Oldrice

04 F150 XLT Scab 4x4 5.4L 120K miles - full tank of gas, drove for roughly 60 miles no problem, got off the freeway and stopped at the off ramp light and the engine kicked like someone hit me on the right side of the truck. Ok. Weird. Never done that before.

Sitting there at the light idling I noticed it do it again two more times. Each time the idle went down to ~400 for just a second and came back up to ~500/600 again. Normal. Light turns green and it feels like the drive shaft broke in two and all this banging feeling severe engine rocking (not noisy though) for about 40 feet then goes away completely. Everything seems normal now and as I give it more gas it does it again - really violently. Then just goes away.

Up to 45mph and everything goes away, feels normal and I'm up to a stupid red light again. Goes back down to idle and seems normal until the light turns green again. I give it gas and it feels like it's going to do an 8 second Bucking Bronco ride at a rodeo. I don't know if it'll make it across the intersection. We make it across and it seems normal again. Pull into work parking lot now and the engine is hesitating and slightly missing for a second or two at a time, then seems fine.

Three hours later I carefully drive it home from work and everything seems normal. Never a glitch or shudder.

I called the dealership and the service kid says basically they won't find anything out of the obvious if the engine light never came on. Which it never did so. . . I beg the Gods of this Fine Forum to help me to illuminate the issues under the hood. Any thoughts?

Oldrice-

chocolateskwlbuss

My '06 5.4L did this: my plugs were bad...have a private mechanic do ur plugs cause ford will rape you at the dealership cause they'll snap plugs off in the heads

Oldrice

Thanks man. I'm aware of the spark plug issue. I read the entire thread (!) and I'm ordering the lisle tool asap.

But, if it's the plugs, wouldn't it happen all the time? It runs great now. Better now that I just changed the oil with Mobil 1 and it seems to - well, I just really like the way it's running now. Emphasis on now.

Could plugs be an intermittent thing? happens once in a while? Everything looks to be tight and solid under the hood. No loose connections or anything like that.

I'm getting the plugs Wednesday and will hopefully change them all out before I go back to work. Regardless. So we'll see.

Oldrice-

chocolateskwlbuss

It's the start of it, my truck bucked once or twice...thought it was weird, two weeks I was on vaca. I come home hop in the truck and I couldn't get it above 50 mph/3,200 RPMs & 2-3 gear was ROUGH...friend changed my plugs, and truck purred like a kitten!

Masi1926

Coils too.bucking like the tranny was coming apart. Amazing what a miss can feel like.

Oldrice

Ok, Since I started this post it's happened two more times for about a minute each and two weeks apart. I try to make a mental note of conditions and there's nothing similar. Then today it did it most of the way into work - roughly 20 miles. Then tonight on the way home it did it all the way home. Any throttle at all and it feels like the drivetrain is going to fall out the bottom of the truck. Engine light is flashing this time. Couldn't go faster than about 55 mph. But it would rev nicely in neutral or park. Then in gear (drive) it would run like crap again.

Ideas? Torque Converter? Plugs? Wrong wrist-pin return spring or blinker fluid?

otto457

Start with the plugs, test spark on the COPs, and clean the TB and MAF, then go from there.

screw04

Id clean the TB and MAF first and see what happens, alot of times they gum up and do that, also did you consider bad gas? Maybe put some dry gas in it

RA010223

Are you still having these issues because my truck is and I have new stock air filter, cleaned the MAF my plugs need to be done truck has 102,000 but I thought it was a tranny issue as well because its so jerky and jumpy. I have no check engine light, brought it to the dealer for diagnostic test (I bought the truck last firday) and come to find out I have 4 bad injectors, my truck is a 2005 5.4L scab fx4 and they said that ford did not go as far as recalling the injectors but added a longer warranty to it, 11 years 120,000 miles so all my injectors are being replaced tomorrow for free. Just a thought.

bpreston

Sorry to bring back the dinosaur thread, but I've been having the same problem. It came up all of the sudden. You guys ever have a definitive fix?