thinking of buying an 04f150 heritage, 87000 miles. Anything i should look out for mechanical. Going to be work/personal truck

 

^bump... I`m intersted in this as well, as I`m getting the F150 bug... checked out an 06 yesterday 4x4 6 1/2" lift cc looks real nice has 90,000 miles on it.... did a lil digging and spark plug,cam phaser and vct came up often as fairly common problems for these trucks

 

hell, if those are the only major things that go wrong i should sereously consider it .

 

On a heritage you would have none of those to worry about. Those problems are all exclusive to the 5.4L 3V and the heritage you are looking at would have the 5.4L 2V. So I would see no serious issues in buying the heritage, just that it would say 2004 but basically be like a 2003 model.

 

thought I saw where the spark plug problem could be a $1-2k dollar deal something about being 2 piece is that accurate on the 04s & up?

 

Spark plugs will be an issue on a 04(non-heritage)-07 F150. Trucks built after November 2007 do not have the issue. Yes it is a two piece plug that breaks off in the head. Most dealers will do the change for about 300-500 bucks. There is a really good extraction tool available for about $70 made by lisle tools if you are inclined to do it yourself.

 

3-500 for all 8 ? so besides the spark plugs are the they solid ...I thought I read somewhere that the 5.4 is one of the most reliable engines Ford has ever made is that accurate cause it`s really what turned me on to an f150 in the first place.

 

i had the 5.4 in my 02 superduty cc lariat. 173000. miles . Never had a problem with it till i hit black ice(f***n bummer). The coil packs were a pain but other than that i was happy with it

 

that's a ballpark figure. Now I got in on one of the 1000 dollar changes. the dealer claimed they all broke and that the extraction was especially difficult and they had to change a coil too. They charged me for 7.5 hours labor. Around here most dealers quote $300 base charge plus $50 for each broken plug. Otherwise the 5.4 3V is pretty good. I guess the 06+ are better. You hear of more problems in the 04's and 05's particularly the 04's. My 04 has 97,000 on it and my engine has been fine, only paid for the spark plug deal. But yeah there are a ton of 5.4 3V engines out there in the f-150's and the expeditions and most of them are very trouble free.

 

i had an independant garage do my plugs after the ford dealer across the street from them quoted me at $500.plus.. The garage only charged me $300. Theyre lovin the business fords given them..lol