Things To Check Before Buying A Ford F150 5.4 Triton V8

So if you're thinking about

buying

a used F-150, here are a few

things

you might want to consider first to save some money in the long run. Here we go, when it comes to these trucks, the number one thing that should deter you from

buying

it like a poorly maintained f-150 now isn't like your high school buddy that you can just ignore for years and years and then decide, hey , I'll call them and everything will be fine, this truck is like your wife and everything is fine if you pay attention to her, if you congratulate her and spend time with her, but man oh man, you forget an anniversary or you forget to change the spark plugs In this, it will cost you well, so if you are going to buy it.

In a private sale, the first thing you should ask for is all the maintenance records, if you have them, or if you have a good list of every time they did an oil change, every time they did the spark plugs, every time it has been in service, even down to a light bulb, you know they like it, they love their truck, they took care of it and it's a lot easier to sleep at night knowing that everything that's supposed to be done has been done now if that. Not available if you are not the original owner.

Something like that. A good look is the service tag that is on the windshield. This one here says 190,000 or July 2017. It's actually August, but these vans have been here for about a few weeks. now but the odometer has only gone 187k miles so you know it's up to date on its maintenance so that's a good sign and just looking inside the seats aren't broken it's clean there's no junk around everywhere if they really seem to care. your truck then they have most likely done maintenance too so maintenance is very complicated because of the spark plugs and cam phaser so oil changes and regular spark plug changes are very crucial to These trucks, if they are made, the truck will probably treat you very well if they are not done correctly, it could end up costing you a lot of money as the campers will destroy the engine.

A simple spark plug change can cost between one thousand and three thousand dollars. I've seen it online. I broke spark plugs. I've even seen companies removing heads and this was a long time ago but it doesn't matter it depends on which mechanic you send it to so make sure the maintenance is up to par basically if the

check

engine light is on. I would stay away from the truck. I know it sounds like a big deal, but a

check

engine light on can mean very expensive repairs on this truck. A couple of reasons for that, such as the cam phasers and also the ignition coils, are the individual cause on the top of the truck. spark plug now, if you have a cheap little code reader, you can go in there and see if all the emissions monitors are set, which means you actually have to drive the truck for a period of time that usually takes three to seven days . to clear or prepare all the mission monitors, then you will know that the engine light will not come on, you can also go to the history and see if there are any codes in the history that may deter you from purchasing it, one of those It may be a fault of ignition on the engine, each of these spark plugs has its own individual coil and are not very reliable.

I'd almost call it a maintenance thing where you replace them every 100,000K, they're not expensive to replace, but you get them. expensive due to the fact that if the coil pack doesn't ignite the fuel that is sprayed into the end of the cylinder, you get one that flushes the cylinder and that unburned fuel goes further down the exhaust and gets stuck in the catalyst because your cat is Hot, it will burn inside your cat and destroy it, triggering another code. There is an O2 sensor right on the catalytic converter and that gets very expensive. Jacks are expensive at Ford and in the aftermarket.

You have to move the sensor. All that garbage. it's just more of a headache than it's worth so stay away from the truck, another thing if you're really worried about the transmission or driveline on these trucks just look at what kind of hitch they had if they had a ball of two inches, they probably pulled a boat or a couple of times a year and that's it if it's a heavier ball like a 2 and 5/16, so our fork, you know, they pulled car trailers more often , dump trailers,

things

like that. so you know there's more stress along the transmission itself it's not going to last as long if you're really worried about that you might as well give it an oil analysis.

We have videos on that that will show you everything that's inside. You can't physically see the outside or even feel it yet, so you can with the engine and transmission too, so the first thing to look for when purchasing one of these tracks is the spark plugs. These five four had problems. with spark plugs because they didn't have enough threads on later models, they got stuck in the head, so the two piece spark plug and the top half and bottom half stay in the head, it takes about two hours of work. I was coming to our job and it makes it a six seven eight hour job another thing to watch out for on the f-150 is the springs, you see the rear one or the middle one likes to break, they've had this problem for generations, In fact, I remember it. the 90's Ford is the same thing that suddenly I was driving and the spring would crack and fall off, so it's a little painful because you have to drop the fuel tank to get this bolt out, but at the end of the world it's still Check it out keep an eye on that when you're looking for one so another thing on these F-150's is this hanger bearing is stuck on this driveshaft because Ford welds the yoke on the other side so make sure this hanger bearing It's in good condition when you buy it because otherwise when this $30 bearing runs out you're going to have to dry out the entire driveshaft so you can make a custom one that's actually useful if the driveshaft shop costs you $400. .

Rocka Auto has the stock driveshaft for $700 and Ford wants $1800 for the driveshaft, note another issue with this with these five fours is the exhaust manifolds, particularly on the power of their size which What happens is that these little 5/16 bolts break and the exhaust manifold separates from the head once it warms up, how will the noise go away, it will start as a tick, if it's really bad it will be as a whole, but what What they are are the little 5/16 bolts that break and break inside the head. or the collector itself cracks now, the collectors themselves are quite cheap, but as you can see, it is not easy to get them out, mainly because there are giant strut towers in the way, it always happens here in the front and if someone has done a bad job. to do it before I've seen them go as fast as 20,000K I've seen them go every 100,000K if you don't do it correctly getting those bolts out without damaging the head it doesn't take long for them to open Again, it's a multi layer gasket so When they heat up they expand and will usually take up space, so if you are buying a truck, make sure the truck is not hot and that it starts cold so you can hear it. before they seal up and you have to spend eight hours of work getting those broken bolts out, okay, that could be a long list of things that might deter you from buying this truck, but because that list is what these chucks are , these trucks are generally Buying a used

f150

is cheap and costs a lot less than say GM due to these known issues so I would recommend these four great ones, they are great work tracks, like oilfields, 100% anything off road, like a farmers fuel track or a snowplow truck, and driveways these who gives a damn about the truck just drive it who cares about exhaust leak noises and anything else but I hope this list helps you If you are deciding whether to buy that truck or not, these are my experiences as a mechanic.

There are things that I've run into a few times, problems that I see that are more common than I think they should be, so I hope this helps you when you're thinking about buying a used truck and we also have a video on what to look for. when buying a used vehicle and that goes for any vehicle across the board so please check that too if I forgot something just comment below if you don't agree with what I said well these are just my personal experiences the weather could be of great importance. What to do with that we also live in a harsh climate with extreme temperatures and negative and positive things like that don't work well for expanding metals and an exhaust manifold might be a bigger problem in our climate so you might as well keep it. in mind, but thanks for watching anyway.

I hope this helps you choose a truck or decide if that truck is right for you or not. Don't be discouraged by these problems. They make great work trucks, great field trucks, really cheap fuel trucks for combines and excavators and all that fun stuff and then you don't feel so bad about throwing them away when too many problems arise so happy truck hunting comment below hit me Like, subscribe and check out some of our other videos, so here we go, it's a piece for you. you're watching you're watching you're watching you're watching you're watching but the boss tried to subscribe