2010 5.4 possible lifter tap and stutter
12-28-2017, 09:24 AM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
2010 5.4 possible lifter tap and stutter
Hi all, this is probably going to be a long winded post but I want to give you as much information as possible in one shot. Here we go...
My 2010 5.4 has 140k miles on it, shortly after I purchased it I replaced the phasers and VCT solenoids to alleviate the "diesel" tap and a rough idle I was experiencing. That was about 9 months ago now. Since then the truck started to stutter under light acceleration. Next came the very audible tap. It has been described as a lifter tap by a ford tech that heard it and a family member that has been a mechanic for 30 years. The tap would only last for about a minute then it would go away, and most of the time only started after the truck had been shut off for 2-4 hours. Usually any shorter or longer than that there wouldn't be any noise. I replaced the plugs myself and then got my oil changed at Ford about a month ago and after that the tap would appear when I turned the truck on after sitting for a long time and last for 20 minutes or half an hour. When it finally went away it wouldn't come back for about 3 days. This lasted about a week or two, then it went back to only tapping for a minute as it did previously. The stuttering also seemed worse on the days that it would tap continuously while driving. I originally thought the stutter was due to a bad coil but since it got worse with the tap I'm thinking different. The only code I've had was when it misfired bad enough to throw a code for cylinder 4. I cleared that and it hasn't happened since.
My question is, does this seem like a lifter, and would a lifter cause the stuttering and misfiring or is it potentially two problems in one?
My 2010 5.4 has 140k miles on it, shortly after I purchased it I replaced the phasers and VCT solenoids to alleviate the "diesel" tap and a rough idle I was experiencing. That was about 9 months ago now. Since then the truck started to stutter under light acceleration. Next came the very audible tap. It has been described as a lifter tap by a ford tech that heard it and a family member that has been a mechanic for 30 years. The tap would only last for about a minute then it would go away, and most of the time only started after the truck had been shut off for 2-4 hours. Usually any shorter or longer than that there wouldn't be any noise. I replaced the plugs myself and then got my oil changed at Ford about a month ago and after that the tap would appear when I turned the truck on after sitting for a long time and last for 20 minutes or half an hour. When it finally went away it wouldn't come back for about 3 days. This lasted about a week or two, then it went back to only tapping for a minute as it did previously. The stuttering also seemed worse on the days that it would tap continuously while driving. I originally thought the stutter was due to a bad coil but since it got worse with the tap I'm thinking different. The only code I've had was when it misfired bad enough to throw a code for cylinder 4. I cleared that and it hasn't happened since.
My question is, does this seem like a lifter, and would a lifter cause the stuttering and misfiring or is it potentially two problems in one?
