Dear friends,
I know how a PITA is the spark plug issue on the 5.4 V8s,
I have recently contacted Ford Motor Company about this issue. Based on their response, I believe we should storm them with complaints about this issue.
Below is the link to contact them as well as the response they sent.
Let's be heard, we work hard to make our car payments. They screwed up on the design. Why should we pay big bucks back , for them to replace our plugs if they are the ones that screwed up on the first place ?

https://secure.corporate.ford.com/fo...eServiceIssues


Response I got from Ford Motor Company :

Thank you for contacting Ford Motor Company. My name is Julie and I'm from Ford's Customer Service Department. I'm sorry to hear about the costly spark plug replacement on your 2006 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer. After reviewing my resources, I have verified that there are no factory warranties or programs in effect on your vehicle that would provide assistance for this repair. Still I suggest your repair be done by a Ford or Lincoln Dealership where the technicians are trained to put your vehicle back into factory specifications. They use Ford and Motorcraft branded replacement parts. These parts meet or exceed Ford Motor Company's specifications, and we stand behind the repair by providing Service and Part Warranty for 12 months or 12,000 miles (whichever comes first). I wish I could have given you a more favorable response, but as much as we would want to assist our loyal customers with the cost of the repairs outside the usual warranty, only recalls or Customer Satisfaction Programs can permit us to do so. Please be advised that when Ford Motor Company recognizes an ongoing issue, a recall or Customer Satisfaction Program (CSP) is put into place. Unfortunately on this case, there are no current programs that could assist you on your request. In the meantime, I recommend you keep your repair receipts in case Ford initiates a recall or Customer Satisfaction Program in the future based on customer feedback or further engineering review of similar complaints. If a program is announced on a specific component, we will notify you by mail. I'm truly sorry that we cannot meet your expectations in this instance. Thank you for taking the time to write us about the details of your concern. Sincerely, Julie Customer Relationship Center Ford Motor Company Should you feel that we have not adequately addressed your questions, please feel free to contact us via telephone at (800)392-3673 between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm, local time, Monday through Friday. Hearing-impaired callers with access to a TDD may contact 1-800-232-5952. Should you need it in the future, your reference number is XXXXXXXXXXXX. For online support visit us at: www.customersaskford.com which contains answers to frequently asked questions and links to other key product and service information. Ford Confidentiality: -------------------- For security reasons, please do not submit any sensitive personally identifiable information, such as credit card numbers, driver license number, SSN, DOB, etc. Thank you.

 

Good luck with that...been going on since the 5.4 came out; along with blown out plugs, etc...

 

Yep I just replace them and move on. I have done so many 5.4 3v changes I got the whole process down to an hour tops and thats even with me breaking half of them and having to use the extractor. The second time around if you follow the tsb the plugs will come right out!

 

I agree, it's pretty embarrassing that Ford continues to play dumb with this spark plug issue and won't even redesign the genuine Motorcraft replacement plugs that they have the nerve to still recommend we reinstall back in these fine vehicles.

Well, maybe it's their way of ensuring that their dealer service departments can continue to turn a profit during such tough economic times.

Why fix it (that would be admitting that you made a design mistake) when you can continue to shirk responsibility, make know failure prone parts (using this poor design) and keep alive the cash cow for your service departments.

It's almost brilliant in it's simplicity.... way to go Ford!

 

Yes, I agree with you. Why fix it if it keeps coming back for them to service it.
I will replace mine as soon as the weather gets better. It is cold here in the Lou (St Louis)
I have done timing belts on my new beetle diesel; (talking about hard to reach stuff…) I have done all kinds of work on VW TDis. I am sure I will be able to manage the plugs. And yes I am buying the Lisle extraction tool.

 

Ok, I took your advice and sent Ford a note last night as requested. It reads:

Dear Ford,
What is so difficult about changing the design of your crummy two piece OEM spark plugs on the 3 valve 5.4L engines to prevent them from breaking in half as they are being removed during the recommended replacement interval. It's a known problem, and Champion Spark plugs even did all the engineering work to correct this problem for you by putting out a product that doesn't break in two along with a little video showing the quick and easy permanent fix.
This is really beyond a joke now. Everyone at every dealer and most customers with any common sense know that there is a problem with this design, and since the fix is so simple, can you please, please, please do what is right and update the spark plug design.
I can understand that you don't want to admit your fine engineers made a mistake by designing a spark plug that breaks in two when you remove it from the engine since it would probably cost your Ford Shareholders a gazillion dollars to correct this on all those trucks and SUV's whose spark plug broke during replacement; but for crying out loud.... after more than 5 years it's becoming embarrassing that my beloved Ford hasn't even tweaked this crappy spark plug design enough to prevent the next package of OEM Ford/Motorcraft replacement parts rolling down the assembly line today from being destined to fail the next time we go to take them out.

Regretfully,
Max

And today I got the same blow off form letter reply you did from Marigold
Customer Relationship Center Ford Motor Company saying blah blah blah... so sorry, we care about you, but don't expect us to help one bit with the costs of the repairs from our shoddy engineering etc.. and finishing up with "Ford Motor Company is concerned with the satisfaction of all Lincoln customers. Your feedback is highly valued by all divisions within Ford Motor Company and serves to provide us with insight into areas where we may need improvement. Thank you for your feedback and I hope that your future experiences with Ford products will be more positive.
Thank you for contacting Ford Motor Company."

I guess that's what 40 plus years of bleeding Ford blue gets you these days... Thank god my 1969 Mustang is still running strong and wasn't built by this generation of substandard engineers and corporate pencil pushers who refuse to correct their shortcomings at our expense...

 

If I get to the point of spark plugs before I sell my Expy I for sure as hell will not be using the OEM junk breaking in half plugs. Even if you have this job done at a shop, you can buy the aftermarket ones that don't break in half and have those installed. If the Ford dealer balks at this or won't warranty the work for non OEM parts then go somewhere else or just have them do it anyway.

 

SPEAK!!!!!