Brian S-SKO
Advanced Member
Hi Guys, So I am having some shop issues regarding a breakdown. I have a 2006 Ford E450, 5 window conversion with the 6.0 diesel (yeah, I know). It had new studs installed in the heads, new turbo, injectors, EGR Upgrade/cooler, glow plugs and transmission 40K miles ago. I am just getting too old to do this work anymore. This is our home for the last two years. We have a small structure we call home base, but it does not have all the amenities we have in the Skoolie. So the engine sputtered and died (crank-no start) in January. Fortunately I am close to home base. As it turns out, I was only able to find one Diesel repair shop out of around all in town, that would work on it in my local area. All the other shops refuse working on either because these vans are such a pain or they cannot take such a large vehicle. The shop (name withheld) it went to claimed to be Powerstroke experts, they have good reviews and claimed to use the same diagnostic equipment as the dealer The problem is that they appear to just be throwing parts at it. First it was a fuel pump/fuel conditioner ($1,200.00 parts/labor) without actually checking fuel pressure (they said it would take two hours at $175/hr to check fuel pressure) then tried a FICM (controller) even though it had a correct voltage reading (they occasionally fail while still giving the correct voltage readings), then a cam sensor ( I attempted without success to replace this) even though it was reading on the tachometer when cranking. They are now saying that the tone ring on the crankshaft may be bad and that they need to pull the crank sensor and bore sight as there is apparently no signal coming from that sensor. I am going in tomorrow to discuss if it is wiring/connector issues as there are tests for this. So here we are with still no solutions, two months and several hundred dollars in. I am just thinking if you are not seeing a signal from the crank sensor, shouldn't this have been determined prior to doing all this other work? Should I fight for getting the ultimate bill lowered for all of this unnecessary work done? $175/hr shop time seems like they should be doing more informed assessments as opposed to just throwing parts at it.
