Excessive ticking, soft diesel knock along with a rough idle. Has anyone experienced this problem? Ford has admitted that the excessive ticking problem exist and ford engineers has yet to come up with a fix that works. Truck has 23k miles and has been in the shop 7 times. Left me on the road with a bad mass air flow sensor, brought it to another dealer first who could not find the problem without a check engine light, twice for a bad fuel rail sensor, 3 times for excessive ticking/knocking. The 4th time guess I'll have to break out the lemon law. Any advice?

 

The simple answer is nobody wants to take the time to chase it without being paid.
Since there is nothing solid but the way it acts, to go on, it's no dice.
Hell of a situation for the investment involved but it happens all the time with nothing left to do but a fight to force action.
I would first send a registered letter to Ford telling them in a clear manner (no whining) what has happened, that you have been back to two dealer for proper handling of the problem and have been left with a truck that is no longer useful.
Copy of letter to selling dealer so all are on board.
If there is no company back up to solve the problem, legal action will be taken.
Then wait for a response, then do what you have to do. They are stealing your money on bad faith if the truck is not useful.

 

Everything bluegrass said and add also you are going to get rid of it and buy a toyota may jog them a bit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Get a lawyer for 100.00 to write the letters for you and have him include that ford will be liable for all legal fees incured.

 

Thanks for the info bluegrass. Appreciate it. I like the lawyer advice, too.

 

I am guessing you are referring to preigniton, pinging or detonation when you mention soft diesel knock? I am assuming this happens on medium to hard acceleration.

One cause you will never see in the manuals is low fuel pump volume. Pressure will be within the specification range. Once you put in a new fuel pump the pinging problem goes away. Low fuel pump volume will cause a slight lean conditon that fuel trim may not be able to compensate for by increasing the injector dwell. The condition is not severe enough to set a lean code and the knock sensor does not retard timing enough to make the detonation go away.

 

I am not referring to preigniton, pinging or detonation when I mention soft diesel knock. This occurs only at idle and is extremely noticable when along side a wall (drive up window). Sounds like crap along with the excessive ticking coming from the upper right side of the engine. Ford says ticking is from the cam phaser adjustment in upper right quadrant. The original repair on other trucks did not correct the problem after 3 days of work. So ford went back to the drawing board. Spent alot of money for this top of the line ford product and has been nothing but disappointment. Truck really rides good, pulls hard and handles well. The problems have left me wanting to change to another brand of truck. Used to drive a GMC Sierra for eight years. Just a couple of minor problems with it.

 

i have a 1998 that does the same thing and its the exhaust manifold leaking this week will be there 3rd attempt to fix it when it idles in park its not as noticeable but put it in drive and hold the brake while idleing and it sounds bad

 

Some noise from the VCT system at hot idle is normal. The injectors on these motors are a little noisier than the old ones as well. Without hearing first hand what you're experiencing, it's difficult to say whether it's normal or not. Apparently the dealer you're involved with doesn't want to help, so I'd try another one.