Hey,

I bought an 08 F350 V10 a couple months ago and a friend recommended I get the spark plugs changed, and to make sure I do it at the Ford dealership, since they're notorious for breaking, whenever I get a chance.

I just picked up my truck and the plugs and labour came to $640! I assume the plugs might have broken which is why it took them 3.7 hours to do it, but why should I be paying more for them breaking it??

My question is does anyone have any idea how long it would take to change all 10 if there were no issues? I have to call the manager tomorrow anyways because they charged me another $107 for an oil change I specifically told them not to do because I just had it done a week ago with synthetic, which they drained and replaced with their $20 house oil. So if I had an estimate of how long plugs SHOULD take, maybe I can get more off the $1253 bill I had to pay.

Thanks!

 

$107 for an oil change??? holy crap. definitely get on the dealer about that. id say 3.7 hours is roughly pretty accurate, maybe a little shorter for a "mechanic" at the dealer

 

That is a crazy number for a V10 oil change. You may or may not have had the 2 piece plugs, they changed to the single design in the middle of the '08 MY.

 

Yeah I mean, I could see it taking that long or longer if you're doing it at home and you aren't a professional mechanic. But someone who does this day in day out at the ford dealership... especially finding out afterwards they charge $122 for labour! I'm in the wrong business that's for sure.

 

What is your build date? It is found on your door jamb. My '08 v10 has a build date of 9-07 and I have the one piece plugs. I changed my plugs at about 50k miles and I did it in 90 minutes. Piece of cake. I don't know why mechanics are so scared of these plugs.

 

For what it's worth, I replaced the plugs on my 2002 5.4L and it was a very casual six hours. I didn't rush it and bs'd along the way with my son so no mechanic would take that long.

Are you saying they charged you an ADDITIONAL 3.7 hours? Have them show you the "book time" - the time their book tells them how long the procedure should take.

It's also not the dealerships fault they broke (if they actually did) and since Ford refuses to take ownership of that problem...

I know the procedure for the 2-piece plugs is such a pain my mechanic friend refuses to touch them...

And if you specifically told them NOT to do the oil change - that is no brainer - they owe you new synthetic...

 

I have done a lot of 4.6 plugs....only about an hour. My V-10 only took about 2 hours.

 

That's why we call them stealerships. They must hate sites like FTE.

 

I changed my plugs on my 2000 2V V10, Assuming the engine is COLD, it took about 90 minutes, but I took my time. Cleaned all the coil boots, cleaned the plug holes, etc. Use a 6-8" piece of stiff vacuum or fuel hose to fit over the plug contact and use that to thread the plug into the head, using finger torque and a rubber hose you won't be able to cross thread it. Then use a TINY ratchet to tighten the plugs. I ended up going to the dealership for a power balance test and to test the coils. They took all the plugs out and said that one was cracked. I assume they broke it, and offered to fix it for ridiculous $, I said no. Fixed it myself that way I know its done right.

I was told by my stealership that it would take less than an hour on a HOT engine. IMHO any dealership is a waste of time. Find a real mechanic who knows how cars work and enjoys what he does. Dealerships have one thing in mind, cash. The faster they work, the more they make. They don't care about your car.

If anyone tells you they can change your plugs without it being a overnight stay they don't know what they are doing.

They wanted $1600+ for 10 Plugs and 10 Coils installed. I did for $33 Autozone and $154 eBay.

 

I hate being negative all the time, and I've seen a lot of negative or bad reviews of dealerships. Has anyone had a genuine nice salesman? Actually get to meet the mechanic, who knew what he was talking about? Fixed it on the first try?

 

I've met one such dealership back when I lived in Phoenix. However, the vast majority of dealerships I want to bring a cheese grater with me, slap it on their desk and threaten to rearrange their face after 5 minutes...

I took my old mustang to Sanderson Ford in phoenix after I screwed something up installing my stereo (knocked loose a vacuum hose and I couldn't find it). Not only did they fix that - normal dealer prices, no big charity there - but they also detailed my engine bay (they've actually done that on every vehicle I took there). When I picked up the car, it was stuttering and sputtering, I pop the hood and see puddles of water by the spark plugs, I let the service writer know. He immediately took the car out back with me (all the techs were gone) and he started drying it out and hooking up the diagnostic tools to see what was wrong. That didn't have coils, it had coil packs, so no coil problems, but I did get new wires out of the deal, as he said one of them had been shorted out too bad. He apologized a lot for the inconvenience, the service was great, can't complain...

They did want 85 dollars to change my accessory belt though... that took 17 dollars for the belt and about 45 seconds