Question New to diesels and just wondering about starting

[delta70]

Hello all,

I am new to owning a diesel truck. I just purchased at f350 2007 and had some issues of concern that may or may not be an issue.

First off when starting the truck is seems like it takes longer than it should to start after waiting for glow plug to go out to start. If this is normal for this type of truck then I can live with it. If not if you have any ideas on what I should be looking at let me know. I have done some research and noticed that if you are smoking then might be the egr valve but I have no smoke. This happens when truck is cold or hot.

Secondly when truck is cold it seems to run pretty rough. Almost feels like a cylinder isn’t firing off. This clears up in about 2 blocks of driving it but kind of bugs me. Again no smoke when this is happening. I live in Texas so not like it is extreme cold in the middle of summer.

If you all could enlighten me a bit on what I can do about these I would appreciate this.

Thank you

 

[DaveBen]

delta. These newer trucks do take a little longer to fire off when starting. It is normal. Make sure you keep your batteries and connections up to par. Replace BOTH batteries if one or the other gets weak. Diesel engines are heat engines. They require heat to run and that is why the have glow plugs to start up in cold weather. Keep an eye on it, if it gets worse a trip to the Dealer will be necessary.

Dave

 

[snicklas]

delta70,

Rough running when cold. IS the first start of the morning, or a long time of sitting? DO you know the service history of the truck? There was a PCM Flash that addressed an issue like this. It is the Inductive Heating flash. IF one cold startup the engine runs very rought and has no power this may eed to be done. The injectors use high pressure engine oil to fire the injectors. When the injectors are cold the oil does not move well and the injector(s) don't fire correctly. With this flash, the oil is pre-heated by cycling the injector coils. My truck did this and the flash corrected the problem. Your truck should still be under warrenty, and the engine has a 5yr/100k mile warrenty. Might want to take the truck in....

 

[delta70]

Well believe it or not it is close to being out of warranty. Truck has about 99000 miles on it. It does like you discribed, cold start or sitting along time it runs rough and doesnt have power. I guess I need to get off my butt and get it looked at quickly.

Thanks for the replys both of you.

 

[snicklas]

Your welcome. You will be surprised the difference when you get it back. A band-aid I found was the plug in the block heater (If you have the cord, on the 05 and newer you have to BUY the cord.....) and it will start and run like normal. THat is what I did till I got it in the shop. After they do the flash, it will be a little down on power when it is cold, all diesels are (they need the heat to run) but it will idle and start a bit easier.

 

[NevrKnow]

You get an OASIS report on it? If not, do it pronto.