So tired with my F250
 

Guys I really need some advice on my 05 F250. The truck is a 4x4 xlt supercab. I have a couple of 6.0 s and with nothing but issues with turbos and high pressure oil pumps, I tried to be true to Ford and bought a 5.4 for my personal truck. I did this cause it was supposed to be very reliable and trouble free. I realize that it wouldn't have the power of the 6.0 etc.. but I overlooked that for the reliability fact. I do plow with the truck and tow maybe 15 times a year. This truck is my personal truck and been babied from day one.

My issues with the 5.4 have also been endless. First a knock which was supposed to be fixed by cam phasers. New spark plugs, fuel filters, ford oil filters and ford oil. Still there, the ford engineer then stated the knock was normal and put the extended waranty on the truck for my piece of mind. Then the truck started pinging, spark knock which has been there for 30k miles. It has been to the dealer numerous times, many reflashes, every brand fuel, and its still there. Of course the dealers cant hear it. Now a slight slip in the tranny and slow engagement. The dealer changed the fluid and says its normal for a torqshift to act like this. Leaky radiator, pinging y pipe on the exhaust, driveshaft issues in the slip yoke. I have tried numerous dealers and get the same runaround. Now it just turned 36k, not like the warranty was worth a thing anyways. Dealers just throw parts at it with no real troubleshooting smarts anyways. Completely tired of the BS

What to do with the truck? I wouldn't want to sell a troubled truck to some innocent soul, and if I trade it I take a bath. Not to mention what to trade it for. I own 6 fords and have been nothing but dissapointed with everything but my two 7.3 diesels and my wifes explorer with 140k on it. I don't trust the new 6.4, and would never buy another 5.4. I owe 13k on it with the 8'plow. I have even considered going to a Dodge for the cummins, just cause I am so fed up with Ford. I am ready to cut my losses and just get something else. I apologize for the rant but am tired of it and not sure what to do. Any ideas?

When I read your post it is very clear to me what you desire to do. From the outside looking in it appears that at the next opportunity you should experiment with other brand names besides Ford. However, you need to wrestle through the financial impact on your own and decide what is best decision for you.

It also appears that brand loyalty is a mental barrier to some degree. That's exactly what the marketing groups want to achieve so you keep spending money with them regardless of circumstances. Be certain that there are 3 major brands on the market that are comparable. There are other options available to you.

Odd that you're having issues with the 5.4L and the 5R110W. I drive that same combination, often towing right up to the recommended GCVW and haven't had one issue. I have 34K on mine (an '07) and couldn't be happier.

If you go Cummins, avoid the 6.7L. It's as troublesome or worse than the Ford 6.0 PSD. Do a Google search on the 6.7L for a taste of the problems the owners are having.

I have had other brands, chey and dodge gassers only, and have found that hands down my Fords always towed better and handled the weight better. The other key issue with me was that I can still get manual locking hubs with a manual transfer case for plowing. I dont feel comfortable relying on a button at 3am when I have 48 hrs of plowing ahead of me.

Maybe its just me but it seems that since the disappearance of the 7.3 and the move to the modular motors things just aren't right with Ford. I really don't have a super desire to move to the other brands but I am completely fed up with my f250. I realize I will never win with the $$$ situation. I guess with all the slow sales etc.. I am hoping I might not get killed too bad.

The deal is that chevy is not an option just way too ugly, dodge is a possibility but am unsure about the new cummins and I don't want to be underpowered with the hemi and End up with the same underpowered issue as the 5.4. Now I guess the issue with Ford is I really don't want to pay the big bucks for the new diesel and then have to get 12 mpg, and have the unproven issues as well. If I was going to get 18 mpg it would be a done deal. I guess one of the valid options is the v10.

I am disgusted with the fact that I pay 30k plus or minus and cant get what I want and have to deal with awful customer service as well. Spark knock aw thats normal, slow tranny engagement, thats normal as well. Oh yea piston slap, just dont listen until the truck is completely warmed up they all do that its normal. Problems started at 8000 miles and with 35,000 miles it makes me real confident to go buy that v10. Thanks all for listening to my rant

I don't know what to do about the rest of your woes, but have to ask this:

Does the ping (spark knock) go away with higher octane fuel? Not just a different brand of 87 octane, but a real octane change, say 91 or 93? If it doesn't, it's not spark knock. The slipping tranny and ping might be a dirty MAF - clean it. I know it's not a 4R100 but on my '01, cleaning the MAF definitely clears up what I thought was the tranny starting to shift a little funny like it was starting to slip.

What happened with the slip yoke?

Pinging y-pipe? Can you explain that further? Do you mean when it's shut down and cooling off? Check the exhaust heat shields?

The pinging is intermittant, comes and goes. I have tried different fuels 87, 89, and 93 octane. Just when I think I have it figured out it comes back. I believe the air fuel ratios are off but ford insists that the reflash is current and it is all correct. I only say the air fuel because if I put an airaid cold air intake on it the pinging is worse than with the stock intake. There is a airaid air filter in it but that is it. It does still ping with the stock air intake on it just not as loud. Whenever the engine is under load for example when the a/c is on it is worse. The truck can go down the highway for 5 miles and run like a top and then on the way back home it will ping all the way all in the same trip on the same fuel. I have had my mechanic as well as the guy who dynoed my mustang and they both heard the noise and both said it was spark knock. Without a distributor I have no idea how to adjust timing on these motors. Maybe when they did the cam phasers they screwed it up somehow.

The other issues had been resolved. Radiator, driveshaft,and exhaust. But its just agrivating having a truck be in the shop more than the one it replaced.

Get a manual 12v Cummins with a p-pump. That's what I'd do. Hmm, I might just do that!

I wonder if they got the cam timing wrong...

Those trucks are getting too old!

now that you are done with the vent, get you one of them tuners that maps your performance curve, and lets you change the right stuff ,there out ther check the modular eng. fourm, do a search theres help out there....

wouldn't suprise me. It was supposed to get the drivers side cam phaser done, when i picked it up I pointed out that it looked as if nothing had been done. Turns out they did the passenger side-wrong side. Their excuse was that side was louder. After another appointment they did the drivers side as well. Basicly they screwed up and would not admit it. There was never any noise coming from the passenger side. I would be willing to bet the cam phasers are in wrong just like a distributor being one tooth off. Problem is the dealer will never check or take any responsibility for it since " it did not ping for us "

been there done that. I thought someone who new these trucks could solve my pinging issue. Paid a tuner company which comes very highly recommended from this site $$$ for custom tuned sct xcalibur and it still pinged. Paid my local sct dealer for custom tunes, put the truck on a dyno was told the spark charts in the computer were way off. He made custom tunes and the truck stopped pinging, ran great for two months then all of a sudden pinging came back, and the tranny started slaming shifting into second gear. I set the ecm back to stock and the motor still pinged, but the tranny slipped for 5 or so miles. The tranny then seemed to relearn what it should be doing and it stopped slamming and slipping but it engaged very slowly. Truck went to the dealer for the tranny slamming/slipping/slow engagement and the conclusion was that I had mercon 5 fluid and needed mercon 6 fluid. So I paid 200 bucks and got mercon 6. Tranny is still slow to engage, and occasionlly shifts funny but not to worry I was told all of the above symptoms are common on the torqshift tranny. This is just way too complicated to be making a truck payment for

Sorry to hear that you've had bad luck with your truck. Sucks to pay so much and not enjoy it. Two of my brother's have 5.4's and they are awesome, one has 164K miles, but not all are good ones.

If there is any possible way to get out of this truck without being screwed, I would take it, sounds like it just isn't worth the trouble.

Good Luck,

Mike

Have you had the cylinder heads off? Might be interesting to see if there are any irregularities in surfaces that are making hot spots and causing the pining. It's an expensive thing to do but maybe you can talk the dealer into it on their dime.

You might push for a new engine. I know a guy that bought a Corvette and got a new engine just because it didn't run ultra smooth. All it needed was a new harmonic damper. Got an engine instead.

I don't know what kind of air filter you have in your truck but i had a k&n in mine it was in since i bought the truck. I cleaned it one day sprayed it with the oil put it back in and drove the truck like normal. About a day or 2 later it really started to ping i tried everything to get it to stop. A friend of mine works for ford and ask me what kind of air filter i have i told him he told me to take it out put a regular one in clean the maf and see what happens. Well thats been 7 month ago and hasn't pinged since. I also had the same thing happen to my 98 mustang gt put in a k&n and it started to ping took it out put a paper filter back in it cleaned the maf stopped pinging. Just some food for thought.

[quote=QwkTrip;6316981]Have you had the cylinder heads off? Might be interesting to see if there are any irregularities in surfaces that are making hot spots and causing the pining. It's an expensive thing to do but maybe you can talk the dealer into it on their dime.

Before I tried the cusom tuning route, I got the dealer to check the spark plugs from a tsb that I found on this site. The dealer went through hell triying to get the plugs out of the head, some broke or were siezed etc... The service manager showed me a couple of the plugs that had the electrode missing or had broken or melted off. They replaced the plugs with a heat range colder per the tsb. For a little while the ping was gone, but then came back. I was shown a F150 in the service bay with the heads off, they were loaded with carbon. I was told that there may be carbon deposits on my heads and the fine fuel particles get tied up in the carbon and cause the cylinder or all of them to run lean or rich depending on the specific cylinder. Fords solution for this was to run 2 bottles of techron through the truck. Well for about 8 months I tried every combo of fuel brand and octane as well as numerous bottles of techron. The pinging would come and go.

It is impossible to get my dealer to do anything else. I just picked the truck up after leaving it there for a week. I told them to drive the truck as a personal truck and I did not care if they took it cross country whatever, just listen for the pinging, it will do it. So after a week I get " there is no pinging, it didn't do it for us". "We cant do anything else unless we hear it ping". Two days later I am driving up the highway it pinged like a s.o.b.:-banghead They say bring it back when its pinging, yea I can just stop my day and drive back to the Ford dealer anytime. The only place I am going to end up driving it is is off a bridge. Brand loyalty may be a gimick but I feel like I have done my part and Ford really does't give a ---- to do their part. I really thought that Ford made the best all around work truck, but the with all the b.s. I really dont want to go back for more with a 37k diesel.

Man that sucks. Sounds like you got a lemon.

Swing by my area and I take you for a ride in my truck and show you what modulars are supposed to run like.:-jammin

Try another dealer, tell them your story. Something sounds very fishy - again, I wonder if the cam timing is wrong.

The problem is the DEALER is not "Ford" per se. Call the customer service 1-800 number and see if they can come up with anything - maybe a dealer recommendation.

And, I can relate, but you do have to get the dealer to hear the pinging before they will do anything.

The pinging exhaust pipes were a major pain in the butt for me. I looked up the TSB and had my local dealership (not even my selling dealer) replace them with new parts under my 3/36 warranty. Pinging and popping went away. I know there are issues the the torgue shift regarding plowing on the 05 and early 06 models. The spark nock is a pain with the 5.4 if you go for a long trip towing or run seafoam in the intake it may knock the carbon out of the engine.

I feel for you all three brands have their issues. Heck even toyota with the weak tailgates and transmission issues with the new tundras. I do not know what to tell you. Mercedes Unimog works great plowing.

Oiled air filters and MAF sensors don't mix well. A dirty MAF will cause all kinds of drivability problems.

3V 5.4s have had many problems with cam phasers and spark plugs. Search the F150 forum and you will see.

05-07 Super Duty gas trucks have "pinging" exhaust due to the welded on heat shields. It's just the way they are and doesn't have any effect on how they function. 08s have a redesigned exhaust system.

The 3V V10 does not have VVT, so it have no cam phasers. Just one of the reasons to choose a V-10 over a 5.4. I don't know if V10s are going to have the same spark plug issues as the V8s though.

The 5.4l 3V is also more likely to have ping than the 3V V10. The 3V 5.4l has a rather high 9.8:1 CR where as the 3V V10 has a 9.2:1 CR. The 2V 5.4l and 6.8l have a 9.0:1 CR. The 3V 5.4l just barely runs right on 87.

As for the K&N filter I've been running them for years with no trouble, however I clean my MAF religiously. I just find it hard to believe a dirty MAF would cause the ping in this situation because the ping seems somewhat intermitent.

Every vehicle I've been around with factory exhaust and cats has always made a lot of noise. Factory exhaust systems (Mufflers converters and etc) get really hot especially with the restrictive mufflers. The only stock piece of exhaust on my truck is a 16" piece of 3" tube, the rest is aftermarket with no heat shields. I get no "ping" in the exhaust like the stock system did.

The 5.4l and 6.8l use the same plugs through the years so the V10 would have the same plug issues. Change them often.

As far as the dealers go, there are basiclly three that I can deal with. One heard the poston slap at the beginning and stated that it was not right but didn't want to get involved and told me to bring it back where I bought it. Two, the place I bought it probrably screwed it up in the first place. Three, the place I got one of my diesel 350's is such a large volume dealer they would never hear the ping or really care if its pinging anyways, been through their service with my 6.0 that I bought there. And four, the one dealer that I have been working with, they have been acommodating and have attempted to rectify the problem to a point. They do a lot of volume with trucks. The fourth has fixed other problems but I am at a dead end cause they don't hear anything.

Funny thing is, the ping is very noticeable when it does it, everyone who rides in my truck has heard it from time to time so I know its not just me. I just think they don't want to persue it.

The exhaust has been fixed, the thing would ping so loud all the time whenever temps outside were above 60 deg. A new y pipe with the cats from ford did do the trick.

Finally, I have done new motorcraft fuel filters and my mass air flow has been cleaned 4 times in the 36,000 miles and it was always clean. Yesterday I cleaned the maf and I put a paper fram air filter back in. My dealer also told me that I should not run anything but 87 octane as it would just confuse the computer. My regular warranty will run out in 200 miles, maybe it will blow up by then. My last resort (the air filter) and I will see what happens- Thanks to all of you guys for the help

I honestly think roughly 1/2 of the problems that owners complain about on this forum are caused by bad service departments.

I am sorry to hear about your issues. I have an 02 f250 with the 5.4 and have had good luck with it considering its close to 100k. The only issue I have had was about year ago when the block temp sensor went out and about 3k ago the #6 plug was spit out and have the coil kit done to it. I agree with crabhab and try the seafoam in the truck. All you have to do it three things so you will need two cans of seafoam, oil and a oil filter for the oil change and and a wide open area because the truck will smoke once one of the steps are done. Step one, pour one can into your gas tank. Step two, pour half into your oil. Step three, remove the vacume line of the brake booster, while the truck is running slowly pour the ther half of the seafoam into vacume line. Once you have poured the seafom in, shut the truck off, put the vac line back on and wait about 5-10 minutes allowing the seafoam to work on the upper part of the motor. Then start the truck. Now mine took a little bit to start smoking but once it did, OMG did it. I was driving it when it did and I cound not see the back side of the truck. My exhaust exits infront of the passenger rear tire and it covered it with white smoke. I will tell you I have gotten about 2-3 MPG more in the city and 4-6 on the high way. My knocking is gone and the idle is smoother. So I hope this helps.