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.
- Thread starter McMXi
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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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