Looking for an Auto Enginuity Diagnostic Tool or similar...

[Haku]

Hello,

So I bought a Early 99 Ford F250 PSD with the 7.3, and up until a few days ago it was running great. It had a hard time starting (midday...50+ degrees... so not a cold start) and has gotten worse and worse with running really badly, spewing white smoke, and flashing the "Service Engine Soon" light all over the place.

I'm trying not to spend a ton of money replacing parts I don't need to, and want to get the codes read. It could be so many different issues (Bad Fuel, Bad Wiring, Injector gone bad, glow plugs, and the list goes on) and I really want to get it narrowed down before I start throwing money at it.

Reading on the PowerStroke forums, the parts store code readers don't really do the Ford Specific codes, and its not really running well enough to get to a store or dealer anyways. The Auto Enginuity Scanner seems to be the one everyone uses on the PSD forums, but its like $400-500 to purchase with the Ford Enhanced package. I figure there are enough car people on here that there is the possibility of someone having one already.

If you have one, or another unit that you know can read the more detailed Ford PID's, then I'd love to either borrow it or have you come over and run a diagnostic on it. I know they can check injectors and stuff too, so that would be ideal. If you do, post up or shoot me a PM and we can figure out a time. I'll throw some beer or lunch/dinner at you for your time too.

[scout man]

ive always just used the cheaper harbor freight reader on mine and never had a problem. Just gives you the code, but then you can go online and figure out what the code means...

[Haku]

Interesting. All the guys on the forums say they just give you the standard OBDII codes and not the more detailed Ford PID codes. That might be enough, but I'd still love to borrow the AE unit if someone has one since it can do full diagnostics like firing off individual injectors and such.

If I'm guessing, I think its a bad fuel pump, bad injector o-ring, bad Under Valve Cover Harness (runs the Glow Plugs and Injectors) or possibly the High Pressure Oil Pump. Oh, and possibly the Injector Pressure Regulator or Crank Position Sensor.

The frustrating thing about this is lots of guys of the PSD forums have the same symptoms, have a 3-5 page long thread about it, and then disappear before saying what fixed it.

[scout man]

open your fuel filter and check for oil. Check your water for diesel, and check your oil for diesel. If everything is as it should be then its not the O-rings. Then drain your fuel filter housing (small petcock on the back, drains to a tube behind the passenger front tire). Put the cap back on and cycle the ignition in 30 second intervals several times. Open the cap back up and see if it filled. I so, the is "probably" not your fuel pump. You can also check the valve cover harness with out taking it all apart. you can do an ohms test on glow plugs and injectors. Read up on this one, because you can cause problems if you do it wrong. The other 3 I have no insights on, although they seem to pop up as a possibility for most problems on those forums. And yes, those forums suck. Seems like 1/30 people actually know what a wrench is, but they all think they do.

[Haku]

Cool...I put a new fuel filter in the other day but didn't drain it. No obvious diesel in the oil when I drained it, but I'll look again (haven't dumped it yet) tomorrow. I'll look at the coolant too. I'm guessing just open the radiator and look in to see if there is floaty oily bits in it?

I'll do the valve cover harness check tomorrow too, I saw the writeup for the Glowplug check but I'll have to find the injector test too. I checked the glow plug relay and its fine, so its downstream from there at least.

I'm almost thinking that if it ends up being the UVCH and I'll have to take the valve cover off, it might be worth just replacing all the O-rings now anyways? Definitely gonna do the glow plugs just to be safe. Its not that hard to remove the valve covers from all accounts, but hard enough to not want to have to do it when you don't have to.

Guess I should figure out whats wrong first though.

[scout man]

Yea, there isn't actually a radiator cap on these trucks, just the overflow reservoir. Pop it open and make sure it looks like clean antifreeze. And yes, taking the valve covers off isn't too bad, but definitely more trouble than you want to go through for now reason. Hardest part is a couple bolts on the back of the passenger side. I think, and you will want to check me on this, that one test you can do is let it run for a bit (if it will) and take an infrared thermometer to the cylinders and make sure they are all hot. A cold cylinder could give you an idea where your problem is.

[The StRanger]

I have the Ford Factory NGS Diag scanner
But its not for sale and I haven't done a lot of PSD diag with it.

[Haku]

Not looking to buy one as much as just borrow one for an afternoon.

At this point I just need something that can read codes, and possibly the Ford specific ones. If it could do the "Injector Buzz Test" then I would probably try that out too (I think its just a mode that turns each injector on seperately so you can hear the differences). I would think a Ford Factory specific tool might do that, but not sure.

Looked at the Harbor Freight ones and they say they can do manufacturer specific codes, so I might try that too. $80 plus a 20% off coupon sounds better then $500, and it would be useful to just have too.

[The StRanger]

Not looking to buy one as much as just borrow one for an afternoon.

At this point I just need something that can read codes, and possibly the Ford specific ones. If it could do the "Injector Buzz Test" then I would probably try that out too (I think its just a mode that turns each injector on seperately so you can hear the differences). I would think a Ford Factory specific tool might do that, but not sure.

Looked at the Harbor Freight ones and they say they can do manufacturer specific codes, so I might try that too. $80 plus a 20% off coupon sounds better then $500, and it would be useful to just have too.

I work next to a Ford Diesel Master tech
I'll see if its OK in the morn. Between his knowledge and my tool.
I think we got this !
You think ya can get it over to Arapahoe & I 25 ?

[Haku]

Sorry...but as I said in my first post...it stalls every 30 seconds and in between that it bucks all over the place and is not driveable. I don't have any real way to get it across town either at the moment.

I'm over in Lakewood near Garrison and Jewell.

I guess I could see about getting it towed, but I'd prefer to just do it in my driveway if possible. I'll pay your gas money and take you to lunch if you would be willing to come over. Having the insight of a Ford Diesel Tech does sound nice though.

Reading reviews of that HF unit, some guys found that it read 1 code and didn't see two that an Edge Programmer saw, so I'm not sure how much help it will be depending on what codes it is throwing.

[The StRanger]

Ill talk to him and see what we can do.
Let ya know in the morn.

[Haku]

Sounds great, any help I can get with this would be appreciated. I have about 3 different projects (including this truck) that I need to throw money at in the near future, so narrowing down the problem to something specific sounds awesome.

[Patrolman]

Personally, I use this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ZWM0R4/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The OBDwiz software isn't too bad. It pulls a lot of info for our cars, even for the Prius. It doesn't do everything though, so I also got this for my Android Tablet:
http://torque-bhp.com/

It pulls in extra data for the Prius though additional add-ons built into the app. Unsure if it will do the same for the Ford. Most people seem to use it with their smart phone and a blue tooth adapter that plugs into the OBD-II. There are no wires to get in the way, and they just leave it plugged in all the time.

[The StRanger]

Sounds great, any help I can get with this would be appreciated. I have about 3 different projects (including this truck) that I need to throw money at in the near future, so narrowing down the problem to something specific sounds awesome.

Probable be about 9ish.

[Haku]

Probable be about 9ish.

Sounds good...I'll try and be awake then.


Personally, I use this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ZWM0R4/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The OBDwiz software isn't too bad. It pulls a lot of info for our cars, even for the Prius. It doesn't do everything though, so I also got this for my Android Tablet:
http://torque-bhp.com/

It pulls in extra data for the Prius though additional add-ons built into the app. Unsure if it will do the same for the Ford. Most people seem to use it with their smart phone and a blue tooth adapter that plugs into the OBD-II. There are no wires to get in the way, and they just leave it plugged in all the time.

I actually have the OBDwiz downloaded and was gonna use it with a Scantools.net USB to OBD-II thing I found at the Club Workshop, but I think the thing is fried so I didn't get very far. There is a similar Ford specific program that a guy made and it doesn't see it, and the Scantools specific one doesn't work and I've tried 18 different drivers and configurations to make it work and its no go.

I was actually just looking at the Torque app. Some guys on the PSD forums were raving about it and are using it for every day use to monitor their systems. Someone made a PSD specific module for it, so I might look into that too. Might have to buy a cheap tablet to mount in there and just use that for most of my gauges. There are lots of windows and linux apps that can talk to those Bluetooth OBD-II adapters too, and they can be found for as little as $5-10 on Ebay too. Another $5 for the app isn't bad at all. Still would have to wait for it to ship, so I'm gonna try other avenues in the meantime.

So there is a guy on CO4x4 that has an Auto Enginuity unit in Littleton that might be able to help me out, but we are gonna talk in the morning too, so I'll know better what is going on then too.

[The StRanger]

Mark says he thinks it a Fuel problem. Is it a Cali calibration !!
Wants to know what night is good to come check it out..
DONT DRIVE IT......
If could hydrolock from fuel !

[Haku]

Indications are that it shouldn't be a Cali truck (looking at some of the wiring differences and such) but I can't say that is definite. Its undriveable at the moment, so don't worry about me driving it anywhere and its not my DD so that is not a worry. My gut feeling is that it is a lack of fuel and not too much, but being new to diesel I could be wrong. It blows smoke, but its not like "rolling coal" or enough to kill all the mosquitoes in the area kinds of volume (and its whitish grey in color).

I have a guy from Colorado 4x4 coming by this morning to run his Auto Enginuity on my rig, so we'll see what it says and go from there. If that doesn't prove fruitful, I'm free tonight or tomorrow, but have work on Wednesday and Thursday evening, but am free again on Friday or the weekend. The guy is from Littleton, so I he's a bit closer then Aurora so it will save you the trek over too. Thanks a ton for you help and I'll keep you posted.

[The StRanger]

Let me know. Mark seems to think an Injector issue. Poss stuck open,
This is a stupid question, But, You have check to oil level, Right ??

[Haku]

Well isnt't that frustrating.

Guy came over, read some codes and then cleared them. Here is the picture of the codes in question...

http://hld-illumination.com/haku/Pictures/PSDCodes.jpg

So after that we went to start my truck to see what happened, but came up against a concurent but seperate problem I had with my starter about 1 in 10 times I tried to start it where it lock on the on position. I had narrowed it down to the starter solenoid and had bought a new starter but then other issues came up and it seemed to be allright so I didn't change it out. Well, it stuck on long enough to run the battery down and wouldn't unlock, so I finally decided to swap it out while, Mark, the guy from CO4x4, went to do other errands.

Installed the new starter and jumped the truck with my car and now it runs completely like normal. He's still coming back over in a bit to run a few more tests, but I'm frustrated as hell. Either the problem cleared itself overnight, clearing the codes did the trick, running the battery down reset something, or it was something to do with the starter the whole time (seems unlikely).

I guess I'll see what happens with the injector buzz test and a few other things.

[zukrider]

that actually makes quite a bit of sense. if the starter was to draw enough at any time, it could cause a low voltage issue to the PCM. and that alone can cause all kinds of weird ****. lets hope it all worked out!

[The StRanger]

Low voltage will do some of that, That cam code p0344 is a problem
Its a ford thing, And I would be concerned with that feedback code P1670 needs to looked into more with good voltage !

[Haku]

that actually makes quite a bit of sense. if the starter was to draw enough at any time, it could cause a low voltage issue to the PCM. and that alone can cause all kinds of weird ****. lets hope it all worked out!

Yeah...that did occur to me, but I'm not sure it was only the Starter. I wouldn't think it would do it repeatedly over 3-4 days every time I started it if that was the case. It may have set the whole thing in motion and the PCM freaked out and put it into limp mode, and resetting it was the final fix.

Who knows really. I drove it for errands today and other then a bit more smoke then usual at the beggining (I'm sure it was relearning things), its running as well as it ever has since I got it.

As for the codes, the main one that had me concerned is the CPS code. The others seemed like symptoms of dead batteries and variable voltage. Reading up, the P1690 and P1670 code seems like one that happens concurrently to other issues and is usually attributed to bad wiring to the PCM. The CPS one is either bad wiring or a bad CPS. The others seem to occur sometimes when the power is cut or other weird things go on (like the P0381 is essentially saying the "wait to start" light isn't indicating for whatever reason).

I'm still kind of frustrated, but there isn't really anything I can do except drive it and see what happens. I'm gonna get one of those Bluetooth OBDII readers and the Torque app so I can monitor whats going on. The app can monitor anything that the PCM can see, so it may very well be a permanent installation in the truck. Only gauges I would really need are fuel pressure and EGT's with it.

[carpenle]

Yea I would drive it and see what happens. I had to replace my cps and that fixed a lot of my issues. They are actually pretty cheap now ($20 or so) and was worth me replacing it. I have an intermittent issue when my CEL comes on and I have no power (feels like it is running on 4 cyl.), I let off the gas push in the clutch and usually the CEL goes off and I have full power. The codes I have are PO472 Exhaust Back Pressure sensor and PO236 Turbo Charger Boost Sensor. I am not really sure what the fix is, but it happens so randomly, I have not been that eager to take it into a shop and have it fixed. I am thinking ICP, IPR or UVCH but that is just my guess.