At first the truck idles extremely rough when cold cranked. This went on for a couple of days, now the truck will not start at all. It hits every once in a while while repeated cranking on cold start. Don't think it is the high pressure oil as this was already replaced some time ago. And that acted different. Hard start when warm. Thinking it might be the FICM. Will that keep the truck from starting.

Probably complete failure of the I/P dimmer

I Have a couple of questions. First question does engine surge when idleing cold? 2. Does engine start quickly without a lot of cranking, Cold or warm? 3. Do you have funny smell at highway speed, or after you stop? With out this info and your imput, I would only be guessing. I am retired mechanic of 25 years. and would like to help if u need me.

Have you checked the glowplug relay.

Sounds like a battery to me. The cold doesnt drain the battery it just makes it more difficult to produce enough energy to crank the car. If the battery is weak already, the cold just makes it worse. Replace it and move on!

Black smoke means buring rich. Have the vehicle's ECU scanned for codes and do the repair the codes describe. I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say Mass Air Flow Sensor.(MAF)

have you replaced coil pack? Check EGR passage through upper mainfold and make sure clean. also make sure EGR valve not stuck part way open. Also check crank and cam sensors along with MAF.

check fuel pressure, try cycling the key to the on position an couple of times not the start position to cycle the fuel pump then try to start it. could be the cold start circuit. once its warm does it start easy ?

The car has OBD2 technology, You wont be able to tell without special tools. The ignition components, timing, CKP & CMP sensor, fuel line pressure, misfires, and fuel quality all need to be looked at. But to answer your question, "over 3x cranking' could be timing or fuel pressure. A bad IAC would cause a rough idle, and if the injectors were bad then it would cause a misfire too.

Mine did the same thing at 16K miles, I cleaned the throttle body and the ploblem went away. Took me about 30 minutes.

To update my earlier repair on the 2001 6 cyl Escape: When cold, and when the ignition was turned over but no accelerator pressure given, the rough idle finally returned the P0303 code again when the check engine light came on indicating that it wasn't caused by the plugs or the coil. FYI, I had replaced the intake manifold gaskets during the original repair and just prior to that I had replaced the fuel filter which was very dirty (I cut it open to see).

The repair manual referred to fuel injectors as a possible problem. I have run three tanks of fuel using different injector cleaning products and am very pleased with the results. Cold starts are much smoother and I am unable to coax out the P0303 code or any other code.

My opinion, change the fuel filter, use a fuel injector cleaner for a couple of tanks, change the plugs if the problem still exists. The coils were not the problem on my vehicle.