The major problem is some pretty severe vibrations happening while driving. The vibrations are intermittent and only last for a few seconds at a time. The time between vibrations is inconsistent. Sometimes they are seconds apart or minutes apart and sometimes it is just one vibration while other times there are several rapidly, one after another. The vibrations are felt throughout the truck, particularly through the seats. It feels like you are driving over a rumble strip, but much worse. Driving speed doesn't seem to be a factor, but going up steep hills seems to reliably produce the vibrations. It doesn't seem to affect the steering or to be from a steering component. Some other symptoms that may or may not be related are as follows:
There is a check engine light on. The light has been on pretty much since the week I bought the truck 4 years ago. I took it back to the small, independent dealer I bought it from, and they said they couldn't figure out what the problem was. The truck drove fine though, so I didn't worry about it too much. About 2 years ago I took it to an actual Ford dealership to get fixed. The code was for a cam position sensor. I had them fix it but almost as soon as I drove away from the dealership the check engine light came back on. I haven't had the time or money to get it looked at again since then, but now that these vibrations have started and have quickly gotten worse, I am concerned what might happen if I don't get to the bottom of this and get it fixed for good.
Very occasionally the truck will shift hard when going into reverse, with a bit of a clunk, but it seems to shift fine going through all forward gears. I haven't noticed any clunking or hesitation when the truck shifts between gears while driving and all gears seem functional.
When starting the truck from cold, the engine oil temperature goes immediately to just over the midway point between "L" (low) and "H" (high). Bad sensor? Could it be related to the vibrations, I don't know?
RPMs don't seem to go much over 2,000 even when going uphill unless I really give it the beans, but I don't know if this is unusual and when I do give it a good dose of gas the RPMs do go up to 4,000-5,000, seemingly as they should. I haven't noticed any hesitation when taking off from a stop or when I give it gas to accelerate quickly for things like passing. RPMs do seem to fluctuate slightly though when the truck vibrates, maybe by a couple hundred RPM.
I have had one person suggest to me it could be the drive shaft or a differential, but I don't know. Seems it could be the engine. Maybe a bad camshaft? Maybe the timing belt is slipping? Maybe it's the transmission?
I would appreciate any advice on how to nail down whatever is causing the vibrations. I will likely have to fix this problem myself and I don't want to spend the money on parts until I know for sure what is wrong, but I'm not that great at diagnosis yet. My gut tells me either an issue related to a camshaft or the transmission, but I need to be positive about the cause. I can't afford to guess.
There is a check engine light on. The light has been on pretty much since the week I bought the truck 4 years ago. I took it back to the small, independent dealer I bought it from, and they said they couldn't figure out what the problem was. The truck drove fine though, so I didn't worry about it too much. About 2 years ago I took it to an actual Ford dealership to get fixed. The code was for a cam position sensor. I had them fix it but almost as soon as I drove away from the dealership the check engine light came back on. I haven't had the time or money to get it looked at again since then, but now that these vibrations have started and have quickly gotten worse, I am concerned what might happen if I don't get to the bottom of this and get it fixed for good.
Very occasionally the truck will shift hard when going into reverse, with a bit of a clunk, but it seems to shift fine going through all forward gears. I haven't noticed any clunking or hesitation when the truck shifts between gears while driving and all gears seem functional.
When starting the truck from cold, the engine oil temperature goes immediately to just over the midway point between "L" (low) and "H" (high). Bad sensor? Could it be related to the vibrations, I don't know?
RPMs don't seem to go much over 2,000 even when going uphill unless I really give it the beans, but I don't know if this is unusual and when I do give it a good dose of gas the RPMs do go up to 4,000-5,000, seemingly as they should. I haven't noticed any hesitation when taking off from a stop or when I give it gas to accelerate quickly for things like passing. RPMs do seem to fluctuate slightly though when the truck vibrates, maybe by a couple hundred RPM.
I have had one person suggest to me it could be the drive shaft or a differential, but I don't know. Seems it could be the engine. Maybe a bad camshaft? Maybe the timing belt is slipping? Maybe it's the transmission?
I would appreciate any advice on how to nail down whatever is causing the vibrations. I will likely have to fix this problem myself and I don't want to spend the money on parts until I know for sure what is wrong, but I'm not that great at diagnosis yet. My gut tells me either an issue related to a camshaft or the transmission, but I need to be positive about the cause. I can't afford to guess.
Oct 19, 2023 at 9:54 AM
