It was a ford dealer owned truck. It was driven between 3 dealerships 6 days a week. They are over 60 miles apart. All highway and I'm talking in the 7k to 7.5k range if we come to an agreement. I'm not asking if the truck is worth buying..I only asked about the sludge..and now see it is a condition on many I have looked at.

G

 

I have a 2010 and there's not a spec of anything around the radiator! You need to find out what that stuff is and why it's there BEFORE you even consider buying the truck! any good radiator shop should be able to tell you. It might be a "condtion" that many trucks have but not in my area! I have plenty of friends that have Ford trucks and none of them have that stuff.

IMO any truck that's been driving between dealerships all day long for three years has been "romped On" plenty! And by that I mean lead footed don't give a s**t, teen age drivers who's motto is "******** it, it's not mine!". The fact that it's super clean probably just means that the dealership had it painted and detailed before offering it for sale. I used to that stuff when I was in high school for two dealerships and I'm telling you that if it's done right, only an EXPERT could tell that it wasn't original. Oh, and if a dealership owned it there's not going to be a car fax report of any damage since the dealership would just fix it and not report it. Auto dealers and the NADA both consider 12,000 miles per year to be normal, despite what they say when they're trying to sell you a used, high mileage vehicle! Based in that, you're buying a 14+ year old truck! You should pay the price of a 14+ year old truck and nothing more. If the dealership INSISTS that there's nothing wrong with the truck then ask them to include a bumper to bumper warranty!

As you can probably guess, I think they're asking too much for a truck with that mileage and I think you'd be foolish to buy it, especially since it's showing abnormal sludge! Sludge is something that usually shows up on vehicles that aren't driven frequently. Which is certain NOT the case here!

 

Correction. I thought you said 170,000 not 144,000. So change my response to "12 year old truck". That's still FOUR times the "normal" mileage for a vehicle of that age.

 

Great good for you....How many miles do you have? It has 144k on the original fluid..... you all are just asuming things..again I only asked about the sludge. Im buying neighbor that bought it from the dealer wholesale. The driver was an adult and not a teen, I talked to the service lady who gave me the complete history. hell the chalk is still on the frame. the truck has had not paint work and does not even have a door ding. only damage anyplace is some rub marks behind the cab from the driver leaning over it to remove items from the box. The original owner (dealership) has no reason to lie to me about anything.. they sold the truck to a wholesaler, and it matched carfax accept she added a bunch of maintenance items. I inspected the truck, I drove the truck. and cant believe it still not worth $7200 with the options. The highway miles just don't bother me..I know the route between dealers..

Anyone commenting on anything other than the sludge is making assumptions without ever even seeing the truck.

 

Clean looking truck. Buy it! It seems you are really leaning toward it anyways and that's perfectly fine. I personally dont think anything is wrong with the engine or it would have already crapped the bed. For peace of mind I say take it in and have the radiator flushed and refilled with ford spec'd fluid and keep driving it.

 

Buy it and put another 200,000 miles on it!

 

Thanks guys...im doing my homework, not going in blind. Well see if it works out.

Geo

 

I am positive the sludge is due to Ford OEM coolant/antifreeze. I realize this thread is over 2 mos. old. However, I am the original owner of a 2010 King 4X4 with 48K mi. I decided to flush and replace the antifreeze ( probably should have done this sooner) and found the same sludge described in this thread. Hence, I was looking for anyone having the same experience and their comments. The truck has only been serviced by the dealer and never had any coolant leaks or coolant maintenance.

 

I have the same looking stuff in my coolant bottle. it is a normal thing. I need to flush mine. my truck is a 09 with 59600 miles on her. the owner manual says to do a coolant flush at 100000 k with the ford extend gold coolant.


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The sludge might have come from someone contaminating extended life coolant withthe old "regular" green coolant. I've seen that occur in newer cars where people topped their coolant systems off with whatever antifreeze was available, mostly the cheaper green stuff.

But since your truck was serviced by professional techs, that shouldn't be a major concern.

 

I believe Ford puts in sealer pellets at the factory, that may be what you are seeing.

 

If it fits your need, I would have bought it. Especially if it has the 2-valve 4.6L in it. Hope you did in that case.

Okay, at worst...you need a radiator and a flush. No big deal.

 

I just had the dealer flush my radiator last week and the new radiator fluid looks dark yellow/tan and the overflow tank does look dirty as well. I took the radiator cap off and I do see sediment floating in it. I think it's normal because when I bought my truck brand new in 2009 it looked the same way.

 

I once poured window washer fluid in the coolant tank on the girlfriend's Toyota. The tanks were right next to each other, and the silly Japanese symbols threw me off I guess. Seemed like everything was backwards on that truck. Window controls, wiper switch, lights, everything was off from an American vehicle.