Joey.baird

I'm kinda of new to f150s I've never had one or looked at one before but I've sold my car and I'm looking to purchase one. I found one near me that is a 2005 XL ext cab it's a no power model with 4x4 it's auto. It looks almost brand new from the out side the frame looks like it just came out of the factory but I have a few concerns one is it has a lot of grass and dirt clogged in the transfer case, when I lifted up the rear seat I saw rust on the bottom of it, and finally it has 183,000 miles, my biggest concern is the mileage. I was told the the 4.6L doesn't have the cam phaser problem but I'm not sure if it's true. Is there anything else that I'm missing that I should look over? The truck is stock and said to never been abused the guy wasn't home to give me the key to drive it but he left it open for his wife to show it to me. He also wants $6800 is that a good price for what it is? Any help would be great!

MHOWELL34

Do you have any pics?? Trucks can/should be able to do 300k now days if treated right. Mine had 185k on it with the 5.4 when i got it, im at 207k now. I had to redo cam phasers, chains, tensioners.. flexplate (flywheel) etc. But if its running good after it gets warm dont be scared of it. Since its high mileage, Turn it over a few times to see if the starter makes any popping sounds against the teeth on flywheel, usually one of the things that fail around the time the rest do, if it does 64 dollars (not including a new starter if it survives) and a weekend pulling the transmission will have that fixed up. Pull the oil dip stick see if any nice milky water is getting in the oil (oil caps arent a good test on our trucks, they get alot of moisture and make a white film, if you see silver flakes run away lol), check under it good for leaks one more time. Try to talk him down to like 6-6500 because the mileage is up there. I paid 9 for my lariat fully loaded. You can however pop the oil cap off and try to get a picture of the cam phaser or cam down in the hole. If its a silver new lookin or light oily bronze color don't be too scared, if its blackish and really dark bronze. Back away and say no thanks.

This was mine during cam phaser job, it was on the verge of being bad, had some build up, low pressure from a blown tensioner and shredded chain guide, but still has a good shot at being cleaned up by some good oil! Anything worse than mine walk away from lol
Attachment 570540

PS KBB says its around the 6200-6800 range for that model. So its a good deal but don't let em have it all lol. Gotta drag em down for making you wait

Joey.baird

Thanks a lot a appreciate the tips I'll take a picture down the oil tube and once I find out how to post some pictures once I find out how too. The cam phaser it my largest fear with this truck

lewissa81

The 4.6 in 2005 was the 2v, not 3v. It doesn't have the cam phasers.
Also if it is all shiny, but you find chunks of mud, dirt, grass or whatever, then the seller tried real hard to clean it up. That doesn't mean it's in bad condition, but it may have been driven hard offroad. Just something to think about.

MHOWELL34

Ah yeah thats right 2v. Get confused with the 4.6 sometimes, dont have time to really look into it lol. But now at least when he pulls the oil cap he should be able to see the cam directly. Even easier to tell how healthy it is then!

Joey.baird

I found chunks of grass in the transfer case which indicated to me he mudded it but he did a good job of cleaning up the rest of his tracks, what surprised me is the suspension is stock and the tires are performance tires (not my ideal off road set up) but never the less I feel much Better knowing it doesn't have can phasers

MarkoDaGeek

I was under the impression that the 4.6L was not subject to the known cam phaser issues, is this not the case? It was one of the main reasons I went with the 4.6L, that and the breaking spark plug problem, which I'm also told is isolated to the 5.4L

My truck has a light ticking sound, only heard from inside the cab when accelerating, I assume it's lifters or something, I'm new to Ford but I've rented out newer Home Depot F250's many times (gas engine) and I've heard the same ticking sound with them, so I'm under the impression its normal with Ford...

Let me know if I'm totally off though.

Joey.baird

I have a friend who has a f250 with the 5.4 and he had the same ticking noise he said it was the exhaust or something like that

stcolorado

Exhaust manifolds, fuel injectors, cam phasers, chain tensioners, they can be pretty loud trucks but who cares if they run great and aren't experiencing problems. Mine has injectors that would make most cars blush but it runs like a BEAST.

**edit > This is in RE: the 5.4L. The 4.6 doesn't have the same set of exact issues but for these model years Ford didn't seem to make very quiet V8's

johnny_tucson

my fuel injectors are loud as hell. Runs nice. But loud.