When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Have the stuttering under hard acceleration problem with mine as well. I heard people are putting a weep hole into the intercooler to let out the moisture. Without checking all 300 pages what seems to be the consensus?
Drill the hole. Pull your spark plugs and check the gaps on them. Don't run them if they're gapped wider than .030.
so my dealership has had my truck in twice in the past 6 months for this issue. oddly my issue is most severe between 70 and 75mph to the point that the passenger seat will shake violently.
The first time they blamed it on the tire model being prone to flat spotting from sitting on the lot ( i find this kind of hard to believe as it took a few weeks of searching to actually find the truck locally).
So they balanced the tires, then force balanced them. Issue still presented.
i , admittedly, was far too busy with work with the inability to take time off to keep on the dealership about the issue. many times i'd just keep the truck at 65mph and pray my fillings didn't fall out.
So i recently left my truck at the dealer for 3 full days because the issue has gotten to the unbearable point and I did not want to let the initial warranty run out prior to getting it resolved ( i'm at 25K now) .
I also requested that they perform " the shuddering TSB that I had heard about" . i was purposely vague, as i've come to realize that if i am too exact, the dealership gets blinders on and will not , for any reason, think beyond the exact issue that i describe.
So I get a call on monday from the dealership informing me that the tech replicated my issue, but they felt that they needed to do an alignment and rotate the tires ( i rotate them every 5K on the dot at home because the dealer charges a ridiculous rate of $50 to do it). At this point, I'm thinking that they are actually going to work with me to correct the issue, so in the spirit of good faith, i tell them to do it for $138.
Tuesday morning, i get a call from the dealer stating my truck is ready (2011 ecoboost xlt screw 157" purchase date April 2nd, 2011, for reference).
Mid-afternoon i head to the dealer to pick up my truck. I request to see the paperwork and realize that they have not performed any additional troubleshooting. They merely did the alignment and rotation, charged me for gas ( it was on 1/4 tank when i left it ) and stated that the issue was resolved.
A bit perturbed, I requested to speak with the service manager. The service manager listened to what I had to say, then disappeared into the back for 35 mins.
when he emerged, he had the tsb for 5-10 mph shudder printed out, stated that they could not find the TSB that i was referencing, and swore that the issue had been resolved. No further discussion was allowed as the service manager darted away , shoving the service paperwork and the TSB that didn't apply in my hand.
I happened to run into an acquaintance of mine who manages the body shop there and briefly expressed my disdain. He shook his head, indicated physically that it was BS, then verbally apologized for how I was being treated.
So, as soon as I left, I found the nearest highway and brought it up to speed. to my dismay, nothing changed.
Completely irritated, i decided to mull over my next step. After serious consideration, I opted to just call the customer relations line. Reason being, when i showed up to get my truck, i was in casual bum around the house clothes. shorts, t shirt, flip flops. I'm heavily tattooed and the service manager seemed to treat me like an ex con. I just didnt feel like dealing with him again.
i also opted to just take it to the corp level, as my father in law worked for ford for over 50 years. He's since passed, but my mother in law is still considered a ford "retiree" . We purchased via z plan. I figure maybe I'll get some street cred due to this.
so i opened my case and am awaiting a call back from a specialist. the initial rep made reference to being compensated at very least for a new set of tires. I also offered to leave the truck with whomever for the entirety of next week as I'll be out of town on business.
i'll update as things progress.
I must be spoiled my dealer does not charge near that much for tire rotation ,oil changes. They would never walk away in a conversation .
Had the same problem recently. My mechanic found a small hole in the intercooler and a few other leaks in the system. New intercooler and tighten up the fittings and the truck runs like a champ
Alright it finally did it. 109,000 miles and I just experienced what has been beaten to death in this thread. Scarey. Anyway I haven't taken it in and don't want to. It's way out of warranty and I can fix it myself. What is the part numbers of the plugs and boots I need to buy, what is the gap, and where do I drill the hole? Any help would be greatly appreciated. 2011 BTW.
I tow a 5000 lb camper with an 11, 3.5L coupled to a 3.15 rear in a Crew Cab XLT. Have put 20K miles on the trailer up an down the Rockies, the Black Hills etc, etc. and had not a hint of trouble until the truck passed 80K miles. As most of us can attest, I can accelerate all the way to the top of a 10,000 ft mountain pass and never downshift below 4th. However, on this trip, trying to pull the hills west of Durango Colorado I developed a miss on #3 at speed (55ish). Had the plug and coil pack replaced in Durango and drove all the way to Las Vegas uneventfully. Leaving Vegas a week later the missing and shuddering began again as I was pulling a long hill but this time the misfire was #s 1, 5 and 6. Despite Ford not indicating in the Maintenance guidelines that plugs and packs should be replaced, each technician I spoke with suggested complete replacement at 75K. Had them done in Vegas and drove another 1,000 miles home with no trouble. Don't know if a reflash would have had the same effect but this solved my problem.
Thanks, Bob. And pbfz. Just purchased a used 2011 XTR with 5.0 and feel the same shuttering at @ 50mph no matter what the drive condition is like. There may be problems as I have bought it from a private used car dealer. Will copy your info down and have it in hand when I go to have any work done at a Ford dealership. I feel confident that this all falls under the powertrain warrenty (?) that remains on the truck. Thanks again, guys.
I recently put a 5* tune, 91 Perf/tow on it and found that under full lock up load it stutters. I have the CC set to 60 MPH, and on a slight upgrade of 1*, it will stay locked in 6th direct, and I can feel the truck bucking like the engine is missing, and a few times it was a hard buck. No codes set, so no misfire detected, but it was enough that after a couple weeks I restored to stock. Problem went away as far as I can tell, though I sure did like that I can pass without downshifting to 4th, the tune really did make a difference in performance, but until the bucking is resolved, not going to use it.
I re-gapped all the plugs, which made zero difference, and run ethanol free 91 octane BP fuel. It is either the tune is too lean, or there is a weak coil, but since no misfire is being detected, I dont know what is is.
I think because the problem seems so widespread, there is little likelihood that the problem is a weak coil. My 2011 has the 6th gear uphill studder as well, but I got the tow package with it, and it has a feature called "Tow/Haul", and punching that button causes the transmission to drop down a notch and raises the engine RPM off of that 1500-1600 mark, which seems to alleviate the problem. I have done the CAC hole, and added the Catch Can...looking at the crap coming out of the can tells me it is a good thing, but not a "fix". I also changed and gapped the plugs at .032", and I just did the PCM reset, and will be testing that soon...About all that is left to do is to add one more zero to the right!
Alright it finally did it. 109,000 miles and I just experienced what has been beaten to death in this thread. Scarey. Anyway I haven't taken it in and don't want to. It's way out of warranty and I can fix it myself. What is the part numbers of the plugs and boots I need to buy, what is the gap, and where do I drill the hole? Any help would be greatly appreciated. 2011 BTW.
Current recommended gap for spark plugs is .028-.037"...I left mine at the factory default of .032". I just coated the boots with silicone di-electric grease..at 36,000 they still looked to be in good shape...don't forget to use anti-seize on your plugs...they come totally dry from the factory. The Plugs are Motorcraft Iridium SP-534. The CAC hole is on the driver's side far left side at the lowest part of the "waffle" plastic. I had to remove the front "splash shield" to get the drill square. Just to let you know I did all of these things...not to say that it won't fix yours, but mine still studders. I just did the PCM (Power Control Module) reset...not sure if it fixed the hill pull yet, but it sure runs good so far... PCM reset...
First of all, this thread is very helpful. I am running a 2011 ecoboost xlt supercrew 2wd. The truck seemed to run fine until about 50,000 miles when it started going into limp mode, no power under exceleration, then the engine light would come on and it would run fine for a day or so. Then the engine light would go off again and return to no power under acceleration. It threw all kinds of codes related to the turbos. I took it into ford who called me back after 2 days and said i had stretched the timing chain.
They replaced it but the engine still cut out quite a bit under full throttle after the repair. It did so for about 2 months when i decided to take it back in and have it looked at when the engine light came back on and the truck went into limp mode again while coming oout of a merge ramp on the interstate under acceleration. It was missing something terrible. The tech said it was ready for plugs, that's why it was still cutting out. At this point the truck had 60,000 on it.
I replaced the plugs. the ones I pulled out were gapped at .42 - .45, the ones i put in were Bosch Platimun Fusion plugs gapped at .33 - .35. This helped with the engine light and the missing under normal acceleration but under full throttle it was still missing 1 or 2 small chugs every 1 second or 2. It ran ok under normal use but was never back to "normal".
At 80,000 miles I jacked the truck up 6" and went from a 30.5" tire to a true 35 x 12.5 mud tire... was tired of this thing getting stuck in the snow... That fixed the problem hands down. 12-18" of snow no longer a problem.
Truck has 106,000 miles on it now and the engine light returned and under normal acceleration between 30 and 60 mph it started cutting out again. This afternoon I pulled the plugs which were badly carbonated and replaced them with NGK iridium plugs. These were all gapped at .40. I regapped them to .30 dead on and put them in the truck. She is now back to running like a striped assed ape.... FINALLY! but the engine light was still on...
When i bought the truck, I was pulling a 0-60 in 6 sec flat bone stock. Since then, it has had a 3" suspension lift, 3" body lift and 4.5" larger tires. I just clocked her at 7.2 and 7.3 sec 0-60. I would say not bad considering the huge tire size difference.
I just got back from having a local shop clear the codes from the computer, which were all exhaust camshaft position timing over-advanced and Intake camshaft position over-retarded. It took it out after clearing the codes for 10 miles country road of flat out running the crap out of it... several 0-100 runs then some normal driving last 3 miles. I figured if i was going to see a problem with advanced or retarded cam shaft positioning then the engine light would come back on. I never did. Still no missing so i think for now the problem is fixed.
ps.. This is a first generation ecoboost built 8/2011 if ti makes any difference.
Plugs i just removed with 46,000 on them...
Last edited by Philmo11; 12-10-2015 at 04:10 PM.
Reason: corrected and added pictures of plugs i removed
My name is Chad, and I'm the new Ford Service Rep. Have you had the chance to speak with your dealership about this concern? Pass along your current mileage; I'll explore options to assist.
Chad
Chad,
I had this misfire problem in the rainy mountains on the way to Indiana from Virginia and my truck threw a P0304 code. Unfortunately, I accidentally cleared the code (I have a scangauge II installed in my truck). The dealership here in Indiana is refusing to complete the TSB under the powertrain warranty since the code was cleared. Is there any way to get this taken care of? It's a 2013 with 39,000 miles.
I've been extremely happy with my truck until this trip. I don't want to have to worry about this happening again on my 1,000 mile trip home with my wife and infant daughter. It's a safety hazard. I also don't think this problem is something I should have to come out of pocket on - it's a well known problem that's covered by a TSB and my powertrain warranty is still in effect.
I'm a Toyota truck convert, but if these problems with the motor and lack of dealership response to the problem persist, I may be headed back to Toyota and away from ford forever.
10-07-2015, 10:05 AM
