I inherited a 96 f250 7.3 l. It's sat up for about 5 years with only being driven on rare occasion. My brother drove it 6 hours to hand it off to me. Within a month of having it it began to mysteriously shut off without much rhyme or reason. Two years later and I'm still dealing with it. I was told that it was probably a fuel issue such as algae or whatever it actually is.. I've added seafoam and other fuel additives to try and clean The tanks. When that didn't work I finally took it to a mechanic who replaced the fuel canister. Then he replaced a water in fuel sensor. Neither one of those fix the problem. Then he told me he thought it was probably the wiring in one of the tanks. But it still shuts off no matter which tank you're driving. There's no real rhyme or reason to when it shuts off. It could be on the highway at full speed, or it could be idling. Sometimes there's no real warning, others there is a little skip. Sometimes I can drive it for 20 miles without any issues. Other times it will happen in the neighborhood. Today it shut down three times just riding around the neighborhood. It usually cranks up after a few turns. Occasionally it cranks up immediately. Sometimes I have to wait as long as 10 minutes. Once I killed the batteries trying to crank it. The truck only has 98,000 mi on it. I've considered dropping the tanks and completely cleaning them out. And maybe cleaning the entire fuel system as much as I can. I think I'm going to be on a journey to figure this out so I would take any advice possible. I'm not sure that I could take it back to a mechanic unless I feel reasonably confident I know what the problem is. I dropped 1,800 last time and it still didn't fix the problem.

 

Are you sure it isn't a cam sensor issue, it is kind of a common issue!

IDM's can cause this behavior and so can IPRs, so it isn't always an easy troubleshooting process, unless you have a GOOD scan tool (codes) or known good parts to put in and try.

 

Thanks so much. I am not sure of anything. This truck is fairly new to me and I don't have any experience with diesel engines. Is Cam sensor the same as Camshaft Position Sensor? Those aren't expensive so i'll start there. Can you recommend a GOOD scan tool? It can't be more expensive than the dang mechanics that never fixed the problem.

Thanks,

Brian

 

Downloading FORScan (full version) to a Windows laptop is great. You will need an OBDII adapter and I prefer the corded ones with a laptop (OBDII to USB).

The "Lite" version of FORSCan is also great on a smartphone (Android or iPhone). You would need an OBDII BlueTooth adapter for Android and the OBDLink MX+ for an iphone.

The FORScan home page spells it out.

https://forscan.org/home.html

A cam sensor is the same as a Cam Shaft sensor. Buy an authentic Ford sensor, the aftermarket ones are generally unreliable, and many big chain parts stores sell counterfeits.