Hey guys, here's the backstory: truck is a 2007 F-150 King Ranch SCrew 4x4 with 5.4. This is our "farm truck" and has only 15k miles on it. Low miles yes, but it hasn't had an easy life by any means. Truck was brought home off the farm a couple months ago to help with a move, and when we got it back I noticed a few maintenance items that needed to be addressed, namely front sway bar links (bushings were shot), a fresh intake air filter, a new battery, and a fresh tank of gas.

After driving probably a hundred miles or so, I got a CEL and loss of power at higher RPMs. Not full blown limp mode, but reduced power. Pulled the cable off the battery to reset, CEL was gone for a while, until the ECU got fully relearned and then CEL came back on. Same symptoms as before, running quiet, smooth, and strong, but once CEL came on, reduced power. Ran to Auto Zone and pulled the code, got a P0330: Knock Sensor 2 Circuit (Bank 2) open/shorted to ground/shorted to power/damaged/or failed. Pulled the battery off again yesterday to reset the code, running just fine again, quiet, smooth, and strong, CEL has not come back yet but I suspect it will. Leads me to believe the sensor has either come loose, the wires are damaged, or the sensor itself has simply failed. It is NOT reporting knocking, it is reporting that the knock sensor has a fault of some sort. Now of course when the knock sensors fault, the ECU wouldn't be able to detect and compensate for preignition/detonation/etc. and so it puts itself into limp mode out of an abundance of safety.

I did some research, and the knock sensors are in probably the least convenient location possible, requiring removal of the entire intake manifold to get to. Now here is my question: given the fact that the truck is definitely running fine aside from a bad sensor putting it into limp mode, and the difficulty of access to replace said sensor, is it possible to disable knock sensors entirely instead of replacing them? I live in an area where there is no shortage of top quality fuel, so I wouldn't expect that the need for knock sensors would really ever arise in the first place. Is there anything I can do, short of pulling the entire intake manifold off to replace a $20 sensor?

TIA!

 

I saw a procedure for replacing cyl head heat sensor by pulling alternator and going in underneath the intake. Maybe it can work for this I don't know . Look for damaged wires going thru the irmc linkage in the back of engine .
But if you have to pull it consider it a chance to renew intake gaskets any way and clean throttle body . But be careful with routing wire thru irmc linkage it goes above linkage not under .take pictures . Very hard to get back there

Irmc linkage rear of intake with vac ports

 

Thanks for the pic, that is very helpful. I suppose taking the alternator off would be the easiest way to check for loose ends. Had heard somewhere that the sensors could be disabled via SCT tuner or the like and wondered if there was any truth to that. I had an Edge tuner on my old truck, wouldn't hesitate to put a tune on this one especially if it gives me the ability to shut off the knock sensors.

 

The only thing I heard was the government is maybe shutting down tuner manufactures . They now have a policy that if it can be used on the road its illegal for emissions -no exemptions for a statement of only use off road or racing .I heard they are going to put them out of business .
Maybe someone on here who has replaced knock sensors tried to do it with intake in place . Maybe you can get a camera probe up there , it is a rodent nesting area so your wires could be damaged . I have a camera probe for my android ,they are cheap .

 

Rodents chewed through one of my knock sensor wires. I think that's about the only time these sensors go bad. No way I could get at those without pulling the intake. Not any fun, but it's not the worst job I've had on this truck
(06 FX4). No question that linkage at the rear of the intake is going to cause you a headache with wiring interference. I thought I got mine done correctly, but a scan tool a year later shows one bank of those flapper valves is stuck closed for some reason - no CEL and it runs fine, so it stays as is. I don't ever want to go back in there.