Something's gotta be done about these plugs.
 

I have a customer with an '04 3V, wanted a tune up at 100,000 miles, went to Goodyear where they broke one plug. They stopped right there and brought it to me, where I followed the removal instructions step by step and broke four more. I've since been working for about three days to remove three plugs. This is the worst one I've encountered thus far.

All of them broke with the porcelain still in the ground shield. So I go get Ford's latest and greatest hokey BS removal tool to extract the porcelain, which failed on three of the five broken. The two that did come out each took two or three attempts before they finally cooperated. I'm out of removal pins to get the porcelain out, I had to order some more (the pins are $83 per eight pieces, and this boolsheet removal tool is $438) so I can try again, but I'm not feeling confident in this crap actually working.

While I'm waiting on pins, I called Uncle Henry and asked him what I should do, short of pulling the cylinder heads. They basically told me, "Good luck," and that the heads are gonna have to come off.

That's unacceptable.

Any of you engineer types responsible for the design of these plugs in the Blue Oval glass offices that may be reading this, you can kiss my ass.

You dumbass engineers that designed the lame tools to remove these plugs, y'all can kiss my ass too.

How the hell am I supposed to explain to my customer that a simple tune up turned into a thousand-plus dollar engine repair? :mad:

Man, I sympathize with you! Just hard to believe they engineered such a disaster. Makes me feel very fortunate that mine came out with no problem.

I'm glad mine doesn't have that problem, I just have to worry about mine staying in :devil:


I have wondered though while working on my truck, wtf were these engineers thinking when they designed some of this stuff? I swear they had NO regard for those of us wrenching on these trucks.

When the beancounters ARE the de facto engineers, that is your result.

I took my truck in for an inspection Tuesday...it failed only for the gas cap. No biggie, just got another one from the store and retested and passed.

The lead guy that did my inspection mentioned that these trucks are solid, outside of the plugs. I mentioned that I wanted a 4.6L, but the v6 had none of those issues and has been superb for me and my needs.

:rocker:


I can't believe a company as big as Ford with all the resources that they have can't design a head/plug combination that works for TWO model years in a row.

Unbelievable!!!!

ive got 55k on my 01 5.4 and so far so good on the plugs. i do however have that standard passenger side broken exhaust manifold bolts..but thats just an annoyance.

I've heard that anybody who waits to remove the plugs, at the advertised 100,000 mile mark, it's a given that some will break! Personally, I gonna have mine pulled when I reach the 50,000 mile mark, & keep my fingers crossed!..............

i've only had a couple of problems with trucks that customers buy that come out of pennsylvania because of all the salt they use.

Maybe that's why their coming out with a Diesel :devil:

yep dude i hear you, i had a 04 come in and the first one i tried broke off, and i had been reading on here that the 2004 f150's break off, and when that one broke i called the ford house, told them to come get that damn truck and change the plugs themselves, they said they couldnt do it, so i put that bastard on a trailer and towed it to them with my good ole '98 powerstroke and they changed those 8 plugs

Reading this thread really worries me. I'm scheduled for a tune-up next week at the stealership:
May God have mercy on me and my '04

i wish the best for you man, atleast itll already be at the dealership instead of havin to tow it on a trailer for 30 miles to get it fixed lol

This Forum Saved Me...
 

After reading the horror stories here I changed mine at 90K while still under the extended warranty. I warned them to use some penetrating oil and let it soak overnight but I don't think they listened at first until they started breaking off.
From what I understand after they let them oil soak overnight they didn't have any other problems with them coming out. They had given me a loaner so the 3 day turnaround wasnt much problem except the part where the Ford Dealership gave me a new chevy that sucked extra hard.

I ran into the same exact problem with my 2000 Ranger a while back. Every plug came out except the rear drivers side plug. I kept wrenching on it for about an hour until it sheered off at the nut part of it. I had to have it sent to Goodyear and they had to invent a way of getting it out. Eventually, they got it out and I was out $600.

Quitin i can definitely relate to you. We are doing a front differential campaign at work, and they gave us this cheesy alloy wrench to hold the pinion shaft while you use a 4' long 3/4" drive breaker bar to tighten then nut and to crush the sleeve. The wrench rounded out the first couple of times we used it. They sent out an amendment to the bulletin and it basically said "we know most of you are having difficulty with the wrench we are trying to come up with something new"

I havent done anything specifically on the new stuff.

I do know that Snap On carries an extractor tool for these F'd up plugs, you might try and look into that, i think its 140ish maybe......