Might Buy '04
01-06-2015, 01:23 AM
#21
Senior Member
You aren't exactly guaranteed to have these problems. I think we fall victim to applying anecdotal fallacies to things as we are exposed to them, EG we post to a forum where people often come for help (ourselves included) so therefore, we see a larger percentage of people with problems rather than with out. Why would most people post without needing to do so?
These problems can strike any of the engines for sure, especially if the service record was a mystery. Mine was a gem of a steal owned by a single owner over 65 from day one until the day I took it. His service log is comprehensively completed with stamps from the Ford dealer up and down... He sold it because he had a stroke and the DMV felt he was no longer fit for driving. The truck drives much like you would expect one at about 50,000 miles to drive. I've got some loud fuel injectors and occasionally my reverse sensors claim I am hitting something when I am not, but she is otherwise perfect... I am paranoid about it because of what I see posted here regularly, but not all of the 5.4L's are promised to have these failures in their lifetime.
These problems can strike any of the engines for sure, especially if the service record was a mystery. Mine was a gem of a steal owned by a single owner over 65 from day one until the day I took it. His service log is comprehensively completed with stamps from the Ford dealer up and down... He sold it because he had a stroke and the DMV felt he was no longer fit for driving. The truck drives much like you would expect one at about 50,000 miles to drive. I've got some loud fuel injectors and occasionally my reverse sensors claim I am hitting something when I am not, but she is otherwise perfect... I am paranoid about it because of what I see posted here regularly, but not all of the 5.4L's are promised to have these failures in their lifetime.
01-06-2015, 01:37 AM
#22
Can probably guarantee the leveling kit is just a coil spacer I'd take out day one, a buddy with a 2010 Tundra had one slip a week after buying the truck.
That's a good point, though. This forum seems more constructive than tundrasolutions and tundratalk, where it's more of an uncommon truck and people share more trips than issues. From what I can tell, everything seems like minor DIY stuff that will just take an afternoon and some caffeine to crank through.
As for the pricing; whatever I buy, I doubt I'd buy unless I can haggle the price down 15%. I run the auto club at the high school, and I've had three different dealerships offer me sales jobs. Once a manager told me I outsold his sales rep, aha. We were able to get the Tundra down from $16k to $13,500 and it had 0 issues besides a timing belt, which just delayed a Saturday a tad.
I found an '07, same color scheme with 118k miles for $13, I'll look into that. I don't expect any of these listings to be available when I buy, but it's nice to get to know the market.
That's a good point, though. This forum seems more constructive than tundrasolutions and tundratalk, where it's more of an uncommon truck and people share more trips than issues. From what I can tell, everything seems like minor DIY stuff that will just take an afternoon and some caffeine to crank through.
As for the pricing; whatever I buy, I doubt I'd buy unless I can haggle the price down 15%. I run the auto club at the high school, and I've had three different dealerships offer me sales jobs. Once a manager told me I outsold his sales rep, aha. We were able to get the Tundra down from $16k to $13,500 and it had 0 issues besides a timing belt, which just delayed a Saturday a tad.
I found an '07, same color scheme with 118k miles for $13, I'll look into that. I don't expect any of these listings to be available when I buy, but it's nice to get to know the market.
01-06-2015, 01:42 AM
#23
Senior Member
Haha i hear that! And idk why it would slip on him mine are bolted in pretty good... maybe the people who did it just didnt care (what are those nuts for oh well). I got a 3", dont go that high unless you have the bumper i do lol, ball joints, control arms and coil spring wont forgive you.
01-06-2015, 01:47 AM
#24
He did it himself, the plate that bolts into the bucket disconnected from the spacer. Thankfully we felt it snapped and a buddy had a high lift on his Jeep and we were able to jack the truck up within seconds of it breaking. We just pulled both spacers out and he got 5100s the next week. I wouldn't want to do it purely because of the stress they can put on your CVs. Maybe that's just a Toyota thing though.
Two people at our school have F150s (2011 4x4 and '07 I believe 2WD) with those gigantic 6" ones dealerships use for showroom floor trucks. The guy with the 2WD tries to off road, stock gearing 4.6 on 37s... It's entertaining to say the least...
Two people at our school have F150s (2011 4x4 and '07 I believe 2WD) with those gigantic 6" ones dealerships use for showroom floor trucks. The guy with the 2WD tries to off road, stock gearing 4.6 on 37s... It's entertaining to say the least...
Last edited by CedarPark; 01-06-2015 at 01:49 AM.
01-06-2015, 01:57 AM
#25
Senior Member
He did it himself, the plate that bolts into the bucket disconnected from the spacer. Thankfully we felt it snapped and a buddy had a high lift on his Jeep and we were able to jack the truck up within seconds of it breaking. We just pulled both spacers out and he got 5100s the next week. I wouldn't want to do it purely because of the stress they can put on your CVs. Maybe that's just a Toyota thing though.
Two people at our school have F150s (2011 4x4 and '07 I believe 2WD) with those gigantic 6" ones dealerships use for showroom floor trucks. The guy with the 2WD tries to off road, stock gearing 4.6 on 37s... It's entertaining to say the least...
Two people at our school have F150s (2011 4x4 and '07 I believe 2WD) with those gigantic 6" ones dealerships use for showroom floor trucks. The guy with the 2WD tries to off road, stock gearing 4.6 on 37s... It's entertaining to say the least...
01-06-2015, 10:58 AM
#26
Member
It is worth also noting the Ford TSB about our phasers:
In short, some of these are just loud. Mine is included in this group of loud injectors and a little bit of VCT/Phaser noise. It doesn't hamper my performance nor cause chain slap. While it might seem a bit crappy that ford just let a few of these exist noisily, some people immediately claim you are about a skipped stone away from thrashing your engine. This might be true if there is more than just the "tolerated" amount of phaser rock in your engine... But if you come across one that is just kind of loud but not exactly giving you that signature metal-to-metal grind, it isn't bad either... When my motor goes I am not going to rebuild but rather go straight to replace, and I imagine that with the newer remakes this has been resolved...
Just some more food for thought about phasers.
21574 4.6L 3V/ 5.4L 3V ENGINE TICK/RATTLE FROM VCT 800-1200 RPM - DO NOT ATTEMPT SERVICE
2009-2010 F-150 WITH 4.6L 3V, 2005-2010 F150 WITH 5.4L 3V,2005-2010 MUSTANG WITH 4,6L 3V, 2005-2010 F250, F350 WITH 5.4L3V, 2006-2010 EXPLORER/MOUNTAINEER WITH 4.6L 3V ENGINE, 2007-2010 SPORT TRAC WITH 4.6L 3V ENGINE, AND 2005-2011 EXPEDITIONS AND NAVIGATORS WITH 5.4L 3V ENGINES. SOME CUSTOMERS MAY BE CONCERNED WITH TICK/RATTLE NOISES FROM THE VARIABLE CAM TIMING (VCT) ON LIGHT TIP-IN ACCEL BETWEEN 800-1200 RPM. THIS CONDITION MAY BE MOST NOTICEABLE OPERATING VEHICLE IN CONFINED AREAS SUCH AS A DRIVE-THRU. THE NOISE IS ELIMINATED WHEN VCT SOLENOIDS ARE UNPLUGGED. THIS CONDITION SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A NORMAL CHARACTERISTIC OF THE ENGINE. DO NOT ATTEMPT ENGINE REPAIRS TO CHANGE THIS NORMAL CONDITION. THIS CONDITION DOES NOT AFFECT PERFORMANCE OR DURABILITY OF THE ENGINE.
2009-2010 F-150 WITH 4.6L 3V, 2005-2010 F150 WITH 5.4L 3V,2005-2010 MUSTANG WITH 4,6L 3V, 2005-2010 F250, F350 WITH 5.4L3V, 2006-2010 EXPLORER/MOUNTAINEER WITH 4.6L 3V ENGINE, 2007-2010 SPORT TRAC WITH 4.6L 3V ENGINE, AND 2005-2011 EXPEDITIONS AND NAVIGATORS WITH 5.4L 3V ENGINES. SOME CUSTOMERS MAY BE CONCERNED WITH TICK/RATTLE NOISES FROM THE VARIABLE CAM TIMING (VCT) ON LIGHT TIP-IN ACCEL BETWEEN 800-1200 RPM. THIS CONDITION MAY BE MOST NOTICEABLE OPERATING VEHICLE IN CONFINED AREAS SUCH AS A DRIVE-THRU. THE NOISE IS ELIMINATED WHEN VCT SOLENOIDS ARE UNPLUGGED. THIS CONDITION SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A NORMAL CHARACTERISTIC OF THE ENGINE. DO NOT ATTEMPT ENGINE REPAIRS TO CHANGE THIS NORMAL CONDITION. THIS CONDITION DOES NOT AFFECT PERFORMANCE OR DURABILITY OF THE ENGINE.
Just some more food for thought about phasers.
01-06-2015, 08:03 PM
#27
It is worth also noting the Ford TSB about our phasers:
In short, some of these are just loud. Mine is included in this group of loud injectors and a little bit of VCT/Phaser noise. It doesn't hamper my performance nor cause chain slap. While it might seem a bit crappy that ford just let a few of these exist noisily, some people immediately claim you are about a skipped stone away from thrashing your engine. This might be true if there is more than just the "tolerated" amount of phaser rock in your engine... But if you come across one that is just kind of loud but not exactly giving you that signature metal-to-metal grind, it isn't bad either... When my motor goes I am not going to rebuild but rather go straight to replace, and I imagine that with the newer remakes this has been resolved...
Just some more food for thought about phasers.
In short, some of these are just loud. Mine is included in this group of loud injectors and a little bit of VCT/Phaser noise. It doesn't hamper my performance nor cause chain slap. While it might seem a bit crappy that ford just let a few of these exist noisily, some people immediately claim you are about a skipped stone away from thrashing your engine. This might be true if there is more than just the "tolerated" amount of phaser rock in your engine... But if you come across one that is just kind of loud but not exactly giving you that signature metal-to-metal grind, it isn't bad either... When my motor goes I am not going to rebuild but rather go straight to replace, and I imagine that with the newer remakes this has been resolved...
Just some more food for thought about phasers.
01-06-2015, 09:19 PM
#28
Senior Member
Hell when we ride 4 wheelers, our old honda slogan is "if it aint tickin, it aint lickin!" Mines pretty quiet besides injectors now. Just make sure you get the oil changed every 3k to know how much she uses, they are high maintenance engines like i said before, ford and dodge have a bad problem of using some oil in these kind of engines, old pushrod doesnt use any normally. Not a bad thing but definately an un-thought out design for people who say **** changing their oil after 15k miles, then wonder why it blew up. Some use and some don't.. Depends how happy she is and how hard you push that pedal! I for one care about my truck and just add a quart and keep driving lol
Last edited by MHOWELL34; 01-06-2015 at 09:21 PM.
01-07-2015, 04:28 PM
#29
Senior Member
That's a good way to be. I paid 8k for my 04 Crewcab xlt 4x4. It has some rust issues the bed is pretty bad, but it's just a daily. It will see some mud once it get warm out again. The 01 was never clean. Got that thing stuck every week and it still ran great