I have a 2006 F150 with the 5.4L that currently has 140,000 miles. I LOVE MY TRUCK!
It just does not like me currently. I am having an issue when the temperature is cold and the truck sits for more than 5 hours.

I start my truck up and let it idle for a minute or two then put in into gear. I drive a few hundred feet and truck shudders while I have my foot on the accelerator. I let me foot off of the accelerator and within a second or two the shuddering stops. I then reapply the gas and it is slow to accelerate. The first time I try to stop after this sequence the truck feels like it is going to die and has a bad shuddering problem until I come to a complete stop.

Now for the weird - once the truck goes thru this little sequence of events it does not have any other issues. The issues will reappear when I shut the truck off let is sit for 5 or more hours and the temperature gets low. The lower the outside temperature the more often this is happening. I had the transmission fluid drained and the mechanic said it looked like new fluid.

Help?????

 

When is the last time you changed sparkplugs?

 

What maintenance have you done? These are not perpetual motion machines. They need TLC.. 140k miles its due for a whole bunch of stuff overdue actually..

 

The truck has been thru ALL of the factory recommended maint. The only thing that has not been done is the spark plugs. I had the truck into the dealership for the plugs and they recommended that I do not do them. They explained the issues with pulling the plugs and thought they would be fine?

 

140k on the OEM plugs is WAY overdue - Ford recommends 60k on the 5.4 3v. Find someone willing to do the job who is experienced, and ask up front how much it will cost including any broken plug extractions. Sounds like the dealer just doesn't want to do it, and I'd suspect they would charge you through the nose for extractions.

To prepare for this, start putting Techron in the gas. As much as possible, get it out on the highway and drive it hard to burn off as much carbon as you can.

 

glc - thanks.

I had the dealer quote the plug change and they are asking for $1400 DEPOSIT for changing the plugs!! Sounds like I need to find an alternate source.

I have put 2 bottles of Techron thru the gas tank in the past week. I do drive the highway frequently this time of year so I am hopeful that this will help out?

 

where do you live? and sounds like it's a stealership VS quality place to do business

 

You can do it a lot cheaper than $1400.... Also, what's "cold" and are you using a block heater?

 

$1400???? It's obvious they just don't want to do it. Not a dealer I'd ever do business with.

Do you have ANY mechanical skills and experience? Any friends that do? This is a job you can do yourself with the right tools, other than a standard 3/8 ratchet and extensions all you would need to buy is a 9/16 plug socket and a Lisle extraction tool - and some carb cleaner, dielectric grease, and high temp nickel antiseize. Even if you have to buy everything, you would be spending 200 bucks max for parts, tools, and supplies.

The dealer here gets $300 parts and labor to do a plug change on a 3v, including 1 or 2 extractions. Additional extractions are billed at actual shop time, normally about 40 bucks each.

 

Make $1200 in a couple of days doing it yourself.. Its not that complex your dealer has never trained there personnel of they wouldn't do that to there customers. I would complain to Ford about them if I were you and I definitely would NEVER do business with them. A ford trained tech should be able to do the plugs in 4-5 hours EVEN if they break.1-2 if they dont..