Man Down, Man Down… The Excursion is in the Shop

Well after 5+ years my trusty 2003 7.3L Powerstroke Diesel Ford Excursion had to be taken in for a repair. I had the smell of diesel fuel coming into the A/C system and decided to pop the hood. Looked at the engine valley area and saw a puddle of diesel fuel. Checked around and it seems to be a common problem for them to have a bad o-ring seal in the fuel separator area. Figured that would be it a couple hundred bucks. Well get the call and they also found another leak at the top of the high pressure pump. Another set of bad o-rings. And finally it was in for the recall of the camshaft sensor that was a freebie. So out of pocket about $1000. I hope that is all for a while, and over the life of the truck so far it’s still not bad. Picked up some coolant additive as I figured it might be another $100 to add a $9 bottle of additive. Will have to make sure I have the right amount now that I think of it. Oh well the sound of another credit card swipe for car stuff…

Well after 1 (ONE) day the lead developed again. Seems like some bad work. Can’t people do a job that they are well paid to do? Spent over 800 dollars on labor and the leak still showed back up. I’ll bet they try to hit me up for more parts… The OH, we found another non-related problem and we have to charge you again. F’n dealers. I’ll be looking for an independant diesel mechanic, or possibly a Navistar/IH dealer that should be able to fix me up.
The Jolly Green Giant is back. Seems so far that the problem is they didn’t tighten the drain on the bottom of the fuel separator bowl. So far no leak but will have to check in a few days to see if the valley pan has any diesel leaks. I hope not, I don’t really want to take the truck back to the dealer again…