Hey guys so I was looking under my hood today when I noticed some oil staining on the driver side to the left of where the camshaft and valve cover. So it seems like there is a minor oil seep in this area. The truck will be into the dealer this week, but until then I was wondering if anyone on here has had the same problem? I have a 2009 xlt with the 4.6 3v v8 my truck has about 22,000 miles on it just in case anyone was wondering.

 

Make sure to document the entire event. I would suspect future cam phaser issues. I'd also ask the dealer to take a look at the phaser while it's apart. Most of the failures seems to be a seal issue causing low oil pressure at the phaser. I'd want to know for sure that this isn't happening in my engine.

 

Yeah I will def. be documenting everything. Its funny you say look at cam phaser, I just remembered hearing a weird noise on that side. I'm gonna look into it more tmrw.

 

Damn that sucks. Im going to start checking mine more often. If there is a problem it would be caught in time.

 

Yeah I'm not to happy about it, but thats why I always keep an eye out for things like this. I'd rather catch them early and get them fixed rather than later and have it snowball into something bigger. I'm always check for leaks and signs of abnormal wear when changing my oil, and in between oil changes. It's just a habit my father instilled in me at a young age and it has paid off.

 

So I looked into that noise more today, and found there is a TSB out regarding this issue. So I will be bring the truck into the shop today for them to see whats going on and I will be updating on here as I hear more.

 

Well lets see so I took the truck into the dealership and the idiot service guy says well thats prob. just from when you change the oil you dripped some on it. I had to point out to him the the oil fill location is on the opposite side of the engine and the fact that it is physically impossible for there to be oil on that and nothing above it as that location is set back and under many things. He also did not follow proticall and clean the area and place a dye in the oil and run the engine, then check with a uv light. Needless to say I left the dealership and contacted my friend who is head of quality control at the truck plant and let him know my concerns. Lets just say a dealership of his choice is now picking up my truck up tmrw to look into the issue and anything else which I have concerns about. In the end it is sad that I need to contact someone who is a big shot to get the ball moving on something that should be taken care of under my warrenty.

 

Please post the TSB number.

Thanks!!

Bob

 

So the dealer agrees there is an oil seep and they have placed a dye in the oil and want me to run the truck for about a 1000 miles, so as they can pin point the source or sources of the leak or leaks. They also looked into the noise from that area and believe it to be normal but when the oil leak is repaired they will look at the cam phaser.

 

so what happened with your truck? i am having loud ticking from my engine & i am starting to wonder if im having problems with my cam phaser... it's bad enough to the point people have asked me if it's a diesel, i don't have an oil leak but i will check again tomorrow

 

Well I have yet to put a 1000 miles on the truck since the dye was placed in the oil, but with that said the same area is now again stained with oil so hopefully in the next few weeks I will have place the 1000 miles or so on the truck and will take it back in for inspection. I will keep you guys posted as soon as I know what is going to be done.

 

Truck goes back in today, the oil spot has returned so hopefully this time around with the dye in the oil system they will have a final answer to what is going on. I will post an update as soon as I hear back from them either today or tmrw.

 

Results are in and they are not what I planned to hear, the tech. spent the better part of the day going through the truck with a black light so as to find any oil leaks. After failing to locate any leaks via the black light, he went over the entire engine and truck for that matter and everything has come back fine. So the final verdict is they just dont know. The engine was cleaned once again and this time dye was placed in all fluids of the vehicle and will be tested at a later date, roughly 5,000 miles. I was also told the issue will be forwarded to Ford so as if at a later date this becomes a true issue it will be covered.

 

Very interesting. A true mystery oil leak. Keep is posted.