Hey guys, my truck has 37,000 miles on it. I have a lot of knocking going on, mainly under acceleration at low RPMS and it seems to be worse when it's warmed up. I took it to a ford service center, lead mechanic rode with me, confirmed that I had some premature detonation, said it was probably carbon buildup since I take it pretty easy on my truck. Suggested that I drive it hard for a week, and if that doesn't clear it up, to bring it in and that they could do a decarb.

I ran some premium through it, it seemed to help the knocking some.

Then I drove it hard for a week (with 87 Octane). No change.

I ran seafoam through the vaccuum line. No change.

Took it to a different ford service station (closer to me), had a decarb and asked to check for any thrown codes (check engine light is NOT on). No codes have been thrown and no change after decarb.

So what could this be? I have a hard time believing that my easy driving habits could have done anything, especially at 37K miles. I don't feel like paying for them to take my engine apart and clean it since my truck has very low miles on it (if carbon is even the problem). I have an extended warranty, should I just drive it till it throws a rod or something? Then Ford would have to fix the problem I believe. I feel that this is ford's fault, not mine. Very frustrating, I bought a new truck for the main reason that I would not have problems for a long time and that I would have a warranty to cover said future problems. Truck is less than 2 years old.

 

It seems odd to me that the motor would carb up with such low miles.

Do you make only short trips around town with no highway driving?

If it were me I would pull a couple of the spark plugs and see what they look like. It might give you some clues as to what is going on.

 

Yeah I really doubt that it is carbon buildup. I buy gas at the tier 1 stations (exxon, chevron, bp, etc) and do regular maintenance.

My driving is almost all highway (44 mile roundtrip for work everyday, 40 of them are highway).

Yeah I should have pulled a plug or two and checked them out. I just took it to another service center and took the foreman for a ride, he said some pinging/knocking is normal (yeah right) but I did have an excessive amount of it. They are looking into it. I'm very glad I got the extended warranty. I hope they call back today/tomorrow. Any opinions are appreciated!

 

with doing 40+ round trip miles a day, that should be plenty of driving to get things up to temp....so I really doubt the "carboned up" theory too. You should be within the factory warranty so...press for it to get fixed. and extended warranty ta-boot...should be no issues getting things covered.