Ok guys, this one has really got me. Currently working on the inlaws 05 expedition. It has a whole mess of codes that come and go.

A little history; They inlaws are not good on vehicles. A few years ago they ran it for a good amount of time without oil.The oil cooler adapter (at the oil filter) began to leak, and they just ignored it. I replaced the gaskets, but the damage was already done. The poor engine sounds like a diesel at idle.

Several times now, a coil boot has gone bad(on both banks), causing a misfire. Again, they just ignored the flashing check engine light and kept driving.

They recently brought it to me with the check engine light on, complaining of a lack of performance.

I have been able to get it to misfire on 5 of the 8 cylinders. It is currently showing bank 2 lean, cyl 6 misfire, a fuel rail pressure code, and the fuel pump driver module out of range.

It was showing bank 1 lean, and has since switched to bank two. I have replaced the fpdm( the code came back ), and checked fuel pressure. The pressure was within spec.

It seems to run a whole lot better when cold. This leads me to believe I have a vacuum leak when hot. I have wasted a whole can of carb cleaner around the intake, throttle body, and lines trying to find one.

The truck idles good, and has plenty of pickup until around 45mph. With the pedal on the floor, it just falls on its face. I had suspected that the cats were plugged from them driving it pig rich all the time. I removed the upstream sensors and took it for a drive, no change.

I want to suspect the fuel pump, but it tests good. The truck has 160,000 miles on what I assume is the original pump.

Current and past codes are as follows:

p0171,p0174,p0191,p0304,p0305,p0306,p0316,p1235.

They cylinder misfire codes change cylinders at random.


Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

I should add that cyl. 4 & 5 are not currently showing a misfire.

 

Have you done either a compression or leak down test yet? Considering how poorly they take care of their vehicle I wouldn't be too eager to fix it for them. In-laws or not, they seem to be their own worst enemy.

 

That was on my list for tomorrow. I have made it clear that it is motor time, but they keep trying to limp it along. Trust me, I would rather not be working on it.

 

Fun isn't it? They come to you and expect you to fix it in no time, and say "Oh, yeah, there's an annoying red light in the dash, it has been on for a while." lol.. You'd almost feel bad for the new engine you put in there when you know the abuse it will experience...

 

ok, got the time to do a cold compression check today.
1-190
2-160
3-160
4-155
5-150
6-140
7-140
8-100

If I did my math correct, lowest # should be 161.5.

I would say the engine is shot. Oddly enough , cylinder 8 has never shown a misfire. What do you guys think? Should I even worry about a warm test?

 

It's just my 2¢ worth but this would be a very good time to use the lame excuse "I think the engine might be trashed but it's over my head you probably should get somebody more qualified than me to work on it". I'll gladly put countless hours into family and friends vehicles to get them running right if they care about their vehicle but the family members and friends that don't care about their vehicle and want help will regardless of how much effort you put into it will blame you if anything goes wrong with their vehicle after you touch it.
You can't help somebody that doesn't want to help themselves.

 

Do a wet test, if the compression is better in a wet test, the rings are shot = engine rebuild or new engine.

 

There should be a maximum of a 10% difference between the highest and lowest readings. I would definitely rerun the test warm and see if there is a difference before going the route of a whole new/used engine.

 

Finally got the time to do a warm test.

1-190
2-180
3-160
4-175
5-180
6-170
7-180
8-185

I must have had a leak when I tested 8 cold. Lowest reading should be 171 psi. So while it is very worn, The numbers arn't too bad. Changed the boots while I had the coils out. Will have to do some more testing. Any advise?

 

Looks like I pretty well got it. Replaced all boots and found a couple coil pigtails with broken latches. Got them firmly seated for testing and it runs really good. Still sounds like a diesel though. Took it for a 20 minute drive and beat on it as hard as I could. Got 1 misfire on cyl 1, 2 on cylinder 3,10 on cyl 5 ,&9 on cylinder 7. According to my autel, it takes 65535 misfire counts to set a dtc.

I would say the remaining counts are a tired engine. Gonna do coil pigtails.


I think the diesel sound might be the timing components. They have started making even more noise. Going to investigate that one a little more.

 

Yep, divorce and remarry someone that will give you in-laws that take care of their vehicles.

 

haha, shes awesome. Cant punish her for their lack of brains. Did some research and it looks like one or both cam phasers are the issue. Found a video of one running with bad phasers, sounds just like it.

 

Yep, phasers are notorious for giving you that diesel ticking, and if they have been sloppy with their oil changes they may very well have damaged those. One quick check you can do is to pull the VCT solenoids out. I think it's a torx T17 if my memory serves me well. You'll need a long one, at least 100 mm, and it should be one piece as you don't want to drop a torx bit inside there. The solenoids sit on the front of the valve covers, on drivers side it's under the power steering reservoir.

Remove the rubber gasket around it by prying it with a flat screwdriver, pull them out and inspect the fine metal mesh on there, if it's clogged up then it wont be able to regulate the phaser as it should.

 

I'm going to dig into it tonight. I'll start with pulling the valve covers and hopefully get a feel for what is needed. Already got the ok to do it all. More than likely, I will be doing a timing set and timing cover seals at the same time. I will also check the metal screen on the vct solenoid.

I found a doorman part number for the phasers. Doorman usually improves the design of any product they sell. Has anyone tried them?