Troubles started on cold morning starts. Truck would rough idle and blow white smoke for a minute then even out. Third day, got truck started, headed down road and motor died. Had it towed home. Thought it was CPS. Replaced it, still no start. Turned key on and noticed no fuel pump sound, no glow plug light and 30 amp fuse blown. Replaced fuel pump and fuse. Glow plug light came on, truck started, ran fine. Next cold morning, tried to start truck. Turned key on, glow plug light came on, truck tried to start then died. Turned key off then on again. No glow plug light, no fuel pump sound and 30 amp fuse blown again. I'm assuming glow plugs and fuel pump on same circuit. Anybody have any suggestions about what's going on? Where do I start? Thanks for the help. I should add truck has nearly 309,000 miles but has been well taken care of.

 

Unplug the fuel bowl heater. It will run fine without.

 

I agree with above post!

Heater is located on the bottom rear of fuel bowl. I've had mine unplugged for years. No problems.

Denny

 

Is the fuel bowl heater faulty and causing fuse to blow?

 

Yes, they can short and pop the fuse. When that happens, it also takes out power to the PCM.

 

Yes, you can replace it if it bothers you not having it, but in the mean time, unplug it, replace the 30amp fuse, you should be good to go.

 

If you want to you can replace it next time you change the fuel filter. Some like to keep it operational.

 

Thanks for the help. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

 

Here it is from our friends at Riff Raff

Fuel Bowl Heater Element - Riffraff Diesel Performance

 

Unplugged fuel bowl heater, replaced fuse and truck started right up. Runs perfect. Thanks for the help!

 

Yes, your fuel bowl heater if its the older design where it has three soldered contact points holding the wire element in place has had one of these points fail it will cause a short and cause the symptoms your describing, below is the updated part with part number that you need, once you replace the heater element with the updated one that SHOULD resolve the current issue

Dorman 904-210 Diesel Fuel Bowl Heating Element - Walmart.com

Dorman 904-210
Diesel Fuel Bowl Heating Element


EDIT: looks like HK beat me to it...

 

Truck starts right up every time. However on cold mornings still get white smoke on initial start up. What might be causing this? Are the glow plugs getting weak?

 

How cold is it and how long do you leave them on? They say on for two minutes if it's really cold out and you don't try and start it. Some times you have to cycle the key couple of times. If it's really cold it will do this for a short time while warming up.