Hello,

I've asked this question before and didn't get an answer to solve my problem so I'm gonna ask it again, and word it a little differently.

I have a 2008 F150 FX4, 5.4 L, gas. It has 80,000 miles on it, I bought it new from the dealer.

So for about the last 6 to 8 months I've had trouble starting it on some days. Doesn't matter if it's hot or cold outside.

I'll crank the engine and it will start sometimes for weeks at a time. Then suddenly it won't start day after day after day and I'll have to spray about a seconds worth of starter fluid on the air filter. Then it starts right up.

I've changed the fuel filter, and I just had the fuel pump module changed last week. Then it started for four days in a row, on the fifth day it wouldn't start, then it started again the last two days.

Okay now my mechanic thought it sounded like the fuel pump module so he changed it. That wasn't it. Now, I'm wondering if it could be weather related.

I park my truck in a vacant lot that is about 60 feet away from a river that generates a lot of moisture. During the winter time I will have a coating of frost on my truck whereas across the street won't have any. So it's very damp in that area.

I've never changed the spark plugs, so I'm wondering if moisture could be getting inside the spark plug boots causing it not to start?

I haven't looked at the spark plugs yet, but I ordered all the items I'll need to check them, the liquid to spray in the spark plug socket to eat away the carbon, the nickel-based never-seize to coat the plugs with to make them easier to remove and the dielectric grease to coat the plug and inside the spark plug boots.

Does anyone think that that could be the problem? Moisture?

I would appreciate any help I could get on this. I know others have had similar problems and listed them on this site, but those solutions wouldn't help me.

So, help, help, help, please.

Thanks,
Jerry

 

Before you order stuff to change the spark plugs, you need to determine if you have the old style or new style heads. The change was in the middle of the 2008 model year.

Black coil boots = old style, brown coil boots = new style. If it's new style, you don't need the solvent or antiseize.

You do not coat the plugs with dielectric grease, you apply a small amount inside the boot ONLY, keeping it off the contacts and springs.

 

The nickel based anti-seize goes on the lower portion of the plug between the electrode and the threads - not on the threads - to keep carbon from building up. Do not get any on the electrodes. This of course assumes that you have the older style heads.