Glow plugs not working/making noise first start of the day?

[troid123]

When I first go out to start the truck in the morning the glow plugs are not making their normal ticking noise. After the truck has been running for a bit and I shut it down and go to restart it, you can hear the glow plugs doing their thing whether the truck sits for 10 minutes or 8 hours. What is the deal?? The temps have not gotten any colder than about 40 degrees so I dont know what is going on. Can the relay have an intermittent failure?

[troid123]

Any idea's guys??

[Jarrod B]

a 6oh has glow plug ticking?

[BLACKANDTAN]

in my 6.0 its the injectors ticking, try getting the pcm re flashed, if that doesn't work you might need the injectors flushed. good luck

[troid123]

Originally Posted by BLACKANDTAN

in my 6.0 its the injectors ticking, try getting the pcm re flashed, if that doesn't work you might need the injectors flushed. good luck

But why would it only be on the first start of the day?

[troid123]

I sure would like to hear from some of the techs if you guys are out there!

[troid123]

Can someone please help me out?? The injectors are not buzzing the first start of the day, but they will every other time I try to start the truck through out the day. Why is this?!?? HELP!!

[troid123]

bump it up

[DieselDano]

That ticking you are hearing is the FICM(Fuel Injection Control Module) warming up the injectors. It basically helps the truck to not misfire due to lack of oil in the injectors and the oil being considerably thicker when it is cold. Your glow plugs wont make any noise themselves. Now, last winter there were a lot of FICMs dying due to the rapid heating of a 24 to 48 volt inverter inside the module. The usual sign was there would be absolutely no ticking at all, and the truck would either stumble, or not start at all. If you would cycle the key enough times, sometimes the injectors would start to work and everything would be fine, until the next cold start after a soak period. Is your truck running fine? The quickest way to tell if you have the latest calibration is to listen to the injector tick. If its just a steady rattle sound, that is the old calibration. If the injectors tick slowly at first and then click more rapidly, that is the new calibration, and you are hearing that inverter warm up more slowly, rather than immediately. It was done to prolong the life of the 24-48 volt inverter. When it dies, there is no tick at all when you cycle the key on.

[troid123]

Originally Posted by DieselDano

That ticking you are hearing is the FICM(Fuel Injection Control Module) warming up the injectors. It basically helps the truck to not misfire due to lack of oil in the injectors and the oil being considerably thicker when it is cold. Your glow plugs wont make any noise themselves. Now, last winter there were a lot of FICMs dying due to the rapid heating of a 24 to 48 volt inverter inside the module. The usual sign was there would be absolutely no ticking at all, and the truck would either stumble, or not start at all. If you would cycle the key enough times, sometimes the injectors would start to work and everything would be fine, until the next cold start after a soak period. Is your truck running fine? The quickest way to tell if you have the latest calibration is to listen to the injector tick. If its just a steady rattle sound, that is the old calibration. If the injectors tick slowly at first and then click more rapidly, that is the new calibration, and you are hearing that inverter warm up more slowly, rather than immediately. It was done to prolong the life of the 24-48 volt inverter. When it dies, there is no tick at all when you cycle the key on.

Truck runs fine! Do you think the FICM is just about ready to quit completely??