Help, I am at a loss (Random Stalling)

[Mr_Superbia]

So i have been driving it today, and i have not really noticed anything that would indicate that it had died. i tested all of the features that it had said were inoperable when the stall happened, and they all worked. (i didn't try my luck with the presafe brake feature. So I'm really hoping that one is back up and running too..) Everything seems normal, though i did think there was a slight hesitation when accelerating after a sharp turn. It was kind of like it was driving through mud for a split second, then it remembered how to go and was completely fine. Very odd part, it seemed to only do this on sharp right turns. Turning left did not seem to trigger any hesitation at all. It is so slight, that I think there is a good chance I'm just being too wary, and jumping at shadows. But it doesn't hurt to share, in case it helps to narrow down the issue..

i will definitly look into the stock intake. My original plan was to return the truck to stock, but that fell through when i found out the cost of reversing the lift kit. Thats when i decided to just deal with it and switch it out when the new one comes in. Does anyone know a good OEM parts supplier (previous owner did not inclued any of the parts he removed, so I will have to source one.)


The only question i have, not just about the intake, but all of the parts, why now? All of the parts (except the BOV which went on when i purchased the truck) have been on since before i purchased the truck, and aside from a false error code, they havn't caused any issues. I haven't changed anything recently, and I haven't changed how I drive or the modes I prefer to use. I crawled up under the truck as well as looked around the engine bay yesterday, and nothing seemed out of place. Dirty from the desert, but nothing worn or broken. and for giggles, even though there wasn't a CEL, I ran my scanner. It did not find any trouble codes. (To be fair, I am not a mechanic, so i could have easily missed something. But the general stuff i know how to look for seemed fine, and it did not have any saved codes.) i am really stumped here.

Sidenote: I may be being hyper sensitive, and not remembering clearly, but does ford always display a red battery symbol when in ACC (press start button without pressing brake to start the engine)? I didn't really pay attention to it, so it may have been there before, but i just noticed the battery icon. Voltage seems to run 14-14.5 when driving, 13 when stopped with engine running, and 12 when Auto Start/Stop shuts the engine off. It dips to 11.5 occasionally in ACC, but usually stays at 12 volts. i have no idea what the normal operating range is supposed to be, so I don't really have a comparison point.

 

[CoronaRaptor]

So i have been driving it today, and i have not really noticed anything that would indicate that it had died. i tested all of the features that it had said were inoperable when the stall happened, and they all worked. (i didn't try my luck with the presafe brake feature. So I'm really hoping that one is back up and running too..) Everything seems normal, though i did think there was a slight hesitation when accelerating after a sharp turn. It was kind of like it was driving through mud for a split second, then it remembered how to go and was completely fine. Very odd part, it seemed to only do this on sharp right turns. Turning left did not seem to trigger any hesitation at all. It is so slight, that I think there is a good chance I'm just being too wary, and jumping at shadows. But it doesn't hurt to share, in case it helps to narrow down the issue..

i will definitly look into the stock intake. My original plan was to return the truck to stock, but that fell through when i found out the cost of reversing the lift kit. Thats when i decided to just deal with it and switch it out when the new one comes in. Does anyone know a good OEM parts supplier (previous owner did not inclued any of the parts he removed, so I will have to source one.)


The only question i have, not just about the intake, but all of the parts, why now? All of the parts (except the BOV which went on when i purchased the truck) have been on since before i purchased the truck, and aside from a false error code, they havn't caused any issues. I haven't changed anything recently, and I haven't changed how I drive or the modes I prefer to use. I crawled up under the truck as well as looked around the engine bay yesterday, and nothing seemed out of place. Dirty from the desert, but nothing worn or broken. and for giggles, even though there wasn't a CEL, I ran my scanner. It did not find any trouble codes. (To be fair, I am not a mechanic, so i could have easily missed something. But the general stuff i know how to look for seemed fine, and it did not have any saved codes.) i am really stumped here.

Sidenote: I may be being hyper sensitive, and not remembering clearly, but does ford always display a red battery symbol when in ACC (press start button without pressing brake to start the engine)? I didn't really pay attention to it, so it may have been there before, but i just noticed the battery icon. Voltage seems to run 14-14.5 when driving, 13 when stopped with engine running, and 12 when Auto Start/Stop shuts the engine off. It dips to 11.5 occasionally in ACC, but usually stays at 12 volts. i have no idea what the normal operating range is supposed to be, so I don't really have a comparison point.

Post an AD in the Garage Sale section looking for a stock intake. Somebody on here will have one. At least with a stock intake you can rule out that item off of your list.

 

[JorgesRaptor]

So i have been driving it today, and i have not really noticed anything that would indicate that it had died. i tested all of the features that it had said were inoperable when the stall happened, and they all worked. (i didn't try my luck with the presafe brake feature. So I'm really hoping that one is back up and running too..) Everything seems normal, though i did think there was a slight hesitation when accelerating after a sharp turn. It was kind of like it was driving through mud for a split second, then it remembered how to go and was completely fine. Very odd part, it seemed to only do this on sharp right turns. Turning left did not seem to trigger any hesitation at all. It is so slight, that I think there is a good chance I'm just being too wary, and jumping at shadows. But it doesn't hurt to share, in case it helps to narrow down the issue..

i will definitly look into the stock intake. My original plan was to return the truck to stock, but that fell through when i found out the cost of reversing the lift kit. Thats when i decided to just deal with it and switch it out when the new one comes in. Does anyone know a good OEM parts supplier (previous owner did not inclued any of the parts he removed, so I will have to source one.)


The only question i have, not just about the intake, but all of the parts, why now? All of the parts (except the BOV which went on when i purchased the truck) have been on since before i purchased the truck, and aside from a false error code, they havn't caused any issues. I haven't changed anything recently, and I haven't changed how I drive or the modes I prefer to use. I crawled up under the truck as well as looked around the engine bay yesterday, and nothing seemed out of place. Dirty from the desert, but nothing worn or broken. and for giggles, even though there wasn't a CEL, I ran my scanner. It did not find any trouble codes. (To be fair, I am not a mechanic, so i could have easily missed something. But the general stuff i know how to look for seemed fine, and it did not have any saved codes.) i am really stumped here.

Sidenote: I may be being hyper sensitive, and not remembering clearly, but does ford always display a red battery symbol when in ACC (press start button without pressing brake to start the engine)? I didn't really pay attention to it, so it may have been there before, but i just noticed the battery icon. Voltage seems to run 14-14.5 when driving, 13 when stopped with engine running, and 12 when Auto Start/Stop shuts the engine off. It dips to 11.5 occasionally in ACC, but usually stays at 12 volts. i have no idea what the normal operating range is supposed to be, so I don't really have a comparison point.

I think the red battery light is normal if the engine is off. Also sounds like your battery is good, I was just looking into the same question actually. Someone else posted that the voltage will dip and that’s when the alternator charges it.

 

[Mr_Superbia]

Post an AD in the Garage Sale section looking for a stock intake. Somebody on here will have one. At least with a stock intake you can rule out that item off of your list.

Corona- Thank you, I will post there and see if I can find one!

I think the red battery light is normal if the engine is off. Also sounds like your battery is good, I was just looking into the same question actually. Someone else posted that the voltage will dip and that’s when the alternator charges it.

Jorges- Thank you, At least I can check the battery off the list of possible culprits!

Have you done any engine tuning or reset adaptive learning lately?

I've been doing a lot of tuning on my truck lately and one of the side effects of loading a new tune and or resetting ECU learning is that your truck will have to re-learn idle. For me (2017), the truck sometimes idles down way low... about 500rpm and shakes a bit like it is about to stall. If idle speed is above 600rpm on my motor it seems quite smooth.

By tuning and then driving your vehicle, it is possible that you aren't spending enough time at idle for the truck to re-learn idle speed. This is compounded on a cold morning. Cold starts exacerbate the issue as the truck is now adding fuel but also struggling with learning idle speed.

These engines often need to be warm before the ECU learns these parameters. Simply cold starting, idling for a while, and then driving away isn't good enough to learn in this area. I'd recommend letting it idle for a bit AFTER going for a brief drive and warming it up (esp in cold weather). Let it idle in park / neutral for a while. Put your foot on the brake and let it idle in "D" for a bit too. Heck, find a drive through with a long line and kill two birds with one stone.

Hope it's a simple fix!

Greybeard - While I haven't done any tuning, I do wonder if it does have something to do with the ECU. It might be a bug causing the truck to frequently try to relearn idle.
So, i did some further testing yesterday. when in normal mode it seems that my RPM's drop to around 500 when i come to a stop. At Idle it seems to almost have a slight lope, and you can feel the truck shake slightly. The rhythm seems to be odd. By that I mean there is a definite pattern, but it is so stretched out and slow to repeat, that it seems like the engine is just randomly shaking. it almost feels like it is just about to stall then it saves itself. When in sport mode, the RPM's stay slightly higher while slowing down. The engine also idles higher and generally feels more like its not fighting a stall.
If i have to stay in Sport to avoid this, its a simple enough fix. I have just, more often than not, been in normal and light on the throttle for the past few months because of how bats**t the fuel price has been around here.

Or maybe it has to do with airflow. Both stalls happened in normal mode, which appears to idle at the lowest RPM. It might be struggling to adjust to the aFe intake's airflow, and with the seasons changing and it getting cooler out, it is causing itself to stall out.

I am just spit-balling at this point. i really dont know. Honestly, if I let any of you drive the truck, then said something was wrong, you'd say I was crazy.. It runs and drives fine, then all the sudden it stalls. Unfortunantly there is no warning, because it is perfectly normal until it stalls out, then it is perfectly normal when it fires back up. My real worry is that it will happen in an intersection or some other dangerous situation. Even if it is only a second to go from drive to park, press the button, and go from park to drive again, that could be the difference between being fine or being hit.

 

[Graybeard]

in normal mode it seems that my RPM's drop to around 500 when i come to a stop. At Idle it seems to almost have a slight lope, and you can feel the truck shake slightly. The rhythm seems to be odd. By that I mean there is a definite pattern, but it is so stretched out and slow to repeat, that it seems like the engine is just randomly shaking. it almost feels like it is just about to stall then it saves itself. When in sport mode, the RPM's stay slightly higher while slowing down. The engine also idles higher and generally feels more like its not fighting a stall.

If your idle is dropping to 500, I'd say you just figured out your problem. That's just too low of an idle. You describe how mine acts when she is "a bit shaky", sounding like it has a tall cam and may stall sitting there.

Let it learn idle when the engine is hot and you should be more in the 600-700rpm range and above. Sport mode is a reasonable alternative. Engine must be warm before it will learn anything.

 

[gr8scott_o]

Following this thread as this just happened to me today.

Drove around for 30 minutes, stopped to pick up dinner for less than 5 minutes, come back out to truck. It starts, stumbles, then immediately dies. Restart on first button push, but once again immediately stumbles, dies. Same thing third time. Well, crap.

Turn truck completely off. Count to ten.

Push start button, and fires up like nothing is wrong. Drive another 30 minutes, stop at gas station to pick up a couple items, fires up again no issue for the three minute drive home.

No codes were thrown at any time.

History: reprogrammed about two months ago, cam phasers replaced about two weeks ago. I'm suspecting battery might need to be replaced as auto start/stop rarely works anymore. Bought the truck used in May. 53k miles, no issues like this in my time as owner. Totally stock truck, no engine mods with the exception of an oil catch can that was on it when I bought it.

Will take it to the dealer next week and see what they say.

 

[CoronaRaptor]

Following this thread as this just happened to me today.

Drove around for 30 minutes, stopped to pick up dinner for less than 5 minutes, come back out to truck. It starts, stumbles, then immediately dies. Restart on first button push, but once again immediately stumbles, dies. Same thing third time. Well, crap.

Turn truck completely off. Count to ten.

Push start button, and fires up like nothing is wrong. Drive another 30 minutes, stop at gas station to pick up a couple items, fires up again no issue for the three minute drive home.

No codes were thrown at any time.

History: reprogrammed about two months ago, cam phasers replaced about two weeks ago. I'm suspecting battery might need to be replaced as auto start/stop rarely works anymore. Bought the truck used in May. 53k miles, no issues like this in my time as owner. Totally stock truck, no engine mods with the exception of an oil catch can that was on it when I bought it.

Will take it to the dealer next week and see what they say.

I would just take it to any auto parts chain and get the battery tested, I hear most check for free.

 

[gr8scott_o]

I would just take it to any auto parts chain and get the battery tested, I hear most check for free.

Just got back from Auto parts store, battery tested fine.

 

[smurfslayer]

53k miles, no issues like this in my time as owner. Totally stock truck, no engine mods with the exception of an oil catch can that was on it when I bought it.

hmm... I think we’ve had some catch can installs with DTC’s set. Else, I’d probably look at plugs first. At 50+k, regardless of what the interval says, they’re well used.

 

[1BAD454SSv2]

With truck idling in park and parking brake on go under hood and wiggle some of the wiring harnesses. If you move something and it sputters or drops idle you found the culprit . Even go underneath. Remove the top engine cover as well. Picture attached just for fun . I thought it was funny. Youngsters may not understand.