Hey guys and gals,

Been on this forum for years but not this section.

I am looking at a 1997 f150 Eddie Bauer extra cab longbed with 65,000 original miles tomorrow. It looks pretty nice. It will need a/c work and lower ball joints. They are asking 3,500.

I need a daily driver for work. I do a lot of highway/city flat land driving. I only haul about 800 pounds at the most and not on a daily basis. I install fireplaces, so most of it is bulky not heavy. The biggest trailer I pull is 4x8 with 15 inch wheels.

My question is are these trucks pretty dependable. I usually drive old trucks and do not know much about these newer trucks. Is there any problematic things I should look for when I look at the truck?

Thanks for any advice.

 

It looks good. If all the fluids look good and the truck drives good with no strange noises it's in the ball park for the price.

 

Certain build dates of the 97 4.2l had lower intake manifold and timing cover gasket leaks (like mine). Many 97 owners hydro locked there engines anywhere from 20-100k miles. I replaced mine after noting a continuous but slight coolant level change. I don't believe the 4.6l suffered these issues.
On edit I removed my offhand price opinion. $3700 is a great deal.

 

Looks exactly like the Lariat (top of the line) to me. I don't think there was an Eddie Bauer 1997 F-150. At least not when I ordered mine, and don't remember it in the glossy detail brochure.

Check my sig below for my Lariat. An SC LB too! 157" wheelbase, 240" (20 feet) long. Will not fit in some garages. Put a few hundred pounds in the bed to take the stiffness off of the springs, and with the long wheelbase it rides like a Lincoln Town Car. A complete opposite to my Bronco. The long wheelbase means backing into many parking spaces in lots, otherwise can't get in. In tighter parking lots, have to look ahead to set up placement to be able to make a turn. But the highway ride and stability is super! As is having inside cargo space, AND a full 8' bed. I have carried 12' long drywall with the tailgate down, no drywall breakage. Sometimes I have unbolted and removed the rear seat bottoms to get full-depth inside cargo space. Easy to do, once you know where all the bolts and nuts are located.

IIRC, the Lariat came with a 3.55 rear axle standard (rather than the stock 3.08 ratio). The factory towing package was a bit cheaper on a Lariat since it already had the 3.55 axle ratio that was one of the towing package components. I can dig out my brochure tomorrow and confirm that. The 3.55 axle ratio is a must for any real towing, or if you live in a hilly area.

I don't remember if the Lariat level was available with the 4.2L V6... seems like it wouldn't be. I can check that too. The 1997 4.2L V6 had lots of teething problems, like rjco says.

 

According to the 1997 F-150 big in-depth glossy brochure (print date of 10/95):

The Lariat came with the 3.55 axle ratio. This is also born out by the $44 credit on my window sticker in the Tow package, since the Lariat level already had the 3.55 ratio standard.

The Lariat was not available with the 4.2L V6.

 

yes the 4.6 liter do have similar issues. just dealt with this myself. but there were symptoms that were very serious that I was not sure of, 180k miles though. do to blown lower intake manifold gasket for no known reason.

 

Thanks a ton for all the info on these trucks. It is a Lariat and not an Eddie Bauer. I could not make out the writing in the pictures and assumed.

I saw it this morning. It is in really good condition but the clear coat has scuffs and scratches everywhere. The headlights could use replacing. I think it needs a fuel filter changed also. The tank was very low and the ethanol fuel had been sitting for awhile. The owner of the truck owns the mechanic shop and it was there shop truck. He bought a new truck and sold this one.

That Is right SOLD... I bought it for $3,100.

I think I will be very happy with it. I had the vin ran and it came back clean just as the seller said. It has 64,000 original miles with all paperwork from ford. The truck needs a lot of little cosmetic things, but mechanically it looks almost as fresh as when it was sold new.

I will be doing a ton of cleaning and removing the plastic bed liner this weekend.

I noticed a button on the dash that says pedals. I pushed it and nothing was happening to the floor pedals. What does it do?

 

I recommend buying a micro fiber correction kit like this: Meguiars DA Microfiber Correction System, paint polishing system, car polish, car detailing system, compounding system, remove scratches

It works great to remove swirls, scuffs, and scratches. You'll need a duel action polisher such as a Porter Cable.

 

It should adjust the pedals higher and lower, for shorter or taller people. At least it does in the Town Car, (and Suburban too, fwiw)

 

I was a little worried after buying the truck. As soon as I drove away it began running very rough. I changed the fuel filter and cleaned the throttle body with no real change. I then read many threads here of major engine issues and got very worried. I bought a set of motocraft plug wires and spark plugs.

When I pulled the plugs in the engine I found that they had been replaced with the E4 platinum plugs. I left them in there and replaced the wires. The old wires were dated 1995. The truck now runs awesome. I took it up to my parents home and back that night. A little over 2 hours of driving and averaged 16 MPG.

I went to the junkyard this morning and found a passengers exterior door handle in the same color and replaced the broken one on my truck. I also noticed that my exhaust has been replaced with the cats removed.

Overall I am very happy and hope to get a long time of use from the truck. I am still keeping my fingers crossed though.

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The petal adjust quits working on most older Ford products. Ford used a plastic gear in the mechanism that strips out. The gear can be replaced but is a pita to do so. The one in my Grand Marques quit working when my dad still owned the car, if the petals are where you like them I would not mess with them unless you have several days with nothing to do.

 

They are great trucks in general. Besides having a '97 with over 300K and a 2000 with over 186K I've worked on many of them for a bud at his used car lot fixing crash damage on auction trucks prior to resale.

We abused our "shop trucks" thoroughly and they took it like a champ. The comfortable suspension made driving around salvage yards with overloaded beds full of parts much more pleasant than doing the same thing with Chevys.

65K is quite young for that drivetrain. You should see 300K with few problems. (Whenever I buy a used truck I replace all the fluids and filters and inspect belts and wiring for corrosion.)

FTE has been a great resource for me and a link to this site should be printed in Ford owners manuals.

Enjoy your Ford.

 

Hey guys.


Just wanted to update on my truck. I will have had the truck a year in a few days. It has been a great truck for my needs. She now has 91,000 miles and runs perfect. I found some questionable things to repair and really think poorly of the shop I bought it from.


First thing on the list was the truck kept breaking belts. After inspecting it further, The idler pulley was wobbling. It looked like someone drilled the timing cover and tapped the hole. The threads stripped out.


I bought a new pulley, belt, and helicoil kit. Pretty easy fix. Took about an hour total, but the location where I fixed it was terrible. The lower ninth ward in New Orleans. Had to walk a mile to autozone and a mile back. Walked at a pace that most could not keep up and if they could, I would have clocked them.


Next was the A/C. The shop told me it was a bad compressor. He said he would fix it for 800 bucks and I declined. Turns out someone pulled the weatherpack connector off the compressor and pulled a contact out of the weatherpack. They also drained all the Freon. My friend and I fixed it very quickly and it works great.


The heater core went out, so I have it bypassed. I do not really want to pull the whole dash out to fix it. Maybe later.


I just recently put on 4 new Michelins, new radiator, new waterpump, new rotors, brake pads, 1 caliber, and 1 brake line.


Last weekend, one of my friends decided he wanted me to go with him to Orlando, Florida to stay the weekend at the hard rock resort in universal studios.


We loaded up the truck after work Friday and I drove straight through the night. Sunday evening we left Orlando and drove straight through to New Orleans. 1300 miles total. One fillup each way. I averaged 17 m.p.g. at 75 m.p.h.


I am so glad I bought this truck. You guys are great and I have found several useful things in this forum to help me get it all correct again.


Thanks for all the help you have given me through researching other threads and the help you have given people before me to fix the problems.


Planning on making another run to St. Augustine, Florida in June Or July. I have no qualms about jumping in the truck to go anywhere.

 

That's great to hear. Good mileage too. I bought mine last winter, a 98 short bed. 270 on the clock now. Looks very similar to yours. I have the 5.4 though so my mpg's aren't so good. I'm sure it will give you many years of service. They're built Ford Tough you know.

 

Glad to hear you are having good luck with your rig....I am in the process of finding a similar rig for my son...his Dakota has toasted it's tranny Perfect time to bring him to Ford!