Well, my lovely beast has about 1500 miles on it and I'm hearing noise. I will take it into the dealer soon and eagerly await their "It's normal" response.

There are loads of L owners out there that have engine noises of various degrees and natures. There are also quite a few owners out there blowing engines. (Both stock and modified). Ford has to have heard thousands of complaints about the engine noises, and they have to have logged that information. Is Ford taking our good natured loyalty for granted? Are they assuming that because we bought an 'enthusiast's' vehicle that we won't fight them?

My question is that why hasn't Ford more directly responded to the problems? After 3-4 years, couldn't they have engineered the motor to be more reliable? Are they just sitting back on this?

 

In all seriousness how hard would it be for ford to have installed a higher performance rod, piston combo on these lighting motors. They have to be buit anyway and I'm sure ford could get a hell of a deal on the casting, metal and whatever else it take to make these stronger. Infact they should do that with all there cars and trucks just to make sure they last allot longer, BUT WAIT!

See they do this because they know down the road these parts are going to fail, and that there most likely going to be out of warrenty when it does happen and they will be able to make more money from the parts sold, and the dealers will profit from the installation of the parts down to road. Its all a big plan to make more money, If they made motors that never blew up and where more reliable then they would loose allot of profit and money. WHY?

Look at a company like Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, the higher end cars. You pay allot more for those vehicle, but you also get a much better built vehicle (most of the time). They can do that because there profits on the vehicles are allot more compared to a 25K taurus. And when a higher end car breaks, you pay out the A$$. My fathers mercedes was just in the shop for a bad alternator. The car had 90K on it in 2 years and it drove like new. Get this, 750 bucks for a damn alternator. I told him for that much I would weld some contraption on there to make it work and only charge him 500. Thats nuts, but thats what it is.

Either way there's no way you guys are going to win this huge lawsuit with ford because ford will find there way to the judge and make it so you don't win. My Dad had it happen to him with his mercedes. the cars been nothing but little bull***** ever since he's had it. Nothing really major, but little crap that people find annoying, squeaks, hhhhmmmm's. Well after filling a lemon law suit against mercedes he won twice in a row and mercedes apealed it a third time. They won the third case becasue they paid off the judge. His car was in the shop for the same thing 14 times and they still haven't fixed it, and he lost the lemon law case. Its BS, but what can we do. NOTHING!
Just my 2 cents
LATER

 

Why should Ford care? They've only built a small number of thes engines. Of that small number, only a small percentage will complain. Thus, they can probably ignore you and get away with it. How many Lightnings have been built compared to the rest of the F150's sold, or for that matter, the rest of all the trucks sold.

Spike

 

F-series trucks sold in October 2001: 102,424

Total Ford vehicle sales in October 2001: 418,243

We're a very small minority.

 

Some people on this board need to spend some time on other manufacturers BBS. If you did this, you would see that the sporadic problems that Ford has had with the cold start knock (only some have it........ I sure don't), are prevelant with all manufacturers.

GM is having alot more serious problems with the 6.0 (not only cold start knock, but serious detonation issues). The 4.8 and the 5.3 have been having the cold start knock since first introduced, and still have it in '02 (only some do it). The 8.1 is having serious issues also.

Toyota has had serious problems with cold start knock in the 4.7 V8. Again, it is a sporadic problem that does not affect all vehicles.

DCX has had it with all their V8's also.

So far, noone has come up with an effective fix, however, there are a few ideas floating around about modern piston design and materials. Some feel the noise does not cause any future life problems either, as there are many '97 F150's running around with 150,000+ miles and have had the noise since close to new.

I realize it is irritating and annoying. I also know that many will find no comfort in knowing that they are not alone. However, I have yet to see any information that the noise causes ANY problems with the engines.

I work on all makes. I have raced many different types of vehicles. Most engines make noises, if you know what to listen for. Todays engines are very high tech, and use many dissimilar metals, which expand at different rates. This causes noises (till warmed up). Modern valvetrains are often noisy till warmed up. Most fuel injection systems also make ticking noises (some noisier than others). Does this mean it is an inherant problem with the engine???........ I don't think so. I also feel that some vehicles are noisier than others due to manufacturing tolerance differences.

In days past, we would hear these noises and not think anything of them. The vehicles were not built real tight, and we just expected it. Today, we are so intollerant of anything that isn't perfect, that we pick it to death. I guess that I have a tendency to disregard many noises because, due to my profession, I have heard them all. I know the ones to worry about.

Anyway, sorry so long. I just see this subject beaten to death on all the forums (Ford, GM, Toyota, DCX).

 

Wrong, just do not do business with whatever company you are against. AND tell everyone who'll listen.

 

What can I say. Don't post much but visit daily. Mine has had the knock since I've had it. Just turned over 50K today. Raced weekly and driven hard everyday with many mods. I work at a dealer and to this point have not seen a lot of engine failures except on modded engines. Ford built the engine to stay together as it was built and I believe it will. Have Trucks come in with 30 to 40K on them that are races with no or litltle mods with no problems. Also Trucks with responsible mods as mine with no problem. I've run 12.66 but have been careful about what I have done since mine is a everyday driver.
01
I agree that people today are more "picky" about things then they used to be for what ever reason. Perfection is expected in everything that is bought but in most cases not given in what the same people produce. WAAAAH they didn't build it the way I wanted, they built it the way it would work as built.
Flame on but I also am tired of some of the b****ing about these great Trucks because of mods done to them.
Steve

 

I hate to say it but I don't see my L living too much past 100k miles. Maybe 120k if I go easy on her when she's elderly. I don't think L's are engineered for the long haul. How many American vehicles that are blown or turbo live much past 100k? Just my $.02

 

MYREDTOY, I appreciate your post. As you said I have talked to many with high milage and no problems reported. My piston slap comes and goes. But the engine runs smooth and clean. Beatiful smooth idle. And does not use a drop of oil. And it does not seem to hurt in the performance area either. And over all you get a lot of performance and fun for 30,000 grand. And yes when mine gets old and tired I will buy another. Bob.

 

Ford's '87 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe has been known to last over 200,000 miles. A neighbor in my old sub. had a very nice black one with 170,000. I do believe the L's won't make it that far without an overhaul with all the mods you guys are doing to them though

 

1meanZ
I agree. I don't think there are any high performance vehicles like we have if they are driven like most of do that will last over 100K. Just a fact of life. If it is driven like say a regular F150 it would last much longer but it won't be.
SVT Bob
I'm with ya! Runs great and no problems that I have not caused myself (except intercooler of course). I will be first in line for next gen or whatever they may call it.
Steve

 

Knock, Knock, who cares. Man, my old 327 use to knock like it was coming apart until it warmed up. That engine went 250K with three rigs & berings type rebuilds. No new pistons. Whats the big deal. Run the hell out of it and turn up the radio. It will either run fine or blow up. Mine runs fine at 53k and many many many trips down the track. Live with it. I'll bet the Lightning engine failure rate is equal to or less than the standard 5.4 engine failure rate.
noelvm

 

The sad truth is that this in not just a Lightning problem. All Triton 5.4s have this problem, and have had it since they came out in 97. The only attempt at a fix has been to use a skirt coating on the pistons on the 11-5-00 and later motors. And that wears off in about 10k miles.

The Lightnings have more problems because they are driven harder and the more power you make, the faster you will wear the motor. It's a trade off. Even in bone stock form, these trucks will not last forever. The blowers will need replacement over time, just like the Turbo Coupes usually went through turbos every 80k miles (I've changed tons of those). It's a performance vehicle. It's not sold to last 200k miles and be trouble free. If you want that, buy a Taurus.

There is a reason that 130 hp Escorts last 300k miles and 6000hp Top Fuel motors get rebuilt EVERY PASS.

 

Well, according to your theory, this shouldn't happen to your dad's Mercedes.

you know how many people with 92 Fords can say they went 90 K miles before an alternator job?

alot.

 

If you really want to know about the 5.4 failure rate..do a search on piston slap on the n/a f-150 board. Speaking as an owner of an n/a 99 f150 with a 00 motor at 25k from the slap and an 00L at 29k with a yet to be determined major motor problem,I SAY WITHOUT A DOUBT THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE 5.4. My L was running slower than a couple of techs on this board who like to defend this motor and was not running lean when my problems began.I say my problems because as of yet the dealer has yet to fix it.When my 5.4 n/a lost a cylynder the dealer had replaced at least 6 n/a motors from the slap.Went to another dealer to buy a new coil and what do i see on the floor....yep another new 5.4 crate motor. My blood runs ford blue but i never had a problem with any of my previous trucks with 300-6,302,351 engines in them and there were 9 different trucks. The 5.4 does have a higher failure rate than the old designs and ford needs to adress this problem.