glow plugs again?

[whitewon9395]

Here's the story, My uncle has an 02 F350 and if he doesn't plug it in at night it will not start in the morning. A little background: he lives in Myrtle Beach South Carolina so if not like negative numbers cold;Truck has about 250k miles on it(easy, "babied" miles), and has always been maintained meticously; We replaced the glow plugs last year at this time and it seemed to help for awhile then of course summer was upon us again so we didn't have anymore problems till the temps started dropping this year. We just replaced the glow plugs again today and we will have to wait till morning to see what happens. I am curious though if there isn't some other underlaying problem= it doesn't seem right to me to have to replace the GPs again already. The truck has probably only accrued about 5-8,000 miles since last time. We have both been around and owned diesels all of our lives and I know that not waiting for "wait to start light" can be detrimental and I am positive that this isn't the issue.
I have not owned a ford diesel That I have worked on since my 86 6.9 (had a 2000 powerstroke that was a lemon from the factory--experienced a bunch of uncommon problems, but I bought it new so I didn't work on it hands on) so I am now "out-of-date" on Fords systems. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks

[jesilvas]

Have you checked your glow plug relay?
Winter Operation, Hard Starting, Hissing Sound Etc...
Lots of information there.

[BIG JOE]

Have you checked your battery terminals?

[whitewon9395]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

Have you checked your glow plug relay?
Winter Operation, Hard Starting, Hissing Sound Etc...
Lots of information there.

I haven't but he tells me he did.......I don't know his extent of "checking it" was. I will look into it deeper myself. I wasn't sure if there was a "quirk" or common issue with these things that I didn't know about. I am a Cummins guy now(please don't hate me!!--I still love Fords and will go back to them if the opportunity arises--but I'll still keep my cummins-too much time and money in her to let her go!!) and I know their quirks and issues.

[whitewon9395]

Originally Posted by BIG JOE

Have you checked your battery terminals?

Yes and we replaced both batteries(was still turning the truck over fine but figured we would change them anyhow just for good measure --(they were still the origional batteries ) and the terminals are clean and perfect shape.

[yaterman8]

maybe the wiring harness for the the glow plugs under the valve cover?

[Blueblood]

Don`t just wait for the GP light to go off. Let it sit for another 45 seconds or so (with key on) and then try cranking it.

[jesilvas]

Or the boots for the GPs might be bad. Just all kinds of little things that it could be.

[whitewon9395]

well heres the thing..... it acts like it is prematurely burning up the GPs: if we replace them it is fine, but I'm thinking that they shouldn't have to be replaced every year!
Out of all the Ford Diesels that we have owned, 7 of them, (and we racked up alot of miles!) I only remember having the the GPs replaced in one of them once. And this truck spent the better half of it's life up north and never had any problems until last year.

[bandas]

Originally Posted by whitewon9395

well heres the thing..... it acts like it is prematurely burning up the GPs: if we replace them it is fine, but I'm thinking that they shouldn't have to be replaced every year!
Out of all the Ford Diesels that we have owned, 7 of them, (and we racked up alot of miles!) I only remember having the the GPs replaced in one of them once. And this truck spent the better half of it's life up north and never had any problems until last year.

Sounds just like the problems with my truck!! Not sure what causes the issue but I have had to replace my glow plug relay every year for the last three years. Last year did plugs and harness on both sides. I found a GPR today at checker with a lifetime warranty.