Replacing FICM?

[bigredford]

I have an 03 6.0. The problems started with hard cold starts, but after being on the cord it would start fine. Finally after 2-3 weeks it would not start even after 10 hours on the cord.
It was diaged by the local Ford dealer to have a bad FICM. Can a module be replaced with a used one, or does it have to be programmed first. Anyone have a source for this VERY costly item and a more reasonable price.
Thank you in advance for any input.

[cartmanea]

New ones are not programmed, so you would have to get the dealer to flash your truck after installing which would be $80-120. If you buy used, any year '03-'07 will work, but you need to make sure the correct programming is on it. If you can find a used '03 one on Ebay it should work. I found an '04 one on Ebay for $100 and will be getting it reprogrammed by Innovative Diesel soon for performance gains.

Make sure it is the FICM that is bad though before you spend the dough. They are mis-diagnosed quite a bit when there are other problems like glow plug module going bad or wire chaffing issues are pretty common. Check all your injector wiring and make sure nothing has rubbed through to the conductor anywhere.