This past week my wife and I were on vacation in denver. On our way out there (trip from hell) the truck began running rough after a fill up in Nebraska. It was about half through the nebraska tank when it started running real rough and losing power. Stopped and drained fuel filter/water seperater and it was fine after a couple times of this to get to a fuel station. Filled up and went on our way. Then at about half a tank the same thing.....we stopped and filled up again. Next occurance was down to quarter tank. Same scenario. Then we got about 120 miles north of Cheyenne WY and it began running so rough it couldn't even pull its own weight. Changed the fuel filter in a small town. Then that was it! Couldn't hardly move! Had it flat bedded to the nearest town which was 100 miles west(the wrong way for us). The dealer looked at it the next day and said the 1&2 injectors were bad. Incidentaly...when the problems were going on the temp gauge would go down to 150-200 degrees...then after draining it would spike to 1200-1300 driving at 50mph. Dealer replaced injectors and we headed home(WI). It was idling rough when we left the dealer but they said it was normal. We got home and it sits at the dealer now. They said the test shows #8 injector out. Today they replaced it with no change. Still a dead miss now with pinging. They will further investigate tomorrow but said the engine might be going? Do I trade it off?? It is a 00 cc 7.3 with all kinds of goodies on it. 103K now
Any opinions?? Thinking of a used 5.4 since we are tapped out for cash at this point.

 

Well, I'm definatly not sure what's wrong with your truck, but I have some opinions of my own here.

First, are they are charging you for all this work? They are happily replacing injectors and not fixing your problem. If that is they case, I would look for some kind of refund or compensation for this.

Next, telling you that idling rough is normal and sending you home, kinda sounds like they do not have a fully qualified diesel mechanic at the dealer. If I were in your position, I would no longer trust the mechanics at that dealer and find another one with someone that knows what they are doing.

Last, you are just barely outside the 100K warranty. This is something that I would talk to Ford about. I do know someone that had a transmission go out in an Explorer 2,000 miles outside of the warranty. They talked to Ford about it, and had the repairs done as warranty work.

These are my opinions and something I would check out if I were in your position. Again I don't know the whole story, or if they are charging you for all this work. If they keep this up, you will be in a big hole with a broken truck and you won't be able to do anything about it.