seeing what a pain in the butt it is to change plugs out I wonder if it would be worth it to have a mechanic do it.. and do you really think a mechanic would change all of them out ?? I am to scared to touch mine, (5.4 v8) heck I cant even see them..
I decided to let the dealership do mine at 75,000 miles when my 04 developed a miss. I got my truck back today along with a $1007 bill. $141 for cost of plugs, $74 for a bad coil, and $735 for 10.5 hours labor including extraction of 6 broken plugs. I didn't think I'd have to pay that given the TSB that is out, but they told me Ford says to charge every hour to customer!
I was always under the impression that you pay the book rate for scheduled services--i.e. a flat rate for a 75k service. Does this vary across dealerships?
BTW--that's some nice work on putting all that together!
__________________ Been doin' it this way for thirty years!
I didn't think I'd have to pay that given the TSB that is out, but they told me Ford says to charge every hour to customer!
TSB's are not recalls, or free work. TSB stands for technical service bulletin, which just means it is a guide line to work by. Its basically a fancy how to sheet for the technicians, that is recommended from Ford.
Other then that, great posting OP way to be inventive
should i be worried? my truck is a 98 with 130000 miles on it.. never had a broken plug. i have changed em out once... when i bought it at 98000 miles... i put 100k plugs in it.. think they will break>???
should i be worried? my truck is a 98 with 130000 miles on it.. never had a broken plug. i have changed em out once... when i bought it at 98000 miles... i put 100k plugs in it.. think they will break>???
I just got mine changed Friday (11-21-08) on my 2004 5.4L with ~43k miles. No penetrating liquid was used an none broke. I was very surprised and pleased to have all 8 come out in their entirety. I also put the Champion, 1-piece plugs back in to prevent breakage in the future.
There's been so many stories on the plugs, mostly that the temperature rating is no good for a plug with a shield, or whatever the actual problem with the plugs was.
I have, however, been to 4 dealerships in New England, and after asking questions, I have always gotten the same exact answer. I've been told the plugs were essentially too long. Not so much noticably by looking at them, but just long enough (maybe less than millimeters) that they would "bottom out" in the head and sieze up right away. And the build up of carbon over time was no help. So Ford knew about it all along and did noting until recently, I was told. 2008 models built after a particular date (not sure what it was) are supposedly all set. The plug is not only a different temp, but a tiny bit shorter, allowing clearance so it will not bottom out. And from what each dealer has told me, my truck with a build date of August '08 is all set. I want to believe this, especially because it's several dealers giving me the same story, not just one tech or service manager trying to give me a simple wrong answer.
Good info. I have an 04 and just had them changed by a dealer. The mechanic is a good friend, and he used an impact wrench to extract the plugs. all 8 came out clean.
Took my 2005 f150 to the shop with a check engine light. Had an extended warranty with $100 deductible, so I took it in. Bad #8 coil and they wanted to change the plug. With 82K on the other plugs I wanted to change the rest. They broke three off including the #8 cylinder that had the miss. I got the truck back and noticed a high rpm rattle. Check engine light came back on. After a week of codes going active and inactive they determined the exhaust valve was sticking on the #8 cylinder causing a rich condition on that bank of cylinders. Removed cab and head, rebuilt valves and returned truck. When I picked it up it had a rough idle when cold. Check engine light came back on, cylinder misfire #8. They put new valve springs and replaced cats with no results. They then said they didn't know what was wrong and needed a Ford engineer. The engineer told them to remove the head again, so off with the cab for the second time. Here I sit two truck payments later waiting on the engineer to make a call.
My costs $752, warranty paided $3200, looks like the dealership is working with Ford for the last valve springs, cats, and latest teardown. Expensive plug job!!!
i have four broken plugs on a 05 f-150 crew cab, 5.4 3v triton engine, the fact is the electrode, the half porcelain and the electrode still in the head, so i can´t remove the porcelain center, just the nut and the upper porcelain half came out.... so, any idea how i can do the job with out taking out the heads? thank you
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