I know this has probably been discussed ad nauseam, but I am considering ordering an E-350 clubwagon with the 6.0 Diesel. Of course the salesman says the bugs have been worked out with that engine. Just wanted to get some real-world opinions. I've heard of many folks who had so many problems Ford bought back their trucks. I suppose I would like to know, has there been anyone
*without* problems with this engine?TIA
matt
Matt,
Check out this site.
i also have heard of many folks who know many folks who had all kinds of problems and had ford buy them back. but you know ,the funny thing is, i have never talked to one of these supposed people, both of my local ford dealers have never talked to one of those people, both of them have never had a 6.0 come back for major warrenty work, and anyone i talked to with a 6.0 has had nothing but praise for it
I have a 2003 F250 XLT with 6.0 and 5 speed auto. I got it at the end of the
2003 model year new, and to date have had no problems with the engine which now has about 5K miles on it. I really like this truck.
"Matt Macchiarolo" wrote
I'm holding back with my order. The following article by Oval News calls the problems with the injectors "Ticking Time Bombs". Given these facts, waiting for long-time reliability results seems to be prudent to me.
On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:52:52 GMT, "Sam14" wrote in alt.trucks.ford:
This link works:
Thanks to all for the replies.
AMEN
I read through all the posts on this thread so far and have only this to add: It is true that the early production 6.0's had troubles. Look for a production date AFTER June, 2003. This information comes form a great friend of mine who is a Ford dealer mechanic. He just took delivery of his new 2003 F-250 6.0PSD and it is awesome powerful.
-BunnMan
BunnMan, with all due respect to your mechanic friend, he doesn't, in fact, he can't know whether problems around the 6.0's have been solved. It needs long-time reliability data of a sufficient number of higher mileage engines in the field to make that judgment. I agree with him that the 6.0 Diesel is an awesome engine and there is probably one for me in the future. But I'm also made somewhat cautious by the attitude portrayed in the a.m. BlueOvalNews report " Even though Ford Motor Company is aware of Powerstroke 6.0L engine failures caused directly by failed fuel injectors, they have refused to issue a recall. This is troubling to those who quickly rack up miles on their engines leaving them without a warranty to cover the damage or the cost of an engine replacement." Frankly, I wouldn't mind so much buying an early production model if I knew that the manufacturer would go way out to assure the satisfaction of the early adapters through issuing an ironclad extended warranty. So, I guess, for me it will mean holding on to my 7.3 Liter Powerstroke for another year or two. Sam
"BunnMan" wrote
I bought a 2003 F-250 PSD, XLT, at the end of May. Build date is early April. I now have over 13k miles and no lasting problems. A couple of times I started getting rough idle, once with a terrible smell of diesel fuel like the older PSDs had for so long. I was out of town when this happened, so I was going to take it to the dealer when I got home. By the time I got home, about 200 miles later, it was running smooth as silk. Same thing happened a couple of months later, but didn't last long. I suspect water/dirt in the fuel. It's running great now, and is an awesome towing machine.
GS
Smart move, take your time on getting a 6L.
My 2003 6L PSD F250 was also 'awesomely powerful' for the first 17,000 mi. when it suddenly needed a new engine. An injector fell apart and lodged in the exhaust valve and made a complete mess of the cylinder. It also took 4 weeks to get it fixed! Does anybody actually keep things in stock anymore?
Actually this same truck developed a really rough idle 2 days after purchase. How can they sell such things? Whereas my gas guzzling '94 F150 with a 351 now has 200,000 miles without any work except the front end. (Although it could use a decent tune-up)
Naturally Ford won't extend the warranty on this new diesel engine. My regular warranty still applies. That still gives me lots of time to trade it in on a Dodge or see how time treats the Duramax. I should get a decent price with it's NEW engine.
I pick it up tonight. We'll see how long it goes for this time. I bought it for dependability, it sure has let me down.
No, sorry, couldn't tell you Matt. But I did buy the truck hot off the lot late last February. Just picked up the truck, with new engine, and brought it the 150 miles home. Seems fine but I'm wondering what the breakin procedure is. From what I understand the gas engines should be babied for the first while when they're new but diesels should be kept under load for the first 30k or so. Is that not how they break in farm equipment? I know I'll be doing a lot of puttin' around in it for the next month on the job I'm on so it'll be hard to give it any kind of decent workout.
You got one of the ones with the bad injectors, they replaced the injectors with a different design in April/May '03 from what I understand.
Go to The DieselStop. They have great information there and diesel break-in has been discussed many, many times. From what I understand tho, you should vary the engine RPM for the first 500 to 1000 miles and after that should put them under load to accelerate the break-in process. Also, from what I read there, it could take 15-20 thousand miles to fully break in a diesel engine.
John T
I beg to differ sir, As you pointed out in the snipped out portioin of your post the injectors were a known source of trouble. The injectors were updated in May '03 providing that all June 03 production dates have the updated system and thus none of the original trouble from the injectors. Since the change there has not been a noted injector problem. The Ford dealer mechanics are a great source of this type of info as they do most all the warranty work on these trucks. They see the reccuring problems and also the service bulletins that are issued before enough service bulletins are issued to justify a recall (recalls are generally only for safety items, engine failure is unfortunately not considered a safety problem). Granted, my buddy is no prophet and can't predict the future success of this motor in the market but he does have some extremely valuable information for you if you happen to be shopping a '04 PSD with a production date previous to 6/03. The advice is "RUN".
To modify an old saying, "If it aint broke don't sell it." I support you in holding onto your 7.3 for another year or two. As a matter of fact I plan on holding onto my 7.3 for a number of years. I can't afford a truck every few years myself, so I use them up! That's one of the reasons I got into this here 2000 6-speed PSD. From my research and my good Ford mechanic buddy's input it is a proven reliable combination. For you couple of naysayers that might be lurking...I know about the clutch trouble that some folks have had the misfortune of experincing, but those instances are few and the repair aint that bad. At any rate...I'm just trying to pass along some great information to folks who might find it worth applying. It seems as though you may disagree with the validity of my info which you are certainly entitled to do. Even so I notice you are applying it anyway :)
God Bless,
-BunnMan
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