The tranny TSB to mention to your Ford mechanic is TSB 09-20-14.

 

I had the TSB done last month. Better!

No complaints with acceleration and shifting.

 

There's a reason Ford dropped the 5.4L engine in 2011. It's lame. Does it do the job of hauling and towing? Yes. Does it exude power? No way.

 

Thanks for the TSB #

 

Good to hear the TSB fix is helping. Bomeyer15, Did you have issues before or did you just go ahead and have it reflashed when you were at the dealer? I havent had mine fixed yet. Dealer wants to keep the truck and that always leads to bad things especially with my truck being a bit wide lol...dents, dings, scraped wheels. It just doesnt fit where it use to, lol

 

Lets not confuse underpowered with "bad" because this is a stout, well-proven engine that lasts. It's longevity in the Ford line is testiment to it's quality. But with time, all things improve and with engines, all things grow more powerful. So the 5.4L longevity was due to its quality, it's death was due to competition on power. Im ALL ABOUT somepower. But the 5.4L is not a lame engine. I want a 6.2L too, but we can only hope its as durable as the ole 5.4L has been.

 

I had heard about the TSB from this forum, so when I took it in for the 7500 mi service I asked them to do it. I had noticed a slight hesitation or shifting when accelerating from a stop after the first start of the day. The service tech waited until the truck was cold again and then checked it and fixed it.

"Service response/cause: Road test cold. Feel surge between shifts, clear trans KAM and reprogram PCM and TCM per TSB 10-24-1. Road tests OK, (N/C)"

Accel and shifting very smooth w no "surge". Tons of power.

 

I thought about waiting because of the new engines and better mpg, but needed a truck soon. I wouldn't buy a new motor combo in the first year of release (just my standard except for my 99 Lightning ) so I would have had to wait for 2012-ish.

 

GOOD NEWS!!! Although, that is a different TSB number...hmmm. Regardless, if there is a TSB out there, whatever number, Ford has it in their sights which makes diagnosis simple.

 

Anyone know if this will cause issues with my tire size/speedo reprogram that i already have??? Like should i return to stock before having dealer flash tranny TCM? That will cause errors on the drive to the dealer, lol. And would me programming it after the dealer, will it F stuff up? LOL,ugh!

Did i hyjack a thread...whoops!

 

Don't know. Call em and see what they say about the tires and the TSB.

 

If you have a tuner, and they reflash it, the tuner may no longer work. If you have custom tunes, they will no longer work, for sure. If you just had tires recalibrated at the dealer, that will need to be done again.

 

I recalibrated the tire size myself with my tuner.

The "tuner will no longer work"? Hmmm I doubt that. I will probably just lose the tire calibration when the dealer flashes it and then I just have to recalibrate the tires with my tuner after i get the truck back. You can always reinstall a tune but I was making sure it would use the new "dealer installed changes" as the starting point when i reinstall the tiresize tune after i get home and not wipe out what the dealer just corrected. Was just asking to make sure my reasoning was correct. Thanks.

 

WARNING: Reflashing changes your Strategy Code!
Make sure you return the tune to stock before they reflash it. IE Unlock the Handheld from the truck. Otherwise not only will they overwrite your current tune the Handheld will not work because it will think you are trying to use it on a second truck while its still locked to the first. Also if your tunes are "Custom" (written for a specific Srategy Code) you will have to call your tuner and have him modify your tunes for your new Strategy Code.

 

First off, as to the aforementioned comparison to a Titan and the 5.4L f150, I had an '04 Titan 4x4 extended cab and the standard 5.6L was indeed a beast, but mainly becuse the truck is significanly lighter than any '04 and newer F150. Drove this truck to 140k miles without any major problems.
Remember a big reason Ford decided against a new Lightning is because the newer trucks are much heavier.
The Titans also have a vastly different throttle map than the F150s do, so you tap the gas and the truck seems to take off.
That being said, I am not as dissappointed with the 5.4 as many people seem to be. I have 35s and a lift on my '09, but I do not tow (unless you count pulling other vehicles out of the sand). Seems to me the truck has a lot more power when you really put your foot down, a part of the problem is the throttle mapping and the transmission which upshifts ASAP in the effort to try and save fuel. Of course I would like either of the new V8s, but for my purposes anyway, the 5.4 seems adaquite. Hopefully now the F150 will regain truck of the year status by magazines, as the only negative thing they really ever had to say was lack of power.

The only time I have wished for more power was in deep sand in NC, where I locked the truck in 2nd gear in 4-high, but with a lot of deep sand I had to go down into 1st a few times. This was just travelling down the beach trying to maintain 20-25mph. However, this was not a problem with the stock setup. At the same time I had the truck on some sandy trails where even many Jeeps won't gp, put 'er in 4lo and made it up some pretty steep terrain. In theory, I should be up 10-15hp from the addition of my cat-back exhaust.