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2005 F-250, Diesel, 105K miles, all stock, fuel and oil filters changed in May, about 4000 miles ago.
three times in the last 4 days the truck has seemingly run out of fuel. Got a full tank about a week ago, at the same place I always go, so I doubt it is bad fuel. It ran thru a 1/4 tank with no problems.
4 days ago, it wouldn't start. It just didn't seem like it was getting fuel. It sat for several hours and then ran fine for about 15 minutes and then slowly died out. It wouldn't restart. It sat for 8 hours, and then started again, ran for about 15 minutes and I cut it off.
The next day, it started fine, I drove it 3 miles, cut it off, and an hour later it started but ran for only 10 -15 seconds and it slowly died out just like I was running out of fuel.
I started it this morning and it fired up right away. I let it idle in the driveway for 30 minutes, and it ran fine. I cut it off, went to start it 30 seconds later and it won't fire again.
The backyard mechanic I use for simple stuff wants to replace fuel filters and see what happens. BTW - twice when it wouldn't start, he hooked up his computer and it had no error codes. You can hear the fuel pump running when you turn the key on and the mechanic said he could feel the pump working when he put his hand on it.
Should I let him do that or is there something else we should be looking at?
I'm not a mechanic, but it kind of sounds like fuel is slowly getting thru, but not enough flow to keep it running. I'd put a different fuel filter on in case the one you have is defective. Might as well rule out the simple stuff first. Hopefully it'll solve your problem.
Sounds more like an HPO issue. If you're losing high pressure oil pressure the engine will quite literally "get no fuel" because of the lack of oil pressure to fire the injectors, either because the computer doesn't see sufficient ICP (500pis) and doesn't command the injectors to fire, or because the oil pressure isn't enough to overcome the spring in the injector to physically inject the fuel (~400psi).
The 6.0 will run on VERY low fuel pressures, well below the point where you'll damage the injectors because of it. It will NOT run on low high pressure oil pressure, because the spring in the injector is a mechanical limit on the minimum oil pressure needed to inject fuel.
Simple test is to remove the secondary fuel filter and suck the housing dry. Have someone cycle to key to on and watch the housing fill. If it fills up in a couple seconds, good odds fuel pressure isn't the underlying issue, especially if it runs fine when it runs.
I would take the top off the upper fuel filter and watch as the key is turned to on. You should see plenty of fuel flooding into that upper housing. If not then I would look to cleaning the hfcm. I would recommend doing that anyway just to be sure though. Once you clear that you are getting fuel up to that level then you can start looking toward low oil pressure. If you have a scangauge2 it will tell you what pressures you are building up to. You can also try unplugging the icp sensor from the passenger valve cover as this should put it into limp mode to run. The injectors need 500 psi of oil pressure in the oil rail before it will even attempt to fire. Once you know what oil pressures you are getting you can start working your way through the system.
OK, thanks for the help, folks. It turned out to be the fuel injection pressure control switch. It was intermittently bad. When cold, it worked fine. Once it got hot, it quit working right. When hot, it read 1400 lbs of pressure when it should have read zero.
What in the truck can cause the computer to fail? Anything else that I should be tracking down in addition to the computer? Here is the label off mine...going to suck if there is an alternative...I'm already out $140 from having this one rebuilt...
So I know this thread is old but I may have stumbled across a solution nobody has mentioned here. Disclaimer: I noticed immediate results, got excited and had to post, but need more time assessing MY vehicle before I can say this procedure was completely successful. First of all, carefully consider this: did these symptoms occur after replacing a part like a sensor or fuel pump? I had to replace my high pressure fuel pump, after that is when I started noticing these symptoms. I bought an obd2 FORScan tool, got the program and hooked my truck up to my laptop. The program has the ability to "reset PCM Adaptations" (your vehicle learns to overcome wear and tear) after the reset and clearing codes: idle, take-off from standstill, power and timing of turbo while taking off and while cruising were all seemingly way way way! better than before the reset! Hope this helps everyone! Hopefully, after a few days of learning itself, it gets even better!
