Colby512

Hello all,

I haven’t posted in the new member forum yet but I’ll get around to it.

So I have a 2017 F150 with the 3.5 Ecoboost. It just turned 47K miles and I’ve been hearing a few sounds I don’t particularly like. They were intermittent at first but now they are persistent.

Firstly, the cold start rattle. After it’s been sitting for a few hours, the first 3-5 seconds of start up sound like a dry rattle/slap.

Secondly, the “diesel” sounding idle. After the truck is warmed up, the driver’s side cam sounds like garbage.

After plenty of research, all sources point to a stretched timing chain and probably faulty cam phasers. The soonest I can get the truck to the shop is October 29th. I’ve parked the truck for the time being, but what the hell man?

This is my first new truck. I’ve had all the oil changes done at the Ford garage in case something like this ever happened. As far as I can tell, phaser/timing chain damage is caused by a lack of maintenance but I’m calling BS. I’ve had all my oil changes done at about 50% oil life remaining, or 5K miles on a change. This is well within Ford’s oil change recommendation.

I won’t know truly what the diagnosis is until the shop has a chance to look at it on the 29th, but I don’t know if I can trust these engines now. I live in Alaska and that truck is for everything. I commute in it 70 miles a day for work and it hauls ~6000 pounds with SxS and trailer every couple weeks. I love the power of the truck and the fuel economy but I lost my ‘05 F150 to faulty cam phasers. I can’t be stranded hundreds of miles from home with no cell service.

Sorry for the rant, but I’m a little miffed that a truck with a $42K price tag will probably need major service at 47,000 miles.

-Cole

kozal01

iTrader: (2)

You have the gen2 3.5 EB so its not likely to need timing chains but it is most certainly the phasers you are hearing, its a well documented issue with the gen2 3.5's and every single one I test drove last year had noisy phasers, I chose to go with the older gen1 3.5 for that reason. I would be as disappointed as you to have a truck with such low miles needing major engine work but besides it being annoying its not a catastrophic failure.

Colby512

I’m hoping the noise doesn’t become catastrophic. I found a couple videos of tear downs and they say the reason you can hear so much noise on the driver’s side is because the cam chain tensioner is on the passenger side. The chain can become so elongated that the tensioner can no longer take up slack and that’s the noise you hear on the driver’s side. Should the chain continue to stretch, I believe it turns into a boxing match between valve and piston.

I’m not throwing any codes yet for the cams being out of time, so I’m thankful for that. I’ll try and upload a video of the sound and post a link.

EDIT - Link to warm idle video.

JCR 56

Damn, that sounds like a diesel farm tractor.

Stadt

Take it into the dealer. Factory powertrain is 5 year / 60,000 miles. You might be surprised, but its somewhat normal for engines to have malfunctions when they are mass produced and the smallest difference can create issues. There are many 3.5L Eco's that have over 150K with no issues. There are many 5.0L's that have less than 36K that have issues. That is why there is a powertrain warranty.

Colby512

Oh it’s definitely going to the dealer. The soonest they can get the truck in is the 29th. We’re lucky enough to have a spare vehicle I can use in the meantime.
I’m just irritated though. Ford has had a loooong time to get these phasers figured out and here we are in 2020 dealing with the same issues. I thought these issues were sporadic until I had a family member and a couple friends have the same problems. Mostly on the 5.4 Triton, but still.

-Cole

Colby512

Hey guys,

I called the garage today to see what was up. It had an appointment at 10:30 and I hadn’t heard anything by 5 so I called.

Looks like it needs VCT solenoids, phasers, timing chain, and tensioner. While I half-expected it, I was kind of hoping it would be something else. I talked to the service manager about my previous experience with cam phasers and told him about my faith in this engine now. He did give me the number to the store manager if I want to discuss things with him (he used to be a service guy) so I think I might.

My question to you guys is - what would you do in this situation?

While I love the truck, I don’t love it enough to go through the same problem twice. This is obviously a design issue that should have been corrected after the 5.4 Triton issues. After two bouts of cam phaser trouble, I think I’m out. I’m thinking about getting the 7.3 gasser or swapping brands.

-Cole

Stu Cazzo

I went through it three times.

I now drive a 5.0 v8...which also has its demons.

I may go F250 or Ram 2500 next time around...definitely diesel too.

Colby512

Hey guys,

So the truck has been in the shop since 10-28 and I finally got a call to pick it up 11-23. I show up to get it around 5 o’clock, sign the warranty paper, and get in to drive off. Wouldn’t you know it... check engine light. I can feel an obvious misfire and rough idle after a rev.
I go back into the shop and tell them and they take the truck back in for a diagnosis. I sit in the waiting area for about 20 minutes and then they tell me that the cylinder 4 coil pack didn’t seem like it was on all the way. They fixed it and handed me the keys again.
I jump back in and fire it up. Obvious misfire but no CEL. I decided to take it up the road a little ways just to see and sure enough the CEL comes back but it’s flashing this time. By now, the dealership is closing but two employees are having a smoke break by the service door so I roll up and hand them the keys.
I didn’t hear from them 11-24 so I called them 11-25.

The service guy said there’s a misfire on cylinders 4, 5, and 6. They want to replace the driver’s side cam phaser (they just replaced both of them) but they’ll determine that on Monday the 30th. The kicker was the service guy said I could drive my truck around during the holiday weekend and bring it back on Monday. I was dumbfounded. Obviously I’m not going to drive a truck around with half the engine misfiring. We’ll see what happens next!

Thanks for listening to me complain!

-Cole

AllTrucksBreak

I hated the dealer before, I hate them more now. The story is long but I had the phaser problem. My truck still has a chain slap on cold start but no codes and no performance issues. No dealer would touch my truck. I had to tow it in to make them work on it. I opened a case with ford immediately and they had me tow it in. The ford people were great. The dealership was terrible. They "performed" a lot of Warranty work. apparently where you buy the truck is the only place that will work on your stuff during ChinaVirus. I won't be buying another truck from them.

That story is really long and I don't really want to tell it it's very bad. my truck runs great now and I'm going to do everything I can to never take it to dealership. You cant trust them. Ford doesn't want to pay them enough to do the work correctly. so they fraudulently process claims and lie to the customer and for it because they want to get paid right. Mechanics are very expensive nowadays and very high demand so they're backed up and it's just a terrible story. You're better off working on your own truck if you can do it problem is is the parts are not readily available and you need specialized diagnostics and such. I have access to a garage but I don't have the time, patience or special equipment. Maybe I will have to start buying more snapp tools
my advice is do not take your truck to a dealer that you do not know the workers personally or have a relationship with otherwise they're going to lie to you. Your best bet is to take it to someone you trust or work on it yourself. Might be more expensive but it's better not to lose your truck in the process. If they make a few mistakes they can ruin your truck
​completely.

It's a shame that the most common vehicle in the world can't be repaired simply. Too much politics and bullshhh