Hi all.. great forum here, glad I found it - some excellent information!

I have just bought a '00 F150 SC XLT (70k miles), and I believe it's the 4.2 v6 engine.

Not knowing much about trucks (and feeling quite stupid about it too!).. I'm kinda lost about what this noise is I keep hearing.

It's the typical "rock in a tin can" noise I've been reading about on these forums.. pinging? kinda noise. At first it would only do it when accelerating around 15-25mph. The noise happens when accellerating, and it lasts as long as I give it gas, up until about 40mph where it fades and eventually stops. It sounds like it's coming from the driver side under the hood.

I had the exhaust system checked out at the local mechanic.. everything seemed fine according to the mechanic. No loose shields, exhaust apparently looks good.

Next, I let the gas run down to empty and put in a can of FI cleaner, topped off with a full tank of 93 octane. 6 hours worth of freeway driving later, the noise seemed to get louder and now does it straight from the start as soon as any gas is applied, but only in the mornings and late afternoon/evenings when it's getting cold down here in SC.

I couldn't get the truck to make the noise whilst in Park or Reverse.

Wondering if it were an oil pump problem, I took it down to my local Ford dealer today. (The truck was bought via a small dealer, so i'm not under warranty of any sort.)

Explaining the problems to them, they took it out for a ride and unfortunately my F150 decided to play nice all of a sudden. Talk about bad timing.. we took the truck out twice with the Ford Dealer's mechanic, and nothing.. not one bit of noise. I figure this was because the engine was warmed up maybe..

Regardless, he said he'd take it in for closer inspection. Now, at this point I'm not sure exactly what he did as I was told to go wait in the waiting room. He returned saying that he'd listened to it carefully (I'm assuming with the stethoscope tool ?) and couldn't hear a thing., thus - no problems with it.

I left the dealership with the option of 'leaving the truck there overnight to test it when cold'.. which unfortunately I can't do anytime soon..

So, I'm at a bit of a loss here, again - forgive my lack of mechanical knowledge, i'd love to learn more when time allows, but for now it's just me and my copy of "Auto Repair for Dummies... " oh, and you guys on this forum..!

What to do next? Any suggestions? I hear there's something you can put in the oil to help quieten the engine? Techron is it? I just had an oil change, & oil filter change the day before I put the FI cleaner in.

It's really driving me nuts and is (lately) loud to the point where it's worrying me. I've read on these forums that sometimes this is normal noise? .. believe me this is NOT a normal noise! Sounds like something is very loose in there!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance.

 

It could be the dreaded piston slap, look at the home page you will find plenty of info on it on the right side. Its not all bad, read my friend and you to shall learn..

Oyea!!! welcome to the boards...

 

DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN YOUR OIL.

What kind of oil filter is on the truck? If it is a cheapie and the noise only happens when cold the thick very high pressure oil could be by-passing the filter and starving the engine!!

If it is ping/detonation it has nothing if very little to do with the oil. since you bought it used I would change, plugs, wires, pcv, fuel filter, and clean out the EGR System (Not just the valve) and go back to using only 87 octane.

Tell us about the oil change.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Here's a little update:

After no luck at the dealership, I decided to put some different FI cleaner in, Chevron Techron - filled up the tank with 18 gals. of 89oct. and took it for a long drive last night.

Noise still there, I decided to leave it overnight and take it out all day today.

Was very loud this morning.. sounds like the engine is totally dry of oil..

The noise fades away once the engine warms up, now when I say warm up I mean at LEAST 20-30 mins driving later. You can still faintly hear it at around 1500-1900 revs, and it's like this all day long.

Feels kinda sluggish around 70+ mph, not sure if this is related.

According to Firestone, (my nearest mechanic) - I had a really cheap filter on there when I took it in (this was the day after I bought the truck, about 9-10 days ago). Firestone changed the oil, put in a synthetic oil, and "the best filters they have" but i'm not sure of the brand. Firestone also checked the entire exhaust system like I said before, and advised I take it to the dealer to check the oil pump/pressure if the noise doesn't go away.

(which I did, and the dealer didn't bother checking the oil pump & pressure, told me it was fine.)

However, one rear back brake is also shot - needs replacing, and Firestone also told me the tranny fluid was really bad, and would need flushing. I didn't get that done right there because I didn't have the extra $$ on me, and haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm doubting those problems are related to this noise however.

Thanks for the tips on the "plugs, wires, pcv, fuel filter, and EGR System" - I'm gonna head back to Firestone tomorrow and have the brakes, fluid and the above done. Hope the EGR cleaning isn't too pricey..

Anyway, i'll keep trying to discover what the problem is, I hope it doesn't cost me too much because I'm trying to work out if this truck is worth all the hassle. Would hate to pour in all this money and have it seize on me because of a bad lifter etc. Lemon Law days are ticking away... !

Man, i gotta do something about the size of my posts.. touch of the old verbal diahorrea.. lol

I'll keep u up to date, any suggestions are MOST welcome!

Thanks guys.

P.S. Worth the hassle? Man.. everytime I get outside of the truck I get a buzz and a smile all around.. are F-150's simply the sweetest looking trucks or WHAT!!!!! Thats gotta be worth something...

 

__________________
2000 F-150 XLT 4.2 V6 SUPER CAB, STYLESIDE BLACK/GOLD, AUTO. CHROME BED RAILS/BUMPER, BED LINER, POWER EQUIP.

Rattling like a ****' but I love it!

WANT LIST: No more rattling (I'm workin' on it!) - 4x BLAUPUNKT PCx573's (not installed yet), DENON AMP, Hard Tonneau Cover, WingsWest Full Body Styling Kit.

 

Sigh.. it gets worse.

Took it back to Firestone today. I made them take the EGR valve off and let me see it, it was pretty dirty but not completely blocked. Had a transmission fluid change (it needed it) and had the plugs checked, (didn't see the need for new plugs at this point.) Everything is checking out good.

Halfway home.. tat-tat-tat-tat-tat everytime I give it some gas.

GRRR!

This noise is totally driving me nuts. Since I have 10 days of Lemon Law left on this truck I'm thinking of getting it back to the dealer tomorrow. Gonna raise some hell over there and see if he can open his wallet to contribute toward this problem, as I've already spent $500 this week on trying to get the noise to stop.

Add that the $5000 I put down on the truck, I'm thinking I coulda gone straight down to my local Ford dealership and put that on a brand new one instead!

I'll see if my dealer can help out any, if not - I think i'll try to get my downpayment back. Kills me because I love this truck to bits.. i'd hate to lose it. But.... this noise is making me pretty worried. I'd hate to be stuck with a seized engine facing thousand of dollars worth of repair, and i'm not made of money!

Everything i've tried hasn't made the slightest of difference. In fact, since cleaning the EGR, the noise is twice as loud. I'm starting to think the engine has serious problems, and it's not a case of ping/piston slap at all.

Just wanted to thank you all for your suggestions, both in this thread and througout the forum.. the knowledge i've gained here is amazing.

 

stop throwing band-aides and money at the truck!

what you need is a firm diagnosis of what the problem is. first off you need to know exactly what the noise is. is it detonation or valve noise for instance.

then you can get it fixed.

firestone should have cleaned the entire egr SYSTEM not just the valve.

tell the dealer that you want an absolute diagnosis before they do any work. they will be shocked by you asking for that and think that you really know what you are talking about!

good luck-

 

hehe.. I hear ya, and thanks again.

I believe FStone did do the entire EGR system, well thats what's said on the invoice anyway.

I'm determined to try and save money on fixing this problem. Gonna try the computer reset this morning and see what happens.

If no luck with that .. "absolute diagnostic" here I come!

Thanks again.

 

Axis,

My truck has the same symptoms. Did you find out what it was (is)?

 

I just had a rattling problem fixed on my truck. It ended up being the bearings in the water pump. Just a suggestion to check out.

 

hey.. yeah, sorry - i've been so bogged down with work the last few days - been driving the truck regardless of the noise

I reset to computer to no avail, didn't seem to make a difference at all. Started thinking along the lines of a bad exhaust again - FS were supposed to check it completely, given recent attitudes in there I'm wondering if they checked it at all...

Took it into a different mechanic, he thinks it could be a bad cat. converter, but says the noise isn't loud enough to tell which of the 4 cats it is. He recommended I wait til it gets worse and take it to a muffler shop to have them check it. I got under the truck yesterday and gave it a good kick around to see if the cats, exhaust or heat shields were loose. Didn't manage to make any noise, yet I noticed the exhaust was looking a little worn out.

One of the joins/welds on it near a bend pipe (sorry for the description, I have no idea what the parts are called) looks like it's coming apart. I'll take a pic tomorrow and post it, it almost looks like the join has torn apart and there's a slight gap showing.. it's confusing still because it doesn't seem like an exhaust problem/noise. The rattling is too uniform to be a loose part? When giving gas it makes a constant tat-tat-tat-tat-tat noise...

Hope I get to the bottom of it soon, if I get any luck with it i'll be sure to let you know. Good luck!

 

From your description, it does NOT sound like a broken cat. I have had several broken cats on a '86 5.0 GT and it only did it at idle or when in park and revving it up.

Just FYI, if you do have a broken cat, don't drive on it very long....... It'll break apart really fast and as soon as the chunck of ceramic will fit into the exhaust pipe, that's where it'll go next. If your lucky, it'll make it to the muffler and not plug up the pipe.

Mine made it to the muffler everytime. It's a real PITA to fish out chunks of cat from a muffler! When I had a set of mufflers that were straight through, the chunk come out the tail pipe!

So, the worn water pump was not the source of the sound??