I have a 2005 Expedition with the 5.4L engine.

When it hit 123,000 miles I took it in to my local Ford dealer (Schmit Ford, Saukville, WI) to have some recommended maintenance done. Spark plug replacement was recommended at 100,000 miles so I asked them to replace the spark plugs. The service manager told me that they had been having a problem with Edpedition spark plugs being difficult to remove because of "carbon build up", it could take up to 8 hours of labor to replace my plugs. Note he told me this before he had inspected the vehicle. Also note he never said that my 23,000 mile delay in replacing the plugs had anything to do with the problem.

He also said that even if there was no problem replacing the plugs, it would still take two hours of labor.

I told him I thought that the up-to-eight-hours estimate indicated a product defect and asked him to check with his Ford rep to see if Ford would pay for the cost of service in excess of 2 hours (I offered to pay for up to two hours of labor to replace the plugs). He said he talked to the Ford rep and that the rep declined to pay for any part of the spark plug replacement, and stated that the local road condiitions (I'm in WI so there is a lot of salt) might have to do with it. I thought that blaming the local conditions was bullcrap and told him so. (If the local conditions make the plugs stick then the owners manual should recommend more frequent replacement in salty conditions.)

I ended up not replacing the plugs and in fact they were never even inspected to see if they could be easily removed, as I didn't want to incur two hours of labor charge just to be told the plugs are stuck.

WTF? 2 hours minimum to replace eight spark plugs? Up to eight hours to remove and replace eight spark plugs?

Has anyone else been having this problem? Does anyone have a suggested solution? Or is my dealer just trying to rip me off?

Thanks in advance.

 

Do a search for "Spark Plugs" and you will find many posts describing problems as well as some plug changes that run over $1000 with broken plugs or stripped threads and so on. It shocks the hell out of me that Ford can get away with selling so many trucks with the same problem and not be forced to correct it at their expense as they have shown that they don't have a guilty consience over it.
Your best hope is to read the posts and do it yourself and use never seize on the plug's threads. Always torque to specs also.

 

2 hours is fairly cheap for plug replacement, he doesn't need to talk to ford it's a common problem however the plugs are considered maintanence items at at 123,000 miles ford has held up to it's side of the agreement, now if you want to try the plug removal yourself run a intake cleaner through it first, it helps break the carbon up, also you can use an impact on the plugs to REMOVE them that's been known to help

 

Some who have replaced plugs several times have claimed they can do it in two hours. My first time took me 12 hrs or so, working slowly and carefully (at 84k, well ahead of the required interval) - you can see the details I shared on this post:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...xperience.html

I guess I could replace them again in maybe 4-6 hrs, but I wouldn't risk it. You can do the job yourself, just read all the posts you can on it and dive in, but be prepared ahead of time. The plugs are down inside a tube/well in the head, so it takes time to clean it out and torque the plugs properly. You have to rig up extensions that are secure and won't get stuck in the tube/well on the plug. So, yeah, there is risk for a high mileage engine if you are not prepared. I guess if you take it to Ford to do it they are probably faster, but I can't speak for how detailed they would be.

 

Unless that's per plug!

 

very good point, I just looked up the warranty time and it's 1.4 hours and industry standard is 1.5 times warranty so a shop should charge 2.1 assuming no plugs break of course

 

There is a TSB that outlines the correct procedure and that TSB has been posted here before or on one of the F-150 forums here on FTE.

Unless you have the special to remove broken plugs and tons of time, i wouldn't go it alone.

Additionally, the OP has driven his Expy 1.25 times the recommended maintenance interval for these plugs and she's still running. I can't see where theres a lot to complain about.

I'm so damned happy I didn't buy into that generation of 5.4L's.

Tim

 

One thing to remember is that when you take it to the dealer, it is your responsibility if plug(s) break 'cause they get paid for all the work they do. The dealer will not take responsibility for Fords screw ups or for the plug's manufacturer. It's all yours, therefore it is better to do all the repairs yourself, if you can, and if something breaks ....

 

Had mine replaced at 105,000 miles at a local shop. They did the carbon soak over night (because of a bad past experience with the Triton engine) thinking that would solve the problem. 6 of the 8 spark plugs still broke. They quoted me 5 hours originally, it ended up taking 10 hours of labor, so we split the difference at 7, I think.

This is a very common problem as others have said. If you search for "spark plugs triton" you will find hordes of posts about it. If you are not an experienced do-it-yourselfer mechanic (like me), than you will unfortunately have to cough up the cash.

Think of it this way too - if you were in the earlier generations of the Expedition (97 - 02), then you would be experiencing spark plug blow-outs, so I suppose this situation is much better since the average Expy will only have to do a spark plug change once. I still find it fascinating that throughout the life of the Expedition, it's been plagued with two completely opposite 180 degree spark plug problems (i.e., spark plugs spitting out at random vs. spark plugs unable to come out of the engine during what should be a very routine engine maintenance item).

Upon saying all of that - still love my Expedition!!