HA! My daughter is 7 months old. I STILL have not received a final bill for her and my wife's stay in the hospital. (Doing the Insurance Macarena)

 

You still have some growing up yourself buddy. When I was in high school 17 years ago I worked 35-40 hours a week and NO, most parents don't pay for that stuff. Especially when one of them thinks employment is "optional" LOL, ergo my step father.

Back to the OP's question/concern.
In all honesty, I think $1000 seems like a random number. I doubt the mechanic is going to ebay for global COPs which means he would have to charge you at least $100 a cylinder and that is before the plug replacement! And as for replacing the ball joint, there is more labor there.
Your check engine light came on and you have not told us what, if any of your symptoms are. Granted you are beyond the recommended change interval for your spark plugs, I doubt all of them need to be replaced. You need to find out what code the check engine light is illuminating for. If you do indeed have a bad plug, the code will tell you which cylinder is misfiring. The bottom line is that you are taking this guy for his word (so it would seem) with out doing any real investigative work for your self.
You seem like you are trying to do the right thing so spend some time with the truck and read up on her. It will help you develop a skill set that you can use for the rest of your life (which does get more challenging btw).
You should try to have a basic understanding of the things you depend on to live and make a living.
Go down to autozone and get your codes read (it's free).
Report back to us what you find and what the symptoms of the truck are.
As for saving up for truck stuff, keep it bone stock for now and save up for the following:
Coils and Plugs
Control Arms and Suspension
Radiator and Transmission Flush
These are the things that you will most likely have to deal with int he next year and they can be costly.
Good luck man and get back to us.

 

So you get a free truck and you are still immature enough complain about having to be responsible for it. As Matts ford said, do you have to pay for rent, power, cable, water/sewer, phone, insurance, all your food, gas, school, medical, etc? Then on top of that, have money saved for the misc expenses that life throws at you? Once you do, then I'll "shut the hell up".

I understand that it's hard for HS kids to make money. I worked in fast food for a while in high school, I know it sucks being broke. However, that doesn't free you from responsibility. You ever heard the phrase "you gotta pay to play"? Instead of bitching, you should be content that somebody cares enough about to, and had the means, to give you an awesome vehicle.

What on Earth are you talking about? Nobody was hating on your truck. I fail to understand why I would "start crying a river" after I put another 76,000 miles on my truck? Let's just think about that one for a second....

I've got about a year and a half (18 months) until my truck is fully paid off, assuming I don't pay it off early. Since buying my truck 40 months ago I've put on 45k miles, or about 1,125 miles/month. So to get to 121k miles (another 76k miles), it'll take me another 68 months or so. That means it'll take me another 50 months after paying off the truck to reach 121,000 miles. Still with me?

So, if I were to "pay" myself the value of my monthly payments for those 50 months, I'll have put about $25,000 into savings. More than enough to cover spark plugs, some "coil" and a ball joint. Hell, at that point I could just trade in my truck and buy a brand new one.

You think you'll have a platinum f150 in 5½ years? I'm going to have to assume you mean you might get a used platinum that's 5 years old?

- NCSU

 

yea i know i still have some growing to do but i was just sayin. i have over $10,000 worth of tools from snapon, craftsman, sk, mac, and many other companies and 6000 in my truck, which all of it came out of my own pocket, yea it hurts to just give it out but i have no reason to complain because it'll do nothing but help me later on. i've gained alot of respect in my hometown because i worked hard to get where i am so far. i just hate it when people complain about stupid things. it probably wont be the last time he see's that kind of bill. if i ever complained about that my dad would have just been like "its life, you better get use to it". me and my best friend just tell everyone "its just a feeling it'll pass".

 

However, you SHOULD replace them all. Ford publishes a maintenance schedule for a good reason, preventive maintenance is a major key in KEEPING your truck working right. If you are unable to perform preventive maintenance when recommended, get rid of the truck and buy a cheap beater and drive it into the ground.

 

DING DING DING, we have a winner!!

- NCSU

 

hell how did i suppose to know when my engine light would come on?

 

are you serious? you get in your time machine (you do have a time machine right?) and go into the future and check your truck to see if the Check Engine Light has come on. i am pretty sure that the #1 rule of time travel tho is not to let yourself see yourself that could cause some big problems

 

You don't - but are you aware of the recommended 100k spark plug change interval? Have you even LOOKED at the maintenance schedule for your truck? If it didn't come with one in the glovebox, you can download it.

 

1st off. it wasnt free. i do pay for my own gas, food, and some medical

2nd. ive had my truck for 2 yrs. 4 mo. and 3 days. and i paid it off the day i got it. even tho i avarage $20 hr. i go out alot so alot of that is going to gas and dates and friends (when they need it) and some other stuff. but my point was that the more miles you out on it more thing are going to go wrong. with the enconomy today, i cant just pull $1,000 out of my *** and say "here".

3rd. i would buy a used platinum but not a 2009 year model. maybe one thats a year or 2 old w/ low miles.

 

Prom Tickets:$110
Dinner:$50
Gas:$45
Beach House:$460
Food:$30
Condoms:$10

Thats $705!

 

yes i was aware but i never had the $$$ or the time.

 

why do some of you guys give younger guys such a hard time? if you haven't noticed there aren't many kids whose parents will pay for every single thing, and if you do work you have to pay insurance, gas, and anything you do on the weekends for fun, thats pretty much eats up a high school job pay check

 

And now you are complaining because you are FORCED to do the OVERDUE maintenance due to a malfunction that likely would never have happened?

Not trying to dog ya, but if you can't be bothered with doing maintenance, my previous statement about driving a beater into the ground stands.

 

Good luck on your repairs...the $1000 seems way to much IMO...think he is trying to take you for a ride and jacking up labor costs.

If you haven't already paid for the repairs...then do the research and fix it yourself, what you said was wrong is not hard at all...just get the manual and go step by step. If anything there has to be someone you know who can help...

(does your school have an auto shop class???)...when I was in high school I would bring all my friends cars and mine in all the time and just ask the teacher to do a class that day on how to fix and stay late after school to finish with his help...usually just cost me lunch and $10 so he could go get some beer for himself.

Start learning now on how to fix things your self!!! Its easy to go out and buy all these bolt on adders to make your truck faster, bigger, lifted, etc... but that means more parts for you to fix also.

Take it from me...it only gets more expensive, so Build it, Race it, Break it, Repeat.

I blew my motor 2 weeks ago, 1 connecting rod shredded and 1 twisted, 2 pistons destroyed, scratched and scored the cylinder walls, broke a chunk off the oil transfer, huge hole in the valley, crank was chipped and chewed, and a crack in the block.