I keep reading about cam phasers on here what the hell are they?
2005 f-150 5.4 do I have these?

 

Yes, you do. Ford went to a vairable cam timing set up on the new 3 valve engines. The "phaser" is essentially the camshaft gear which is actuated by oil pressure to either advance, or retard camshaft timing for better fuel mileage. I just replaced both sides on a 04 today. It had 33,000 miles, and was already getting sludged up on top. All I can say is that you better change your oil EVERY 3000 miles, or 3 months no matter what. Oil pressure feeds this system and can cause costly repairs down the road.

Robbie

 

Apart from changing oil ever 3000 miles which is pricey anyway is there anything else you can do to prevent this happening
Is it a common problem or just 'scaremongering?'
Ford Europe used to supply a car called the Escort, I think it sold in the states (think I saw one on the film Friday)The Escort used an engine called a CVH that had hydraulic tappets/rockers that had a similar problem but again the quantity they sold to the amount that buggard up was down to 'scaremongering' i.e 50000000000000 cars sold per minute with the odd one messing up but getting a bad name