reelfishin
Registered User
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2006
- Posts
- 18
- Reaction score
- 13
I've been reading and lurking here for a while now, I became the new owner of a super low mileage 2003 F250 last week.
It was garage kept by an elderly man who drove it only a few weeks out of the year.
The truck has 12,000 original miles on it and is in mint condition.
It took some searching but I finally found one in my price range that didn't look abused. It took traveling 800 miles from home to go get it.
So far the only issue I've seen with this is that the fuel gauge is erratic, or slow to change when filled up or driven. I made the 800 mile drive home with it last week, I filled it up near where I bought it because the gauge read about 1/2 tank. I pulled into the first truck stop I came too and topped it off, it took just about 24 gallons. I ran it again to just about 1/3 tank on the gauge and topped it off again and it took 25 gallons. I had gone just about 550 miles at that point. I drove the rest of the trip on that tank of fuel. The next morning the gauge read about 1/2 tank. I drove it around locally for the whole week and decided to take a 300 mile drive the other day so I headed out early with the intention of filling up at the first diesel pump I came across. I ended up driving another 50 miles before finding a station with diesel that was open at 4am.
After filling up, I restarted the truck and pulled away, right away I noticed that the gauge never moved?
Knowing it was full, I wrote down the mileage and figured I'd just refill at around 400 miles to be safe. As I drove, the gauge slowly moved to the full point, after the first pit stop, when I returned to the truck after about 80 miles, I noticed that the gauge was now reading full. I drove until I hit 400 miles and refilled, the gauge read 1/3 again, this time it took only 19 gallons. I've know driven down the current tank to about 650 miles and its still reading just under 1/2 tank. I filled it this evening and it took nearly 30 gallons.
Do these trucks have issues with the fuel gauges? The local dealer tells me its normal? Its been at or near the 1/3 tank point a few times now and each time its taken up to 10 more or less gallons. I've not seen it drop below 1/3 tank, or have I wanted to chance running out either. I believe its got a 39 gallon tank going by the owners manual, (6.0L 4x4 super cab short bed).
Other than the fuel gauge being questionable, its been great.
I did replace the air and fuel, and oil filters and gave it a full synthetic oil change. I also did a full coolant change with new coolant from Ford after reading about all the issues the early models had. This truck was built in 10 of 2003.
Its been getting between 20 and 22 mpg so far, and all miles including the ride home have been with a trailer in tow. When I bought it I towed my car trailer out with me, and towed my old truck, ('93 F150) home behind the '03. My thought was that if the new truck had issues, I could always switch and tow it the rest of the way with the old truck. I sold the '93 today, so the '03 F250 is here to stay I guess. With the low miles, its almost like having a new truck, it even still had the white paper Ford mats from the dealer in it and it still smells new. The guy had it parked in a huge garage with a heated tile floor along with a half dozen other classic cars. Each vehicle had its own door but the building was huge, the size of a high school gymnasium and it was decorated like a museum with all sorts of vintage parts, tools, and posters all over the walls. (He even gave me a Ford NGS scan tool and a five piece factory manual set with the truck, he said he bought it when he bought the truck so he wouldn't ever have to rely on a dealer.
It was garage kept by an elderly man who drove it only a few weeks out of the year.
The truck has 12,000 original miles on it and is in mint condition.
It took some searching but I finally found one in my price range that didn't look abused. It took traveling 800 miles from home to go get it.
So far the only issue I've seen with this is that the fuel gauge is erratic, or slow to change when filled up or driven. I made the 800 mile drive home with it last week, I filled it up near where I bought it because the gauge read about 1/2 tank. I pulled into the first truck stop I came too and topped it off, it took just about 24 gallons. I ran it again to just about 1/3 tank on the gauge and topped it off again and it took 25 gallons. I had gone just about 550 miles at that point. I drove the rest of the trip on that tank of fuel. The next morning the gauge read about 1/2 tank. I drove it around locally for the whole week and decided to take a 300 mile drive the other day so I headed out early with the intention of filling up at the first diesel pump I came across. I ended up driving another 50 miles before finding a station with diesel that was open at 4am.
After filling up, I restarted the truck and pulled away, right away I noticed that the gauge never moved?
Knowing it was full, I wrote down the mileage and figured I'd just refill at around 400 miles to be safe. As I drove, the gauge slowly moved to the full point, after the first pit stop, when I returned to the truck after about 80 miles, I noticed that the gauge was now reading full. I drove until I hit 400 miles and refilled, the gauge read 1/3 again, this time it took only 19 gallons. I've know driven down the current tank to about 650 miles and its still reading just under 1/2 tank. I filled it this evening and it took nearly 30 gallons.
Do these trucks have issues with the fuel gauges? The local dealer tells me its normal? Its been at or near the 1/3 tank point a few times now and each time its taken up to 10 more or less gallons. I've not seen it drop below 1/3 tank, or have I wanted to chance running out either. I believe its got a 39 gallon tank going by the owners manual, (6.0L 4x4 super cab short bed).
Other than the fuel gauge being questionable, its been great.
I did replace the air and fuel, and oil filters and gave it a full synthetic oil change. I also did a full coolant change with new coolant from Ford after reading about all the issues the early models had. This truck was built in 10 of 2003.
Its been getting between 20 and 22 mpg so far, and all miles including the ride home have been with a trailer in tow. When I bought it I towed my car trailer out with me, and towed my old truck, ('93 F150) home behind the '03. My thought was that if the new truck had issues, I could always switch and tow it the rest of the way with the old truck. I sold the '93 today, so the '03 F250 is here to stay I guess. With the low miles, its almost like having a new truck, it even still had the white paper Ford mats from the dealer in it and it still smells new. The guy had it parked in a huge garage with a heated tile floor along with a half dozen other classic cars. Each vehicle had its own door but the building was huge, the size of a high school gymnasium and it was decorated like a museum with all sorts of vintage parts, tools, and posters all over the walls. (He even gave me a Ford NGS scan tool and a five piece factory manual set with the truck, he said he bought it when he bought the truck so he wouldn't ever have to rely on a dealer.