Still considering the change from my '08 F250 to a newer F150 with the EcoBoost. Taking advice from many on this board, I have been driving as many of them as I can to get a feel for them. My current question is this: if one exhibits the dreaded rattle at cold startup, does it always get worse with more time/miles? I found another one that I'm pretty happy with overall, but it does have the startup rattle for about a second at cold start, and only at cold start. Is it worth the gamble, or should I keep looking? It's got about 108k miles and is otherwise in fantastic condition... Thanks as usual!!

 

I would keep looking. There are a ton of used ones coming out of Canada right now. Try to go for the ones out of BC. Stay away from the white ones out of Alberta. Don't ask me how I know.

With the influx of used F150s, prices are low right now.

 

For the money that these trucks are fetching used, I wouldn't settle for anything less than perfect.

 

From what I have seen the rattle is always a death sentence.

 

That start-up noise is about the one sure thing that would make me walk away from an ecoboost powered truck of this vintage.


There may be some out there that have lived a long life with that start-up noise, but I've not heard any reports as such. All the reports I've heard indicate that the noise just gets continuously worse until the cam timing gets off far enough for Ford to replace the timing set. Many report the noise returning in fairly short order after the timing set has been replaced.


I'm warming up to the idea of owning an ecoboost powered truck some day, but for me, this noise would be a deal-breaker. unless there was enough money on the table to purchase a new re-man engine, I'd walk away.

 

This was the case when the TSB was first released. It turns out the cam phasers need to be replaced as well. After the TSB was modified it seems to have corrected the the issue of the noise coming back. Ford and cam phasers. The 5.4 folks should be well aware of this.

 

Morbid curiosity... Is the timing set and cam phaser R&R a feasible DIY project? Any idea on pricing of parts involved? As mentioned, if there was enough money left in the deal, maybe it's worth considering

 

It's not DIY unless you're a ford tech or like punishment.

 

It's a DIY. It's just not very fun. I wouldn't want to tackle it. Of course, I don't like working on cars very much anymore. After doing it for so many years out of necessity because I was young and poor and couldn't afford to pay someone, I can now afford to pay someone.

I try to keep my work to maintenance type items. I did do a timing belt and pulleys on a Camry but only because I basically got the car for free and wanted to flip it.