cmiller1973
New Member
I have a 2008 Exp XLT with 5.4L with 66,700 miles(yes very low) and we are original owners.
Never had any problems until 9/11/23. Wife went to leave and everything was fine. She stopped at stop sign and the engine had a terrible shake. Take off and it mostly goes away. No CEL right away, but then after 5 mins it came on.
I put my diagnostic reader on it and got code P0016. So many said change the CRK sensor. So I did. Nothing changed.
Took it to mechanic close by so I didn't drive it far. He got the same code and a couple others and also a misfire on #3. Advised to do plugs and COPs(coils). 4 hours later & $1300, same issue. I should have done #3 only, but thought it would be wise to do all. He did more digging and found the #3 still misfiring and is only getting 60lb max on pressure test.
He now seems to think it is a valve issue and wants to do a top end job one both heads. Complete rebuild costing at min $6k. Hard to do that and it may be something else, with the vehicle only being worth $5500. I would rather just fix #3 valves. It doesn't smoke, lose oil or burns oil. So we are ruling out ring issues.
Everything I read for the code says cam timing issues and VCT and/or cam phaser. However if VCT or phaser is bad, wouldn't all cylinders misfire on that bank? Odd it is just #3 right? Low compression is weird also. Everything fails but I can't see timing components going bad at only 67k mileage.
I did find one thing interesting. Cold start, the vibration is there but not bad. As the engine warms and gets to operating temp, vibration seems to get worse. In gear it is horrible and engine seems to want to shut off. Shift to neutral, it is not that bad and RPMs go up a little. It also seems to lighten up as the RPMs get over 1200 and runs fine to me.
No crazy noises coming from the engine at all. No chain noise or extreme tapping in heads.
Is there anything else I should be looking at?
Never had any problems until 9/11/23. Wife went to leave and everything was fine. She stopped at stop sign and the engine had a terrible shake. Take off and it mostly goes away. No CEL right away, but then after 5 mins it came on.
I put my diagnostic reader on it and got code P0016. So many said change the CRK sensor. So I did. Nothing changed.
Took it to mechanic close by so I didn't drive it far. He got the same code and a couple others and also a misfire on #3. Advised to do plugs and COPs(coils). 4 hours later & $1300, same issue. I should have done #3 only, but thought it would be wise to do all. He did more digging and found the #3 still misfiring and is only getting 60lb max on pressure test.
He now seems to think it is a valve issue and wants to do a top end job one both heads. Complete rebuild costing at min $6k. Hard to do that and it may be something else, with the vehicle only being worth $5500. I would rather just fix #3 valves. It doesn't smoke, lose oil or burns oil. So we are ruling out ring issues.
Everything I read for the code says cam timing issues and VCT and/or cam phaser. However if VCT or phaser is bad, wouldn't all cylinders misfire on that bank? Odd it is just #3 right? Low compression is weird also. Everything fails but I can't see timing components going bad at only 67k mileage.
I did find one thing interesting. Cold start, the vibration is there but not bad. As the engine warms and gets to operating temp, vibration seems to get worse. In gear it is horrible and engine seems to want to shut off. Shift to neutral, it is not that bad and RPMs go up a little. It also seems to lighten up as the RPMs get over 1200 and runs fine to me.
No crazy noises coming from the engine at all. No chain noise or extreme tapping in heads.
Is there anything else I should be looking at?