Evening folks,

Im working on buying a truck and Im hung up on this one diesel truck that I want bad, could be the deal of a life time but there is a problem....

So, I drove 2 hours to pickup a 2007 F350 King Ranch FX4 Crew Cab to keep for the next 48hrs and to test before I make the purchase. The stealership has been great about it. The truck itself on the outside looks like new, immaculate really. The inside, looks great, seats need conditioning but I expected that, everything else seems good. The truck itself runs like a freaking top, probably one of, if not the most powerful 6.0 I have tested!

Now, the problem................ the VIN in the ECM and the VIN on the truck dont match . I have an Autel MaxiDiag diagnostics scanner and I pulled out all the codes, vehicle information and performed 5 different tests on the truck including the injector tests- truck passed with flying colors except two problems, glow plug circuit on cylinder 1 and vin mismatch.

The glow plug circuit cylinder one didnt concern me half as much as the vin mismatch. What does this mean? Should I just forget my dream of owning this truck and run it back as fast as I can? I am suppose to be at TSI Innovations in Johnson City , TN in the morning at 11AM for a full on IDS based diagnostic and overall analysis of the truck - should I just forget it and take it back?

Any help folks would be extremely appreciated!!!

Thanks
Bryan

 

Sounds like a you have found the one, but...........

You need to post over at the 6.0 forum side, this way you get the best help this forum has to offer. I don't have answer for you but someone at the 6.0 side will.

Be sure you get a scangaugeII or torque pro app to read the sensors/PID's.

If everything checks out, I personally, would care less about the a vin mismatch. As long as everything is on the up and up with the Dept of Motor Vehicles.

-Preston

 

Will do, thanks ! Will the scan gauge pickup things my Maxidiag wont?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Q&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

The scangauge 2 or torque pro app will give you live data. So it will be able to tell what is going on with truck in a live situation. Get the Torque Pro App with a BAFX adapter if you have an android based phone or tablet. Call me if you want . I will PM you my phone number.

- Preston

 

the only vin problem I would worry about are title search ones.

I had a real nice 08 that I probably should have never sold that had a carfax vin discrepancy that was an obvious clerical issues, but I took a 500 hit on it during trade in.

 

The ECU could have been replaced for some reason and they used an ECU from another truck, is the VIN completely different or just a letter or number off?? I know in some states the ECU VIN has to match the chassis VIN or they won't pass it for emissions , then you can't get plates for the truck, I'd find out for sure it it's going to be a problem by going to the DMV and asking them first. Maybe the dealership can go in and enter the correct VIN into it?

 

The VIN contains 17 digits, the last 6 digits are a letter followed by 5 numbers.

The number on the ECM should be the Ford ID engineering number (similar to this: XXXX-12A650-XX) that can be crossed over to the Ford part number of the ECM

Most Ford electrical related parts beginning in the 1970's have an ID engineering number marked on them.

 

Truck has different body? Hard to say.

 

Probably has a tune on it, hence why it drives different also. Get the dealer to flash it to the latest stock settings if you're concerned.

 

Do the title, vin on the door, and the vin on the dash under the wishield all match?
Those are the ones I would worry about. Might be worth a call to your DMV and ask the same question.
I dont see it being hard to have the ecm vin changed. Worst case is buy a new one and have your vin loaded into ot

 

I just wanted to say thanks for the replies, however it turned out that was the least of my concerns. It ended up needing glow plugs, a set of injectors and a transfer case after we got the IDS on it.....

They said it had already been deleted, studded, straight piped and reprogrammed - so it would seem the previous owner had done some heavy lifting but by the time it needed injectors and the transfer case they were done with it.

Bill was going to be $4800....so I returned it and now im back to the drawing board.

 

Thank goodness you were able to get it diagnosed and avoid it.

 

Could be a problem depending on your state. In NY, the vehicles are put on a machine during state inspection that reads the VIN and the ECM. You may be in for some grief if there's a mismatch.

 

Sometimes buying a truck is like picking out a good apple when your grocery shopping, it looks good on the outside and you dont see any bruises on the skin, and then you get it home and go to cut it and discover it has a bruised interior or soft spots and no its close to being bad

The main things is you found out before YOU got stuck with it. Ford made 10's of thousands of these trucks, you can find one, just do what you did with this truck and check every thing you can to avoid being stuck with a problem child.

I didnt ask what your budget was, but one thing you could consider is finding a problem child that you know needs work and then finding a shop that knows what they are doing and bulletproof it. Now that isnt for the faint of heart, but one of the guys at my work did exactly that. He bought a 06 Lariat F350 CC that had head gasket issues and got it for a song, spent 8k having the engine done and bulletproofing it ( no he didnt do the work, got a shop to do it ) and all in he spent just over 11k and she runs like a dream so far.

just a thought