I just bought a 98 F150 XLT with a 4.6L motor that has 190,000 miles on it. I had a few problems with it when I first bought it; rough idle, loss of power, hesitation. I cleaned the MAF, replaced PCV, cleaned TB, cleaned IAC, replaced fuel filter, and ran Seafoam thru vacuum intake. I have been driving it for a week without any problems, including 4 large loads of compost. My concern is making a long trip in it. I will need to go 500 miles one way to pick up my kids. If the truck drives fine daily would you trust it on that long of a trip or find an alternative vehicle (rental?)
Thanks for any input!

 

It's pretty sad that you have to ask this question because you don't have any confidence in your truck. It's a 50/50 question. Darned if you do....,darned if you don't. I have been in this same situation myself before and have been fine but one time I broke down on the NY State thruway because the car crapped out and it cost me a large portion of my vacation money to get it towed and fixed. After the repair, I drove home because I still didn't trust the car and went shopping and traded it in that same weekend.(I was trading the car in anyways, it just happened that I did it earlier than I anticipated) Because your children are involved and you want to start their visit off right, I would rent a small car that gets over 30 mpg and the gas savings will offset part of the rental fees.
Back to your truck problems. It looks like you did alot of the right maitenance and repairs to get the truck running right again. My concern is that you only have one week of driving to test out your mait/repair work. In that week how many miles have you driven and how many drive cycles have you driven.
In case you don't know, drive cycles = start,drive,stop, angine off and then repeating the cycle. When your truck was running with the "few problems" did you have CEL come on. I would be surprised if you didn't. Can you get your hands on a hand scan-tool and see if your rediness monitors are set or that you don't have any codes pending. Autozone will check it for free !!!
Again, if you have to ask this question you lack confidence in your truck. Start the kids visit off right, rent a car if you have the finacial means to do it.
Enjoy your time with your children and drive the truck locally for awhile until you feel confident you won't be breaking down.

TJK

 

Yeah I know it is sad I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the truck. I also wanted to know what others had experienced with such high miles on a vehicle. I usually rent a car anyway but I thought I might drive my own this time. enterprise has a great weekend special so it would possibly save me money and miles on my own vehicle. Drive cycles I added up about 23 of them and 50 miles driven. The CEL does come on. One code was for a bad I2sensor which thanks to this site I was able to verify that it was correct. I also get P0171 & P0174 which says I am running lean. I have read up in these codes and that is part of the maintenance I did. The code came back after after having been reset within 10 drive cycles. I found 1vacuum house that looked bad so I replaced it.I have read about a smoke test but not sure how it is done.

 

i would rent a car. you dont want to break down with kids in th truck. not that the truck is bad. those thigns can go wrong with any car. it's just better to be safer than sorry. mine has 122k on the clock, but if i was going out of town, i would rent a car. not because i dont trust my truck. but more that it'll be cheaper on gas for the trip & why not put miles on something else, so i can enjoy my truck for everyday use.


but i bought my truck in my truck in mid - 2006, and i have kept up on it very well. any problems i get fixed, so i trust it if i had to take a long trip. but that's b/c i know there is nothing wrong.

 

Tough call for sure, but I see 'almost' as many 'new' rigs on the side of the road with the hood up as I do 'old' rigs...

I've got 197,000 on my truck and would drive it anywhere.. I tow a #5000 TT once a month from May thru Sept anywhere from 50 miles to 300 miles (one way)..

But, how I feel and know about my truck and how I feel and know about your truck is different, so you've probably made the decision harder for yourself by even asking!

Long hwy runs are actually the easiest on the drivetrain IMO.... Engines barely turning much more then 1700 rpms (unless you are going like a BOH down the road!), temps are consistent, trans isn't shifting all the time...

I'd check to see what you estimate it would cost in gas to take the truck round trip. Then figure the cost of a rental and the gas you'd have to buy for that. Compare the two and if the cost difference is enough to warrent either one, then that's what you should take...

Good luck with either choice!

Mitch

 

maybe al it needs is a good hwy run to clean it out.just take it, and keep it under 70mph you'll be fine it it should run even better when you het home, just check your oil and tranny fluid before u go.

 

I almost never take my own vehicle on a long trip. I just don't want hassles. Accidents or breakdowns happen with the best of vehicles. If you rent one and have problems then you are just a call away from a replacement. Go through a national company like enterprise hertz or avis and you can get a replacement with a phone call. Plus you will save a lot of gas and wear and tear.

 

Your doing the right thing by using the search function to resolve your codes.
I bought my truck and after a couple of days of owning the truck,
the P0171/P0174 codes came on (got the truck at 1/2 the book value because it definately needed some mait. & repair but the body was in great shape) and was told by a good mechanic (friend) these codes are very fixable. They just take time to check through everything and repair as needed.
There is no doubt that the seller had the codes cleared before I test drove it (it drove perfectly). I bought it the 1st day it was put up for sale and he worked for an auto repair shop, and when I took it to a friend to have the codes read, my buddy told me it was recently reset because there were a cpl of monitors that had not reset yet.
Anyways.............
After all the testing and repairs as needed,(new fuel tank because the old one was leaking, fuel filter, COP's and plugs, air filter, oil change, etc.) it came down to me cleaning my MAF sensor really well (again) and replacing the entire PCV Assembly from Ford. The entire assembly cost me $28.00 and it included the valve, hardline tube and the rubber elbow that connects to the rear of the throttle body. The biggest help was finding this site and having alot of different members walk me through the checks & repairs. This is my 1st full size truck in alot of years (15+) and once I got the necessary maitenance and repairs done, codes fixed, and body re-done, I am a very happy F150 owner.
Keep searching through the search function and if you need some extra guidance post a new thread but let everyone know what you checked and repaired already.

 

https://www.f150online.com/forums/v8...ew-thread.html

The above thread was started by me when I had the P0171/P0174 code problem. Read through it and see if it will help you out.
I can't believe I didn't finish the thread and let everyone know that my problem was resolved. Like I said earlier, the last 2 things I did to finally get rid of these codes, was (1)-recleaned the MAF really well and (2)-replaced the entire PCV assembly that I purchased from Ford. It took me a few months to finally get it resolved because I would work on the truck part time
and had other repairs that had to be completed 1st. Those codes havn't come back in over a year.
Good luck with the repair.

Additional Info- If you read through my thread you will see the last 2 repairs that I did. After 792 miles I had P0174 code come back. I just rechecked my notes and see that I tore down the MAF Sensor one last time, and cleaned it really well with CRC Electronics cleaner. The reason I never finished my thread was that I was probably waiting for one or both of those codes to come back and they never did. Make sure that your air filter housing is clamped and sealed up properly. I remember having to put a clamp on part of the air duct before or after the filter housing when I was doing my repair. It was sucking in extra air. I corrected that problem before the truck ran the 792 miles without a CEL.
I am pretty sure that my biggest issue after the mait. and tune-up was the bad PCV assembly that I replaced.

 

If you still have lean codes, look at the PCV elbow behind the intake. With 190k, I'd probably change the plugs and wires on general principle. Your truck has a LOT of life left in it, but I don't think I'd trust it on a trip with kids till you are sure that everything is sorted.