2006 F-150 motor issues
 

For a little background info, I have a 2006 F-150 with a 5.4 in it that had approximately 141,000 on it. I've never had any major problems other than doing spark plugs until now.

Last night i was cruising at about 35 mph, 1750 rpm when my rpms dipped down, and shot back up. This continues to happen, and each time I would lose speed. I pressed on the throttle which would get me going for a bit, but then it would almost seem to cut out again and I would slow back down.
This problem persisted all the way to about 5 mph, where st that point the truck was sputtering (hardly idling) from about 250-500 rpm until it died. Keep in mind, I was in gear this whole time.

i put it in park and tried to start it again, and it fired right back up, idling fine at 500 rpm. I revved it up in park a few times, and it was backfiring and cackling like a mofo, which my truck never does. As soon as I put it in gear, it again became randomly unresponsive to throttle and the rpms jumped around until it died. I got out and checked the oil, which showed very low. I've never gone over 3,000 on an oil change, and it's never burned that much oil, so why would this be? It was 35° when I did this. I got oil and put 5 qts. In it, which at that point made it over full, so that's another problem to worry about.

After i I filled it with oil, the tuck had probably been sitting for 30 minutes. I tried to start it again and it fired right up. Once again, the backfiring and cackling was present, but this time I put the gear selector in "1" and took off. It drove fine at about 15 mph at 3000 rpm going down the street and back. Then I parked, held the throttle constant at 2000 rpm and watched the motor cut out over and over. It would drop to almost under a 1000 and come back up, but never to 2000 again. This went on for a minute until it finally got down to below 500 and sputtered to silence.

My initial thought was fuel pump, but my dad thinks the timing belt or chain tensioner was lost, causing the valves to be out of whack. Another person suggested that it could be the VCT solenoids as he had to do them on his truck.

I came here here looking for input to see what you guys thought, any help is appreciated. Thanks, Noah

Try unpluging the VCT solenoids and see if that changes anything for you. VCT solenoids are right in top of both valve covers.

Remove and inspect your FPDM located under the spare tire mounted to the frame rail..

okay guys, I'll try both of those. However, as a little update, in case it might change your suggestions, I used remote start on the truck this morning and it fired right up. It's got an engine light on, and I've misplaced my scanner, but it's running fine and I drove it around our lot too. It still seems to be cackling more than often, I thought maybe some bad gas but I'm sure you guys know more than I do. Once I figure out why the light is on, I'll update ou guys again. Thanks!

Stop by your local auto parts and have the code read and let us know what it is.

First code is P1235 and second code is P0191. Starting to think it's the fuel pump driver module

I agree, both codes point to a FPDM. Have you already adjusted your oil level?

If by adjusted you mean brought it back down from being over full, no. It's still over full but I need to take it to ford anyway for an alignment and tire rotation. I ordered the fpdm yesterday and it should be here within two days. Do you just remove the spare tire to access it?

Yes


You can't pop open your drain plug real quick and let some out?

Hahaha, believe me I would but here in South Dakota we just got 5 inches so I don't have any ground to do it on. Trucks sitting for the next few days while I commute with a different vehicle. Hopefully I can get it done by then. Thanks for the help guys. I'll post again when I install the new fpdm and let you know what happens