I have found that documentation is worth the time and effort. Without putting it in writing it is just your word against the other guy's, and they do it for a living.
I would say the documentation turned the tide and just saved you $2200.
I personally keep a running spreadsheet on all expenditures on each of my vehicles reflecting a average Total Cost of Ownership to the mile while providing a detailed maintenance log. Nothing else compares to it when debating warranty issues.

 

You right about alot of things here, I know in life you can never say that perfect sentence that proves your point. people walk away from situations thinking I wish I had said this, also thinking they should have left something out. When people have a lot to lose they can become over passionate about the situation, this can create wall between them and the people they are needing to understand their point. I knew last week i needed to get it out on paper so that it was a all fact in the order they happened, and not just random thoughts being blurted out! Thank again for you input last week, the CC list was a great addition!

 

Wow! You hit the nail on the head! I have also lost a lot when shooting from the hip.
That is why I document important things.
You are welcome and I am glad to have been of some assistance.

 

This is great news. I am having the same problem with the ticking on my 04 f150 with a 5.4. My Ford shop said the same thing. I called the parts department and he can get them for me but said the engine takes two. How do i know what side to replace. My ticking is coming from the left side.

 

If your are dead set on doing only one then follow the noise. I am a firm believer in replacing things in sets. Like ball joint replace upper and lower as a set. In this case, the engine is apart for one so replace them both, and look at whatever other parts can be replaced, i.e.; the Solenoid also. The labor for the tear down is the biggest expense. Why do you want to do it twice, or three times in a short period of time?

 

I was refering to replacing the VCT solendoid that tommy75703 talked about early on in this strem. Can these be cleaned or must they be replaced? I am ordering one today to replay the ticking side but don't know if it can be cleaned and work OK.

 

What is good for the goose is 'not always' good for the gander.
If you are looking at doing the solenoid first then here are the options as I see it.
New cost about $150 with 15 minutes labor. Take 15 minutes and clean it (do not know if it can be cleaned, never tried). If it does not work take another 15 minutes and replace it. Let's see, a can of cleaner, 30 to 45 minutes work and $150 on a part that you would replace if you did the tear down for the phasers. You could be ahead.
That being said then the worst case is you are out less than an hour of labor attempting to clean a part that was not the cause of the tick but you have already replaced the solenoid and your phasers are bad. Remember when I said that I would recommend the solenoid be replaced during the teardown anyway.

 

im not a huge fan of walmart but you can get a 5qt jug of motorcraft 5-20 for like $12..thats what i paid for it a few days ago

 

That sludge has nothing to do with the weight of the oil. Have you guys seen how clean most diesel internals are? HDEOs are 40 weight but they usually have awesome detergent/additive packages!

This guy needs to go to his quick lube and find out what oil they were using. If he was really changing at 4-5K this had to be some bottom-of-the-barrel, cheap, garbage bulk oil that probably doesn't meet ILSAC GF-4 specs or Ford's spec (WSS- M2C930-A for 5W-20).

If you have documentation of the oil change intervals and this garbage bulk oil doesn't meet specs, you might have a case for a lawsuit to cover those engine repairs. That amount of sludge and varnish is just unacceptable for such a low mileage engine., especially with relatively frequent oil change intervals.

 

A few weeks ago I had the same symptoms, the code 22 (among misc misfires, lean, rich etc) and took the truck to a service center. They said the VCT solenoids were dirty and cleaned them, but did say the noise also was coming from the timing chain and that setup should be changed in the near future.

Fast forward to now and the truck's not running that great, still occasionally get a misfire, and after reading all of this I figure for a couple hundred I can change the VCT solenoids myself-now that I know what they are! So I looked all around and the only place I can find them is the dealership, who has one, and won't sell it to me because he says it's definitely the phasers not the solenoids, and wants me to bring the truck in to swap out the phasers and check all the timing set.

So, can the solenoids, and even phasers, etc. be bought anyplace besides the dealerships? Are there any reputable places online to order these from? Dealership wants >$230 for each phaser... If I can't get them reasonably from anything but a Ford dealer, okay, but I'd rather buy it from another dealer who's willing to sell me what I want rather than what he thinks I want without ever seeing the truck himnself.

Thanks

 

Hey Guys - newbie here. Love this site!

I've spent hours pouring over the threads for rough idle, ticking, etc and finally came across this one. Had the rough idle issue hit me last summer while hauling a livestock trailer... Slowing down for traffic and engine started to shudder and run like crap until RPMs came up. Happened 3 or 4 times and went away...

Changed my oil a few weeks ago - went with Shell 10-30 full syn cause it was on sale. Had been running Mobile-1 5w-20 with the stock filters up until that time. '05 SCrew Lariat 5.4 w/135,000... The rough idle is back. Once the engine warms (and the ticking starts) it will not idle at red lights, etc. Must drop out of gear and keep RPMs up at ~800. Pulled into work this morning and decided to let it run rough until the CE lit. Now showing P0012.

Sounds like oil contamination can lead to VCT sol issues, and since I am tired of this tapping as well, I am going to change up to Valvoline 15w-40 tonight and run it for awhile. I buy it 5 gallons at a time for my Deere - which never has sludge in it - and have a few Motorcraft filters laying around, so what the heck... I'll let you know how it goes. Might kill 2 birds with one stone.

Might also be working on the timing next weekend...

 

It may clean your engine but it is designed for lower viscosity oil(5w-20). some of the oil passages are limited and a higher viscosity could cause starvation to the valve train. There are other forums that address this issue. It may work during summer temps but will cause problems in colder temps.

 

im having the same problem with my 04 f150 with 88000. it wants to stall at idle when warmed up. the hole truck shakes. i just replaced my oil with full synthetic right before it happened.

 

I had to read all theway to the bottom before I saw what I expected from the start. I have seen the same problem in many engines here in Bakersfield, CA - hot, dry, and dusty. Your pics ar the reason I HATE Pennzoil. I've used Valvoline my whole life and have never had one of my engines look like that even going 5 - 7K betwen oil change when I was real tight on cash. I like Valvoline but I know a lot of peole that swear by Castrol. I also have a real concern with "quick" oil changes. I personally pull the drain plug and go do something else for 20 - 30 minutes because it seems that the last bit of oil dripping out is the dirtiest. And the oil change chains seem to use the cheaest POS filters on the market. In the future I'd say since you were able to repair this yourself an oil change should b a snap. Oil is your engines blood, don't trust the life of that expensive of a component to unknown brand/weight of oil and filter. Everything I own has Valvoline and a Fram tough guard filter. I try to change it every 3K but don't alaways. I usually get 300K - 500K from my F150's and drive 'em pretty hard.

 

yes grantman, i drain my oil for that long as well, a lil secret is too take off the cap, after the 20-30mins pour new oil down her to push any dirty gunk outta there thats having a hard time dripping works great...MOBILE 1 BABY!