5.4L Hesitation/Surging Issues
 

Hi, new to this site and recently new F150 owner. I have a 2004 Super Crew with almost 81k miles. It's got the 5.4L Triton engine. I have a recurring problem with the engine and I've been back to the dealership three times now with no help from them. The problem I'm having is a long hesitation when accelerating from a dead stop. As I start to speed up the engine seems to bog down. I push the gas pedal down further and no response then all of a sudden it kicks in and takes off. It also happens while I'm driving along at a steady speed. The rpm's will jump around and the truck surges. The problem is intermittent and there's no check engine light so the dealership says they can't find anything wrong with it. What's more infuriating is that I took the tech that worked on it the past two times, for a test ride last night because it was doing it again and I was bringing it in for service. It did it with him in the truck. I went to pick up the truck today and they said they couldn't find anything wrong and that these are normal characteristics of Ford vehicles. I find this to be total BS! I owned a 2003 Explorer and while it had the 4.0L V6, I never had any problems like that in the 7 years I owned it. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced any issues like this and what the solution was. Thanks in advance!

Look under your truck where the spare tire is...there's a module that is mounted to the frame of the truck...this is called the fule pump driver module (FPDM) this get severely corroded and will cause what you described

I have a 05 fx4 scab and have same issue with 92k mileage. Been trying to figure this out myself. Stealership is no help what so ever...

Thanks for the tip! I'll look into that. Hoping it works. I really like my truck so far except for this issue.

Did the dealership check the throttle body and mas out? My truck started that as well and for me throttle body was so bad I had to replace it and clean out the mas.

To be totally honest I don't think they did anything other than start the truck, see there's no check engine light, and called me to come pick it up. I'm gonna try a different dealership. I spoke with a co-worker about the issue and he has a 2003 (?) Dodge Ram and said he had similar issues with his truck. He said they upgraded the computer and it hasn't done it since. The first two times I brought it in they reflashed the comp. and it seemed to help. It's hard to tell because the symptoms are intermittent.

I'll second checking into changing the FPDM fuel pump drive modual. It's a relatively inexpensive procedure and there's a lot of information here and on Youtube about how to do it.

If the truck is new to you and has 81k miles on it you should check into whether the spark plugs have been changed or not. If they haven't, the sooner the better. Lots of information on this forum about that as well.

From experience I will tell you that aging plugs in the 5.4 create all kinds of weird issues and you have a much better chance of diagnosing the problem yourself with information from this forum than the dealership.

RTK - you are so right on the plugs and the dealerships not helping at all. Love my truck but will never get a 5.4L again with the plug design they have. Still trying to get #4 out after a day of soaking it. Last plug to change for all eight and plan to sell it before I need to do it again.

The plug issue is just something I've learned to live with. Change them every 50k miles and the 5.4 will go over 200k easy.

Change the Fuel Pump Module, change the spark plugs, change a couple exhaust manifold bolts that always break around 130k miles. Women, dogs, trucks...they all have their quirks. The sooner you can diagnose the problems and work around them the better.

Silly question, is the fuel pump driver module the same as a fuel pump? I tried to look up the FPDM on JC Whitney.com and can't find anything under that description.
Thanks