I appologize in advance for this long post!
My truck is a 2000 F250 with the V10. The truck currently has 60,000mi on it and last week I decided to have a full tune up done to the truck after hearing all about the spark plug problems. I had the work performed by a FORD dealership here in Precott, AZ. I had the mechanic save the plugs and after some inspection, I determined that the plugs were still in decent shape and probally could have gone anoter 30,000 or so. As part of the tune up, FORD replaced all spark plugs and boots, performed a fuel injector service, and changed the fuel filter. Within the past 200 miles of having the truck back from the dealership, I have been experiencing some interesting problems. Prior to the tune up...my V10 ran flawlessly and I absolutly loved it (and still do). Now the truck stumbles at red lights and the RPMs walk down to about 500rpm and the truck starts to shake. Accelerating from the light, the truck misses pretty violently until the RPMs increase above roughly 2000. At this point, the truck runs just OK until the TC locks up either in 3rd or overdrive. Then the truck starts to surge, almost as if a cylinder is not firing and then suddenly fires off. ONE PROBLEM: I can't reproduce the problem for the dealership...it is quite eratic and comes and goes as it pleases.

Has anyone experienced this problem after a tune up? If so, where should i point the tech at the dealership?

Any input/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Morgan

 

I had the almost exact same thing happen when i tuned up my truck it sounds like.

turns out one of the brand new plugs was bad. that $2.75 spark plug cost me 75 bucks to have the dealer tell me whats wrong.

one thing i did to kind of narrow things down was i pulled all the coils off and made sure they were all seated good. its not hard at all to do, its just kinda tough to bet to the #5 cyl.

also what someone pointed out for me to do was to buy 1 spark plug and swap it around with each plug until you find which might be the faulty one. that seemed to me like it would take quite a long time to do....

one more thing... do you think it might could just be bad gas?

 

Another common post I've seen is to make sure the plug/boots are coated in dielectric grease, if it wasnt used this could cause it to skip erratically as well.

 

It resembles the problem that the EGR might cause. But, since the truck was worked on, and it comes and goes, you might think a coil is bad (or was damaged during tuneup), maybe two of them. Or maybe the coil connector is bad. It does sound like a firing problem, though.

Sorry, not much help, just a thought.

 

What did that tune "down" cost ya at the dealer? Got 112,500 miles on the beast and I am trying to decide if it's worth it to swap the plugs.

 

Sometimes, I get bad gas.

My wife hates it when it happens.

I can't believe, I was the only one childish enough to say that.

 

if you have even the basic knowledge of how to do your own maintnence, i'd just do the tune up myself.

dont let the 10 coils intimidate you... the hardest part of the whole thing was trying not to drop the screw that holds the coils on.

its all a piece of cake... i'd save my money and do it myself. spend 30 dollars on the plugs, 2 dollars on anti sieze and dielectric grease, and 10 dollars on a fuel filter.
if you get it done at a dealership, i'd guess you'll be looking at 2 or 3 hours labor. (3 hours labor at 60 bucks and hour... do the math )

 

$60? I can't find a dealer with a rate below $75 around here!

 

i found a gmc dealer for 60x hour in mississippi... i was just using that # because even at 60 bucks its still a bunch of cash for such an easy job.

the dealer i go to up here is 77xhour, that even furthers my point.

 

My Ford dealers wanted between 190 and 260 just for the labor to replace the spark plugs. Well you know where I told em to put it. I did it myself the first time in 4 hours. Was kind of intimidated but I didn't replace the boots and ended up doing it again after taking it to ford and spending 68 dollars for em to tell me why it was missing all of a sudden. Turned out the boots were bad and ruined a couple of spark plugs. Only took 2 hours the second time. It isn't bad, I wouldn't let the dealer rip you off if you have the tools and the ability, I would do it yourself and save the cash.

 

Thanks Brian, I wasn't trying to un-further your point, just trying to make sure I wasn't getting ripped off more than others around the country!

 

yeah, i think were all being equally ripped off.
if i didnt like the service you get from a dealer (quick service, loaner car, etc) i'd definatly go to a mom and pop type place.

the thing i dont like is the preset labor time. for instance everything has a minimum of 1 hour. so it takes them 1 hour to change my air filter if i had them do it... where as i can do it myself in about 10 seconds...

 

Wow! I was considering taking my '97 E-350 in for a tune up. I'm at 108,000 and figure it could use some TLC. (I bought it used).
But you're saying a plug change could cost that much? What's a full tune up run?

I've looked several times to see if I could do the plugs myself and I just don't see it happening. I cannot believe that something that should be simple, a plug change, is such a convoluted issue.

Ok, I'm done freaking out...

Brian

 

By the way, the OBDII computer should save misfires. It can be very helpful in finding a bad plug or coil.

It saves each cylinder's misfire information. When it steadily misfires in any one cylinder, it should light the check-engine light.

This will not be listed in the "codes" but a good tool (or an Autotap) can show all 10 cylinders and # of misfires per cylinder.

 

Why do you need new boots when you replace the spark plugs? And why are the coils an issue? Is there a regular maintenance schedule to replace either?

Also, do you use anti-seize on the spark plug threads? And are you using dielectric on the spark plug tip?

Mike.