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04 f350 oil leak

8K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  luckyJ 
#1 ·
just developed an oil leak this evening. drove for about an hour, parked, then noticed the leak. started gettin dark outside, but from what we could tell its coming from the back of the motor right above the bellhousing, more on the drivers side. nothing wet around the turbo or that general area. looks to be down below it. it sat there for about 1 1/2 hours and left roughly 7" spot. drove a little over a mile to the store then home and have about a 4" spot under it now. it dont leak while idling, just after running then parking. any ideas where to start? gonna do more inspecting in the morning. truck is an 04 f350 with about 137,000 miles.
 
#2 ·
If your truck has a build date September 29th/2003 or earlier (in other words a 2004 model year truck with a 2003 engine), the description of your engine oil leak points directly to the ICP sensor as the source of your oil leak. To verify this, take a quick glance at your passenger side valve cover, where you will either see an ICP sensor beside the glow plug control module with the data plate identifying it as a 2004 engine (in other words LATE build), at which point you should disregard this post, or you will also see the data plate that identifies it as a 2003 engine.
 
#3 ·
it is an 03 engine. what is the process/how hard of a job is this? me, my brother and dad are pretty mechanically inclined, but never really worked on a powerstroke. is this something we could do? cause i really dont wanna spend a ton of money for the stealer to work on it. thanks for the help.
 
#5 ·
I replaced mine by going underneath the truck. Had to remove 3 bolts holding a shield to the engine, then the ICP is accessible. It's really not too hard, but when you see the 3 bolts you have to get at, you may sit there for 45 minutes wondering how the heck you're going to do that.
 
#7 ·
so its easier from the bottom? just pull the heat shield off and u can get to it? sounds better than pulling the turbo! would it be pretty obvious its the ICP when i get to it? dont wanna spend money on something and it not be the problem.
 
#8 ·
I suppose that you could pull the turbo if you wanted to clean it up while you're at it. If I recall, 2 of the bolts are 10mm and the 3rd is 13mm or something like that. The 13mm is pretty easy, the other 2 are more challenging. the 13 and one of the 10's you get from the drivers side, the other 10 I got from the passenger side. It would probably help to remove the trans dip stick tube, although I did it without removing it. I bought a 1 1/16" craftsman 1/2" drive deep socket then cut it so the ICP would just fit. Once I got the heat shield off, I took off the wire, popped on my socket and had the ICP out in no time. If I were to do it again, I suspect from start to finish would be 30 minutes or maybe a little less.

Now, I have no idea if your sensor is bad, mine threw a code and I knew it was bad.
 
#9 ·
mine threw a code, just not sure which one. theres nobody within 40 miles to read it and didnt wanna chance goin that far. i suspect thats what it was cause now i got an oil leak from that general area. thanks for all ur help. fixin to go tear it down now. wish us luck! lol
 
#10 · (Edited)
It's really not too difficult, but it seems intimidating at the beginning. BTW, I knew that mine was bad, after removing it I looked in where the electrical plugs in and there was oil. It should be dry. Most of the tech's here will recommend you replace the wiring harness as well when you replace the valve. I didn't do that, and it seems to be fine but you may want to do that too just to be on the safe side.

edit: I found the post that I did a quick write up on replacing the sensor Hope it helps!
 
#11 ·
thanks for the help! i got the old one out and it had a hairline crack at the base of the plastic piece. gonna get the new one in the mornin and should have it in pretty quik. was a lil rough on the arm goin up thru the bottom, but once i figured it out, it was a snap.
 
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