Guys I am at my whits end with my truck. I have owned this truck for barely 2 years. It has 171,000 miles on it, had 149,000 when I bought it. I have spent a ton of money on repairs and it still is not reliable.

Within a month of purchase I went out on a fall morning and had a crank no start. It turned over slow and was an easy fix, it had cheapo batteries in it from PO. Replaced batteries with Motorcraft 850CCA group 65 batteries. Problem solved. Several months later going down the highway truck started running rough and died. Got it to restart drove awful for two blocks to the nearest diesel shop. Had fuel tank cleaned and lines cleaned, replaced fuel bowl and fuel pump. Fuel bowl had what looked like black taffy in it. Shop said I had a lot of grit in the tank. They thought it was sugar in the tank. So that $1800 repair was covered by insurance minus deductible.

This past spring I started having random crank no start issues. Turned over fine, had batteries load tested, tested alternator. All tested fine. But it starts after jumping. Took it in to a shop and they diagnosed injector o rings, I was cranking and wearing down the batteries and it would finally start after jump because it built enough high pressure oil to start. So I had the injector o rings done. Had the shop do the glow plugs while they were in there. Also had exhaust manifolds re-sealed, and new up pipes done at the same time. They also did a few other minor repairs like replace ICP, and fixed a leaking thermostat housing.

Now I'm having random crank no start again. My truck can sit sometimes for 4 days and start without issue. I drove it yesterday and this morning on a 60 degree day it wouldn't start. Put it on a charger and it fired right up. My truck had an IDM in the ford box behind the back seat from the PO, I have heard that sometimes a failing IDM can cause starting issues so I swapped that out and no change.

I have always wanted a 7.3 and I hate this POS. I have spent close to $6,000 in repairs and it isn't reliable yet. Any ideas? Truck runs fine when its running.

 

Oil level good? How fast does it crank?

 

you are going to get a bunch of guess because there are bunch of things that can cause your symptoms.

my approach is methodical and complete in the order needed to start.

the very first thing i would do is next time it acts up.

stop trying to start it and get out your multimeter and 12mm wrench.

disconnect the positive batter cable from the driver side battery then check the voltage of each battery separately. they should both be nearly identical and above 12.7 -12.8

if not then you likely have s charging issue snd the last time you drive it the alternator and charging system did not fully recharge the bateries. this can be a faulty alternator or wire connection even one of the grounds or the fusible link , you are going to need to trouble shoot the system. it can also be your charging system is fine but you have s draw some place that drained your batteries.

if both those check out the your starter or starter cable is suspect. trouble shoot that next.

if that all checks out then it is time to get serious and break out a computer and using Forscan or the equivalent here is your step by step how to.resolve any hard/no start issue
http://oregonfuelinjection.com/conte...diagnostic.pdf

 

Do you have the gauges and OBDII data available so you can see the critical parameters the engine needs to start/run well? That data is very helpful to prevent spending on unnecessary repairs. Links in my signature have info on getting that data, and troubleshooting steps once you have it.