Was It My FICM All Along?
 

I have a 2005 6.0 that last year became hard to start when it was cold. I babied it all winter by keeping it plugged in, and starting it with jump pack and ( I know this is a no no) starting fluid in a spray can. In the spring, I decided it was time to fix this, and a shop told me my high pressure oil injector was going out, causing my starting problems.

They replaced that, and removed internal emissions junk, and handed me back my truck, less about 2500 bucks. Still started hard in the cold, and always ran like it was missing, and maybe an injector failing.

I drive the truck very little over the past couple years, it is used as a billboard in front of my business, attracting attention, and bringing in customers. If it started better, I would drive it more.

This fall, I knew winter was going to be a problem, took it back in and now they tell me (after replacing an injector and it still acts up) I have a FICM that is at fault and needs to go.

I found your site, and repaired that myself (thanks a bunch) and now for the first time in a couple years, it really runs like a new truck. Purchased this truck new in 2005, now about 100,000 miles on it.

Was it my FICM all the time? Smaller diesel shop, not a dealer.

What Say You?

Since changing the FICM the truck is starting like it should, it looks like the old FICM was the problem:humm:

it very well could have been the FICM, to bad its $2500+ to late... congrats on having your rig back:c::c:

NOW IT CAN BE A MOVING BILLBOARD:jump:

I have an '06' that failed this summer with the 'No Start Hot' symptom. I bought the truck new in 06 and I had been waiting for the STC fitting to fail until it finally did at 80,000 miles. I'm glad the truck left me stranded only 3 miles from home....it could have been a lot worse.
I'm convinced that the STC fitting is eventually going to fail in every truck that has one. So, if you don't know for sure, I would ask your mechanic whether the STC fitting was eliminated when the High Pressure Oil Pump was replaced. I have heard cases where the new High Pressure Oil Pump came with a new STC fitting. It would be a mistake to go through this work without replacing this part with the new branch tube fitting that doesn't have an STC fitting; the upgrade has a straight metal tube with no fitting. This is a common failure and any mechanic putting back the old style fitting is not looking out for the customer's interests.

Ill ask.

Just to give you a little more confidence....if the mechanic put the old style fitting back in, it's not going to fail immediately, so I wouldn't worry that your truck is going to leave you stranded in the next year or so....it will likely last for at least 30,000 miles before your risk of failure goes up. It's one of those parts that help generate revenue for the shops. The good shops all know how to fix it for a lot less time that what is posted in the standard labor books. The customer oriented shops would use the new technique that takes less time, and charge you for the time it actually took them to do it. The new technique takes about 90 minutes.....the old technique (which includes removing the intake manifold) takes more than twice that.

What's the difference between the two methods? Either way the HPOP is still under the turbo in the back... I'm not sure how someone could replace that in 90 minutes...

I got the new one for mine sitting on the table, waiting for the cab to come off to do it all at once. Hopefully really soon...

AR10,

There's a video on many of the forums that shows exactly that. He pulls the turbo in less than 30 minutes and has the HPOP cover removed in another 10.
I noticed he sets all his bolts down in places in the engine compartment. I could never pull this off without losing them, but evidently it's being done this way in a lot of shops.

The key time-saver is not taking off the intake.

Ahh ok that makes sense. If you can get away doing it without removing the intake manifold, then why were they even removing it in the first place!? Interesting.

It really doesn't take long to yank the turbo on these once you've done it a few times and you know exactly which tools you need.

I did the work myself, and I yanked the intake because I chose to do the STC fitting, the oil cooler and the EGR cooler at the same time.
This way, I only needed to do a major job once. All the rest of the jobs will be much easier from here on out...injectors maybe or something else not nearly as extensive.