looking for some feedback from any of you folks that have had work done to you trucks due to the head gasket leak tsb.

i had small drips of oil in the driveway, and it had been happening for some time, starting not too long after the warranty ended.

brought it in to the dealership and they told me the truck was leaking from the head gasket, and bottom line was i needed to have it and the head replaced. i paid close to 1300.00 and ford picked up the cost of the head (after calling ford direct)

brought it home, and it was immediately worse. dying in all gears, and ******* going up hills.

brought the truck back and they told me my cat's had to be replaced due to them being partially blocked. said it was covered under a federal warranty, and they only charged me 300.00. they said the charge was due to the fact that i swapped out my factory y pipe and due to the fact that i had it welded in it was extra work to replace the cats. they told me the fords come with the cat's clamped on. i dont remember that from looking under the tuck, but i paid the bill. from the second i pulled out of the lot the truck was running horribly. it was ******* again, has horrible acceleration, and feels like it is lurching through the gears when i pull onto the highway. at highway speed the truck struggles when i give it gas to accelerate. i picked it up yesterday and when i pulled onto a highway today my service engine soon light started flashing.

i came home today, unplugged the battery, left the lights on for awhile just to see if clearing out the computer will change anything (maybe the truck doesnt know it can breathe again yet?)

i dont want to go back and pay more money and still have the same problems when i pick up the truck.

i am just wondering if any of you folks have gone through this, and had the same problems, and gotten them resolved without having to swap out the entire motor? that i will not pay for.

appreciate any info that might help me out, or at least calm my nerves. i still have not given up on my truck and i just want to get it back to the way it was before.

thanks for taking the time to read all this.

 

its got coolant or water in some of the spark plug holes, they didnt blow them out good enough.(may have ruined the plug wires by now) How in the world can a dealership not tell this and fix it like its supposed to be? Ive worked at one for 8 years and we must be the only ones who ever try to do anything correctly, i dont see how some of these others stay in business. -- Rant off, sorry

 

Yes, I've had the problem with the head gasket leaking. When I first noticed the oil in my driveway, I immediately took it to the dealer. They told me my head gasket sprung a leak and fixed the problem. They also replaced the rear seal. All work was done under warranty, and the dealer was very helpful.

I have not had any problems with it since, and it is going on two years now.

I have the 5.4.

 

I have an 01 4.2 it has a leaky head gasket drivers side. Ford has ordered all the gaskets, new head etc. by the way the price for the head on the 4.2 is $250.00, not sure for the 4.6 but wouldn't be to much more so ford didn't pick up to much of the cost.

The dealer just phoned me the other day said they have the parts now I just have to schedule the time to bring it in. They say it will take 3 days and its all under warranty. Truck only has 20,000 miles on it.

I plan on checking on it every day just so they know I am extreamly picky and hope that helps them pay more attention to what they are doing. I will insist they do a complete walk around so I can show them there are no scratches, dings etc, no oil on anything on the inside etc. I know they have to change the oil afterwards as well as the coolant, since they will have to drain it to remove the head. I know damn well they better not charge me for an oil change or coolant change as well as pressure check the cooling system. I am also going to insist that they change the other head gasket since they will have the motor half apart, and also makes since to have it changed since the drivers side is bad for what ever reason, don't need to come back down the line when it may decide to go bad.

I don't know what FORD is doing but it dosen't seem they can make any of their motors 4.2, 4.6, 5.4 etc without getting the head gaskets right. It's a major failure regardless of what anyone says. The 97 4.2 had major problems as well but at least for them if they would have checked their coolant level on a regular basis they would have seen the problem quickly.

 

99 5.4 L 2 WD had head gasket replaced right side 2x since Feb. 2000 -----------> Goin back for #3 next week, I have Premium Extended Service Care from Ford, currently I have 58,800+ miles on Showya and I am pressing for a new engine from Ford. I have read where they have replaced and rebuilt motors for warranty customers here in Kansas City. I will post what I am told next week once I have a report from dealership.

Showya

 

My truck is in the middle of the lemon law probably because of this very thing. Runs like a dog, random stalling, and I have noticed small drips of oil all over my driveway. They could not figure it out. It makes perfect sense to me. I also get a strong anti-freeze smell when I drive with the window down. 01 4.6.

 

thanks for the responses.

i drove the truck yesterday again, up a long hill, truck was struggilng pretty bad. service engine soon light started flashing regularly for the lenth of the hill and stopped when it leveld out.

dropping it off again tonight at the dealership. i feel like i was screwed out of 300.00 for the install of the new cats as they made no difference at all, in fact, i think its worse. i cant see how they could have test drove my truck and not noticed the problem.

this is starting to get ugly. can the lemon law be used for vehicles that are past their warranty? only bright side in all this is that ford is helping me keep my mileage low

its good to hear that at least someone did good after a head swap...

 

althought this may be early, jefflaws, i think your the man...

dealership just called me up. they were able to read the codes the truck was shooting with the service engine soon light flashing.

needed new plug wires.

they said they replaced them, took the truck on a 12 mile test run and said its running like a charm. going to pick it up tomorrow.

no charge to me, as it was the same problem i brought it in for when they swapped out the cats.

i hope this is the end of it. even though its the third time back, if they have me straight i will be a very happy man.

thanks for the input, and it looks like you nailed it on the head.

 

Yea, it's something i see every day. I just hope they dried out the plug holes real good before they put the new wires on.