Snowblind-ca
Member
I have a 2010 Expedition EL with the 5.4L 3v engine with about 180,000 miles. In the last 6 months I’ve noticed the engine starting to make noise (like detonation, engine pinging) when under load and on the edge of a downshift to maintain speed. It does not do this every time, but I can most easily re-create the issue when driving at highway speeds into a hill climb that eventually will require a downshift to maintain speed (often with cruise control on). As the engine starts to work hard to maintain the speed it will start to make this noise and then shortly after downshift. After the downshift, the noise generally goes away.
I took it to the shop worried that I needed a timing job. They said they found the timing control was off and suggested a timing job, which I did (that hurt the pocketbook!). The issue seems a lot less frequent now, but I do still get this noise. I was not able to reproduce it with the mechanic in the vehicle.
The sound is reminiscent of past experience in older vehicles with bad fuel, but it has had this issue over numerous fuel tank refills.
I also recently replaced the thermostat because I was getting some P0128 engine codes. I’ve noticed the engine runs at a higher temp after the thermostat replacement. This was around the time I started noticing the engine noise. Not sure if this could be contributing to the issue.
Thoughts anyone?
I took it to the shop worried that I needed a timing job. They said they found the timing control was off and suggested a timing job, which I did (that hurt the pocketbook!). The issue seems a lot less frequent now, but I do still get this noise. I was not able to reproduce it with the mechanic in the vehicle.
The sound is reminiscent of past experience in older vehicles with bad fuel, but it has had this issue over numerous fuel tank refills.
I also recently replaced the thermostat because I was getting some P0128 engine codes. I’ve noticed the engine runs at a higher temp after the thermostat replacement. This was around the time I started noticing the engine noise. Not sure if this could be contributing to the issue.
Thoughts anyone?