injectors fail.

Any ideas?

 

Low fuel pressure is what jumps out to me, or FICM issue.

 

Spoke to a Master tech and he told me 3 things cause injectors to fail, bad oil, bad fuel or bad electricity (FICM, PCM, injector solenoid etc)
Same problem, had my truck diagnosed at a diesel shop for a no start and they told me all (8) injectors were bad and wanted to charge me an arm and a leg to replace them. Long story short replaced all (8) injectors and still no start, so I am in arbitration with the diesel shop about their fraud diagnosis. Seems like the first thing they want to replace are the injectors.

 

Were your replacement injectors OEM?

 

Dang mechanics claimed that have checked both of those. Would either of those causes be more likely to cause failure so quickly?

 

I don't know where the Chicago mechanic got those but they were ford remans. This second set came from ford.

 

I'm no mechanic, but with the help of a digital multi meter, you could check your FICM voltage. Seems to me a bad FICM would take longer than a couple hundred miles to kill an injector. Contaminated Fuel, in my opinion, would kill an injector the fastest out of the choices provided by f350project. Are you at home with this truck? Or stranded again?

 

Oil change right before the Chicago trip less than 5k miles ago. Fuel came from 3 different sources. Doubt they were all bad. Maybe fuel pump/filters. Specifically asked second mechanic, who was charging me a $100 diagnostic, to check fuel pressure. He said fine. Would low fuel pressure exhibit other symptoms? Would it make injectors fail @200 miles?

 

What does the invoice the mechanic gave you say the fuel pressure was at the time of the test? Was it a driving test, or just idling in the bay?

I'll pose a question, because I also don't know the answer. Could one of the plugs on the bottom of the FICM be loose and would that cause all four injectors (I'm guessing all the ones on the same side) to display display as bad. Maybe there is something wrong with the plug?

 

He didn't give me any such info. Just said it was fine. Would clogged filters do this. I haven't changed them since I bought the truck 2 months ago, but everything seemed to be working fine until Chicago. The only error code has been one bad glow plug that I haven't worried about in this heat andan egr code because mine has been deleted.

 

Stranded again about 70 miles from home.

 

Don't know anything about ficm except that the third mechanic said it wasn't a problem. And second didn't diagnose it as problem. The truck did have one bad battery when I bought it and I drove it a few thousand miles before I figured that out and replaced it. Would there be a delayed ficm failure from that?

Also last mechanic discovered a crack in the bottom of my degas bottle that drips onhose right below it. Can that be getting to the ficm?

 

Clogged filters would cause low pressure. Rule of thumb around here seems to be 10k between fuel filter changes. Are you planning on trying to work on the truck yourself, or having it towed to a mechanic? As someone in a service and repair job, if it's not noted on the invoice, it didn't happen, so I wouldn't rely on word of mouth when it comes to the fuel pressure was "ok". I had my old suburban into two dealers, who both said my fuel pump was fine while I was stranded in Southern California for four days, I changed my own fuel pump in the parking lot of a NAPA. Just a little personal experience.

 

More info:

1st mechanic: 2 bad injectors, we replaced all 4 on that side, made it about 4k miles. He bought Ford reman injectors direct from their rebuilder, AER.

2nd mechanic: diagnosed as 1 bad injector, on the side I replaced. Checked "everything" else to confirm that diagnosis. But he was too expensive on repair cost, so I went to 3rd.

3rd mechanic: first said that he was getting bad contribution measurements from 2 of the injectors I replaced and 1 on the other side, but that they could be caused by just one bad injector aerating the system. I told him to replace the one originally diagnosed, and if that didn't fix it, I'd limp it home and replace the others myself. He said he did that and the one on the other side cleared up, but he was now seeing all three of the others I replaced were bad. 4pm on Friday before holiday - I told him to replace them all with Ford parts. Seemed to fix the problem...for 200 miles. Now, the truck fails again.

Called mechanic 1 (Chicago), he doesn't think its FICM because that would throw a code (haven't checked a code today, but there's not been a FICM code previously). Nor does he think it's fuel pump/filters or I'd never have gotten 4k miles out of the injectors he installed. He thinks an injector (or multiple) on the other side really has now failed, and it/those are aerating the system.

Questions for this forum:

Does a FICM issue always throw a code?
Does his diagnosis sound reasonable?
Does anyone know a GOOD mechanic in the Huntsville Texas area? Or, does anyone here in the area have a scanner they could come hook up and tell me if a)there are any error codes now and 2) whether the injectors on the driver's side are contributing?

 

well they all started out as a Ford inject AFAIK I assume all these rebuilders use Ford inject housings but idk

some of the rebuild proceses have been in question

if somehow any of these inject came from ford they are warrentied one of the mechanics would have had to get them direct from ford parts house though

a Bad FICM will only hurt an inject if it gives to much power BUt generaly FICM Die from LOW Power so its not common for FICM to kill inject