The truck lost all power the other day driving and barely made it to work. On the ride home it was still running horribly, like it just fell on its face. the check engine light came on. Went to autozone and put HEET in the gas tank cuz the night before it was at quarter tank and temp went from warm to freezing(thought maybe condinsation in tank)..Truck ran alot better( not perfect). Drove around that day and it was fine. Pulled down the driveway and CE light shut off. Ran the code anyways and it was P0012.. Talked to a few mechanics and they said try replacing the Camshaft position sensors..did so and it ran worse. the truck hardly would idle or rev and shook vilantly..i shut it down right away. Then it threw 9 codes..Cam shaft position- over retarded timing bank 1(P0012), misfire cyl2, misfire cyl3, misfire cyl 4, random misfire, cam sensor bank 1, three of them were repeated codes.. I replaced the sensors back to stock and cleared the codes. the truck is running like it was in the beginning of the problem..No vilant shaking but falling right on its face at idle and any rpm..not drivable..ANYSUGGESTION BEFORE I TOW IT TO DEALER..would rather do the work myself. very capable except for replacing camshaft phasers which i have heard could be the issue..Could it by the VCT seliniod, EGR valve, plugs, wires...Did just change the oil a week ago and cleaned and reoiled air filter.

 

Could some of that oil gotten on the mas airflow sensor and gummed it up?

 

its a possibility..i pulled it ou and it was dry unless it got into it

 

That's the first thing I thought.

 

Just worked on a friend's F150 that had a p0012. We tried swapping the VCT solenoids and the issue still remained on bank 1. We ordered a cam phaser thinking that is what it was and it turned out the timing chain guide was busted. We ended putting the new phaser on, new chain guide and new tensioner.

 

If something wrong with the mass airflow sensor, the problems would be on both banks. The issues here are clearly on bank 1.


It looks timing related.

 

I would say timing to the one i had vct is only active after engine warm up rev up engine after you let off gas does it run bad or does it run bad all the time if runs bad all the time i would say cats clogged or timing is out for some reason. The one i worked on thrust bearings were in oil pan. WAS posted recently.

 

Check you camshaft timing chain and tensioners. Cam is retarded = loose chain/broken tensioner guides.

 

Tried changing the camshaft sensors and that changed nothing..put stock ones back in. I brought the truck to ford and they said it is the VCT soleniod. Should be done by monday.. willing to bet thats not the problem.

FYI.. 2008 F150s must have the valve covers removed to replace the VCT solenoids unlike earlier years such as 2004's

 

I been doing some research and here is what i have come up with. The whole cam phaser problem has nothing to do with the acual cam phasers at all. I will try to explain. the cam phasers are 60 deg advance or retard gears mounted to your cam shaft at the front of the engine. The operation of this gear can be related to the operation of a snowmobile clutch but instead of moving by waights it is controlled by oil pressure (VCT SYLINOD). On the end of the sylenoid there is a worm gear that accually turnes to set the correct degree. the oil pressure is taken from a gallery in the head and sent threw an oil passage to the sylenoid. this passage is small and prone to pluging. hence the reason for this to fail is lack of maintnence , poor quality materials , inproper materials. The reason why dealers change everything from timming chain, guides ,vct syl and phasers is because when you drive your veha with a knock it is accually out of time. where the phasers are governed by a spring it tends to fatigue and loose it's stregnth therefore not being accurate anymore which will cause it to be sparatic like stall sometimes but not all the time, knock like a diesel, idle rough sometimes or all the time,and possablly act diffrent with heat (cold or hot engine)and you may or may not have a code as all the electronics are working as they should ( i had a code and erased it and could not get it to come back). Also by changing the phaser you run a new gear and it is good practice to run a new chain and let them wear into each other. But this gets costly as the techs halft to remove the front of the engine to do so. in closing 99% of the time the vct gets plugged and if you keep driving instead of replacing just that you end up replacing the phasers chain ect... the dealers are laughing at you saying oh go ahead it's not serious bring it in when you can, (You will not brake down and you will be able to fix it) but it will cost you more in the end lol. I managed to fix myne with a simple varasol bath and a pipe cleaner. Hope this helps you guys CHEERS!!!

 

The VCT's have very fine screens that clog or they break putting finewire in the valve sometimes locking it in place. Loss of oil pressure is suspect always.

 

Hey NHredneck, did replacing the VCT solenoid fix your problem?