2000 Ex hard to start when the temp is below freezing

[kzman77]

Hey guys I am having trouble with my Excursion strarting in cold weather. It is about 34 out and when I try to start it white smoke billows out from the exhaust and the engine refuses to turn over. I have an OBDII scanner and it's throwing a code of P0683 which says Glow Plug/Heater Module Comm Problem. I live in California as well and since their emission rules are more stringent I don't know if this changes regular glow plug setups that other states have. If anyone has any ideas or pointers on how to fix this it would be greatly appreciated.

[ARFNSX]

Do you plug in your block heater?

there should be a plug in up front next to your fog lights and plug that into the wall for a few hours.

[forddieseldoctor]

If you are getting that code. It means that your glow plug module is not responding to the pcm. This could be caused by lack of power to the glow plug module. To the best of my knowledge all of the excursions had the glow plug control module instead of a relay like all of the super duties. Start by checking for power on black and orange wire in both connectors and then the red wire on the black connector. The red wire will only have power with the key on. I have seen a bunch of these controllers fail on the 6.0's.

[Tempsho]

I am getting code P0683 as well on my 2002 Excursion. I think there is a seperate code for each glow plug. The glow plug control module can detect which glow plug might be faulty. It might also be the valve cover connector. I heard they can come loose over time. I haven't had a chance to troubleshoot mine though, it just started happening. Sometimes the code comes up, other times not. Would an intermittent code be a connector issue or a faulty glow plug?

[forddieseldoctor]

The p0683 is not a code for an individual glow plug. It is the code for module communication failure.

[Tempsho]

That's good to know. I'll check the connections going to it.

edit:

Actually, the more I think about it, I think it is code P0673. (I have an Edge Evolution)

I'll start by checking the valve cover connectors and go from there...