I'm thinking of buying a 2002 or 2003 F150 supercrew with about 140-170 K miles, and was wondering what I could expect for average yearly repair and maintenance costs. Any ideas?

 

There's really no way to tell.

 

I have a 2002 Supercab and it has 135,000 miles on it. Recently, I have had to replace the front lower control arm ball joints, bearing hubs, all 4 tie rod ends, idler arm, sway bar end link bushings, right rear axle and bearing/seal, all 5 flexible brake hoses, all 4 calipers, master cylinder, and replaced the cables that unlatch the rear doors. Still to repair are the overhead console, usually a bad resistor or solder joint, the odometer going black (supposed to be a bad solder joint), the power mirror switch, the blower motor has started making a noise on the highest speed, and the AC has been leaking for a while and now won't hold refrigerant for more than a few weeks. I think it needs a new compressor. I plan to keep it and keep on repairing because I am driving it only about 3k miles/year now since I retired.

 

depends on if you're doing the work yourself or having someone else do. alot of aftermarket part's aren't that expensive if you can do the work yourself.

 

How hard are they to work on? I've done some work on my 99 New Beetle (don't ask...) and hate it because I have to take half the car apart to get to anything.

 

Front end and suspension work is easy as any vehicle. Under the hood, spark plug replacements are a bear because they are hard to get to. But, aren't needed but every 100k miles. It's easy to pull the rear axles to replace axle bearings. Special tools are needed to pull the bearing and replace the bearing but many auto parts stores loan tools with a refundable deposit.

 

I have a 2001 F150 5.4 4wd. Didn't put a dime in it for 8 years besides filters, oil changes and gas.
Last year I probably spent 5 grand on full front end rebuild, new a/c compressor and lines, and a starter that failed 1200 miles from home [got it towed to the dealer for that one], and tires. Since then, oil changes and gas. 182,000 and going strong.

 

Annual maintenance costs will be low, however, your initial maintenance costs could be fairly expensive depending on the condition of the truck you buy.

From what I've seen, the OEM parts start to fail past 120k mark, so be wary of trucks with neglected maintenance, because they can take a dump on you all at once.

At 200k, my truck is very reliable, and I only do oil changes, but admittedly, the truck was expensive to run between 140k and 180k, because all the wear items needed replacement.

 

I know on my '99, we just replaced the normal wear parts, shocks, tires, plugs, filters, brakes, etc. At 110k it really needed nothing. It drove fine other than that. My starter did go, but never left me stranded because it has a manual and I pushed the truck and popped the clutch.

My '07 has not needed anything. Not even brakes at 60k. Just the usual items. However, being it is getting up in age, I am planning on getting a whole slew of new things on it... shocks, brakes, calipers, hoses, etc. Just to keep it reliable. Still nothing wrong with it, but just keeping up good service on it. Lucky for me, I still got the Ford ESP on it, but they don't cover the stuff I am replacing (except for the calipers). I just want fancier calipers with my new brake kit I bought.

Very reliable trucks.... very reliable.