Had some problems with my 2008 Screw (18,800 miles on the 5.4L) sputtering out and dying on me. Finally got stranded and had to be towed to the local stealership. After a couple days they said it is the fuel pump driver module (FPDM). Said it just came off national backorder and I should have it by the end of this week.

Is this a valid problem or is the stealership just telling me this to get me out of their hair?

Oh....they wanted to charge me a hour of labor to install it. I said holy crap guys it takes about 10-15 minutes to change the FPDM out, I'll do it myself.

 

This writeup is in the How To section. If you want to read more, use the Advanced Search. There have been several threads discussing the problem.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/ar...placement.html

 

An hour of labor is not unreasonable for doing any kind of work - they are in business to make money.

I'm assuming you are no longer on warranty?

 

See if Ford thinks "any kind of work" is worth an hour of labor (under warranty). More likely to see .2 or .3 of an hour. Why is it "screw the customer" time when it's out of warranty? Especially at $100.+ an hour labor rate. Do they put the mask on for this charade or just brazenly "do the deed" without it? Kudo's to the OP for rejecting their Highway Robbery attempt.

 

I have family members and friends that are mechanics, and with that said I dont think 1 hour is gouging at all.

All automotive work by and large is done "by the book". The shop manual lists how long the job should take. It is conservative and probably based on a novice mechanic. This is done to cover all dealers to ensure they dont underbid jobs and loose money. It also motivates them to better the book time.

In this case picture the sequence of events.

Remove spare tire lock - should be 5 seconds, but they get stuck ask me how I know, could take 3-5 mins easy.

Drop spare tire.

Pull tools, pull part from stock.

R&R FPDM

Replace spare

Replace spare lock

Put away tools

Fill out required paperwork

Easily could be rounded up to 1 hour, if the guy isnt a jackrabbit, and considering he does it morning to night everyday, I doubt he is as motivated to "rush".

 

I agree, but he can't be more novice than me.

 

Book times are supposed to be done on a cross section of the operation done several times. They are not done *****-nilly and are SUPPOSED to represent the actual time for a professional mechanic to do the job. Obviously the difference (and there is indeed a difference) between factory warranty time and aftermarket time suppliers is slanted to favor their particular position. I spent a good deal of my life in the automotive trade and still am opposed to charging some poor guy who's making $15. an hour himself, $100. for an hour of labor when it took the mechanic 10 minutes to do the job. You better believe they're not going to charge the customer for 3 hours of labor (book time) when the mechanic had problems and it took him 6 hours to do the job. They are gonna come up with a way to charge the customer the additional time. Fair is fair, be honest about it and the automotive trade won't have the reputation of a used car salesman. (or a politician)

 

What is the "book time" for a FPDM?

 

I changed mine in my driveway laying on my back in under an hour. Took me longer to figure out how to lower the spare tire. I bought the module for the F250 and taped the studs out with a punch (as someone mentioned here). No need to wait for the back order. I sprayed a coat of paint on the aluminum base and installed a few washers to space it up from the frame then hit the bolts and washers with paint just because. I used regular steel washers but may go back under and replace them with nylon or a combination of nylon and stainless. Or I may not.