My original post

I'll try to make this as concise as possible but bear with us as this is a very confusing story from day one. I'm writing this and posting this for my other half. He is recovering from injuries sustained in combat and going through a medical board and we are trying desperately to get his beloved truck back on the road for him but so far we are striking out badly.

I know this is not in fancy format or proper grammar. I'm just writing as I speak...

Truck: 2004 F150 5.4 Triton/Lariat 2WD
Low Mileage: 92k original miles
Always had oil changed and service completed on time even when deployed. Have service records from family member that meticulously cared for the truck for me

Last fall the truck started to lose power when driving. Spoke to a few mechanics and came here and was told to do a few things..Clean injectors, tune up, new fuel pump installed. All of that was done by a good mobile mechanic that can do small jobs but not the major ones but did a good job.

By end of October took the truck out to run an errand and it died 1/2 down the road.

Tried to come up with a plan as I do not trust any mechanics in this down. It's a military town and lets leave it at that. Unfortunately I had to trust someone. At the advice of a few senior folks I took it to a local shop that was suppose to be the best, good reputation, etc. Truck was towed to their shop.

After two days I received a call and things already went bad. Without my approval they changed the fuel pump saying it was bad, old and needed replacing. I told them to look in the back seat and reminded them I informed them that had been done. Box and receipt for the week old fuel pump were in my back seat at the time the truck was towed in. I told them to call me before any other repairs are done. They did not. Next day I'm told they changed all the spark plugs. I told them I was picking up my truck and not to lay another finger on it. I also wanted the old parts they removed for proof and proof of the parts they installed.

I sent the tow truck back to pick the truck up and bring it home. I was given a bill for 2100 dollars for the labor and parts, none of which they had as I asked. I paid the bill and told them I would be filing a complaint. I did that with both the BBB and the base legal office.

I contacted a higher scale mobile mechanic that also has a shop. They took the truck in and after an evaluation they found the timing chain was gone. How did the first shop NOT find this?

They also found some damage. They found oil, water and fuel mixed together. Not good I know.

The work that this mechanic completed was as follows.


Head gaskets were redone
Coolent temp sensor
Timing chain and components
Cam sensors and thermostat
Runner control valve on back of intake
Fuel pump ( twice)


Spark plugs because the first shop that claimed to change them did not. We have proof of this now and we know it's a fraud fix on the part of that first shop.

After all this the truck ran pretty good and would start up like new except once it warmed up it would start going back real quick. We tried changing a few more sensors. Nothing

The mobile mechanic is great. He tried to help us nonstop but nothing was working.

At this point we now have 4500 dollars in the truck between parts and labor and we are pretty much done with putting money into this but he loves this truck. It's a solid truck with low miles and in outstanding shape. After all he has been through I just want this truck to be fixed once and for all.

We had to put the truck on stand by for a bit because my Marine is going through some medical issues with injuries sustained in combat and a medical board which keeps us basically living at the Naval Hospital nonstop

Finally after a few months we had to bite the bullet and take it to the Ford Dealership. Last option that we wanted to do.

So after months of sitting and trying to sort this mess out ( and in the middle of this My Marine is recovering from wounds sustained in combat) we had it towed into Ford the other day. I pleaded my case to them and gave them all the information I could from notes and everything we have kept on this nightmare.

We have been told by everyone that worked on it we'd have the truck back in great working order and everything would be okay. A year later. Truck is still not fixed. It starts up and runs but within a few minutes it all goes bad.

The code it kept running after all this was Bank 1 actuator. That was fixed. Still nothing. Another code is running too lean. Tried to fix that. Still nothing.

After two days Ford calls us with the news of their diagnostics.

Their answer: Your truck needs an entire new engine and tranny. Engine is gone. Tranny has no overdrive. Estimate for this almost 10k.

This cannot be!! I just can't believe that after all this, the truck that starts up strong and runs for a bit...needs an entire new engine and tranny. They couldn't even give us anything more than that answer. Nothing about why they think the engine and tranny need to be replaced. Just that it needs a new one and for us to come in and put down 3k of a deposit for the parts and they will order them.

I had the truck towed back home that same day.

Can anyone please shed some light or help us figure this out?

Any questions please post them I will do my best go back and get the answers for you ASAP if this doesn't make sense.

I apologize. I'm not a mechanic ( I'm an Nurse) and only posting all the info I have from the notes and such.

We appreciate everyone that can shed any light or help with this.
Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving to all.



UPDATE: I called the Ford Dealership back to verify what the issue was and talk about ordering the new engine/tranny. They now tell us that their findings were that the there is no oil pressure to the entire engine. How is that possible if the truck starts up, drives ( it does start to bog out for lack of better words after awhile) and there is no knocking or pinging of any kind. no engine light. no low oil pressure light and the code it showed on diagnostics with two other mechanics was the bank 1 actuator which has been fixed. What else can we check? We can't accept or believe this needs an entire new engine after all the work that has been done and the fact it starts, runs, and doesn't throw any codes, and nothing lights up on the dashboard. Thank you for your help

 

Did they ever say why it needed an engine besides no oil pressure they should be able to give you more info like I wouldn't think it would need a motor unless people prior didn't do enough diagnosing this happens a lot a little shops I've found then by the time I get hold of it (at ford dealership) people are in your situation of already spending a lot of money and it's terrible and does this truck have any aftermarket mods as for the tranny just cause it has no over drive I am a ford tech and my girl melted mine and I did a full rebuild for under the cost of the new one mind you my labour was free but still tranny issues can be resolved especially for only no overdrive as for this actuator on bank 1 did they just replace the part cause again I would be asking for pin tests that were done could be wiring and I have even seen PCM get currupt/damaged and when it bogs down does it just die? Another question has anything been done with the FPDM or even checked if it's dieing when warm if not I would check that it's real easy and could easily be done by yourself crank spare tire down and it's right up on cross member about 3-4" long,2" tall by like 1/2-3/4" thinkish with a connector and held in by two 8 mm or 10 mm sorry Canadian 5/16 or 3/8. If you could if they wrote notes on work orders I would be curious to see

 

Thank you JeremyT for taking the time to write us

Will try to answer these for you. Ok, as for Ford. They told us that was the only reason that it needed a whole new engine. They could provide us nothing more than that and the story changed up from the first time we spoke to them so it has already made us suspicious of that whole diagnosis.

The mobile mechanic we have is coming Monday to switch out the bank one actuator again. I will ask him about the pin test and wiring to see if something is wrong there. The truck never dies. It just bogs down. It does start to bog down when it becomes warm and doesn't die but acts like it wants too. I will have the FPDM checked but it had a whole brand new fuel pump in it. Does that make a difference or am I thinking of the wrong part? Thank you so much for helping us. We are very overwhelmed with it at this point and just want our truck running properly again. We can't believe this has all happened to the truck when it was a great running, strong and awesome truck. Just baffles us to no end. Truck has no aftermarket mods at all

 

We'll keep me in the loop and if possible send or post those work orders again if possible I would like to see some reasons/tests for why all this work had to get done and yeah I will try my best to help.

 

Let me preface my post by saying I'm not a Ford Tech and this is outside of my expertise but I have a great memory concerning things like this. I remember a post very similar to yours and did a search for it. I finally found it. It seems that the YM truck you have has an intake temperature sensor. If that is messed up, it will yield an engine that runs great cold but loses power quick as it warms up. I'm going to C&P the response from Bluegrass who knows more about this:
What it refers to is an out of limits intake air temperature sensor that is likely pulling ignition timing and fuel out too much in response to high intake air temperature.
The IAT on all motors is there to function in that manner but taken to far, excessive power loss is the result.
BTW, this sensor out of limts 'the other direction' can result in poor overall fuel mileage as well and still run very good..
There would be no 'absolute' code for it but value reading would be seen by a good tech with his scanner if he is really looking for something that would affect drivability.
Ask the dealer service adviser to look it up. If they will not, go somewhere else.

And another post:
Look at service bulliten 02-12-03 for possible cause of high ambient temp power drop.
Go to the top of this page and click on Recalls/TSB and search for the TSB and what the heading says.
No computer controlled engine will maintain full power between cold/cool and very hot temps.
The program has bult in protections that makes changes in timing and fuel by sensing intake air temp, coolant temp and even grades of fuel as well as loading from A/C..
These are not fault or code driven but you still feel it.

Hope this gives you some direction. FWIW, oil is my game, it's what I do. If the engine will start and run over 2 minutes, oil pressure is not a problem. You won't start an engine very many times before it seizes up with zero oil pressure. You could have your mobile tech pull the oil pressure sensor and turn the engine over. It will pump a lot of oil out of the engine and make a mess but that's a real test if it works or not.

 

Any updates on this?