I've got roughly 66k miles on my truck and have recently experienced a problem. For the past month or so, I noticed my truck would skip when I'd get real heavy on the gas. I only really noticed it when the truck was cold and it seemed to go away after it had warmed up to normal operating temperature so I never really thought much about it......until this past Friday.

I had been driving for about 45 minutes (so I know the truck was warmed up) and as I was going along the highway (at about 55mph), I came up on some slow vehicle in front of me. I then floored it to get around that vehicle but my truck was skipping and sputtering badly! And the check engine light began to flash. I then pulled over immediately into some gas station and left it running idle for about two minutes and the check engine light stopped flashing. I drove the truck for the next 1.5hrs after that but was very light on the pedal and the check engine light never came on. The truck seems to run smooth and without any issues, I'd say from idle to 3/4 throttle, but if you floor it, it does what I just described above. Anyone else have similar issues or any information as to what it could be? I'm planning to drop it off at the shop this Friday and let them fix it but I'd like to get some sort of idea as to what my problem could be. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

A flashing CEL means the truck is experiencing a misfire on a cylinder. Your local dealer your a shop should be able to read any codes in the computer.

 

Sounds like a fouled plug or COP, I'd change the plugs if its around that time or if they were recently done then have the code read (it'll tell you what cylinder misfired) and check that plug and coil. I had the same issue and it was my #5 plug, it was chipped off at the bottom. Hope you can figure it out cause I remember I was freaking out about it.

 

10-4, thanks guys. I'm really pushed for time here and since I'll be out of the county next week, I think I'm just going to drop it off at the local shop and let them fix it while I'm gone. Our family and business have used them for all of our service work and they're pretty trustworthy. If it's just a fouled plug or a bad coil, that gives me alot of relief........thought it was something worse than that. I'll let you know what the problem is once I get back in town.

 

Make sure your shop is aware of the spark plug changing issues on the 5.4 3v and they have the latest TSB and an extractor tool just in case.

 

How long since the fuel filter was changed?

 

That sounds very similar to what my truck was doing. It is in the shop right now...towed in last week...

My truck started doing it a year ago. The dealer was unable to duplicate the problem, and it didn't give any codes. I could get it to do it almost on demand...seemed like I could get it to do it at about 40-45+/- mph.

Right now, they are sayin bad injector, plugged catylitic converter, and burned exhaust valves...about 7k to repair.

Regards!