I, like many of you, have been shafted by Ford and their cam phaser and spark plug problems. I recently had an adjuster from a third party extended warranty company look at my truck and agree the phasers were "very loud." However, he tried saying that my engine oil was "low and dirty." Therefore, they are requesting all service records for the life of the truck. Keep in mind there was about 3,800 on the oil, so yes it looks dirty and according to my dip stick the level was still in the lower portion of the cross hatching. If it was a half quart low that was it!! The truck has 59,900 easy miles on it and I have always changed my own oil using Motorcraft semi-syn and Motorcraft filters. Since getting the truck I have moved 4x and cannot find any of my receipts that I kept. Dealer tells me without them it is a lost cause. What a flippn joke, and to top it all off I have records on file at the dealership complaining of the loud motor while it was still under factory warranty. Their response at the time was, "it's normal noise, the 5.4 is a bit noisey by nature." My plan now is to drive it for another year or so and dump it, and believe me I WILL be considering other manufacturers. That is hard for me to say because this is the 5th Ford truck I have owned, but it has been by far the most problematic.

 

What actual problems has the truck given you so far? did you change the plugs? Or is it just the noise that is bothering you. I change my own oil too, everytime, and I have never saved receipts, too late to start now. My truck does concern me a little right after I start it up after an oil change, you can hear like grinding, like gears grinding or something for about 2 or 3 seconds then it stops and never does it after that. It has doen that on every change. I don't like it, but it has caused no problems so far. Mine ticks too. I'm sure others have had theirs worked on for the same noise. So far I've had no problems from it.

 

Bigunit54 I have not changed the plugs yet and plan on trading before I do. My dealer also said I would be crazy to let them go to 100,000 as Ford says you can. The problems I have had are as follows: 3 new alternators, new thermostat, new front brakes, 3rd brake light that leaked, leaking rear axle seal fixed twice, driver's side window motor failed once, passenger side twice, cam phasers sound like my buddy's 7.3, loose wires in driver's side door rattled for 3 years before someone finally fixed it, misc; rattles in dash when cold, windshield wiper cowling continues to pop, especially when cold, hood moves when at highway speeds, **** poor A/C. I think that is it for now...Even with all those issues, it is still is my favorite truck when it is working right.

 

Holy crap what did you do buy the first one off the assembly line. Man I admit at first I was like ah just another post about problems with truck and how it sucks but I think yours is a bit more deserving now then some of the complaints I have read. That sucks man I hope you can get something worked out that is agreeable and maybe come back to Ford again when you buy your next truck but I understand about having to look at other manufacturers. I sure as hell did when I bought mine 2 years ago but I got my ford for a few reasons and have been happy ever since.

 

Wow, you have had a lot of problems. I am sorry to hear that. My truck has given me a couple. The biggest in expense to me was the Plugs, I got them changed at 80,000 and had a huge bill. Looking back, I wish I would have gotten the lisle tool and done it myself. I just put new front rotors and pads on and recently put new back pads on. Otherwise, I did have a transmission issue that is too long to explain. Basically, a snap ring failed in the tranny and I lost fourth gear, it would have been a big expense, but it was covered under the Ford certified warranty. Nothing was wrong with the tranny except this broken snap ring, but it woulda been a big bill if I woulda paid for it. Otherwise, I have had none of the issuse you have had. Like I said, it does tick, I told my dad the week after I bought it "this thing runs like a diesel, it's gonna blow", but the motor has been fine, I think it will continue to be. I think it is just bad luck buddy, sorry.

 

Wellll, sound like you got the monday morning rig. Did your dealer do all this work, you, or your local mechanic. Lets break this down (no pun intended):

• 3 new alternators - This is new to me, sounds like just bad luck. Did you replace with new or rebuilts from autozone?
• New thermostat - Strange, don't hear about these failing too often
• new front brakes - if over 30K miles, lets just chalk that up to normal wear.
• 3rd brake light that leaked - Common and a TSB out on it. Hopefully you got if fixed for free.
• Leaking rear axle seal fixed twice - common depending on where/how you drive. I don't think there's a TSB but we hear this one on here alot.
• Driver's side window motor failed once, passenger side twice - Pretty common.
• Cam phasers sound like my buddy's 7.3 - Yup and there's a TSB but it's difficult to get some dealers to admit the phaser are the problem (I had one tell me it was a pebble stuck in the engine somewhere and not to worry)
• Loose wires in driver's side door rattled for 3 years before someone finally fixed it - That ain't right, it would T me off too.
• Misc rattles in dash when cold - The older they get the more they creak right?
• Windshield wiper cowling continues to pop, especially when cold - TSB on this one as well. Hope the dealer fixed it for free.
• hood moves when at highway speeds - Adjust the rubber bumpers and this should fix that.
• **** poor A/C - Tell me about it. There is a TSB though, not that it will do you any good at almost 60K miles.

I don't blame you for wanting to shop other manufactures. Your rig seems to be the poster child for TSBs and known problems.

 

I burned through 3 alternators on my Tempo but 1 was bad and the rest went because of how I drove the car. Which was rough and fast every where I went but hey I was 16 so what do you expect.

 

Sounds to me like some of the issues have been dealership "rework" items. If so, that's not Ford's fault. Gone are the days when the dealer and Ford will stand behind the customer. What a shame.

 

This may be true on some dealers but if you find the right one they will stand behind the vehicles they sell. Mine sure as hell does.

 

Sadly, that's the exception rather than the rule. Even if I've had a positive purchase experience with the sales staff I almost always run into problems at the service counter. Because of this I've bought four Fords from four different dealers around town. I wish I could find one that will allow me to be loyal to them!

 

Wow well that kind of sucks then i will consider myself fortunate for having a dealer like mine then.

 

After I bought my first new Ford, a 2001 Expedition EB, I had a problem a couple of weeks after I drove it off the lot. I took it back early in the morning before work and expected to drop it off and get a loaner (b/c the sales guy said "loaners for owners"). The service consultant said they'd look at it and call, and I said "great, I just need the keys to the loaner". She looked at me a chuckled and said they don't have any and even if they did my car would have to be undrivable (my logic was, if its in your shop, I cant drive it!). I told her what the sales guy said and she replied smartly, "Well, maybe he was planning on letting you borrow his car?" Being 25 and having just dropped a load on a "nice" car I failed to see the humor.

 

I've recently changed dealers fro this very reason. I was loyal too one dealer for over 20 years and then the service manager started talking smack about his relationship with Ford and how that affected his ability to do his job.

A fella can only listen to so much double talk and then you must take your money elsewhere. So I did and I'm happy.

 

We comparing F150 problems we had to fix?

Here you go! I bought my 04 with 72,000 miles, im at 96,000 right now.

-torque converter*
-speed sensors and wire harness*
-rear axle seal*
-alternator*
-IWE solenoid
-3 IWE actuators
-IWE vacuum lines
-IWE vacuum resiv. box & check valves
-steering rack*
-ball joints
-sway bar endlinks
-2 front coil springs
-2 sets of rims
-3 sets of tires
-5 alignments
-emergency brakes
-2 front calipers
-master cylinder
-2 front brake lines
-spark plugs
-rotors
-brakes
-battery

*-covered under 3rd party extended warranty

I think i got the very first new body style F150 ever made, on a friday, on the last weekend of th month.

My third party extended warranty company never asked for any records when i had anything done, and i do my own oil changes. My third party warranty company, although im always skeptical of them has worked with me very well on the problems that they covered.

This truck has deffinatley been a money pit, but i think i just recently got alll the bugs worked out and i do like the truck.

 

Luckily most repairs were under warranty from Ford but some were out of my pocket. I am just so frustrated because I want to stay with Ford but I will say right now, the new motors better blow me away or I am very much going to consider the Ram or Tundra. I will never, ever touch a 5.4 again and told my dad the same thing when he wanted to buy mine. Who knows, maybe my phasers and plugs won't ever cause me a major engine failure, but then again they could?? I gave 3 different dealers a chance to help me on the phasers but was blown off each time. The biggest joke of all was when I was told, "ohhh that is just normal engine noise, the 5.4's are noisey by nature." I even had print outs from this website and they would not even look at them. We shall see, I am going to probably wait until this time next year and see what Ford has, but it is no longer a gimme for my business.