I have an 04 w/ 5.4L 3v with just over 70k and recently changed the spark plugs, I finished everything Friday night. I disconnected the PCM to get to the back plug. I made sure everything was reconnected and fired it up and it started rough at first, but smoothed out. I took it for a test drive that night and it ran ok.

Saturday morning, I tried to drive across town and it ran like crap, stumbling missing, etc. Went home and found some info on relearning the PCM. Saturday after the relearn I drove the truck about 150 miles with no problems, truck ran great.

Sunday the truck was not driven.

Now, this morning my wife calls and says the truck is running rough.

Is this normal? Could the PCM still be relearning?

Please

 

I would check the COPs, make sure the boots are down on the plugs real well. Did you use dielectric grease on the boots?

The PCM does not have to relearn. What plugs did you use? If they were not the Motorcraft, did you check the gap?

 

I used the champion 1 piece plugs and checked the gaps. When I put the cop's on, it was a little difficult to tell if they were fully engaged. I did give them a good push but didn't feel the usual snap like on my old chevy, this was the first time I have ever installed this type of cop before. The boots looked to be in good shape so I reused them. I didn't have dielectric grease handy so I skipped it, guess I shouldn't have done that. I'll pull the cop's off this weekend and apply the dielectric grease.

My mom lives a couple of blocks away and I drove back and forth a few times tonight. The first couple of trips it ran fine. The last trip it started stumbling a little.

So the PCM doesn't need to relearn?

Do you think the lack of grease would/could cause an intermittent stumble?

Is there a way to bench test the cop's?

Thanks for your response, I appreciate the help.

 

If you really want to help yourself, buy the COP's from Global Automotive.
$80.00 for a set of 8. Alot of people on this site have made the purchase and have been very happy with them. (Including myself.)
You might as well buy them, since you are going to pull them anyway.
Use plenty of Dielectric Grease in the boots. I made sure that there was a good "dab" at the end of the boot before placing it on the plug. Slips right on for ya.
You will not here the clicking sound when you put your COP's on.
This is not like placing a plug wire on a plug and listening for the circular connector in the boot to "click" connect onto the plug.
Totally different set-up.

Your PCM is not "re-learning". It is going through checking your sensor's, etc. etc. Right now it is checking your monitor readiness and re-setting the monitor's one by one. Standard monitors, O2's, CAT's, Fuel/air mix, EGR, EVAP.
It really depends on what vehicle your driving. My Mom's Jeep has alot more readiness monitor's to reset than my F150.

Good Luck

 

Global doesn't have cops for the 5.4 3v engine.

 

Honestly, when I was typing my 3 cents worth, I was thinking of jumping on the Global site and checking that out. Thank's for straightening that out for me. I will definatly do my research before-hand, before lending advice.

This is what I found on Ebay this morning, will these work for the 3 valve ?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/8-NEW...=p4506.c0.m245

GLC, do you think it would be wise if he at least found a good aftermarket "BOOT & Spring" and replace them.
http://www.wittydeals.com/applicatio...d=62&year=2004

I would suggest that he looks at all of his spring connectors in his boots and make sure there is no damage or seperation.

 

Looks like I will be checking this out tonight instead of this weekend. My wife called a few minutes ago and said the truck is running even worse. It was stumbling, running really rough, and acted like it was going to die. She said the CEL came on breifly. But once the light went out it started to run better. I told her to let me know how it acts when it warms up. I am starting to wonder if this is isolated to a cold start problem. Because, as I mentioned above, it seemed to run ok last night. At least now I should be able to get the local parts store to pull the codes.

Any thoughts?

I need this truck to be reliable for her to take our kids to school and get her to work. Wish I had an engine scanner...

Thanks again

 

If your looking for a great Scanner for the money, this is the one I bought.

http://www.canobd2.com/

This is who I bought it from:
http://www.autobarn.net/canobd23110.....shopzilla.com

I have done troubleshooting and repair work on a number of vehicles with my scanner. I did alot of research before I purchased one, and I felt that the Equus was the best scanner, especially for the money. I did alot of looking for the best price and found that Autobarn's price couldn't be beat. They had the scanner to me in 3 days with free shipping.

 

Some notes on COP/PLUG.
The contact is by spring action only between the boot and the plug tips.
The grease is needed to make sure the boot will slide down over the plug (insulator) and also provide some measure of moisture barrier.
The grease, 'as applied' will only last about 500 miles with heat cycling then gets somewhat hard and very thin, so it is not a big permant solution to moisture and has very little actual insulation ability.
If the boot has not gone down over the plug, It could shift off to the the side and cause the spark to jump from the spring to the wall of the plug well.
You must keep this in mind and 'feel' the boot resistance when installing the COP in place.
If it doesn't seat softly and down in place without a lot of forcing inplace, something is not right.
As for relearning after the power-down, the monitors all have to be restested by enough driving cycles that may be as long as several hundred miles.
A few short trips won't do it.
Relearning the idle routine involves a cold start with headlites on and blower on full and run to full warm-up.
Then drive at least 10 miles and several hot restarts so the PCM has experienced all the normal loads under each condition it will normally see and stores the infomation.
This routine should not take long drive cycles to accomplish.
You will however see a code P1000 and no CEL lamp if checked by a good scanner, until all monitors have been reset and the PCM settles the idle and fuel tables in per your driving habits.
Advice is to never power down the PCM unless absolutely needed because it causes all these items to reboot and have to alter the tables baseline values again.

 

Our trucks don't like anything but Motorcraft.

In a few instances I've seen people use other brands with success, but it seems failure is more imminent with any non-Motorcraft plugs.

 

Bluegrass,

Thanks, that's the type of information that I have been looking for.

It sounds like I need to redo the relearn following these instructions as opposed to my previous trial. If I restart the relearn do you think I should do a new reboot and start from scratch, or leave it connected and just run through the proceedure on top of what has already been done?

And, yes, I wish I never disconnected the PCM now. Had I known about this previously, I never would have disconnected it. I am helping a buddy replace his plugs this weekend, hopefully we can unbolt it and push it aside to get to the back plug.

Thanks a ton for the info. I truly appreciate it. This sure has been a learning process.

 

In your original post, you said you disconnected your PCM, but in my brain I was thinking that you dropped the PCM as every one does to get to the rear plug. It did not go to my pea brain that you actually "disconnected", thus I said the PCM did not have to relearn. Sorry that I misunderstood.

 

Why do you think that is? Is the heat range different?

I went with the one piece plugs from Champion becuase it seemed more logical than putting the two piece plugs back in. I broke 2 of the plugs getting them out and had a helluva time getting the tips out. And, I would rather not experience that again.

My buddies 05 has 40k and I am hoping we have better luck with his. At least now, I know how to get out the broken ones.

 

Champion has a poor history with Ford engines. Most of the guys that have gone with the Champions in the 3Vs say they are doing fine. Some had trouble but that may have been to incorrect gap. As I understand it, the Champion has the conventional style tip instead of the cross bar. I chose to go back with Motorcraft as mine all came out fine at 65,500 miles and the tips did not even look used. Could have gone another 65,500.

 

No problem at all, I certainly wish I had dropped it instead of disconnecting it. Thanks again.