Hi all - thanks in advance for reading.

Aye yie yie, another issue with sputtering with my F150. A year or two ago it would sputter like crazy sometimes when I was on the freeway. Never definitely sorted it out...replaced the plugs, coils, fuel pump module or whatever. Then a mechanic determined that the battery was weak and replaced it. Somehow, problem seemed to be solved.

Fast forward to now. New problem. Sputters like absolute crazy when I first start it up and try to drive off. Like, gets as close to dying as one can imagine but then doesn't actually die. I try to gas it to "clear it out" and it won't rev up. When I let it warm up for 5 minutes, it runs perfectly fine like nothing ever happened. It only seems to happen when I leave it overnight and let it fully cool down. Outside temps around 60 at night here these days.

At first I thought it was bad gas, but I was all the way on empty and gave it a fillup and it still does it. I thought maybe if there was water in the tank or whatever, the full tank would dillute it enough to make it a non-issue.

Anyone have any ideas?

THANK YOU!

 

Welcome to the site..
Any CEL?

 

None. 5 minutes later it's perfectly fine. But idles fast for a minute or so, then slows down and almost dies when I hit the gas...let alone try to drive away.

 

Did you use Genuine Ford parts when you changes the parts a few yrs ago?

 

I don't remember but I think so.

The key here is that until it warms up for a few minutes, it's a mess. Once it warms up, it's perfectly fine. It's similar to an exhaust leak that seals itself up once the metal expands.

 

Did you ever figure out this issue?

 

it took almost a year to get my truck back from the guy, but ultimately what he figured out was that it was an antilock brake module that was sending some sort of bad signal to the computer. He initially didn’t pay attention to that error message because I guess it indicated something about traction control, which my truck does not have. he replaced that module and it has been perfectly fine ever since. I swear it is a miracle, because I was almost forced to buy a new truck which I really did not want to do.

 

4WABS or RABS?

 

Wow what a killer find on your mechanics part. I don’t believe that to be my issue though. I have no check engine light or codes to go off of but the truck is doing exactly as yours was in your explanation. I can crank the truck up cold and put it in gear and it sputters but once it warms up 2-3 mins never does it again. I will consider taking a look at the module if my truck has it. I got a 2006 f150 5.4L 3v brand new engine and had to fix some vacuum leaks, then found a bad purge solenoid and have had to replace the maf sensor to fix an idle issue. Its so annoying

 

yes, it was a hell of a find. I told him to take his time and he had it for nearly a year. He traced 1 million wires to make sure they were grounded properly and everything seemed fine. I replaced many parts including the computer, which he also replaced because he wasn’t confident that I got the right one. I have the exact same engine in the same truck.