Well today I decided to take the plunge and change my plugs. I soaked over night and still broke 3 plugs. Two of the three broke with the porcelin and the center electrode still in place. The remaining the porcelin broke but the electrode came out with the plug.

The sounds these things make while attempting to get them out will disturb you or at least they did me. One observation I will make, is the 3 the broke were the only one's I decided to turn out a little and then turn back in. I'm thinking I should have just kept going and not turned back in.

Ah, I don't frigin know. What I do know is I'm not sure how the heck to get these dam things out. I have given up for today and left these three soaking in Kroil.

What the heck can I do, other then use my AAA and have it towed to my local dealership. Is it possible to use some thing like a long handled awl and break away the porcelin without causing the plug tips to end up in the cylinder?

I'm hoping someone has a great suggestion so I can get these dam things out.

 

Here's one of the write ups on the site

https://www.f150online.com/forums/ar...ark-plugs.html

There is another one floating around, Hope this helps bud

 

There are those on this site who will tell you that it's not a problem with the design of the plugs or the heads, but a problem with the way you changed the plugs. They will tell you that there is no problem and that you should have been more careful. They will tell you that even though there is no problem, there is a special tool that was developed to remove the broken piece of sparkplug from the head after it breaks. They will point out that many people have successfully changed their plugs without breaking any of them. They will claim that most people who change or have their plugs changed in their F150's don't have any of them break.

 

Thanks for posting that home made pin set up. I had forgotten about that route. If I can figure out how to get the dam center electrode out, and I can make up one or 3 of those. I might be in business. THANKS!!!

Sometime after my issue is resolved, I'd be up for a discussion about was this a technique issue or a design issue. But not now dude.

 

You drive a diesel correct? This isn't an issue that affects you in any way, yet your always one of the first to comment on it. I replaced my plugs a few weeks ago and low and behold all 8 came out with NO breakage. My truck has almost 65K on it, the plugs creaked and groaned but they all came out. It took 6 1/2 hours to get them done and I firmly believe that patience and time will get them out successfully.

 

Here's how I removed my broken plug. Good luck! If you have anymore question's feel free to ask.https://www.f150online.com/forums/20...s-today-5.html

 

Tbird, don't take this personally, as this is my overall opinion about the masses here defending poor craftsmanship by Ford engineers. I congradulate you on a plug change well done, but we all should not have to buy a can of Kroil and work for 6.5 hours to do the job to begin with. All of these posts about the plugs over the last several years should be embarrassing to Ford and should not have even been talked about.

Many people just don't get the overall concept of this plug issue. I had never heard of anyone breaking a sparkplug off in the head of any make/model of vehicle before this 150. I just cannot believe after hearing about these plugs that people still defend Ford for their poor designing. GOOD LORD...IT'S A SPARKPLUG, why did you have to take a part that has been mass produced for >80 years with no problems and design something like this? Ford, if you wanted to "stand out" as a radical ignition designer, congrats! Do any other engines (any make/model) have a special tool (Rotundra) designed for extracting broken plugs or have a special TSB written by Ford that describes how to not break plugs? No!...because the other guys knew when to leave well enough alone. No one at Ford wants to take responsibility for this mess which reminds me of our government. Wait a minute, before long they will be running the big three too.

You know, the ironic thing about these past two models is that you could not keep plugs in the '97-'03, but ya can't get the dang things out of the '04-'08 model. Unbelievable!

Now, don't ask me why I bought a 150 if I am not satisfied. I love everything else about this truck and would not have bought any other...and still feel this way. There's so much more to a good truck than a spark plug...which again illustrates how rediculous the plug issue really is.

Freeky did have a 150 some time ago and upgraded to a SD, so he knew what he had.

Feel better know, need some Advil.

 

I'm still shakin in my boots about breaking these when I change them. My luck in life right now is reason for suicide This clearly IS a problem, some just need to stop the "hush-ing" banter over it. I'm confused, what do you gain?

 

I respect your opinion, and I know all about freekyFX4 believe me. We've had many a "discussion" about this in the past. Truth is when Ford designed the 3V 5.4, there was no way they could have known what a problem the plug design would be. It wasn't until the first engines started to need new plugs that this began to surface. All Ford could do at that point is deal with what was happening by developing the extractor for the engines that were already in service and then they redesigned the head to fix the issue. Some are going to say that Ford should cover the cost of replacing any broken plugs, maybe, maybe not.

How long should they be expected to cover it though? Once? Twice? For the entire life of each and every engine affected by this? With well over a million of these engines on the road Ford would go broke covering it even one time for each engine. That's the reality.

 

just out of curiousity how in the hell did yall get the coil off the plug on the passenger side in the back i tried for like an hour to pry it out of there but just couldnt because it was on the firewall and wouldnt budge so i just left the damn thing in there. and it is very stupid to have the damn plugs designed llike this to where you cant even get an extension with a socket down in the head to get them out without it pulling off the socket but nothing a little welding didnt fix. why are they so far down inside the heads? and when you do you cant even hardly turn the things because they creak and screach like there about to break. stupid stupid stupid wish i would have know these stupid things before i bought it. i didnt break one thankfully but if i did it would have been put back together like that and drove into a tree or into a lake.

 

Thanks. The trouble is I've got the third type of failure. All of these home made tools, and they all clearly got the job done for you guys. Work under the premise that you can get the threaded rod down into the grounding sleeve. I've got the metal center electrode still down in the porcelin filled grounding sleeve and can't get to it to try to pull the dam thing out. My long reach pliers are now ground down to fit in the spark plug well, but they're too short to reach. I'm going searching for long hemostats or other long reach pliers to try to pull those POS of out.

How much force can these handle in terms of tapping with a sharp drift, to break up the porcelin?

http://www.brokensparkplug.com/ Look at this site and the 3rd picture down. That's the situation I have.

 

The back one's are a bit of a reach, but if you disconnect your battery and remove the PCM and mounting bracket, you'll have enough room to reach.

 

Just curious how many miles does your truck have?

 

Just so you know, I absolutely agree with you on this one. There is simply no excuse for Ford not stepping up to the plate and helping owners with at least one plug change. Instead, they insist it isn't a problem and I've been quoted anything from $400 to "time & material" to change mine. I certainly won't attempt it on my own though.

PS: Lots of folks are bashing Toyota for frame issues on their trucks. At least Toyota had addressed the problem head on and will buy back your Tacoma or replace your Tundra frame - with no questions asked. Ford insists that there's nothing wrong with a plug change that has ended up costing some folks over two thousand dollars!

 

I was under the impression that Ford put different heads (or something) on the 07-08 to keep this from happining. Did I make this up?

Am I going to have this problem with my 09?