5.4 3v rough idle, dies, multiple codes

[akorcovelos]

spoke too soon...

Truck ran perfect for a day or so, then last night it started idling really rough on my Wife and had no power, throwing codes P0022, P0158, P0171, P2198...

Figured I'd take it to work and see first hand how it was running. Started it in the AM to let it warm up (-4f today) and it seemed fine. When I went to leave it started idling super rough, almost stalling, like it was running on 4 cylinders or something. Every time it shifted into OD it would shake violently until it down shifted. Turned OD off and it would smooth out but still lack all power.

After about 30 minutes of driving, like a light switch everything was fine. Ran smooth as can be the rest of my drive in to work (40min).

I'm baffled at this point. I'm waiting for a bluetooth OBD adapter so I can use the Torque app to see if I can monitor cam phaser movement and oil pressure, and log whats going on when it's running bad versus normal.

 

[Bedrck47]

Not 100% sure on this but you may not be able to monitor oil pressure on the expy. The oil pressure sensor is just a switch that tells whether or not you have pressure it doesn't read actual oil pressure but its more like a light switch either its on or off

 

[Skauber]

There are unfortunately no real oil pressure sender installed in Ford vehicles by Ford. They simply use a standard on/off oil pressure switch which tells the gauge in the cluster to eiter read "Normal" or "Low" and nothing in between. Think of it as a standard no oil pressure lamp in the shape of a gauge. You need to purchase an aftermarket oil pressure gauge kit in order to monitor the engine oil pressure.

Since there's weird stuff going on with the O2 sensor on bank 2, stuck rich, which I believe is the cause of bank one being too lean (P0171), try to unplug the O2 sensor on bank 2 and take a drive. May be a bad sensor or something, if you unplug it then the PCM should fall back on a failsafe fuel mixture strategy.

 

[akorcovelos]

Well that sucks, I figured I'd be able to get actual oil pressure from the OBD. I know the dummy gauge on the cluster doesn't move until pressure drops below 7psi, but I believe the timing system needs 42psi to operate properly.

I really think this is still a bad sensor or electrical issue since it comes and goes without any pattern I can identify. We'll see how my drive home goes, maybe I can get it to throw some additional codes.

I did read in a couple threads to check the connections of the noise isolators on the front of the heads. I guess those are the gray plugs that are bolted onto the front valve cover studs?

 

[akorcovelos]

well, didn't get my UBS adapter yet, but I've put 150 miles on the truck since yesterday and it's been perfect, hasn't missed a beat. The only thing I've done is fuel it up. The problems all started shortly after my Wife filled it up last, so maybe bad gas? Could bad fuel cause all these issues and codes?

 

[Skauber]

Maybe she put the wrong fuel type in it? I know in the US these are set to run at a fairly low octane number (87?), do you have higher octanes available at the pump? Don't know how it would respond to fuel with too high octane though, never tried that..

 

[Lostneye]

I don't see how the wrong octane could cause these kinds of issues. Even if water or some other contaminants that may cause rough running, I still don't see the timing issues because of it. Possibly misfires or O2 faults if anything.

 

[dougxp]

I would check the VVT solenoids, just fixed mine last night. Would idle badly sometimes, pulling injector connectors on one side would not change the idle speed when it was in the bad idle state. Pulled VVT and applied 12 volts to the pins(use jumper leads off the battery), would not activate initially, reversed connections to pins, solenoid started clicking. Cleaned with carb cleaner, dried with compressed air, put some engine oil in a small can, applied 12 volts to the pin a few time while submerged in the oil. Reinstalled, vehicle ran fine. Check the screens on the VVT, if dirty, you should clean them with the carb cleaner and change your engine oil and filter. I believe you can pull the VVT without removing the valve cover, the mounting bolt will not fall out of the VVT during removal. I had just purchased this 05 expedition with "bad cam phasers". Had lots of varnish under the valve covers, I will be changing the oil now and after a 1000-1500 miles again. If that varnish starts coming loose, the oil filter is going to get dirty fast.

 

[akorcovelos]

She put the right fuel in, we're a racing family so the Wife is better in the garage than most car guys.

The VVT solenoids are brand new, less than 3k miles on them. No idea why bad fuel would cause the cam issues. The only other thought I had was the coolant hosing the ECU down and frying the tps caused the issues/codes, and even after replacing the TPS, cleaning all connections, and clearing the codes the computer just needed some time to relearn the engine...thats just a SWAG, who knows. I guess time will tell if the issue is truly gone, but after today I'll have around 300 miles without issue.