Chalk me up as the latest injector / hydrolock victim.

Halfway into a 5 hour drive home from a fishing trip last night and boom.. the dreaded stuck injector.

Damn truck left me stranded 2 1/2 hours from home with nobody back home to come and get me. My entire family including my inlaws were all out of town last night as well. I finally got the owner of my local dealership on the phone. He just so happened to do business with a used car guy about 15 minutes from where I was broken down. He brought me a car so that I could at least get home last night. I called emergency roadside and got a wrecker out there to tow it to the nearest Ford dealer.

I called that dealer this morning to make sure that the truck actually made it there and they already had it fixed. My dealership has sent a truck to pick it up.

My local dealership is fantastic but jeesh, I'm fed up with all of the stuff that they have had to fix on this truck.

At 4k miles they replaced the entire drivetrain from the transfer case back to get rid of the dreaded "vibe" and "clunk" and now at 19k the motor has hydrolocked.

My '97 was the most trouble free vehicle that I have ever owned and this truck has been the worst by a landslide.

Ford had better get their crap together or I'll be looking at another manufacturer the next go 'round.. even though Ford trucks are all that I have ever owned.

 

Sorry to hear this, Quack. Sounds very similar to my experience on the side of the road with my injectors... outside of Lexington, about 2+ hours from home.

Fortunately, my starter actually gave way before the motor hydrolocked.... So, 1 new starter and 2 new injectors (and 8 new plugs) later, I'm good... for now.

 

I was just outside of Bowling Green. About the time I hit 50 mph after leaving a light, the truck shook pretty hard but quit as I backed out of the throttle. The same happened again as soon as I got back up to speed. I was thinking it could be a back brake hung (as these trucks also do). At the next light, when I went to pull away, the truck started acting like it was running on 2 cylinders and wouldn't break 20 mph. It got gradually worse until I could get somewhere out of traffic and quit as soon as I came to a full stop.

At that point, I pretty well knew what it was. I let it sit for a few minutes and then tried to start it but the engine wouldn't even turn over.

They just changed one injector and flushed the oil. Did they replace the plugs on yours or did you do that yourself?

My service guy hasn't called me so I assume it's not back there yet. I plan on discussing all of the possible scenarios that may play out now with him.

When I called the BG dealership, the service guy was intimately familiar with the injector problem but this was the first truck that he's seen with it. He said all of his have been Navigators and Expeditions. I asked him about the cats and he said so far, only one Nav. has had cat problems after the fact and he wasn't sure that it may not have been caused by something else.

 

Ahh, yes. Greenwood Ford. I bought a 1998 Explorer XLT and my first King Ranch (2001) from them. Not too familar with their service department fortunately...

I had two injectors go out (can't remember the numbers).

All 8 plugs were changed per the TSB - at least I think it was a TSB (5-13-4 maybe?). I'm nearly certain that there was guidance to change all of them (this was at the height of the stuck/broken plug issue so, I was pleased to have it done on their nickel).

As for cats -- it's a tough call. The good thing is that they're covered under the 'other' warranty on the truck (7/75, maybe?) so, if those go out, you're still pretty good for a while to come. I'm told that some definitely burn out after getting the raw gas dumped on them (injector stuck open) whereas some will never show it. It's totally hit and miss.

I pushed Paul Miller to go ahead and change it out but, they declined citing that they couldn't as it wasn't defective - yet.

It's been a year and a month now with no problems...

 

Are you guys running cheap gas?

 

The converters' life is definitely compromised by leaking injectors. By how much, I dunno. It depends on how severely the injector(s) were leaking. Converters are very expensive too, so dealers can't really replace them until they're definitely dead. Fortunately, they're covered by the base 8/80 emissions warranty, and I think they should be good to go under the extended injector coverage thing, as a related damages claim.

 

I wish I could find some of that.....

I run 87 octane Shell gas, not premium.

That doesn't have anything to do with it, though. Ford knows that the injectors are junk. I got an extended warranty notification just 3 months ago lengthening the injectors and related damage out to 11 years or 120k miles.

Quintin, that is what I was figuring as well on the warranty. At least I hope it applies.

I'm wondering about asking for the plug change. The TSB is just something that your dealer may or may not do as a nicety, is it not?

 

Did either of your trucks give any warning signs? Codes? I've got a 2005 that I think is having injector problems. It has a rough idle and it has failed to start on a couple of occasions now. Almost as if the starter was straining to turn the engine over, but the battery had a good charge on it. I let it sit overnight and the next morning, the engine turned over and finally started. There was a strong gas smell and smoke. I'm just wondering, if I take it to the dealership, will they be able to detect an injector problem without any codes? Or will I have to wait until it completely fails and leaves me stranded?

 

It sure sounds like you are headed down that path that we have been down.

I had no prior warning to my injector failure. I had been on the road for about 2 hours of highway driving and just cleared going through downtown when mine happened.

My truck had puffed white smoke on occasion at startup months ago but I haven't noticed it in a while. The truck was idling rough at stoplights immediately before it completely crapped out, though. It hadn't done that before. It smelled like the truck would blow if you lit a match anywhere near it after it died and would not turn over.

No prior codes on mine and the check engine light didn't even illuminate until the thing was almost done for.

I would think that the dealer could check the function of your injectors. Quintin will know for sure.

 

Is this injector issue unique to 2005 motors? I have an '04 that I need to replace the engine on. I bought an '05 engine for it. Should I remove my injectors from the '04 and use them on the '05?

 

I was thinking that it was the '04 & '05 (at least). There has been quite a bit of discussion of it here in the past that could probably be found.

 

No just 05. 04 had a better injector from what I have read on here.

 

Gotta have those annual cost reductions....

 

Sorry to hear about your truck. My 05 FX4 stranded my wife and I in the middle of a 12 hour trip from Clarksville, TN to central Wisconsin with the dreaded fuel injector problem. The truck only had 3500 miles on it. Yes, the TSB they followed had them replace all 8 plugs on mine as well.

I hear what your saying about your lack of trust in Ford when you have problems like this. I'm as big of a Ford guy as any, and I started to think I may try something else after owning my 05. Drivesahft/Clunk, Injectors, paint, bad tie-rod @11k, etc. I sold it and bought my 07 which is a much better truck hands down. The way it drives, power, quality seems much better. Upgrading to the 07 was a great decision for me.

 

give the 08/09 trucks a quick look. my 06 is worlds apart from the 04/05's that I've ridden in. And from window shopping the 07's, things only got better

sorry about your bad luck, but at least they fixed it for free?