2011 Ford Expedition XLT 5.4 3v - Idle issues about 60% of the time - No codes - Engine runs great otherwise

[mr_dave]

The intermittent-ness would point me to an electrical issue, bad contact somewhere, broken wire, bad ground, failing coil pack, etc.

I had an intermittent miss on a previous vehicle and it turned out to be a bad coil pack wire, as in the wire looked OK but the copper inside was actually broken.

Can you see if only one (or a couple) cylinders are affected using the power balance scan when this occurs? That would at least narrow it down.

 

[RBalboa]

My 2 cents, my 2014 Expedition started doing the same thing, it wouldn't do it so much when cold, once I drove it in heavy traffic, once engine got pretty warm it would miss on idle, drive/parked. I finally found a mechanic that found the problem. Seems that that when I had a long block changed because the failed timing chain. This mechanic traced the problem with a large wire loom that runs from the ECU to the transmission, the loom was laying atop of the muffler and heating the wires, that is why it ran good when I was driving but once it got hot it would miss. Hope this helps.

 

[Ryan L]

I was thinking the same thing. Engine harmonics are a funny thing and what you can feel at low RPMs seems to melt away with higher RPMs (plus road motion).

Exactly. My wife’s 2015 Cherokee had failing mounts at 75k miles, and it wasn’t until I had her record a video while I tested for engine movement that it became obvious. Never occurs to me until watching a Scotty Kilmer video on YT that mounts are often overlooked and neglected on aged vehicles. I spent weeks trying to diagnose issues with the transmission. Thankfully I wasted mostly my time and not money.

 

[flhtcui1340]

I have a 2011 EL Limited and this sounds familiar. Ended up being the heater hose at the "T" started to drip down into my #3 bank.

 

[ejs_flys]

Mine was doing something similiar. Turned out the fuel pump pressure was too high and I had to replace the fuel pump.

Hi,

What were the symptoms? My expedition runs great as long as I am moving even at slow speed but at idle you feel it in the seat of your pants. It does not start immediately but when coming to a stop within a minute or two you start to feel it begin to stumble. And the stumble increases over time at times. Some times it runs fine but rarely it's stumble to a point where it almost stalls the engine. The idle RPM gets quite low too when it starts to stumble.

Do you know how it was discovered? Do they think it was pushing too much pressure and caused the injectors to leak?

Thanks,

Evan

 

[ejs_flys]

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[ejs_flys]

The intermittent-ness would point me to an electrical issue, bad contact somewhere, broken wire, bad ground, failing coil pack, etc.

I had an intermittent miss on a previous vehicle and it turned out to be a bad coil pack wire, as in the wire looked OK but the copper inside was actually broken.

Can you see if only one (or a couple) cylinders are affected using the power balance scan when this occurs? That would at least narrow it down.

Thanks - I have checked them all and do use the power balance. They all appear to be even. I have swapped COPs and even replaced all the plugs again to ensure they were actual Motorcraft plus and not knockoffs. It does not appear to be to be a misfire type of event. Thanks for offering the advise.

 

[ejs_flys]

I have a 2011 EL Limited and this sounds familiar. Ended up being the heater hose at the "T" started to drip down into my #3 bank.

Thanks - No leaks. The hoses were replaced when I did the full timing job with new rollers and lash adjusters. I was having the issue even before I did the timing job and assumed that would have resolved the shudder. Engine runs great at higher RPM. Great gas mileage. Almost like new and acceleration is better than new at 260k. Go figure. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[FordMafia]

Thanks - No leaks. The hoses were replaced when I did the full timing job with new rollers and lash adjusters. I was having the issue even before I did the timing job and assumed that would have resolved the shudder. Engine runs great at higher RPM. Great gas mileage. Almost like new and acceleration is better than new at 260k. Go figure. Thanks for the suggestion.

Do you by chance have air in your cooling system?
I just did a timing job and made a post about this. When I filled my coolant back up it took less than what I drained out. While doing some google research I found a video on draining the air from the system and the guy said you can have rough idle when there is air. To be fair he was working on a '92 Honda prelude and idk if that'd apply to our vehicles. I don't have rough idle myself but would love to hear if this gives you any positive reults.

 

[ejs_flys]

Do you by chance have air in your cooling system?
I just did a timing job and made a post about this. When I filled my coolant back up it took less than what I drained out. While doing some google research I found a video on draining the air from the system and the guy said you can have rough idle when there is air. To be fair he was working on a '92 Honda prelude and idk if that'd apply to our vehicles. I don't have rough idle myself but would love to hear if this gives you any positive reu

Thanks for the suggestion. No air in the cooling system. I really don't know how you would in a Ford v8 as compared to a Honda especially with the return hose on the top of the intake along with the thermostat. If there was air in the system you would not get a good flow of coolant and would most likely overheat. And I can have a rough idle on cold start as well as the engine running normal temp.