PSA: That weird rattle on a 2018 F-150 could be your timing chain tensioner

I was working on a customer's truck last Thursday in my shop outside Columbus. They came in complaining about a light rattle on cold starts, figured it was just the exhaust heat shield again. Pulled the valve cover to check the phasers and found the timing chain tensioner had almost zero oil pressure retention. The plastic guide was worn down to the metal and I could see metal shavings in the oil pan already. I replaced the entire timing chain kit with the updated parts from Ford and flushed the engine twice. Cost them $1,200 total but if they had kept driving it another week that chain would have jumped and bent every valve. Has anyone else seen these fail on the 5.0 engines around 80k miles?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_baker1d ago

Worn down to the metal" - wait, so the plastic guide was basically gone? That's wild. I've seen some timing chain wear on the 5.0s before but not that fast at 80k miles. The metal shavings in the pan are the scary part. You got lucky catching it when you did, that's for sure.

wren_brown1d ago

Overblown a bit. 80k miles with some wear isn't panic mode yet. Probably had some cheap oil changes or a bad tensioner.