Hello all. I recently purchased a 99 F250 V10, which now has 151k. It was bought new by an older couple and they used it to haul a camper (not sure what size) cross country several times. It saw 100k before its first brake job. They have all the service records of work done. Oil changes at 3k, so that was good, but I do have a couple of concerns. There is only one record of a transmission flush, and it was done at 50k, the fluid level looks and smells good, and shifts beautifully, but should I take the risk for maintenance reasons? The same with the rear end. It takes the Ford synthetic, should it be done as well? And is that considered a good rearend for that year? What kind of longevity can I expect from the engine and tranny? I drive approx. 5k a year, and I rarely haul anything. Any advise would be appreciated!

 

Cyprss21

Good news is they sound like they took good care of her

Yes you need to relube the entire truck to include the differentials and transfer case (I assume it is 4x4)

Do not be tempted to change brands or move to full synthetic with that high a milage. Stick with the factory stuff it is pretty damned good and least expensive.

You will have problems with the IAC and some of the rubber elboes in the vacuum lines so get familiar with where they are in the top left of the motor (as you face it)

IAC = Idle Air Controll (valve)

I assume it is a 4R100 and that milage suggests that one of these days you will need a rebuild... bad news is it is a bit expensive...good news is you get back a better then facotry trany with much better internals in it and the rebuild will then outlast the truck.

The 99 2v V10 can last a long time befor over haul. Many start to get sloppy about 160,000/200,000...but there are hundreds of internet claims of 225,000 and higher milage before trade or rebuild. I personally know of several into the 300,000+ milage and still on the road.

You don't say but I assume the original spark plugs are in it... time for new if they are the factory originals... look up in this forum for the excellent posts on proper way to replace them... if you get it done else where still look up the proper procedure so you can inform the mechanic how you want it done...This is very important so don't blow off this advice.

I am sure you will have many more questions as you get into owning a V10 Ford truck...good luck and welcome to the BSEG family

 

Yes, the plugs were replaced by the ford dealer at 100k.

 

That is actually good news about the plugs... if they lasted until 100K and then the dealer's new plugs have lasted another 50+thousand, then you should not have a plug blow out issue.

Consider new plugs in about 9 thousand miles from now... the Factory suggestion of 100K between changes is optimistic... 50 60 K is more reasonable. It is amazing how a new set of plugs can wake up the V10 motor

 

Just to reiterate something:

The plug issue is not only a lower thread count in the early years, but factory torque procedures, and cross-threading ruining what little threads there were.

All three of these things are a Ford problem.

In 2000, they revised the head slightly to help align the plug better during factory torquing (called an alignment feature), and they torqued them down differently at the same time. The altered torque procedure caught more bad heads at the factory instead of shipping them out and having them fail in the field.

In 2002, they upped the number of threads (still having a problem believing this one, my 2001 has the higher thread count).

Maintenance is still a biggee with the plugs, but the major problems were introduced at the factory.