Checking in 4.5 years later
 

I am curious of those who have had their 04+ model trucks for 4+ years, how they are holding up.

I have had a mediocre experience with my 2005.

Had had a lot of little problems which has required it to be in the shop, and I purchased the ESP warranty and was glad I did.

List of things replaced in the almost 5 years since I owned it.

Air cond. compressor and condensor
Front brake calipers (twice) and rotors (once)
Rear End
Drive shaft
Alternator (this stranded me out of state for 2 days because they didnt have one in stock WTF!@!)
Exhaust manifold (cracked?)

The brakes is the biggest thing, it has been in the shop 3 times for brake issues, and early on for a vibration in the driveline which they never fixed to my satisfaction.

I am about at the point where I am going to buy a new on in the next year, but am not too terribly pleased with this one. I have been a ford truck owner since the early 80's, once had a fleet of 1 ton diesels for my construction company, and have always had an F series as my daily driver, and this is the most unreliable one I have ever had. I was really put off by the alternator failure that stranded me in the middle of nowhere (statesville, NC) because the nearest ford dealer that had an alternator was Evansville, IN and they had to ship one out. What the hell is that.

Sounds unlucky..... I've had one caliper replaced on my 04 FX4 but that is really the only issue, other than that, it's been a good reliable truck, I'm even still on the original battery, however I'll probably be replacing it before winter hits in force.

It sounds as if you were a little snake-bit with your current truck. It sucks, but it does happen from time-to-time. If I were you, I'd move up to a 2010 model with no particular worries that history will repeat itself.

The only issue I've had so far with my '05 was the brake booster recall.

Of course, I've only put a shade over 2000 miles on mine since new, so I don't know how good of a measuring stick my experience would be.....:o

Bought mine new in Feb. 04, had rear end replaced at 11k miles in warranty due to defective gear's. No problem's with it since. Also had 2 window regulator's go out. 1 fixed in warranty and one I paid for. Also motor for rear sliding window replaced in warranty. Replaced the brakes at about 50k miles, rotor's and pad's. Truck has 75k miles on it and it run's great, get over 18mpg on highway with it too.

Mine great except dealers incompetence.
 

I have a f150 2004 with 155,XXX miles. THe only problems I have are 1 caliper and the broken plugs and bad coils.

LAs time the plugs failed after only 18,000 miles after raplacement by new motorcrafts! The problem is the fail don;t show any CEL warning and my independent mechanic can not found the problem until CEL light after 12,000 miles with the problem.

Right now my truck run very strong. just yesterday I drive from Monterrey to McAllen doing 90 MPH most of the time without any problem.

I only change a caliper and front rotors at 120,000 miles, 3-4 sets of brakes pads, 2 sets of plugs, 1 set of coils, 1 set of tires, 1 chang of transmission oil and change the filter and oil with 5w20 MC semi syntetic every 6400 miles (10,000kms) It only needs 1/2 quarter oil at 3000 miles mark.

I have had great luck with my truck over the past 4+ years. The only things I have had to get fixed was one stuck injector (recall on certain 05's) and several years ago got the whole brake system replaced under warranty due to soggy braking.

2 years with the lift now and it is still running great :beers:

I love my 2005, purchased March, 2005. Had intended to buy a 2009 until I saw them. Decided that I much preferred the looks of my 2005. It has always performed well. Had to replace a rotor due to a bad bearing at 41,000 miles. Other than that, just regular maintenance with almost 93,000. I love the truck and plan on keeping it a long time.

Edit: Forgot about the window regulator.

I picked up my 04 last August at 65k miles (Pre-owned certified). It now has 80k on it.

-Removed the plastic bed and had the bed Line-X'ed. Turned out there was a rusty hole the size of a cantaloupe under it.

-Brakes have always sucked. Truck shuddered like it was going to fall apart when I applied the brakes. Replaced with Power Slot Cryo rotors and Hawk pads.

-During acceleration on turns the backend shuddered violently. Ford said my clutch packs were bad in my rear differential. Said it'd be $1100 to fix. Bought an Eaton Detroit TrueTrac for $650 and spent $150 for labor and replaced the rear diff.

-The shift actuator/solenoid thing that allows you to shift out of Park when you depress the brake stopped working. Replaced that myself (hooray for me). Put a cool red LED light in there too. Ford wanted $400 + labor for a new shifter. Said I couldn't get the solenoid separately.

-The shocks were completely destroyed. Replaced with Bilstein 5100's.

-3rd brake light was leaking. Replaced with Recon unit.

-Fog light in lower valence blew up when I turned them on. Replaced bumper with Boondock unit and 4 KC Daylighters. Fog light no longer needed.

-Windshield sprayer stopped working. Replaced the nozzles and finally the water pump. Ford tried sticking me with that even though they broke it to begin with. Ford put the windshield wipers back on wrong so I lost the driver side one during a thunderstorm on the expressway. Fun, fun.

Aside from the aforementioned, the truck doesn't always start right away, it's getting harder to pull the shifter from park to anything else, and I don't know whether the transmission has ever been serviced and someone told me after a certain point, you can't touch it or you'll have to buy a new one.

Having a 5 year old truck is somewhat of an advantage. Because of places like this I can see all the problems that I will ever encounter and see what you guys did to solve them and how well the solutions worked. So, now I just replace everything with better parts as fast as I can gather the money to do so.

^^ thats great lol. so positive.

I don't have that old of a truck, but I did have to have the steering box replaced... It was under warranty, and I only had 5,000 miles on the truck...

I've had my 2004 for 5 years now (it's been paid off for 2 years :rocker:) It has 81,xxx miles on it now. I did buy the warranty when I bought the truck and i'm glad I did. Even so, the only things I've had done are:
Transfer case replaced - warranty
Air Conditioning CPU replaced - warranty
Brakes
Rear Sliding Window Regulator replaced

Overall I can't complain at all. I'm hard on it and use it like a truck, and it still drives and pulls as good as the day I bought it! :smoke:

My 04 is on 52,000 or so, had curb side head replaced, plugs, lower ball joints and struts, brake pads all the way around and tires...

Got my truck in Summer '05 with 94 miles on it and now at about 32,000. I have replaced one rotor that was recked at my wrong doing and thats about it besides a little fender bender. Love my truck, and gonna be keepin it for a lonnnnng time.:thumbsup:

After 4.5 years I still love my truck.

No real problems with mine so far. Cracked third brake light so I replaced it with a better looking aftermarket. Replaced brake pads at about 40,000. Only little issue is sometimes the power sliding back glass decides not to work? Most of the time it does though so not a big deal.