Throttle hesitation

[ipreferrangers]

Throttle lag/hesitation

My mom’s 2018 expedition max seems to be falling apart at the seams. Her main issue seems to be what seems to be throttle hesitation issues. She’ll press on the accelerator and it takes time to even accelerate a little bit. (Maybe a second or two but enough to notice and more than normal). Initially I thought it could be a throttle position sensor, which I was going to and still am going to test. But after driving it this morning I noticed the transmission was acting strange. It was constantly skipping gears, and it never went into 2nd at all. Im not super familiar with the 10 speed in hers but doing some basic research they seem to have some problems. I’m not sure if the skipping gears is related to the hesitation it was just something I noticed.

Second issue: I have the very loud noticeable ticking sound upon startup (mostly cold start) that I read was likely cam phasers. However we already had the cam phasers done this summer. Any advice on those?

Sorry for the long post, I would appreciate any help with diagnosis.

 

[Bmac1955]

Sounds like Cam Phasers on cold start up. Skipping 2nd pretty much normal on 2018 Gen 4 10r80 Trans. Hesitation explain. When cold engine drive offs. Experienced myself only when going thru warm up process maybe 5 mins. Then fine. If it sounds like a diesel for a couple seconds after an overnite soak........sounds like cam phasers.

 

[TheDoug]

Your skipping of gears is normal under a light acceleration load. It is designed to do that.

Also the loud ticking noise is one of two things. Cam phasers like you said is one issue... If it is really loud and goes away very quickly after startup that's your problem. However problem 2 has to do with the waste gate linkage for the turbos. On cold start they are very noisy and stay that way til it warms up. On my 2018 that takes about 20 to 30 seconds. Ford will tell you that's normal for the waste gate. There are some fixes out there involving getting a spring and putting it on the actuator to hold it snug. (There are posts here about it)

Not 100% sure what's going on with the hesitation.

 

[LokiWolf]

Take a video of the tick and post it.

How many miles? When was the last time the plugs were changed?

Have you checked the fluid levels? Oil, Trans?

 

[ipreferrangers]

Sounds like Cam Phasers on cold start up. Skipping 2nd pretty much normal on 2018 Gen 4 10r80 Trans. Hesitation explain. When cold engine drive offs. Experienced myself only when going thru warm up process maybe 5 mins. Then fine. If it sounds like a diesel for a couple seconds after an overnite soak........sounds like cam phasers.

The hesitation happens all the time during driving, even if it’s already warmed up. You’ll go to accelerate and have no power, then suddenly it drops a gear or two and takes off. My suspicion was the throttle position sensor because it felt like it suddenly wakes up and realizes you’re pressing the gas petal. Hopefully that makes sense

 

[ipreferrangers]

Take a video of the tick and post it.

How many miles? When was the last time the plugs were changed?

Have you checked the fluid levels? Oil, Trans?

Oil has been kept up with, trans is probably due for a service. I think it’s at about 60-70k I can’t check right now. If by plugs you mean spark plugs, then I don’t think they’ve ever been done.

 

[LokiWolf]

Oil has been kept up with, trans is probably due for a service. I think it’s at about 60-70k I can’t check right now. If by plugs you mean spark plugs, then I don’t think they’ve ever been done.

Oil being kept up with and checking the level are 2 different things. If the oil is low it can make the startup tick worse. Also the fluid level on the 10R80(Trans) is important.

If it is indeed at 60K+ it needs new plugs gapped properly 100%. These EcoBoosts like most Turbo motors are HARD on plugs.

NGK LTR7BHX (95605) are what I recommend and many have had good luck with them.

I would check fluid levels, and change the plugs. Those are small steps that will help either way and might have a significant impact.

 

[Fizzy]

Another thing to try - drive it in Sport mode. This forces the truck to use every gear, and not skip any. Let us know if the hesitation goes away. If it does, it might be worth clearing the adaptive transmission tables. It could have learned a bunch of weird driving behaviour.

 

[LokiWolf]

Another thing to try - drive it in Sport mode. This forces the truck to use every gear, and not skip any. Let us know if the hesitation goes away. If it does, it might be worth clearing the adaptive transmission tables. It could have learned a bunch of weird driving behavior.

Excellent suggestion!

 

[ipreferrangers]

Oil being kept up with and checking the level are 2 different things. If the oil is low it can make the startup tick worse. Also the fluid level on the 10R80(Trans) is important.

If it is indeed at 60K+ it needs new plugs gapped properly 100%. These EcoBoosts like most Turbo motors are HARD on plugs.

NGK LTR7BHX (95605) are what I recommend and many have had good luck with them.

I would check fluid levels, and change the plugs. Those are small steps that will help either way and might have a significant impact.

Ok thank you. I did check the oil level and it’s perfect, haven’t checked trans fluid yet, but I will definitely do plugs soon.

 

[ipreferrangers]

UPDATE: Did some diagnostics work with a fancy scan tool and came up with two codes. P0018 and P0021. Both suggest that at least one cam is out of alignment with the crank. Many people fixed the issue by replacing the variable valve timing solenoid and during testing those for electrical issues, we noticed that there was oil around one of the solenoids. It was in bank 2 like the engine codes suggested. So we believe the solution is replacing those solenoids.
Thank you everyone for the help.

 

[LokiWolf]

UPDATE: Did some diagnostics work with a fancy scan tool and came up with two codes. P0018 and P0021. Both suggest that at least one cam is out of alignment with the crank. Many people fixed the issue by replacing the variable valve timing solenoid and during testing those for electrical issues, we noticed that there was oil around one of the solenoids. It was in bank 2 like the engine codes suggested. So we believe the solution is replacing those solenoids.
Thank you everyone for the help.

I would do plugs while you are there for sure.

Good diagnostics work...sounds like you are on a path to a long term solution.