FICM and warranty

[OIIIIIIIO]

Hi

So I bit the bullet and took the 2004 F350 with the 6.0 down to the Ford garage to get a diagnosis...

They said weak batteries have caused the FICM to go bad...truck still runs though (but having problems obviously, rough idle at start up, white smoke at start up, surging, poor fuel mileage, etc...).

They want $250 to put in 2 new batteries.

$1100 to replace the FICM.

I know I have other options for the batteries...what about the FICM? The dealer says $1000 part and $100 labor...do I have options besides the dealer for that or is that something in which the program is loaded after it's installed?

My 2004 truck was built in May of 2004...so I'm 7 months out of warranty (it's got 95K miles). Service manager says he's had a little luck getting Ford to do some warranty work when it's a couple thousand miles out but never if it's a day over...

I'm going to call Ford myself...what they hey right...worst they can say is no...any recommended strategies to get them to pay for the repair? Or maybe have them pay for the part and I pay for labor or something like that?

The only arguments I could come up with is

The FICM has been known to be problematic...

Also no where in the owners manual does it tell someone to check/replace the batteries (or does it?). If that FICM is so sensitive to good batteries how would I know about a of a drop in power of the battery (still starts the truck with no problems) and that it's time to replace the batteries in order to protect such an important part of the electronics...

Do I play the card that this is the first Ford I've bought...have had Dodge and Chevy trucks before with no issues...If this is what I can expect from Ford then maybe I go back to Chevy/Dodge?

Just tough to pay that bill I guess...hope I don't sound like I'm whining...

Thanks for any advice!
Patrick

[OIIIIIIIO]

found this...

FICM pictures by DrQuad - Photobucket

any other options?

[baddkarmaracing]

innovative can do a tuned ficm and im pretty sure they are quite a bit under 1000 and easy to replace

[cxrxaxz]

people need to stop buying stuff from the dealers lol

New 6.0L Powerstroke FICM

FICM 6.0L

FICM for powerstroke 6.0 superduty

took 3 minutes to find this.... just look around dont buy **** from the stealership

[thenubsterman]

i've got an idea, just put the batteries in it and drive it. untill the ficm goes completely bad

[sportsman500]

you do relize that the ficm does not come programed ? that seems to be the sticking point of these things .

and if your getting a ficm performance code po611 it is probably the batterys causing it .

[artsamm]

You said truck was built in May 2004, and warranty was 7 months out....When was truck put into service (Sold)? I think that this may be the determining factor. If it was sold Jan 05, you should be o.k. Example: My 2004 was built in Dec 03, put into service/sold July 04. Warranty should have started Jul 04.
Something to look at.

[toddslures]

Why are they not covering it under the 100k warranty on the motor? I just had mine done at the dealer, they did it for free under some epa guideline, the service mgr also said that if that wouldn't have covered it it would have been done under the 100k warranty with a $100 deductible. The truck has 68k miles on it.

[OIIIIIIIO]

It's over the 5 year mark of the 5 year 100K mile warranty...

[DrQuad]

The FICM is easy to check and repair. No programming is needed.
http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/att..._procedure.pdf