I had posted in the past that i had the symptoms of bad cam phasers.
When i tried 3 big dealerships for a fix one said the 5.4 was a noisy motor without even looking at it and that it was normal. Another listened to it and said it wasnt that loud and also that it was normal, the third said it wasnt in the motor but in the catalytic converter and it was dissapating heat and was normal. I was about to give up when a guy walked up to me when i was sitting ideling in a parking lot, he said he had the same knock in his truck and the cam phaser replacement took care of it. He told me to go to this small dealership and let them listen to mine. I thought here we go again but its worth a try. When they took a look at my truck they said wow thats the loudest one theyd heard yet and said bring it in tommorow and we'll replace them cam phasers. One full day in the shop and 500 miles on the fix and i'm one happy camper, its quiet as a mouse. I thought about letting them other dealerships know about it but decided they probably dont care and i'll never take anything back to them anyway. My advice if you have this annoying knock is to go from dealer to dealer demanding a cam phaser kit installed, nobody should have to listen to that when there is a fix.

 

I'm glad to hear you finally got it fixed Red Dog. It's a shame some dealerships choose to operate that way. Enjoy the quiet!

 

The funny thing is there is an extended TSB to diagnose such a problem and non of the dealerships in question obviously even used it! This problem is a known problem since the 3v 5.4 was put into production in 2004. What A crock! Glad you got it attended to !
What you should do is write a feedback on the dealers that blew you off and a good report on the one that fixed it. Better yet, write a letter to Ford corporate, copy all four, and praise the dealer who actually fixed the problem. Inform Ford that dealers like the three who blew you off are effecting customer sat, and with Ford having financial difficulty due to the Japanese out distancing them, one would think customer sat would be a priority! Yet it does not seem clear to some dealerships! Maybe an investigation of dealerships is in order?

 

was your truck still under warranty? if not what did the repairs cost because mine has the same problem and i'm not under warranty. my dealer didn't give me any numbers but he said it could be expensive.

 

I just might do that KevinM thats a good idea. To answer your question mac01, i have an 2005 and it was under warranty so i dont know the cost. If you had yours in to be checked out for the knock while yours was under warranty and you have paperwork of them saying it was normal or if they did a fix that didnt cure it and its on paper i'd think you would have a case to have it covered yet if you got with the right Ford people. Good Luck. Ive seen on here people saying they had the phaser kit done and the noise came back later but i discussed this with that dealership and they said they were putting in the latest phaser kit so i'm crossing my fingers, and like i said at this point i couldnt ask for more.

 

I suspect what happens in the repeat problem events after a fix, is the field is not purged of all the old parts that are out of spec. Especially when the problem is fairly new and a fix is identified. So when the dealer orders a replacement part from his distributor, it becomes a crap shoot! This has been around for quit sometime, so one would think that all the up to spec parts are now available.

I would bet that your problem is fully solved.

 

red dog

how many miles were on you rtruck, and when was it produced? i have an 05 and it rattles at cold pretty good.

 

I had the problem on my 05 and the dealer said it was because I used a Fram oil filter when I changed the oil. Anyway I have the same sound on my 06, it showed up around 1000 miles. Apparently they still don't have a fix for it.

 

The wrong filter can cause a noise on startup. The cam phaser noise usually is only heard after the engine (oil) has warmed up, and usually goes away at about 1k RPM.

 

I don't have the sound at start up, only after the engine warms up, that is why the dealer didn't hear it after they changed the oil, the new oil hadn't thinned out yet.

 

Congrats on the fix red dog!

I had brought my truck in for these last summer, with the TSB number, and the dealer still wouldn't admit it was the cam phaser. He looked at me like I had 5 heads when I mentioned it. He also asked where I got the TSB number from and I mentioned this site and how much more I trusted the information found here than at any dealer. He still balked on the repair. And being that I do my own maintenance, i just don't have the desire to bring it in to the dealer just for this issue. I'm being lazy now.