Ok, I have a 2005 Lariat with the 5.4L engine. Its been an amazing truck since the day I bought it brand new.


Within the last year, its getting loud. The dreaded ticking which sounds like the phasers. Until recently, the truck has run superbly. However, the truck will now randomly shake and shudder like crazy while driving. I did have the plugs replaced last year.


This truck is my wife's daily driver and she swears its happening. However, I am not able to reproduce the problem. I have driven the truck for many miles and its perfect. She will get it in a few days later and wont make it 2 miles before it starts to shake and shudder. She claims it was shaking so hard one time that the windshield wipers were nearly jumping off the windshield.


No check engine lights have come on during this either. I'm thinking this is either a COP issue or the phasers have finally given up.

 

Did you put in the one piece plugs?

The non stock one piece plugs have been known to have issues with longevity. Mechanics have said they have seen them begin to fail as short as 6 months after being changed.

I have switched back to the one piece Ford plugs after having 2 fail in less then 2 years causing a similar issue.

A good live scan tool can see misses that may not cause a CEL, I know this from experience.

 

I took the truck to Ford and their service department did the plug change. They told me that 6 out of the 8 plugs broke off in the head when they were removing them.


I hesitant to pay my dealer the $120 bucks to diagnose because I cant get it to reproduce the problem. I think I'm going to switch trucks with her for a few weeks and see what happens over a longer period of time.
I just know that the truck is ticking like everyone describes as the phaser problem. So with not being sure how these phasers cause the truck to act when they go bad, I thought I would look to that first.


Also, how about the VCT sensors ? Could they be going bad and causing this ? But wouldn't that throw a CEL also ?

 

try thicker oil. 5w30 or Xw40. If it fixes the problems, your timing chain tensioners may be beginning to leak a bit. this reduces the oil flow to the phasers and can cause shaking at idle where the phasers no longer lock in the correct position at idle. It's a quick, cheap and easy test.

 

I'm going to do the brakes, rotate the tires and do an oil change. I'll try the 30W oil and see what it does.


Thanks !