Kubiak75

2005 XLT 5.4. The engine knocks at idle when at operating temp. It does not do it when cold. I have heard this this is normal for this engine. The knock is a light consistent knock. It sounds almost like a very quiet diesel. Anyone else experiencing this?

jwg2089

I've got a '04 FX4 X-cab with the 5.4L. It has 74k on it. I've never had the plugs changed out and now it is starting to hesitate some when accelerating. When you add that to the light knocking sound it turns out to be a bunch of neat stuff.

XLT4x4/3kgt

well i finally had a day off work and decided to sit down and work on the truck. I didn't really agree with ford telling me that 3 or my wrist pins were bad because i've hit the rev limiter a few times and if i had bad wrist pins i figured the engine would have definitely self destructed by now. The truck does burn oil and the antifreeze level never dropped any so i thought that the rings, head gaskets, heads and valve seals must be in decent shape. I also noticed when i was on a flat road and i was just giving it a little gas to maintain a steady speed the truck would really shake, and also when ever i was giving it gas black smoke would come from my exhaust and it smelled kinda like unburned fuel.

I plugged my truck into a scan tool and it didn't show any codes. That confused me because the truck would shake like a diesel at idle. Well i then figured i would unplug each coil one at a time to see if maybe the sound would go away. i started on the driver side and unplugged each one a few times but all that did was make the engine knock more and you could hear the RPMs drop. I then started on the passenger side and when i unplugged coil # 1 nothing changed at all. So i bought a new coil and the truck doesn't rock back and forth like a diesel at idle and the engine sounds a lot better and it has it's power back. All i'm wondering is why didn't that set off a misfire code?

torkum

Sounds like you have a unsensitive knock sensor. Congrats on solving the problem

Mr B

From what I've read on this forum and others, a bad coil will not always throw the CEL on. There have been a few threads that ended just like yours where the problem was diagnosed the old fashioned way by unplugging the coils one at a time.

torkum

Yea Mr. B, the misfire monitoring system can be lacking on what Ford calls a Low grade misfire.

XLT4x4/3kgt

well the ford dealership couldn't even pin point it, thats why i think they just said lets just try and sell this kid a new engine so they said my wrist pins are bad.

Now getting back to the misfire not throwing a code, a plugged a $8,000 scan tool in and checked my whole truck while it was running and that didn't even detect a misfire, could this mean my ECU could have a problem?

torkum

I think you have already answered your own question. It don't take a 8k scanner to read MODE6 for misfires and they know that. Like you have already guessed they were trying to sell you a new motor. Boys all I can say is you better be on your game in this new economy because people are going to try to make money any way the can.

Good old Bill

Couldn't be better said torkum, guess thats why I do all the work, right or wrong, myself. Thats also why I left the dealership rat race, I like to sleep at night.