my fuel heater fuse blows as soon as I turn the key on, any suggestions?

 

Look on the back of the fuel filter housing and you'll see an electrical plug. Disconnect it. That should eliminate the short. If you want, (or need) to have it fixed, I think you'll have to buy a new filter housing.

 

The fuel heater element is replaceable. Part # PF81Z9J294AA, should run around $25

 

Thanks for the help!

 

I didn't know that.

 

do you happen to know where they are about $25, The only place I can find one is at the dealership and they want $150+. what a ripoff, for those who dont know it is a thin piece of steel about 3" long with a wire, a resistor and a spade end. whats the world coming to

 

What's the resistance across the heater? You may be able to repair yours if it isn't a dead short. It may have shorted directly to ground and only need some form of insulator to be functional again.

How many watts do you believe are necessary for this device to generate? 35? That would be a resistance of around three-tenths of an ohm. More wattage is lower resistance. A quarter ohm would be around 50 watts. Those should give you some ballpark figures of the unit's resistance when new. Of course, it may even twice the wattage and half the resistance. The resistor you describe is logically the heating element itself.

I have no idea what these look like, and I'm not going to pull mine out to see, but you may investigate and save yourself some money.

Pop

 

I looked that part number up at powerstrokeshop.com. $25 is what they had listed for it.

 

Anybody have a picture of this heater out of the housing?

The normal failure mode for a resistive heating element is to open, not short. It can short to something adjacent, however, and be a short to ground on the hot side of the element.

Something sounds amiss for the heating element, itself, to be shorted.

Pop

 

Not a picture exactly. Check you e-mail.

 

Well,

I gotta' think that that "center support bracket" (if that's what it is) is the logical place for a breach of the element's insulation, causing the resistance to drastically drop, in this case to under half, thus doubling the current draw, and blowing the fuse. But unless the element has actually gone open, it is likely still OK.

At any rate, even Ford shouldn't charge $150.00 for the element, unless they are, indeed, "stealers". $25.00 seems a fair price, however, to not have to mess with hi-temp insulating tape. The right insulation might cost that much. ;-)))

Thanks, Cookie. It helps the understanding.

Pop

 

thanks for the help, im going to check that link right now, that price is alot better

 

Does the fuel heater stay on or does it only work at start-up? I have unplugged it for the time being & was wondering how safe it is to run. I'm from Maine & it's starting to get a bit cold in the mornings.



Thanks