What would you do? The dealership where I purchased my used 2007 F150 Lariat 4x4 Super Crew 5.4l V-8 cab from has now had my truck over 2 weeks and claim to have fixed it now three times since I brought it to them back in Sept. The truck has a bad misfire/backfire out the exhaust when you floor the truck and the engine is cold, not up to normal operating temp. After the truck warms up, the backfiring is not present. It only does it when cold. There are no codes and no check engine light on. Dealership replaced a cam sensor on the pass side and now replaced the mass air flow sensor since they said it was "bad". I took the mechanic for a drive with it yesterday and showed him that it was still doing it. His response was that "well, I did fix it. Before it was backfiring and falling flat on its face power wise. Now it has more power than it did before." My reply was...."Yes, but it is still backfiring! Plus there is still not the power there that it had prior to all this happening!"

This all started back on Sept. 12 when I dropped the truck off for the same symptom. The ended up replacing a coil pack after doing a compression power balance and also replace that one spark plug. I questioned why they did not replace all the spark plugs like you do when you do a tune up and they said that Ford would not cover that, they would only cover the plug that was bad. I thought this was a load of BS, but not knowing fact, I went along with it. After I had the truck for about 3 days, the engine started doing the same thing which is why it went back to them. The earliest they could get me in there was Monday, Sept. 26 because of my work schedule. They have had my truck since then. The only good thing is that I have had a courtesy car since then.

The truck has 49,000 miles on it and is still covered under the basic power train warranty (5 yrs, 60,000) plus I have an Extended Service Plan warranty that covers over 500 things. Now, they said that the cam sensor was covered under the power train warranty but the mass air flow sensor was not and that I had to pay the $100 deductible. To me, something that controls the air/fuel ratio should be part of the power train.

What would you do? Contact the Service Manager since I seem to be getting no where with the service advisor and mechanic? Go above their head and contact Ford directly and let them know the BS that they have been putting me through?

 

like I posted elsewhere, try a plug and COP change

 

and like I posted on the other forum, its not for me to fix. It is covered under the basic power train warranty and I have the ESP warranty. Why should I pay to fix it when it is something that should be covered under warranty?

 

so either get it fixed, or keep having issues

 

Well, you flooring it when it's cold can't be to good for it. I can't think of any reason to do so. So, you probably broke something that's hard to detect. Just from abuse. It's a machine, -has it's limits and I know they're not designed to run that way.

I suggest, next time, use more common sense. You screwed this one up.

 

I am trying to get it fixed. Hence it being brought to the dealer.

JBEW-

So, when I left the dealership after they supposedly fixed it, pulling out onto a highway, was I supposed to slowly get up to speed or be hit by a car doing 65 mph? Also, when the truck warms up, the problem is no longer present. If I had to compare it to my antique car, it is similar to a choke not opening up all the way.

Either way, the dealership should not have had to have the vehicle for two weeks! Plus the whole response from the mechanic is uncalled for.

 

Modern, FI motors are completely different then previous. You don't have to wait for them to warm up to drive, it will certainly help with MPG but you shouldnt hurt anything driving when cold.

 

Never said that, this I know, but thanks anyway. In fact, even in the winter they don't need to warm up. Can be driven after one revolution.

 

How many miles on the truck and have all the sparkplugs ever been changed? When was the fuel filter changed? These are all regular maintenance items that may have been neglected. They are not covered by any warranty.

 

Don't be so dramatic You said you "floor it" when it's cold. To me , that means right after turning the key. That's not normally how people drive, unless there trying to break something before the warranty expires. (?)

 

Definitely sounds fuel related, I would go over the system then check for injector problem's. One that slowly seeps during downtime might mess with it. Soon as you crank it over it clears the cylinder. While doing so, that temporarily fouls the plug until it's hot enough to burn contaminants/excess fuel off. The PCM, trying to compensate for that cylinder and keep it firing by pulling timing eventually circum's to the flooded state, -for a short while anyway.

 

he's stated that he's not changing anything, it's the dealers fault the truck isn't running 100%



I'm grabbing my popcorn as these threads are on every F-150 forum he has found and are starting to get interesting as he's ignoring everyone who's making sense in trying to solve the trucks issue






he doesn't even know about the injector issues, doesn't know when the plugs were changed last etc (but he knows it's the dealerships fault )

 

Truck has 49,000 miles on it. I just did a fuel filter the beginning of Sept. around 48,000 miles. The plugs in the truck are the original ones from the factory to my knowledge. I got this truck used from this dealership last June and it was running fantastic. In July, I started hearing a knocking noise and they found it to be bad "lifters" as they called it and a cracked pass. side exhaust manifold. Since then, it has been problem after problem with this backfiring. On Sept. 12th, they put a new coil pack in on one of the cyl. and replaced that spark plug for that cylinder. When I questioned why they only replaced the one plug instead of replacing them as a set, they said that Ford would only allow them to replace the one plug that was defective. Yet, when they replaced the "lifters" they replaced them as a set, not just the defective ones.

This most recent time, they had a code for a cam shaft sensor which they changed out and the backfiring was still present, this time now with no codes. According to the advisor, the mechanic was out of ideas and they called Ford to see what to do next. Eventually, they said that the MAF was bad and causing cylinders to "drop out". However, the backfiring is still there even though the mechanic said he "fixed it" because the truck is no longer falling on its face (as he put it) when you floor it on the road when it is cold. It still, however, backfires and stumbles which is the complaint that I had when I brought it in. I never had the issue of it "falling on its face" and bogging or dying like that. It seems like they are clueless as to what to do if there are no codes.

One thing that I did mention to the mechanic was that I did an oil change after they installed the new "lifters" and had a ton of metal flake in the oil. Something which I never had before in the 20,000 plus miles since I've owned the truck. Now is it possible that this metal flake is from something that they did not install correctly or from the new parts wearing in? Anything is to say as I do not want to be pointing fingers since I do not know what the cause of it is. All I know is that the metal flake was not there PRIOR to the "lifter" parts being installed.

 

For starters, if you bring something somewhere to be repaired, wouldn't you expect it to be fixed? Yes, I am putting this out there because IF for some reason, they don't fix it and FORD refuses to address the issue, I will have to tackle this myself. I do like to know what I am getting into before I go tearing into things. A little research goes a long way. Also, another reason for this post is to find if there are any known issues such as the plugs breaking off in the cyl. heads. I do preventative maintenance on my truck. Things such as air filter, fuel filter, regular 3000 mile oil changes, tire rotation every 6000 miles, etc. So yes, I do get my hands dirty working on my truck as I find it a relaxing hobby. Just like working on my 69 Dodge Charger that I restored back to factory stock.

Regarding the injector issues. I am well aware of that also as I receive a notice from FORD themselves when I had my 2005 F150 FX4 saying that they were going to extend the warranty till 100,000 miles or something like that due to possible faulty injectors. I have yet to receive any form like this from FORD for my current truck.

As for the plugs, aren't they 100,000 mile plugs? If so, there is no need to change them out as maintenance unless there is a problem like with that one cylinder. Granted, they should have changed out all of the plugs as you don't change out one plug on a tune up but thats a whole different issue. Should I be changing out the plugs or at least pulling them and putting anti-seeze on the shaft of them? Probably will in the near future as I have the nickel anti-seeze container already from when I had my 2005 F150 that I ran to 74,000 miles until I needed to get something bigger due to the new baby in the family. So yes, I have been working on cars for the past 25 years as a hobby and doing routine maintenance so I am not your typical backyard mechanic. I even had a mechanic job at a local tire center and if we did not fix the problem with a customers car the first time right, we got in trouble as that was the standards at our shop. If they came back, we had to fix it on our dime.

 

as posted previously (just keeping everyone in the loop on this forum)