Hello All,

The below original post was after a post I made about possible rust in the fuel system causing rough idle and ultimately a check engine light. The majority of readers here thought it could have been coke (Vandalisim)also. At that time injectors fuel pump filter and pressure regulator were changed with still a rough idle condition. After many a frustrating trip to the original selling dealer I went to another Ford Dealer. They agreed to look at it. The mechanic found that the fuel rail was the culprit here. It had a coating of some whiteish material on the inside of the nipples. Changed the rail and cleaned up the injectors the idle is 90% smoother. Mechanic believes it will get better as injectors clean up a bit more through driving but it is well within my tolerance level now.


So the moral to this story is to seek out other opinions there are compotent and caring Ford techs out there



Jimmy I hope this helps you could be the rail. Maybe?

Hello All,

I am experiencing a rough idle in my F150 4.6 2002. This first started after about 9k miles

Rough in this case means you can feel vibrations in the seat and console etc very annoying. This is not intermittent but is less sometimes and worse others but always detectable.

After several trips to the dealer with, No problem found on the service report , I finally spoke witht he mechanic who troubleshot the problem. In his words 4.6 engines have a known rough idleing condition nothing can be done about it.

This seemed to develop after several months

Anyone hear or experience this

As always Thanks for the help

John

 

It's worth a shot. Thanks for the info.
Jimmy

 

I contacted Ford via e-mail on there website. They said that they tried to call me but I never got it. Thay gave me a number to call, so I may try to call this afternoon to see what they have to offer me.
A couple of weeks ago, while towing a MarkVIII to the house to repair the air suspension( A whole other story), it was about 90 degrees out and in stop and go traffic, it had a terrible miss under 2000 rpm. But ofcoarse, it never tripped the MIL so I have no proof of this. It hasn't done it since, but I know that there is a problem somewhere.
With my Flowmaster exhaust, you can hear the irregular idle pretty good now. Sometimes it is worse than others, but I want the thing fixed while it's under warranty!!!
I'll let you know what Ford says when I call them.
Jimmy

 

Jimmy:

If the people who call you are the same that called me ( customer service rep at Ford) You can color them 1 800 CLUELESS. Really they are terrible. Simply scripted bable that is a waste of time. You may have better luck at BlueOVal at least there is some management contacts there.

John

 

Well, Ford called me yesterday. We discusses the idle problem, which is getting more noticable now, and she said that it would be turned over to the engineering dept. and I would hear back from them within 3 day's. She said that a copy of the complaint would be sent to the NTSB and my dealer too. We'll see what happens from here.
Jimmy

 

Jimmy You got lucky with the Customer Service Dept. at Ford. I am glad it looks like they are going to do something. The fuel rail fixed the idle with my F 150 4.6 FX4 It tool a lot of crying and another dealer that had a tech who was nice enough to take the time to listen.

John

 

Well, I think I found the problem with my idle shudder. My truck has West Nile Virus and it has the shakes, just like having the Flu. I have a dead mosquito that rides on the round part of my speedo needle and it won't fall off! I hope that they have a vaccine for it. I don't want my truck to die, it's only 2 1/2 years old.
Jimmy

 

Just as long as it doesnt have SARS!
Oh wait.....you Americans dont have that problem

 

No, no SARS as of yet anyway. I wonder if pest control is covered under warranty?
Jimmy

 

I'm still trying to figure out how he got in there. I haven't had this cluster apart, but most of the ones that I have are pretty well sealed by the lens and with this one having a digital odometer, instead of the gap in the mechanical odometer wheels, it should be sealed even better.
Jimmy

 

Well I was towing home a buddies 86 Bronco that he bought for parts today and I finally got a MIL. I scanned it when I got home and it was the old P0171 Lean on bank 1. I pulled out my K&N filter last week (There was no oil or dust in the air track or on the MAF, but I sprayed it anyway) just to rule out the filter on my idle problem. The truck seems a little less responsive with a paper filter.
I am not going to reset the light and see if it will go out on it's own.
I had to send Ford a nasty e-mail because they keep putting me off now about calling me back. First it was within 3 days, Then they said that they were backed up and wait 7 working days. It has been 10 now so I told them That I have bought alot of Fords and now the new HEMI is looking better to me all of the time. I also told them that I was not happy with their warranty service and that they should give me an extended warranty for my troubles.
I would never buy a HEMI unless Ford wants to put a BOSS429 in my truck like they did the orange Mustang Project car that SVT built a few years ago that was emmisions legal and had over 600HP!!!
I am getting fed up with the runaround that I am now getting. They first responded in a timely matter but have been putting me off every since.

OK, I will get off of my soapbox now. I feel a bit better since I have vented.
Jimmy

 

They are trained to do that. If they can answer the question quickly they do it great, but if its work, then they put you off.

They did a really good job of giving me the run around about my extended warranty and who could work on it. But they HAD to make sure to document the complaint I was having.

 

Like a bunch of trined monkeys I guess.
Maybe I should have a lawyer call and ask them "Can you hear me now?"
Jimmy

 

I posted pictures of the dash and the result on my scanner if anyone is interested.
Jimmy

 

Well, it has been 2 days now and the Mil is still lit. How many cylcles do I have to go thru before it will reset if the problem went away.
I am kinda hoping that it will stay on until Sat. am so that I can drive it thru my dealers front door and say "See, I told you it wasn't normal to vibrate enough that the outside mirrors shake a bit"
I could reset it myself with my scanner, but then there will be no evidence that it was on. I can't see anything visually wrong , Vac lines wires etc.
Just curious about the cycles.

Jimmy