The vacuum pump in my truck may be showing a symptom that it's end is just over the horizon. On a cold day, (sub freezing) the pump is noisy for a few seconds at cold start in the AM. No braking or hard pedal issues at all.

Oh, for the sake of easy reference, my truck is a 2011 F-150 with the 3.5L eco. The vacuum pump on the 2011/12 models are / were prone to early failure which Ford addressed with a 10 year 150,000 extended warranty. My truck's warranty extension has timed out and my truck has 112,000 miles on the clock.

So I called my local dealer's part's counter to get a price and availability. He quoted me $853 and stated that the pump had been redesigned. After a few laughs from each of us, we agreed that my search will continue for a high quality pump at working man's prices.

Near the end of my route, I have a very long standing independent family owned repair shop called Don's Automotive. Don and I have become quite good friends over t he years that I've delivered his business mail. So I asked him if he were doing a vacuum pump job on a 2011 F-150, would he use the Motorcraft part?

He stated that he likes to use OE parts when he can but if he can find a Dorman part then he'll usually go t hat route because it saves his customers a bunch of money and he feels that Dorman parts are just as good as the MC equivalent.

So I got home from work and went on Dorman's website, Locally they distribute through Advance Auto, Auto Zone and one other place that I wasn't familiar with.

And viola, the pump is available in a day for less than $350.

When it warms up, I may just change the pump for piece of mind.

Hopefully this will help someone.

 

I wouldn't be so optimistic where Dorman parts are concerned. They may have improved by now but my last experience with that product line is much less than favorable and I gave them many chances trying to save my customers $$.

It always wound up costing them more due to repeated labor charges for a failed part.

 

Agree with RLXXI....

 

Anyone that wishes can disagree all they want and that's fair, but, I'm not spending over $800 on a pump through a Ford dealer or through an online OE parts store.

This is an easy fix and when the times comes, I'll risk it.

 

Best advice then if they offer an extended warranty, buy it.

 

I appreciate the urgings to use original MC parts but my experience with MC parts hasn't been so good so I'm comfortable using aftermarket parts to varying degrees.

The original plus two fuel pumps in my 2004 Expedition, all MC. Replaced with a pump from autozone, no more issues.

The original plus two fuel pumps in my 1988 F-150 front tank and the original plus two alternators, all MC. Replaced with autozone parts, no more issues.,

MC coils, twice the price of the duralast gold from autozone and autozone warranties them for life.

If Ford actually backed their parts with a decent warranty or better yet, if they just used better parts at the time of assembly there would be fewer reliability issues and the F-150 wouldn't be ranked at the # 5 spot as a truck trusted to make it to 200,000 miles behind the GM half tons, both Toyotas and the Ridgeline.

 

It was many years ago now, but I needed to replace that pump on my 2012, and I was shocked at the price from my closest dealership. However, I called around, and found another dealership who had the same OEM part in stock and at 40% less than the first place. I don't know why there was such a large price difference, but I've found it always pays to call around.

 

You're basing your opinion on a few vehicles you've owned over the years, I'm basing my professional opinion on 10's of thousands of vehicles I've worked on daily over the course of 40+ years doing it for a living.

I can assure you the failure rate of Ford's parts compared to aftermarket is at least 1:5 if not less.

With that said, are there good or better aftermarket parts than Ford parts? You betcha. Are there bad parts on both sides? You betcha.

I cannot, based on my professional experience recommend something I wouldn't put on my own vehicles.

Now here's a funny wtf when the only coil I could get for my wife's old Escape was Autozone. Duralast brand. I figured well hell its the only thing available at that time and it had a lifetime warranty so went ahead and bought them.

Got home and opened the box and out fell a Motorcraft coil lol. They didn't even bother to remove the mc sticker just stuck it in their box and shelved it.

 

Indeed, Ford dealers set their own prices on parts. Some are rediculous

 

So do you really believe that the best advise to be given here is to spend more than double for the pump knowing that it's an easy fix that most anyone could do? I've called two dealers on this, they're both over $800.

I can afford the $800 pump, does that mean that I should? Does that infer that the MC pump is at least twice as good as the Dorman pump? For all we know, the MC pump could be a Dorman pump. Ford doesn't build these parts, they buy them in bulk for cheap and then add a 400% mark up on them.

I'm definitely a Ford fanboy but my loyalty has it's limits.

Now that it's not cold anymore, the pump has quieted down back to normal levels. I'm not fixing it till it shows more signs of failure. Who knows, it may never fail.

 

I can only give advice based on a lifetime of auto repair. Been there done it thousands of times over and over and over.

Just because you pinch pennies doesn't mean I'm wrong. Everyone likes to save including me. What i despise doing is repeatedly repairing a vehicle due to a failed part.

P.S. Ford does make a lot of their own parts more so than they farm out.

 

If this is the same as I did on my 2012, it's a really easy repair that requires very little time and no specialized tools. I would take the cheaper part 10/10 times for things like that.

 

Because I pinch pennies, I have dollars to spare.

Look, this isn't an engine / trans rebuild where MC parts are a must to ensure the highest quality. This is a simple external repair that a 12 year old could do and there's no reason to spend more than double.

 

See my 2nd post in this thread. Just saying.

 

FORD doesnt make the pump.. Dont make MAP sensors, or COILS... They buy them just like everybody else does.. Are their (CHINEESE) parts better than the next guy ? Sometimes.