I have a 2001 F-150 with a 5.4 that seemed to have a bad misfire yesterday. My truck acted just like a lot of people have described their trucks acting in the forum. It would run fine at idle, however would stutter like mad under load and acceleration. On another note, I had just filled up with gas so I thought it was the gas. I am in Germany so I don't have an Auto Zone to pull codes so I tried a few things people had suggested on here. I checked #4 coil pack and heater hose (is it prone to leak on a 2001 also?) and there seemed to be no leakage that I could tell. I also pulled out the plug and it seemed to be fine, I cleaned it up a little and reinstalled it. I ohmed out the coil pack and got a reading of 5.38 (don't exactly know what it should read though) on both pins. I picked two other packs at random and checked them and they ohmed out at 5.63. So I thought I had a bad #4 coil pack. I reassembled everything and reconnected the battery. When I took it for a drive afterward it ran great. No hesitation or stutter! I just couldn't understand. Could have resetting the PCM done his? Was it bad gas that threw the computer off? Is my #4 coils pack on its way out? If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

Additionally, I would like to get a code scanner so I can pull my own codes in the future since there really is no place to have it done over here. Does anyone have any advice on them. I was looking at one by Auto X-ray. Thanks in advance.

 

What octane gas are you using? it could have been just a loose plug wire... here's a site with some, the EZREAD 2000 looks good...