znellz

Several times over the past few months right after shifting to reverse my truck starts to idle roughly to the point of nearly stalling. There is also a loud clicking that goes along with it but I can't tell if it's from the transmission or the engine. Several times I've noticed a metallic smell but not always. I've tried shifting back to neutral but the clicking remains along with the rough idle even after revving the engine a little. I've tried shifting into park and shifting into drive and back to reverse and it still remains until I shut the engine off. Once I restart it it's usually fine. Anyone else having any issues with this or any advice?

I don't know if it's related or not but ever since I bought the truck there is a shuddering/thudding when I start/stop. This only happens when I'm starting from or coming to a complete stop. Sometimes it's subtle but other times it's pretty noticeable. Before I bought the truck I had a local mechanic test drive it and he said it could be improperly lubricated u-joints and/or bad bushings on the leaf springs. This issue hasn't gotten any worse since I've had the truck.

The truck is a 2010 Super Crew XLT 6.5' Box with the 5.4L in it.

f4ipilot

I am experiencing a phenomenon similar to this with a 2009 and same engine. When I shift into reverse to back up I have started hearing a loud knocking noise. After doing some research there could be two major culprits. The VCT solenoids or the cam phasers. I am not sure yet how to determine which one is the problem yet. I was thinking about replacing the VCT solenoids first as they are cheaper and much easier and seeing if the problem goes away.

I know that many others have replaced both before so I'll have to keep doing some research on these issues.

znellz

A little bit of an update:

I dropped my truck off this morning (1/17) and about an hour or so afterwards the service writer gave me a call. He said that the problem occurred right in front of him as one of the techs drove it into his bay. He says it's most likely the VCT solenoids (he knows because they aren't showing up when they hooked the computer up to my truck; not really sure if that's possible). He also said it could be a bad timing chain tensioner seal and that they wouldn't know until they had the valve covers off. He quoted me around $1000 for replacing the solenoids and up to $3400 for the tensioners. I think these prices may include some of the other work I'm having done to it (spark plugs and replacing all the fluids in the truck). I told him to go ahead with the solenoids and he'll let me know if the tensioners are bad. I'll update when I know more.

f4ipilot

Thanks for the update. I would be curious to know how the mechanic will know if it is the VCT solenoids or the timing chain tensioner seal. When he removes the valve cover what tells him which component is bad.

znellz

I picked the truck up earlier today. They took the valve covers off and took out the VCT solenoids. Apparently the screens were damaged and they weren't working properly. They used a camera to look at the tensioners and he said they were fine. The issue seems to be fixed and the truck seems to run a little better although the only time I've driven it was from the shop to my apartment. I'll update this thread again if it starts happening again.

kersh04

Cool, hopefully that fixed it. The whole timing job can be expensive, but you can save some money bying the parts from Oem select and finding a mechanic to install for you. Whole timing set with chains, solenoids,phasers, tensioners is around $800-900