Hello there, I have always wanted a diesel pickup and an opportunity came up today. My cousin's husband is in financial issues and offered me his 08 Ford F250 super duty 6.4L power stroke lariat for $10,000. He bought it a few months ago from a bank that had it Infront of they're business with a repo sign on it. here's a little about the truck, it has 235,000 miles on it, it's pretty nice inside out. It was -5 f today here in Minnesota and the truck started up awesome with no hesitation ( he had it plugged in) the truck despite sitting out in the frigid weather started up quite as a mouse. No knocks or anything. it sat warming up for a good 20 mins before I took it out on a test drive. Once I was on the test drive it ran great. No hesitation on the throttle, the roads were 90% ice out today but it still got up and went. honestly engine wise it sounded and ran awesome. THE BAD. the check engine light was on, I asked about it and he mentioned he brought it to the local Ford dealer and he had a full diagnosis ran on the truck, he said it cost him over $150 to run the test. The test revealed that it had two bad glow plugs, and the rear pinion seal was bad also. That's all the test revealed he said. I asked why he didn't replace those things and he said the Ford guy said it's not too big of issues, and that the next oil change they could reevaluate and see if the problem got more serious. I've litterly been reading since 12pm about these engines and they seem pretty solid VS the 6.0 but they have they're issues. the engine is stock with no tunes, delete, etc. I just want some Input of what you veterans think. I'm thinking of offering him $8,000 for the truck. I'm going to use the rear pinion, glow plugs, and a few cosmetic things for negotiation. If I do buy it first thing I'm going to do is fix those two issues. I'm figuring about $1000 to fix those things and I want to have a few couple emergency thousand around for problems that might occur. Any input and help is greatly appreciated

 

Bad glow plugs would not cause a check engine light. Bad glow plugs would show a fail code that you would need a code reader to retrieve.

there is something else cussing the check engine light.

with the miles that truck has, you are in for some deep pocket repairs and catch-up main tissues.

the 2008 year of the 6.4 is the most problematic year.

pass on it

 

The check engine light is an unknown that you can understand easily, drive the truck to a local auto parts house and ask them to scan the truck for the code. Usually they do it for free. A soft code of P2002 might be present as the truck has been sitting, it means the motor has not been able to finish a regeneration completely because the motor needs exercise to clean out the DPF. Personally, I see the high miles as a good thing, that the motor was probably sound from the beginning.

At the moment, the cheapest 6.4L used motor on the West coast is priced at $6400 for the motor alone.

Replacing a glow plug on a diesel is almost as easy as changing a spark plug in a gas motor.

In the end all you can do is research, you have to decide how and I to proceed.

 

If You are really interested in this truck, ask him to let you take it to a Ford Dealer, let Ford do an inspection on the truck and run some tests with IDS like a power balance test and a compression test. It may cost a you a few bucks for time, phone them and ask what they would charge for this. You can also ask the dealer to provide you with an Oasis report while it is there, this will give you the vehicles history when it has been at a Ford dealer and what they have done to it when it was at any Ford Dealer. very important to see that

Ford will also look at the codes at the same time and tell YOU what the issues and what their testing reveals. It might cost you a few dollars now, but it could save you thousands down the road. The other thing you need to ask your relation is has this truck been deleted and is it tuned.

Tuning can be good and bad on a truck, and whether it is deleted will tell a story in itself.
If this truck hasnt been deleted, it may or may not be ok, but it is one reason to take it to a dealer and let them check, same thing if it has been deleted. Last thing you want to do is inherit a problem child that is going to cost you thousands to fix.

The 6.4 can be a good truck if it is taken care of and cared for but if it hasnt it can be a hell of a lot of pain for your wallet

 

I definitely will be doing that TMRW, I trust him but I'd rather be safe than sorry like you said. As far as tuning and deletes go I know for a fact that it's completely stock.

 

This is the other truck I was looking at http://rideautosale.com/viewcar.php?idnot=4484. . I like this one but I think about the deal I'm getting on the one my cousin's husband is offering me and I feel like it's a good opportunity also. Guess I'm just thinking if I should get the bulletproofed 6.0 in the add or just bring this other one in get it checked and for all I know it could be in great shape and I'd be getting it for a great price. I'm going to offer him $8,000 just because of cosmetic of issues, fixing the rear pinion seal, glow plugs, and whatever else they find wrong with it ( hopefully nothing), and finally that If i did buy it that in the near future I'd need to get the egr/dpf deleted. He offered it to me for $10,000 which I still think is a damn good deal if the engine bay turns out to be sound.

 

Well here is my two cents, check out your relations truck with a Ford dealer get the oasis report have them do an inspection and get them to look under and over the truck and runs some IDS test on that engine.

That 6.0 looks like a nice truck but once again it is still a USED truck, and if you were to consider buying a 6.0, I as well as others would tell you to do the same thing as above and get it checked over by Ford or a reputable diesel shop. There are lots of trucks out there but there are lots of problem child trucks out there off all big 3 auto makers and I would say the same that i have said to you in do your homework and get it looked over.

Diesels can be great trucks if they were maintained and taken care of , but there are just as many that werent taken care of and someone is just looking to unload on the next guy.

Get the truck your relation has into a dealer and have them go over it with a fine tooth comb. If it looks good you can go from there. That 6.0 has a 20k price tag, even if you pay less than that, your still going to pay more than you may for the relations 6.4. If your relations 6.4 comes back with a great report from Ford and it has been maintained well and not going to burn a hole in your pocket, you can always bank or take some money and get it deleted by someone who knows what they are doing, or start sticking away the cash to do that.

If the 6.4 doesnt, turn out to be a good deal because it has some issues and depending on what they are you could use that to negotiate the price down , if it isnt going to cost you an arm and a leg to fix, now Ford isnt the cheapest place you can always go to a different diesel shop, but they HAVE to know what they are doing with a Ford diesel and they arent using some Chinese cheap parts because these engines wont like that.

If the 6.4 turns out to be a dog, then you just say, thanks but no, and you can shop on for a different truck Ford produced thousand and thousands of these trucks and there are a ton out there, good and bad, but you can always look around and keep an eye for a deal on a truck.

 

Thanks for the good insight I Will be doing all that today, hopefully the "check engine" light that's on right now on the 6.4 isn't anything serious. It's a really nice truck and I hope it turns out good. I'll keep you posted on what I buy

 

You'll have to update us once you have it looked over and you get the scoop on what the story is with the truck. Good luck!