That my friend I can tell you it's your coils.. The first time around i had this issue as you described.. At Least you can get it to go up to 50 mph.. I cant get it to move to 5mph.. unplug each coil one at a time and listen for idle changes.. Idle changes when disconnecting are good.. no changer in idle after you unplug the coil means that coil is bad.. Little trick i learned here.. I wish my issue was that simple..

 

That goes for any miss, mechanics have been doing it since the model T days and I will go it one better; have someone watch the tach for a slight drop in rpms as you break each circuit to the spark plug, this is more positive and easier, especially with a 10 cylinder engine. A 4 banger would be readily noticeable with no tach etc.

 

... might be useful to get this posted in the 5.4l forum for the expertise there. Just post a link to this thread.

 

So I made an appointment with my local ford dealer for a diagnosis.. What should I expect? I already have the codes, so will they give me codes and send me home? or will they be able to go into more details about the codes? They are charging me $98 so I don't wanna go thru the trouble of paying for what i already know.. What I want is for them to tell me exactly what the issue is... Any Ideas?

 

Just depends on the dealer. Some Service Managers will work with you and give you worthwhile advice while others will just pass on the information and pass you the bill. I have been able to go to the shop floor a couple of times and talk directly with the mechanic. Just depends on how desperate you look when you walk in.

 

Im just hoping they can help me identify the main cause of this electrical issue.. Thanks for the reply..

 

It seems like it changes by itself though. Just the sputter seems so on and off.

Still sound like the coils?

 

Time for a follow up! What's the deal with your truck?!

 

Well he did say that he was loosing his marbles

Hope he can find his way back. I am also curious as to what the outcome was.

 

I think that the problem is related to the P0443 Evaporative Emission System Purge Control Valve Circuit malfunction. The EVAP system shoots excessive fuel vapor into the throttle body. Per my Hayness Techbook " A faulty EVAP system affects the engine drivability only when the temperatures are warm." Either the EVAP valve is bad or water is causing the circuit to short out. So, try tracing that wire and seeing if the wire is damaged or some where the water intrusion issue you found is getting a connection wet and causing a short or ground. This presumes that Ford uses a Electrical system rather than a Vacuum system. If it is a Vacuum system you may just have a bad vacuum line.
some other thoughts on the source of the problem:
The idle issue could also be a clogged fuel filter. Changing the fuel filter is easy if you have the special tool to depress the funky clip retainer Ford uses.

If the problem continues after the replacement of the fuel filter you may have a bad fuel pump. You need get the fuel pressure checked. My Excursion would run fine until the tank got low and then after each time I would start to go to work or home and travel for 30-40 miles the truck would start to act fuel starved. My fuel pump had a atypical failure mode; then when the pump had heated up and the fuel level was low it would loose pressure and the truck would not run right.

The P0135 is for O2 bank 1 sensor 1 and the P0155 is for the O2 bank 2 sensor 1. Trace the two o2 heater wires back and see if both merge at some point. You may have water grounding out the sensor heaters. As Monster has pointed out, "the O2 sensor(s) are not a drivability issue..." but a emissions issue. So, I do not think that is your real problem.

 

Well guys, the verdict is in. I had to piggyback the truck to ford for a "complete" review of my issue. My wife's brother knows a guy at ford. So this ford tech is a buddy of the family and he was doing the job pro-bono and here is what I woke up to after 2 weeks waiting on an update..

[John]
"I changed 2 coils and the problem is still there. You have to make sure the engine is running good before we can move on to the tranny issue. There is still water in 2 of the ports and your alternator wire is faulty. You have a bunch of codes that are coming up that need to be addressed and if I start picking away on this truck my boss will start putting pressure on me about it so i'll have to charge you. Those after market plugs are not dependable and I would start there. Change all the plugs to originals and go from there.

So in a nutshell, I'm still in first base. I got my codes and no clear solution. I thought some expert advise would mend some doubts but to be honest I've gotten more help on this forum then this fancy tech guy. I gotta admit I'm deflated. Not sure where to go from here but Sierra6 brought up a good point.. Fuel pressure.. Sometimes we are careless and push the gas gauge to E and that can be part of the problem so I'll mess with the fuel system and see what that does. In the mean time I wanna thank you all for your concerned. As Owners of these dinosaurs you understand what im going thru right now. I been driving my mother in-laws Nissan xterra around and my pride is shallow right now. Plus the inconvenience of having to inconvenience someone else really hits me in the gut. Again, Thanks for your concerns. I will be picking it up friday and putting on my greasemonkey suit and digging in. So stay toned.

 

Yeah... Been working out and really feel toned now. I have no intentions of going back to my old flabby self! LoL! But at 44 it's harder and harder to keep that toned body like my younger days. Honestly though, not sure what that has to do with your truck, but thanks for the encouragement!

 

Hey we can start a toned 44 yr old club. LOL Staying tuned also.

 

Lol, Sorry. Forgot to as an S to that..

On a sober note, I got the truck home today and I've decided to have an electrician take a look at it and see if some probing can give me some clues. i don't wanna start buying stuff and they short out again so I'm playing it safe. I'm almost convinced that all that water shorted something out.. On the day that it stopped working my wife was driving it in a serious downpour. I think water got in the windshield seal and fell on to live electrical components. What I'm puzzled about is to why did it not stop working on her while she was driving. She parked it working fine and 30 minutes later I went to fire it up and it went. So that's my theory on this issue. What do you guys think?

 

I can get behind that theory.