Hi all,

hopefully not a major problem but had my first hiccup with the engine today.

2009 5.4L with 149,000kms

While in traffic today, noticed the truck seemed to be brake pulsing - foot off brake without gas and coasting - the truck seemed like I was slight tapping on brake peddle. I thought it might be brake related, so I gave a couple of brake stomps and it seemed to go away. Was on highway and all seemed fine - arrived at work.

When I started the truck after work, all seemed to be fine but when I was leaving the lot, the same brake pulse sensation and then check engine light came on and truck started running rough almost to point of stalling. I shut truck off, waited a few seconds and restart and still truck ran rough with check engine light on. Finally, after restarting and driving slowly, truck seemed to run fine but he CE light still on. Drove on highway and home, and it seems like it’s running fine but not sure.

i am bringing the truck to shop on Monday, but do these symptoms ring a bell for anyone?

Thanks all.

 

Need to get the check engine light code and that will give you a good idea where to look.

 

Buy a $20 code reader and diagnose it yourself.

 

Most likely it’s a coil pack going bad they will sometimes intermittently work before they go totally bad. I’ve felt it shake to whole truck driving down the road when the engine starts to lug. When u have the code read it should tell u which one is bad buy a new one and it’s one plugin and one little bolt that hold them in

 

Thanks all, I appreciate the responses. I’ll keep everyone posted.

 

Well, worse case scenario- dealer told me it is caused by stretched timing chains. And is likely a $5000+ job after parts and 15 hour labor.

what to do..... man

 

Mine was doing some weird intermittent running for a year before the fpcm finally gave up. Cheap easy fix well worth looking at before you spend a bunch of money.

 

Did you have a check engine light on? Ford said the code thrown was due to timing - and diagnosed to stretched chains. I assume this isn’t common?

yeah, I’m really torn here on what to do - that’s too much money to put into the truck - especially knowing that too many other things can go wrong quickly with the age.

 

That sucks man the later model 5.4s had problems with cam phasers and the timing chains especially if the wrong weight of oil was used. And ya it’s expensive to fix unless u can do the work yourself me and a couple buddies changed cam phasers once not too bad but the timing chain is fairly involved to change if you have a mechanic that you trust I would take it there rather than the dealer should save you some money on labor. Also while you’re changing timing chain it’s a good idea to replace the oil pump because they were known to leak internally and not supply enough oil pressure to everything causing cam phaser failure etc

 

These flimsy chains stretch way more than they once did. This wasn’t quite so heard of on the early Triton engines. Couple flimsy chains (beancounters), with crummy tensioners and so-so 5w-20 oil just to please CAFE and EPA and here you are. I’d tell you to update, but these newer direct injection engines are pretty iffy on fuel dilution in the oil. If you stick with 5w-20 in them (Why would you? The Mustang GT/Boss 5.0 uses 5w-50.), you definitely need to change oil at shorter intervals. I doubt Ford gives out free engines passed the warranty period for following their OCIs and using their spec’d oil, so adjust accordingly.