You're right Ham the NGK 3689 and 4477 are not for our truck, I made a mistake posting that, sorry. All we got is Motorcraft and Autolite

 

This was said about 100 pages ago... I couldn't agree more!

 

PiggNFord, if I had followed that train of thought, I’d be driving around right now with three plugs leaking compression. Would you want to drive around with plugs like that? I don’t and I would have never known if I waited because somehow I just don’t think Ford would have mentioned it, if and when they changed my plugs.

 

And if I follwed the logic of many on this thread, the harder something is to do, the more I should mess with it. Maybe I should rebuild the valve body in the transmission every 50 miles, because I hear that's pretty tough. The reason they put 100K plugs in a vehicle is so they can be changed every 100K. I'm not going to pull the damn things out every weekend to make sure they come out smoothly. If they are hard to get out now, they will be hard to get out at 100K, but atleast I dont have to mess with it for five years...
All the suspension bolts will be harder to get out after five years too, but I don't go run them in and out once a month. I'm all about love for the truck, but this thread is beyond overkill, and is encouraging people to go make a bad situation worse.

If you had plugs leaking compression, then it was broke, so the quote "If it isn't broke, don't f*ck with it" didn't apply to you.

 

First of all, we are talking about a regular maintenance item here, not removing suspension or rebuilding a valvebody, so that comparison does not work. And how could you make a situation worse by simply changing your spark plugs, that could possibly be the most illogical thing I have read on here. I dont even know what to say to that, and honestly dont think I need to.

How would he have known if he didnt research and then inspect/remove his spark plugs. So he would have never known about this until it presented itself and by that time there could be damage. There is a difference between "if it aint broke dont fix it" and responsible preventative maintenance/research. There is also some correlation between "if it aint broke dont fix it" and "ignorance is bliss." Well "ignorance is bliss" doesnt work with me, if I can prevent something then I will and I will also educate myself on potential problems and issues. To me that is all part of being a responsible owner. I am very thankful for threads like these because you will not hear these types of things for Ford dealerships and its nice to know people that can relate with situations you may be going through.

 

silverbullet5.4 amen to that!

 

kinda like owning a pinto and driving around hoping not to get rearended.....kinda ignorant ,isn't it? If you hear that the third brake light leaks and you don't at least look at your headliner, thats ignorant.Well, same thing here. I had the biggest decision to make ...risk breaking a plug now or in 30 k when I hit 100k. Dealer acted like no big deal to change them for 2 bones.BUT....and here is the kicker...he recommended changing around 80 k....so go figure. Has anybody ever waited 100kon any other vehicle? hmmmm?The plugs don't operate efficiently for that long...now the only evidence I have is that my idle is smoother and low speed pulling power has increased !!! For me, I wanted to know if they were going to come out ,but I wanted it to be in fords hands if they didn't come out .It was a Peace of Mind type thing..now i know I will be able to change them myself in 30-40k while Im still pay this beast off rather than trying to unload a truck that has frozen plugs in it...you tell me which one YOU would buy?
And I just did not want to "wait for ford" to come up with the answer while I rack up 2000 to 2500 more miles a month.Each week could have been the last week that the plugs were free from freezing (thats funny,I don't care who you are). Anyway ,my mind is way more positive on this truck now so I can move on to Bilsteins and such...yea baby. Change 'em now at the dealer if you have doubts....you will feel better!!

 

Roger that!

Ostriches need not apply.

"If Ignorance is Bliss, you must be Ecstatic!"
"If Stupid Hurts, you must be in Agony!"

-Grog

 

Yes, a regular maintenance item that Ford says to to do the first maintenance on, at 100,000 miles.

Show me where in the manual it says to change the plugs earlier than that.

What are you going to do when they come out with a 'lifetime' plug, that is not serviceable without removing the valve cover or head?

:santa:

 

Simple, do whatever needs to be done especially if some of the plugs are leaking compression.

 

Those that wish to purchase the 9/16", inner tube rubber grip, 3/8" Drive plug socket alone may do so through Sears ($9.99), or Skyway Tools ($7.50). Both are online purchases. Both Sears and Skyway offer the socket made by SK. I have the socket from Skyway.

Skyway: www.skywaytools.com.

 

This is why they issue TSB's. They build and sell us these things. Then they wait for the troubles to pop up as we do their "acceptance testing" for them.
On this issue they get a "FAIL" in the spark plug design catagory.

If the manufacture said to change the oil at 7K miles under normal conditions should I wait till then or do it at 3K mile intervals. Basically I have a choice don't I? If I felt changing oil at a shorter interval would benefit me then its my choice. The same goes for the spark plugs given what appears to be a "potential" problem.

Given Ford's previous track record on the "plug blow out" problems I choose to ignore their 100K mile recomendation and do a shorter interval changout that I feel benefits me. My choice.

Do I believe that the manufactures recommended intervals for maintenance is locked in stone? No I do not. In their infinite wisdom the maunfacture is trying to eliminate as much as possible that needs regular maintenance. Specifically during the warranty period. They would just a soon tell you that when you buy their product you can drive it forever and just put gas in the tank and change the oil at greater and greater intervals. No maintenance needed.I don't believe that either.

If they did come out with a "Lifetime" plug built into a design that could not be easily maintained then I would probably not buy into that. Consider the term "Lifetime". Who knows what that may mean. It's definition may mean the lifetime of the vehicle as defined by who? The manufacture? His attorney?

You have a choice here. Go by the "recommended" maintenance intervals and believe exactically what the manufacture says or you can do your own thing and tighten up those intervals if you believe it will benefit you. The manufacture dosent say to you "If you change oil earlier than the recommended interval, your warranty is void!" does he?

As I said before in this thread I respect everyone's choice to either follow the 100K recommendation or do it sooner. I choose to do it sooner. I also change my oil at 3K miles too. But thats my choice isn't it? I respect your choice not to.

 

You better get started on pulling those u-joints, drilling and tapping for Zerk fittings, and grease them up.

You never know......one of those u-joints may just fail one day before the 100,000 mile mark.

 

We are talking about spark plugs, you know, the little porcelin platinum/copper tip SCREW in plugs that are exposed to extremely high temperatures and extreme conditions that are the life of the engine and dictate how well or poor the engine runs. They are the only thing in your combustion chamber exposed to those types of conditions(several hundred combustion cyles in a minute). Well the bottom of the valves, the piston, and the head combustion chamber, but all of those are solid metals and much less affected by the conditions. And despite all of this you find it totally unreasonable to change them on a bi yearly interval. Whats next, lifetime oil, air filters, fuel filters, etc. Is this all a result of a increasingly lazy consumer base? Well I will continue to perform regular maintenance on my vehicles to ensure excellent engine efficiency to get the most mpg, power, and smoothness out of my engine.

 

I prefer and will continue to follow the manufacturers recommended maintenance schedule.



:santa: