Is a local glass shop doing the F-250 windshield, or Safelite? If through Safelite, I would recommend looking for a local glass shop and working with them. Safelite uses the cheapest, thinnest windshields with techs that hardly have any training at all. We had nothing but problems with them when our old procurement team made us use them a few years back.
A truck and trailer thread.
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Yes, a local glass shop called GlassTek. I spoke with a woman the other day when I was making an appointment and she seemed to be very knowledgeable about automotive glass and certainly knows a lot more than me. The windshield has been in bad shape for a few years so hopefully this replacement lasts a while before it too needs to be replaced.
The glass they use as standard is from Pilkington or PGW but they'll install factory glass such as Carlite if requested. Ford recommends Carlite but it's a 23 year old truck, and for $345 I'm ok with seeing how well the "cheap" stuff holds up. Up here it's so easy to have a rock smash the windshield and for expensive glass that's not covered by insurance it's probably a waste of money.
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The cheap glass the local shops use is still typically better than what Safelite uses. My dad had a '99 Silverado that had a windshield change before he bought it in '18ish. That thing forever had a wind noise I could not locate until one day I was driving it in the rain and saw a small drop come in from the corner of the windshield. I started pushing on it and was damn near able to push the whole front windshield out! Called my local guy, and we pushed the old one out without even breaking it. They brought their "cheap" one just in case, it was obviously a much better product, so we cleaned up the channel and slapped it back in, all problems fixed!
I've had many friends with nightmare stories of Safelite too.
RockAuto were true to their word and FedEx delivered a package to me this afternoon containing a Motorcraft glow plug control module and glow plug solenoid. Order placed on Wednesday afternoon, parts received Friday afternoon and installed late Friday afternoon followed by a 20 mile test drive. Ford has changed the mounting plate and dimensions of the glow plug solenoid so I had to modify the existing bracket in the engine compartment which took more time than actually swapping out the two components.
No check engine light coming on, no codes showing up in the DP-Tuner tuner and the truck is running like a top. It sure feels good to have this F-250 back on the road. Looking forward to the new windshield on Tuesday, and I'm going to give the cab a good vacuuming and cleaning this weekend. I'll try starting the truck tomorrow morning without plugging in the block heater and see how it does. The check engine light was coming on with the key turned on but before engaging the starter, which convinced me that the glow plug control module and/or the glow plug solenoid had failed.
There appears to be a heating element in the intake that's connected to the solenoid, so in addition to energizing the glow plugs, the solenoid also enables current to flow to the heating element. It's no wonder that the truck has been so hard to start on cold days when it's not plugged into the block heater. It feels good to get this resolved myself and for little cost. I enjoy having a project vehicle to tinker with but also one that requires no work. This truck has been awesome, and to think that it's 23 years old and still an excellent vehicle. I hope I can keep it running for many years to come.
My neighbors 2019 Duramax has a glow plug problem too so he's not doing too well with the blown head gasket on his 2005 or so Duramax and now his "new" truck.
No check engine light coming on, no codes showing up in the DP-Tuner tuner and the truck is running like a top. It sure feels good to have this F-250 back on the road. Looking forward to the new windshield on Tuesday, and I'm going to give the cab a good vacuuming and cleaning this weekend. I'll try starting the truck tomorrow morning without plugging in the block heater and see how it does. The check engine light was coming on with the key turned on but before engaging the starter, which convinced me that the glow plug control module and/or the glow plug solenoid had failed.
There appears to be a heating element in the intake that's connected to the solenoid, so in addition to energizing the glow plugs, the solenoid also enables current to flow to the heating element. It's no wonder that the truck has been so hard to start on cold days when it's not plugged into the block heater. It feels good to get this resolved myself and for little cost. I enjoy having a project vehicle to tinker with but also one that requires no work. This truck has been awesome, and to think that it's 23 years old and still an excellent vehicle. I hope I can keep it running for many years to come.
My neighbors 2019 Duramax has a glow plug problem too so he's not doing too well with the blown head gasket on his 2005 or so Duramax and now his "new" truck.
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I did a cold start test this morning at around 38°F ambient (in the garage) but about 10°F colder outside. I had the hood up all night with a maintainer connected to the batteries which are new. I didn't use the block heater for this test, and success! I waited until the glow plug light went out and then engaged the starter and the truck fired right up as easy as could be with no check engine light staying on. I'll be using the block heater regularly from now on but I wanted to see if the truck will start without it. The real test will be starting the truck when it's much colder and it's been sitting at the airport for a week.
Despite having the factory Ford service manuals for this truck, which states that the glow plugs can be energized for up to 2 minutes, I'm not sure if the glow plug light will stay on the entire time that the plugs are being energized. Glow plug duration is controlled by the ECU/GPCM, but it sure would be helpful to know when to engage the starter via the glow plug lamp.
Now to do some preventative maintenance on the oil pan (clean, sand & paint) and get all of the dog hair out of the cab along with a general clean up in preparation for the new windshield.
Despite having the factory Ford service manuals for this truck, which states that the glow plugs can be energized for up to 2 minutes, I'm not sure if the glow plug light will stay on the entire time that the plugs are being energized. Glow plug duration is controlled by the ECU/GPCM, but it sure would be helpful to know when to engage the starter via the glow plug lamp.
Now to do some preventative maintenance on the oil pan (clean, sand & paint) and get all of the dog hair out of the cab along with a general clean up in preparation for the new windshield.
Lil Foot
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My Heeler is hanging in there but it's day by day at this point. Honestly, six months ago I thought she only had days or weeks left but she's resilient. She loved/loves to ride in the truck but hasn't for many months due to her health issues. I used to have a bed for her in the front seat of the F-250 supported by a cooler in the passenger footwell, and that was her spot.
Vacuuming her hair out of the cab leaves me with mixed feelings. I've always maintained very clean and tidy cabins in all vehicles (I'm very OCD about that), but I made an exception for this 40lb companion. She's accompanied me on road trips all over the US not to mention trips to town, but she's been absent on the last two road trips and I really missed her. Removing all signs of her from the cab is just another reminder of how much she will be missed.
The glow plugs stay on much longer than the glow plug light stays on. This was an easy to do modification to monitor glow plug cycle times.
GPR_LED
That's awesome! Thanks very much for the link. Add that to my "to do" list.
I bought the first 7.3L in 2002 and one of the things I did soon after buying the truck was to add an LED and switch to manually close the exhaust back pressure valve (EBV) which acted like an exhaust brake. It worked great on long downgrades.
I purchased my 01 F-550 used in 2003 with 7k miles, I now have 135k. I have done some stuff to improve reliability but still have stock injectors. I get tempted to buy something newer but have not pulled the trigger yet.
Here is a photo of my truck towing my Father In-laws 2012. His starter went out and destroyed the flywheel in the process.
Great photo there. Looks like your FIL and you have similar taste. Interestingly, the rear fenders on my '24 F-450 look more like yours than your FIL's.
I got a new windshield installed in the F-250 this morning and as @biketopia mentioned, it was good that I picked a local shop with a husband and wife team doing the work. They went above and beyond and I did my best to keep out of their way as they worked.
Some revelations were that the windshield had been replaced at some point prior to 2018 but it wasn't done well according to the shop I used. There were spots where it was obvious that the glass was installed over unprimed/unpainted steel. There is some corrosion present and the installer used a small wire wheel on an air tool to remove most of the rust. He then applied two coats of primer and did a nice job overall but he mentioned that they're not a body shop but just trying to do a decent job of installing glass. He also applied two coats of primer to any exposed metal around the perimeter. The owner mentioned that if Safelite or similar encounter corrosion like this they won't continue with the installation.
The problem with this sort of corrosion of course is that you can't see it until you remove the glass. The plan is to have them come out to the house next spring to remove the new glass so that I can take a couple of days to do a really good of repairing/treating any bad spots. They'll come back and reinstall the glass when I'm done. If I want to keep this truck on the road for years to come I'm going to have to address problems such as this.
They did make a bit of a mess inside the truck with all of the grinding and such, so I stopped at an Autozone on the way home and picked up some Armor All wipes and spent 30 minutes in the parking lot cleaning up the cab as much as possible. I bought and installed new Bosch "mono" windshield wipers while I was there. The new glass sure is nice so I hope it remains that way for a while.
Some revelations were that the windshield had been replaced at some point prior to 2018 but it wasn't done well according to the shop I used. There were spots where it was obvious that the glass was installed over unprimed/unpainted steel. There is some corrosion present and the installer used a small wire wheel on an air tool to remove most of the rust. He then applied two coats of primer and did a nice job overall but he mentioned that they're not a body shop but just trying to do a decent job of installing glass. He also applied two coats of primer to any exposed metal around the perimeter. The owner mentioned that if Safelite or similar encounter corrosion like this they won't continue with the installation.
The problem with this sort of corrosion of course is that you can't see it until you remove the glass. The plan is to have them come out to the house next spring to remove the new glass so that I can take a couple of days to do a really good of repairing/treating any bad spots. They'll come back and reinstall the glass when I'm done. If I want to keep this truck on the road for years to come I'm going to have to address problems such as this.
They did make a bit of a mess inside the truck with all of the grinding and such, so I stopped at an Autozone on the way home and picked up some Armor All wipes and spent 30 minutes in the parking lot cleaning up the cab as much as possible. I bought and installed new Bosch "mono" windshield wipers while I was there. The new glass sure is nice so I hope it remains that way for a while.
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Looks Good! We had to do something similar on my dad's truck. I used the same glass guy we use on our fleet. They came to the shop and popped the old one out, saw the rust and corrosion from the poor install, and left me with some instructions and primer. I cleaned it up really well, primed it, and they came back the next day to install the windshield. My only word of caution with them coming out to pull their new one in the spring is that it is very well plausible that it will break upon removal. It is really hard to remove a properly glued-in windshield; it can be done, but just be prepared.
I'm close to having the last few gremlins worked out in the F-250. The first issue that I solved today was intermittent problems with the front passenger power window. Sometimes the window will go down but won't go up which isn't an ideal situation at any time, but in the winter it's a real problem. In my haste and laziness I did a search online for the most likely cause and a common theme was a failure of the multi-function switch on the driver's side. Power goes through the switch to the other three doors so it seemed like a plausible explanation and an easy fix.
I ordered a new (better) switch from RockAuto for a little under $87 which showed up yesterday. I installed it this morning and the passenger window appeared to work, until it didn't. After a few down/up cycles it stopped working. Then I figured that I should actually do some troubleshooting!
I have three factory service manuals including a book of electrical circuits for the truck and quickly determined that the front passenger switch was getting power at the appropriate time. I then used a 12V power tool battery to power the window motor at the switch and it worked up and down repeatedly without issue but the voltage was around 13.5V from the battery. I figured it must be a defective window switch on the front passenger door so I removed one of the rear passenger window switches which is identical and tried it up front and the window worked as it should, until it stopped working after a few up/down cycles. WTH!
I removed the door panels, front speaker and plastic protective film and looked at the window motor. I removed the connector at the motor (both of them) and cleaned them. Then I sprayed white lithium grease on the tracks of the window regulator where the guides slide and used the power tool battery again to lower and raise the window a few times. I noticed that it moved a lot easier, a lot faster and it was smoother. After reinstalling the door panels and window switch and powering the window down and up many times I'm convinced that the problem was friction in the regulator and not a bad multi-function switch or a bad window switch or a failing window motor. Time will tell if the problem is solved, but based on multiple cycles without issue I'm guardedly optimistic.
Here's the new multi-function switch that I didn't need. Even though it was an unnecessary expense, on the upside it's a nicer switch than the one it replaced in that it has the labels on the window lock button which are not present on the one it replaced. Also, I now have a properly working spare in the form of the original switch.
I ordered a new (better) switch from RockAuto for a little under $87 which showed up yesterday. I installed it this morning and the passenger window appeared to work, until it didn't. After a few down/up cycles it stopped working. Then I figured that I should actually do some troubleshooting!
I have three factory service manuals including a book of electrical circuits for the truck and quickly determined that the front passenger switch was getting power at the appropriate time. I then used a 12V power tool battery to power the window motor at the switch and it worked up and down repeatedly without issue but the voltage was around 13.5V from the battery. I figured it must be a defective window switch on the front passenger door so I removed one of the rear passenger window switches which is identical and tried it up front and the window worked as it should, until it stopped working after a few up/down cycles. WTH!
I removed the door panels, front speaker and plastic protective film and looked at the window motor. I removed the connector at the motor (both of them) and cleaned them. Then I sprayed white lithium grease on the tracks of the window regulator where the guides slide and used the power tool battery again to lower and raise the window a few times. I noticed that it moved a lot easier, a lot faster and it was smoother. After reinstalling the door panels and window switch and powering the window down and up many times I'm convinced that the problem was friction in the regulator and not a bad multi-function switch or a bad window switch or a failing window motor. Time will tell if the problem is solved, but based on multiple cycles without issue I'm guardedly optimistic.
Here's the new multi-function switch that I didn't need. Even though it was an unnecessary expense, on the upside it's a nicer switch than the one it replaced in that it has the labels on the window lock button which are not present on the one it replaced. Also, I now have a properly working spare in the form of the original switch.
The last problem to solve is the non-functioning horn and cruise control. Controls for both are on the steering wheel, and last year when I was flushing and bleeding the power steering and brake booster systems I think I damaged the clock spring. The air bag light used to be on constantly after I had supported the front of the truck on jack stands and turned the wheel lock to lock as part of the bleeding process. Around that time I noticed that the horn no longer worked, and at some point realized that cruise control no longer worked either.
The air bag light illuminates for a few seconds during starting as it should, but no codes are present re the air bags, so this has me a little concerned since if the the clock spring is damaged, how is the air bag not showing a fault code. I'm tempted to order a new clock spring, but the better ones are around $200 and there's no guarantee that it's the clock spring that's causing the issues. It does seem very likely though but I'd be more convinced if the air bag light were on.
Has anyone here changed a clock spring?
The air bag light illuminates for a few seconds during starting as it should, but no codes are present re the air bags, so this has me a little concerned since if the the clock spring is damaged, how is the air bag not showing a fault code. I'm tempted to order a new clock spring, but the better ones are around $200 and there's no guarantee that it's the clock spring that's causing the issues. It does seem very likely though but I'd be more convinced if the air bag light were on.
Has anyone here changed a clock spring?
I've changed many a clock spring in that generation truck. Failed horn & cruise operation is a classic symptom; airbag codes are also not always present for whatever reason. You can pop the airbag out and test the clock spring wiring, just don't probe or ohm any of the yellow wires/connectors.
A suggestion, spray the window weather seals with silicone to reduce friction and load on window motors. I spray silicone in to a plastic cup and use q-tips to coat the weather seals.
I've done that to the seals around the doors for decades, but don't remember doing it to the window seals. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks again for your expertise. I had wondered if a failed clock spring could still allow the air bags to function normally while preventing horn and cruise control functions.
I had one of those "duh" thoughts this morning and figured I'd try to activate the panic alarm mode to see if the horn would sound i.e. not rely on getting current through the clock spring. I got the flashing lights but no horn, so before I go down the rabbit hole I'm going to check the fuse for the horn, which supposedly is shared with the cruise control system. As Nicholas Cage said in National Treasure .... "could it really be that simple?"
Ahh, well then that's some good detective work!! Failed horn relay or blown fuse are all possibilities!