5.0nly

New to me ‘13 Limited has developed the stupid timing chain rattle. How long can I drive the truck for? It does it occasionally for a second on cold start up.

Chad Walker

How long ago since you had an oil change and what oil and filter was used?

TJPlatinumEB

I drove mine for over 20k miles with the noise each morning and had no issues. Always changed oil with Pennzoil Platinum synthetic since new w/ Motorcraft filter. You will find people on this site who have driven MANY thousands of miles with the noise and it doesn't do any damage. It's just irritating and occasionally embarrassing

DNA Dan

I beg to differ. Think about this for a second. If you have a "rattle" sound from the timing chain area it means there is slack in the chain. How much slack? Do you know? It goes away once oil and tension is applied to the chain. (The motor starts). But suppose for a minute that chain should slip, or jump a tooth. What does that mean for your motor? K-A-B-O-O-M ! Or suppose it doesn't skip but continues to slap around there on every startup. What do you think that does to the rest of the motor?

I know folks have driven on these for thousands of miles with no issues, but if it were my truck, I would get it looked at and changed ASAP. I feel it's a sign of something far worse and far more expensive on the horizon.

TJPlatinumEB

I understand what could possibly happen, but I don't think there is enough slack to jump a tooth or worse. Furthermore, the PCM would/could make changes prior to anything major going wrong and perhaps putting the truck into limp mode or whatever it had to do.

Regardless of all of that, many of us have had the issue, I have yet to hear of anyone have catastrophic engine issues because of it. I know of at least 3 locally to me here in Austin with 80k miles or more with the rattle and they still drive fine and show no issues. Should it be fixed quick? Sure! But not everyone has the $1800+ dollars to fix it. I'm just saying there are fail safes built into the PCM to prevent that. Nothing is perfect, but I haven't heard of it happening yet.

DNA Dan

Like everything in life it's a risk assessment decision. It is an expensive repair and really a shame Ford did not recall this. Especially for the guys that don't have the $1200-3K to drop on it. I am in the process of repairing mine, $1200 for just the parts, but this includes replacing everything, tensioner, chain, all guides, seconday chains, all phasers VCT solenoids, idle gear, water pump, etc. Once I get it open we'll see how bad it is. It's definitely a big job.

jetrep

I see no reason for them to issue a recall for the issue but an extended warranty covering this defect would be nice.

Tothemax

How many miles on the truck? There may still be warranty.

DNA Dan

68,000. Just outside of warranty. A lot of people have noticed the rattle around 50-80k. From what I have seen not a lot of people post about it prior to 50k, and as you approach 100k, most timing chains are due for service anyway. This one is a bear to swallow because it's typically just outside of warranty, seems premature, AND involves a lot of parts other than the typical chain and gasket.

Chad Walker

Most timing chains are never due for service.