2007 F-150 Chugging

[tipup]

I have a 2007 F 150 5.4 V8, while pulling any trailer the truck begins to chug when backing up or making slow turns. When it chugs the whole truck starts to shake and wants to stall. It does not matter the size of the trailer. Any other time is runs just fine and the gas milage has not changed at all. All fluids are good, tranny fluid looks great with no burnt smell. I have a feeling it is a tranny issue or maybe a tourqe converter issue. Anyone have any ideas??? Thanks all.

[Lund4ver]

Just a shot in the dark, but I would guess from the way it sounds you have either a plug or a coil going bad on the truck. Mine felt like the transmission, had that all checked and it was fine, had the plugs changed, and they found a coil pack was bad when under load. Start there, or others will be along to give advice. My truck is a 2005 with the 5.4. After the plugs it is running stronger then it was before. Be careful with the plugs as they tend to break off I was lucky when the shop did mine and didn't break any of them.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Id start by looking at a cylinder misfires with a scan tool when the problem occurs. If a specific cylinder is showing a misfire I would concentrate on that cylinder. Loading the coil with an adjustable spark tester would be a good start.

[bassfshin24]

I had chugging on my 05 f150 5.4. But my chugging occured around 50 mph when I would try to accelerate slowly and did it even worse with a trailer on the back. Took it in and had the plugs changed and has worked great every since. Unfortunately 4 of my plugs broke and cost me a lot of extra labor $.

[Scott K]

I agree with everyone else, sounds like a bad coil. I would do as Jer said, find out which cylinder is having the missfire, then replace all 8 spark plugs, and then replace the coil to the cylinder that has the miss in it.

[fishinben351]

yeah but wouldnt his check engine light come on? i had a 01 5.4 and when my coil went out and it misfired my checkengine light came on right away.bad u-joint?

[Scott K]

Not all Fords set a check engine light very easily, in fact, the majority of them dont, especially on intermittent missfires

[Lund4ver]

My 05 with the 5.4 never had a check engine light turn on, as it was a random misfire, similar to what another guy said, mine did it at around 50 mph, and would feel like it was the transmission slipping, but found out that wasn't the case.

Tipup - even if you have lower miles, I have heard that they recommend now changing the plugs out at around 50,000 to 60,000 miles to avoid the plugs breaking off. I was a lucky one that changed mine at 115,000 miles and no broken plugs.

[tipup]

Thanks for all of the replies! It turned out to be the Cam Phazer? By my understanding it controls the timeing and oil pump pressure. When this goes, it begins to walk the crank and starts to tear everything apart inside. Got lucky and dumped the truck and upgraded.

[JOHNBIGDOG]

Thanks for all of the replies! It turned out to be the Cam Phazer? By my understanding it controls the timeing and oil pump pressure. When this goes, it begins to walk the crank and starts to tear everything apart inside. Got lucky and dumped the truck and upgraded.

You need to do buisness else where.

A camshaft phaser advances/retards the camshaft, it is controlled by the VCT solenoid. I have not heard of one yet going bad and causing these problems, but I have heard of low oil pressure causing these issues.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I was wondering about that!

Seems like there was some confusion on what was wrong or happening and what was perceived as wrong.