sometimes you just have to get your hands dirty and do things yourself....

 

We don't have the same motor the ones these guys are talking about they have the three valve motor are motor is only a two valve motor.My friend had his plugs break in his motor and the dealer charged him 800 to do his plugs cause all 8 broke he has a 2006 f150 the plug design sucks but i love my ford and i as well have 200.000 on mine now i have bad head gasket on mine.

 

Ya, im aware we dont have the same motor. But from the title it sounds like it has turned him off of fords all together. Its not model or motor specific. I think this happens quite often

 

I'd be hot myself. A poor design following a poor design in the previous models with the plugs blowing out of the engine. Gimme a break. One should not have to read posts on forums to have a vehicle serviced or learn the "workaround" for Ford's bad designs. I can't believe any one finds this acceptable.

How about engine fires from faulty connections on the cruise control, or cam phasers, or the latest, air bags that pop at 5 mph for no reason?

 

I would say a poor design is a poor design, should not be tolerated and Ford or any manufacturer should do what is needed to make it right. But $4,000 to fix the motor? Buy a new crate motor with better designed heads, start over and you won't have the same problem

 

I managed to change my plugs on my 06 without an ASE Certification. Just some back-home knowledge(and I am only 18). But yes, it took me 4 hours and I broke 3 plugs. Lisle tool works like a charm all 3 times. I understand why you are frustrated though.
BUT You, my friend, are getting the shaft.
You just need to calm down, and read. There is alot of good info on here.

I have changed plugs on my ZR2 Blazer where I had to take the tire off, remove the inner fender, and disconnect steering linkages just to reach the rear plug on the drivers side. I almost thought I was going to have to take the ABS controller off. Then to top it off, Had to have an aliment after that to straiten the steering wheel.

Or Try putting a Belt on a Toyota Sequoya without 3 hands.

It's not just Ford that has problems. Some designs are not the best, but you learn to adapt and overcome. lol.
Good luck.

 

...Should change the thread title to "Never buy a late-model vehicle"

Everybody here understands the frustration with newer vehicles but face it, no vehicle made today is designed for home mechanics to work on. (Or ASE certified ones either it seems from reading this thread) With increased performance (e.g fuel injection over carburetion) there will always be increased complexity, more parts, tighter spaces, etc. The design engineers are not stupid and they are not trying to design faulty or inaccessible vehicles... sometimes they just turn out that way. (There are only so many ways to stuff a V8 of any consequence into a Toyota, for instance)
I was disgusted the first time I had to change my plugs, and found that what took 30 minutes "in the good old days" , now took 4 hours and a plethora of extensions and wiggles. But in the end it was worth it for the HP AND fuel economy I could get with true fuel injection (but never could with carburetion).
As technology increases so does complexity I'm afraid. Just a sad fact for the shadetree DIY and new challenge for the DIY.
This does make it all the more important to find a mechanic you know and trust, if you're not going to do things yourself.

 

Well dude, you could be driving a GM V8. Yeah, the ones with the catastrophic engine failures from bad intake gaskets. Guess what, GM isn't going to fix their engines either. Or, you could be driving a Hemi. Yeah, the ones with the drive by wire failures and leave you on the side of the road. They're also the same truck that has major transmission failures at around 80,000 miles. Guess what, Dodge ain't gonna fix those either. If you had any interest in your truck at all you would have known to run a decarbonizing agent thru the gas before changing the plugs. Ya know, like the high dollar Techron or the Gumout with Regane or better yet, had the engine Motorvaced. Man, that Techron at $8.00 a bottle is some expensive stuff....just not from your point of view. The best vehicles ever built are those coming out of the Ford plants. Nope, they are not perfect but they are the best ever made. Maybe you need to look into a Schwinn.

Yeah, I'm jerkin yer chain

 

I can understand the anger. This is a problem that shouldn't be happening on many levels.... but there it is. It's a fact that needs to be dealt with but there are other issues here.

If non-professionals can change plugs in these engines with no issues, how is it that "factory trained" techs cannot? Either this dealership is rankly incompetent, and trying to make the customer pay for their incompetence, or they are deliberately trying to screw the OP without the customary kiss or foreplay.

If it were me, I would haul that truck outta there and take it to a place that knows what the hell they are doing. You'll have to pay a little for whatever time they got into it, but you likely come out ahead moneywise because seldom do the heads really require removal unless the morons doing the work really screwed up. If indeed head removal is required, I certainly wouldn't want gits like that pulling my truck half apart.

 

my 2006 had the same issues if not more but i still bought a new 2010 f150.

 

Ok everyone YES I may have overreacted when I posted on here about how I wouldn't buy another ford. Well I have givin it alot of thought the last couple of days. Let me start off by saying I am very sorry for the comments if I may have offended some of you. With that said; I purchased the truck used here in SC in early 2008. It had 20000 miles on it when I purchased it and the truck has been great. In fact it has been the best truck that I have ever owned. I traded in a 2003 Chevy single cab Z71 because the the knock sensors need to be replaced at 46000 miles. Not to mention that the truck had a few other minor bugs in it. I have only had a few problems with my ford since I purchased it. Starting early last year (60000 miles) I went out of town for a week and no one drove my truck and when I got back I had a loud tapping noise. I took it to the dealer and was told it was a cam phaser and that it was covered under my powertrain warranty. However when I picked it up my electric seats quit working. Dealer refused to fix because they said it was under powertrain warranty. Understandable; now they work go figure. I was told the motor gets hot and will shut down so it does not burn up. So they work for now. Other than that the truck has been great smooth riding and good lookin. Recently though the truck has been jerking when I accelerate between 45 - 50 mph when in overdrive. NO CEL so I posted here in the past for some great advice. I came to the conclusion that it was going to be either the plugs or the coils. So I figured at 75000 I should change my plugs. I did read the whole thing about how it should be done which why I did not try and attempt to do it. The guy working on my truck is a friend of a friend who is ASE certified mechanic and works on cars and trucks everyday and has been doing this all his life. So I figured I would him a shot since the price was right. $150.00 plus $20.00 per a broken plug. I ask him if he knew the procedure on the removal of the plugs and assured me he did. Needless to say the first 3 plugs was a failure. I asked him how come he didnt stop after the first one and he replied that I had a 100% confidence in the Lisile tool would remove the sleeve inside the head. However the lesile tool that threads itself into the sleeve just pull right out of the sleeve inside the head. He tried and tried but the tool failed to pull out the peice stuck. He even tried it on the second broken one. It did the same thing. So either one of two things happened; either he didn't follow the procedure (most likly) or two the lesile tool has been used to so much that the threads are worn out and grab enough of the metal to pull on. Either way the heads had to be removed to get the plugs out. I am still pissed that I did NOT take it to the dealer because $650.00 is a whole lot cheaper than $600.00 for labor plus parts. Right now I have about $1100.00 in it now when it's all said and done. Poor design YES but hey this truck has been the best truck I have owned.

 

I forgot to mention that the people here have some great advice on the do's and dont's. I think everyone for all the information and the help that I have got from previous posts.

Which makes me ask at 75000 miles what else should I go ahead replace while the top half of the engine is broken down. Of coarse I know I will have to change my oil and coolant along with some gaskets.

 

I would order heads for 2008+ so the problem is permanently fixed. Bare cores transplant everything off your old heads and all. Be some extra cash but your into it that far.
Sorry your having this big issue.

 

What gas do you use? Must have had a lot of carbon buildup?

Mitch

 

There is no perfect vehicle being built by any manufacturer out there, period! If there were one out there it would probably be too expensive to afford or to maintain. I am on my second F150 now and it is by far the best vehicle I have ever owned, even with all the flaws a 2005 5.4 has (cam phasers, injectors, plugs, airbags, IWEs, the FPDM and the list will go on) and after a 189,000 hard miles now, I am still very pleased with the truck. I just spent roughly $500 on maintenance since it was due and I was having some issues with it anyway, and that was just for the parts alone, I'd rather do the work myself than trust some one I don't know at a dealership, but that's just me. I ended up changing the COPs, injectors, fuel filter, trans filter, oil and plugs, all of it being relatively straight forward and easy. This was the third time I've changed the plugs myself, the first 2 times I had no broken plugs, and honestly, I didn't even follow the TSB, though I did read it and knew the issues these engines had with the 2 piece plug. This 3rd time though, went without a hitch until I got to the last plug which is the hardest 1 to do, in the back on the passenger side of the engine, the insulator sleeve was left behind. Called up my friend who is a mechanic and has the lilse tool, and he lent it to me. I had never used this tool before and certainly was not familiar with it at all, but for me it worked like a charm. It really sounds like the guy using this tool doesn't know how to use it, make sure he knows to thread that tool on to the sleeve counter clockwise, If he works in a shop and not a FORD dealership, I would say that tool doesn't get used enough to wear the threads out on it. My buddy tells me he hardly uses the thing and was in no hurry to get it back, it's been a month now and I still have it. I certainly understand why your pissed, I would be too, and by the looks of your last post you must of been pretty hot at the time of your original post. If you don't have any tools to work on your truck (I don't know if you do), maybe you should invest in some and save some money on maintenance and do the work yourself. It would be alot cheaper than what your spending on what should have been a simple plug change. Good luck and I hope it works out for you.