I have 45,000 miles and now i am scared to death of doing my plugs. Are there any TSBs i could use to have the dealer ship do my plugs. I have a 72,000 mile warranty.

 

Ya since my truck has 35k on it now but it was Certified used I have the 6 year 75k mile powertrain warranty would this be covered and are there any recalls or tsb's?

 

I dont buy this either

before 1980 we had to deal with leaded gasoline

remember that? Lead basically "lubricated" your valvetrain

but it also left huge lead deposits on your valves and spark plus

if you kept your car past ~50,000 miles, you had to usually have a "valve job" which usually consited of them taking your heads off, grinding the stops clean and getting new valves, valve guide seals, timing chain and sometimes springs and hydraulic lifters if so equipped

I guess what I am getting to, is that LEADED Gasoline was a severe additive, and as bad as it was, it left all sorts of crap all over the plugs but never caused issues like this

 

You didn't have a tube sticking in the head before. Don't forget we're talking about two totally different designs in plugs. I'm not saying the fuel has anything to do with it. But these plugs aren't close to anything I've seen before.

 

You have that mixed up. Lead was a beneficial additive. It lubricated the valves. It also increased the octane (slowed down the burn rate) removing lead from gasoline screwed up the engines that were built pre 72. Engines in the 'old days' say when I was first a mechanic were a lot different. Example, the valves were cast iron. Not hardened steel. The valve seats were also cast iron, not hardened steel. This was why the valves 'burned' but not that often. If you took care of the engine, i.e. didn't retard the timing too much, use good gas, the valves lasted about 100-200k miles. I've worked on them with 312k, never had a valve job. But that was running leaded gas. When the government forced you to run unleaded in 73-74 (because the 'lead' contaminated catalytic converters, due out in 75) you needed to use a valve lubricating additive. Every maker made one. I preferred Alimite, but all of them did the trick. They 'replaced' the lead additive in lubricating your cast iron valve/seats and stopped you needing a valve job every 30k.
Again, the lead was good for the engine. Removing the lead is what burned the valves.
We have many, many more additives now, and trust me, the people pushing these additives do not have the best interest of your engines at heart. Ask them, read their press releases.
Valves nowadays are often stainless steel, case hardened in hardened steel inserts. They don't need lubrication.
The additives are for emissions reasons or to subsidize the corn industry. They are not to help your engine.

In addition to these federal and state mandated additives are many additives the various vendors put in. These are probably helpful, and not what I was referring to.

And as whitecrystal1 says, this is a VERY NEW design. Never been anything quite like it. Whole new ball game.
Chris

 

i agree.

 

It's the dealerships and owners manual that tell you they're good for 75k mi. They are coming out rusted looking, why? Isn't the plug zinc plated? Any rust/corrosion is going to expand. The plug has real close tolerances to the head, in order to keep compression. Add a little carbon deposit, and you have a recipe for seizure. Different types of fuel aren't the problem. As for the guy saying Ford wouldn't put it out "knowing" there was a problem, please! Maybe they never had the problem, because during testing, they removed the plugs regularly for inspection. But,they have alot invested in this new engine design. They were all tooled up to produce these en mass for the new model and took a gamble, and lost. This IS a bigger fiasco than the Firestone tires, they only cost a few hundred for tires. This, if recalled CAN run into the thousands to fix, if they break, PER VEHICLE! Not to mention Down time can be days. (mine took 18 days) Most commercial, light duty Ford truck/van have the 5.4L engine. That's a lot of trucks, I'm not sure what is popular in your area of the country, but in NE Ohio, there are more Ford vehicles on the job sites than any other. I'm not trying to scare anybody, just inform everybody that has this engine about the problem. Ford's obviously not. For the guys asking if this is covered under warranty, good luck! I was told no warranty on maintenence parts. Someone posted something that looked like it could be covered under emission controls, but I haven't confirmed nothing about it. Call dealers in your area and ask them who is responsible for the cost if they break. Some dealers are more helpful than others it seems. It appears 25k mi is the magic number, anything after that becomes a gamble. Now you guys can do a few things here, wait for the 100k mi and pray Ford issues a recall before then. You can try removing them now to make it easier for later.(although this is risky, that's how I got burned) Or sell your truck before you change them and screw the next guy. That seems to be the popular option.

 

Everytime I see a post like this I think about trading for a GMC Sierra

 

Really? How many people have gotten in an accident and killed because of it?

 

OK point taken. I was talking financially on Ford's end. No deaths caused by this, but making alot of people go insane. I purposely left my weapon at home because these guys have gotten me in such a rage I felt like there could have been an issue. Does that count?

 

Got mine out today. Four of them were a$$es. The thing to remember is that they seem to break loose then tighten up due to the build up on the goofy tube design. If you just break them loose, then put some PB Blaster on them and work them back an forth they will eventually come out as the Blaster gets down past the threads and onto the tube of the plug. Be patient and you'll get them without breaking them off. The engineer that did this one used to work for Firestone.

 

wstafford-
How many miles do you have?

 

Just a funny update. I took my truck back yesterday for them to replace the missing trans plug they forgot to install. And put my exhaust back in the exhaust hangers they felt were optional? (dumb a$$es) Anyway, I pulled it in and parked it. While walking to the service desk I saw the service manager (my nemesis) glance over and notice my truck, "son of a bitch!" he said in disbelief. That was PRICELESS!! It made me happy to know his day was ruined by the SIGHT of my truck in his shop again. LOL I really loathe that man.

 

I don't think the service manager at my dealership is smart enough to recognize my truck. I go in every 2 months for service for the last 18 months and he still doesn't recognize me. However, that may be a blessing.

 

Alot of cosmetic mods make me stand out from the norm. 12" wide tires sticking out of the wheel wells will leave an impression on most people. I get asked if those tires came on the truck alot.