I own a 2000 F150 with the 5.4 w/29000 miles on it. Back in January the porcelain on the #3 sparkplug broke apart taking the coilpack with it. This happened just after starting the truck and bang. Yesterday same thing happended again to the #4. Dealer told me they replaced all the plugs since it appears it was either bad plugs from factory or water had been spraid into engine compartment (which I KNOW has never occured). Has anybody else every had this problem? BTW- Dealer called and said truck was ready but after going to get it, found bed cover had blown up and tore off during tow damaging the cab and such. Anyway, on the way home Check Engine came on, back to the dealer today. No mods

-Rod

 

Rod

With luck like you're having, buying lottery tickets would be a waste of time. As for the Ford, clearly you and the towing company have a problem.

As for the plugs, it almost sounds as if the dealer is laying the groundwork for some funny business. I have not changed plugs on a 5.4 with the coil over plug set up, but I have done so on the 4.0 and 4.6. It would be almost impossible for those plugs to get water on them even if those motors were parked at the bottom of a swimming pool. The plug wire boot is 4 or 5 times larger than old style wires from years back, and covers not only the plug, but also seals up the well in which the plug is seated.

If it were mine, I would invest a couple bucks and call Mike Troyer (540-862-9516). He is the Superchips guy with posts all over the computer chips section of the forum. This guy likely has more insight on these F-150 motors than all the mechanics at your dealership combined. No, I'm not his brother, just one almighty happy customer. He has given advice to many on this forum including me.

 

Thanks for the feed back. I totally agree and with 6000 left on the warranty I'm suspicous. I also had other problems but won't go into them right now, I'm not in a good mood. Just had two estimates for towing damage around $1400 and rental also cost me money. Thanks

-Rod

 

i just posted a thread about a fixet i did after having problems with my #4. now i did find one of my coil packs bad but i found another potentiol problem. if you look just above the area affected,youll notice that the a/c lines run just above it and the large diameter one (the suction side) sweats with the a/c on and it drips down on the heater hose,which in turn drips down onto the area of the # 3and 4 plugs. and the boots do allow water into the plug cavity(of course smearing a lot of dielectric grease around the outside of the boot helps control this). i went to the local a/c supply house and got a can of "no sweat" it helps prevent condensation from forming on the pipe because it,s so cold. problem solved, mention it to the mechanic and watch his face start twisting up,cause you put up a new one to his smart @ss

 

Thanks for the info, it's greatly appreciated.

-Rod