I'm looking for some advice and information from Ford mechanics and knowledgeable owners.  

I just bought a 2010 Ford F150 4x4 with the 4.6L 3v engine 6 speed transmission with 100k miles.  Really like it so far.

Anyway, I take very meticulous care of my vehicles.  I prefer to replace parts before they go bad because I HATE breaking down roadside.  

So, what parts would you recommend that I consider replacing on my truck as preventative maintenance?  I am planning on replacing the serpentine belt and associated pulleys pretty soon.  While doing so, I'm leaning toward replacing the water pump as well.   Replacing it will also give me a good opportunity to replace the coolant as well.

So any recommendations?   What have you seen as common failure points on these trucks?



And, one more question.  What socket sizes are commonly needed when working on these trucks?  I'm going to be installing a truck bed tool box eventually and would like to carry commonly used sockets and a couple ratchets.  I'm not trying to carry a full tool box of tools but do want to have the common socket sizes in my truck.

Cannot think of anything that normally fails on that particular model.
plugs and coil boots would be my recomendation

carry 8,10 and 13mm sizes.

Depends how "crazy" aka $$$ u wanna go.  

Basic: plugs, wires, air filter, oil change, trans filter change

Next level:  change diff fluid, full trans flush, radiator flush  (pump if u want that too), cabin filter, thermostat (fail safe brand), brake pads, new brake fluid, power steering fluid

After that: grease all the fitting, new wheel hub/bearings, shocks/struts,

Coils and plugs are the only item we regularly replace on those trucks.

Good info.  

I do plan to replace the spark plugs soon.  Planning on Motorcraft platinum plugs.  

What about the coils?  What kind of miles/age do you typically start seeing failures?  What brand would you replace them with?  OEM?  High end aftermarket?  Cheapest aftermarket?

Looking at Airtex brand from Rock Auto for the water pump.  I have read that Airtex is the OEM supplier for Ford.  The Motorcraft one is almost 4 times more expensive.  Don't mind paying more for the Motorcraft one but if the Motorcraft one is an Airtex, then it doesn't make any sense to spend 4 times more to get the same water pump.  



Thanks to all for the input!!

Have changed the oil, air filter, and power steering fluid already.  Planning to change the transfluid and filter soon.  

Will be changing ALL fluids within the next couple weeks.

240k on mine only real issue I have ever had was the damn coil packs. It's a pretty easy swap when one starts going and it won't leave you stranded.

I did have to put a different steering column in mine due to the bearings being the steering wheel going bad (a part you can replace but its much easier just to swap the column).

Other than those two things and brakes and tires every now and then there really hasnt been anything other than the damn Air Bag light thats been on for years because the indicator light on the keyed on off switch is burnt out which sends an error code say the air bag is not working properly and I'm too lazy to fix it.

Any other comments or recommendations?

Here are some pics:

Got my water pump and serpentine belt replaced yesterday along with my spark plugs.  Super easy job.  Very surprised how easy it was to pull the serpentine belt off.  

Any recommendations on coils?   My truck runs great at the moment but I've heard that 100k is about the time that the coils start failing so I want to replace them in the near future as preventative maintenance.

After owning several Ford trucks, I would recommend replacing the entire truck, with just about any other brand.

For reals.

If you hate Fords so much, why even bother entering this thread?

Looking for useful input here.....since you have none, please go away.

 

Yes they do fail but I'm not sure it is worth replacing them at this time. But, if you must, we use OE or Standard Motor Products. I've had great sucess with the Standard brand.

MSD are about $190 for a set of 8. Standard Motor are about $44 each from Rock Auto..  Rock Auto Coils 2010 F150

I have a 2010 also but it's a 5.4L 120,000 on it.

I've done both from hub bearing, all Discs/Pads, Both front Calipers, Trans filter/fluid, transfer case fluid, both axle fluids and plugs.

Just about anything that's rubber is a good candidate for replacement - coolant hoses, belts, suspension bushings,...

A failed belt(s) or `hose(s) can leave you on the road side.  The suspension bushing affect handling.

ALL fluids should be replaced regularly - transmission, differential, engine.

Check your spark plugs for useful life, tightness and proper gap.  

Any hint of hardening of the plug boots or wires would mean it's time to replace:  cracked insulation = dead cylinder when wet.

That is all that comes to mind.

Change the coolant to Rotella red long life . The rubber coolant hoses to the oil cooler will fail at around 250,000-300,000 miles. Coils as mentioned. Change diff and transmission and use synthetic fluids.


Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile


ETA , now that I am not on my phone , we had issues with heads getting pin holes from coolant related issues . The switch to Rotella extended life ended the problem . I used to manage a Ford fleet shop.

Honda and Acura on my shop's doors, but all I work on is BMW, Ford, and Chrysler, go figure.




2004+ 4.6/5.4 Triton:

Change the coolant, change the coolant, change the coolant. - The coolant when old turns into this brown rust color because rust forms inside the cooling system which will cause the heater to not work at a later date. A simple coolant flush will prevent this. Change your thermostat while you're in there, it's only two bolts and the thermostat is cheap.

When flushing the coolant, inspect all of your heater hoses which go from the heater core to the engine block, these are routed on the passenger side of the engine above the bank 1 cylinder head. There's plastic fittings that connect the heater hoses together, if you see any antifreeze residue on any of these fittings, replace the hoses entirely because if they leak at a later date, they'll leak directly onto Cylinder 1-4 coils causing a misfire. If there's no residue, leave em alone, but be careful not to move them around too much when changing your spark plugs.

Serpentine belt - Super easy to change, not an expensive item.

Air filter - Common sense.

Coils - Don't worry about them, they aren't part of regular maintenance, if one goes bad then replace the one, don't waste your money replacing all of them because it's a waste.

Spark plugs - It'll be a miracle if you get all 8 of them out, so be prepared to borrow, rent, or buy a spark plug removal tool. The problem with the spark plugs is that the early triton engine only had like three threads holding the plugs in place and owners would always have to deal with the spark plug flying out of their engines (breaking the coils in the process) at random times. In 2004 they remedied the situation by designing new spark plugs and heads but the redesign came with a flaw of it's own; that flaw being that the spark plugs don't want to leave the heads and often times break off. I've been told that the problem has been completely resolved for the 2011 model year, but I have no confirmation of this because those vehicles are too new to tell. Do a google search for Ford broken spark plug tool, find the youtube vids on how to remove them and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Cam Phasers - Start pinching those pennies because you're at the 100k mile mark and that's around the time these things will start to fail or show signs of failure. Sometimes they'll last up to 140-150k miles, but they will almost certainly fail eventually. Your engine has two timing chains with three timing sprockets, the cam phasers are the two sprockets at the ends of your camshafts. They're called phasers instead of sprockets because they're spring loaded and will actually adjust your cam timing while you're driving down the road to provide sufficient power and/or fuel economy, but they're spring loaded and the springs fail frequently on them. When they start going out, you'll usually hear a clicking noise which some people confuse as lifter noises while other lesser knowledgeable people will sometimes mistake them as rod knocks. When they go out completely the car will sometimes not run while other times it'll run really bad and you'll have to hold the throttle pedal down just to hold a bumpy idle. Cost of Cam Phaser replacement is I believe $3,000 to $4,000 when done at the Ford dealer, but if you're mechanically inclined and have a lot of time on your hands, I think the average shade tree mechanic could complete the job in about 10 hours. I takes me about 4-5 hours to complete, but I've done dozens of them. Cam phasers cost anywhere from $150-$350 a piece depending on if you go OEM or Dorman which I believe is the only aftermarket company that produces them. I've seen the Dorman phasers fail in under 100 miles before, but some have gone years without a problem, so keep this in mind if/when yours do go bad. I'm not telling you to go out and change your cam phasers, I'm just giving you a heads up that they go bad often around this mileage. Also, you don't have to pull the timing cover off to do them, but I do anyway because the majority of the times I find broken chain guides underneath.



I think that's about it. These are pretty solid trucks that don't really need any maintenance at all other than coolant flushes, a belt, and the tune-up.

All great info....thanks to everyone who has provided useful input!

The 2010 4.6 3v engine has improved spark plugs.  Plenty of threads holding them on and they are 1 piece.  All came out easily when I replaced them.  No issues at all there.  I will check them for tightness just to be sure in another 20k miles or so.

Interceptor_Knight:  Would you recommend the MSD over the OE coils?  How about Accel?  

whiskerz:  Good info on the coolant.  I put in Peak Final Charge Global which appears to be similar to the Rotella coolant you mention.  There was some minor rust/corrosion around the water pump when I took it out.  Glad to know that this is a potential issue and it appears that I'm on the right track here.  

slomofo:  As mentioned, I like to replace the coils as preventative maintenance because from everything I've read, coils are a known potential issue with Ford engines (not just the F150s).  I'd rather spend some extra money and prevent a potential problems.  As I understand it (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) the 2004-2005 (or 2006) models were the worst for cam phaser issues.  I think the majority of the cam phaser issues were resolved by 2010.  However, I have watched a couple youtube videos and feel comfortable that I could replace them if needed.  The only vehicle repair that I don't do is tire mounting and balancing and alignments.  I can do everything else including removing engines and transmissions if needed.  

Again, thanks to all who have provided useful information.  Greatly appreciated!  

So far I really like the truck.  Time will tell if I stay a Ford fan or not.  My wife and I did own a 2001 Ford Escape once upon a time and I wasn't a big fan of it.  Not a bad vehicle but had some issues.  I've heard the newer ones are better.  Two of my step daughters drive Ford Fusion cars.  I just drove the 2005 last weekend.  She has 191,xxx miles on it and it runs great and hasn't had a single major repair....just maintenance and normal wear items.  Drove quite nicely.  So, I'm coming around to Ford vehicles.  I posted a thread with some questions on the F150s awhile back and my main concern is not how well the truck does from 0-100k miles but how well it does from 100k to 250k.  I maintain my vehicles well above what is required and my vehicles run for a long time.  I also keep them for a long time because I HATE vehicle payments.

Plugs and boots.  I wouldn't do the coils unless bad.

Boots?  You mean the spark plug wire boots?  If so, there are no spark plug wires on this engine.  Coil over plugs design (COP).  One per spark plug so 8 total.  Ford COPs seem to have some issues with their COPs failing around the 100k mile range.  I'm a huge believer in replacing parts BEFORE they fail.

My limited experience with coils is that if one goes out, the rest are soon to follow.  Co-worker knows zero about cars. His Nissan coil went out, to the dealership.  $175 later they replaced one bad coil pack that was $50 at Rock Auto.  I told him the next time to just buy 3 more and do it himself.  Told him to just leave the cleanest one alone.  6 months later, he had to order the other 3.
Friend has the same truck. He was driving down the interstate on the way to work, coil died.  Had it replaced and three days later another died. He replaced them all this time.
What I would do, carry one spare and an 8mm (double check that size) socket to swap it on the roadside. Go home, replace other 7.

How was your coolant? Still clean? Did you flush the radiator when you changed the pump out?  If it was brown and muddy, replace the radiator. At this point, so much sludge would be built up there is no flush in the world that will clean out a heavily sludged up radiator.

Fresh brake fluid. Never hurts, combats moisture build up and corrosion.

Check U joint condition.

Trans flush. Not just a fluid change, but a true flush.

100,000 miles is a good break in on these trucks.

Coolant was clean.  The radiator was clean as well.  There was a little bit of rust when I removed the water pump but nothing out of the ordinary.  

Drivetrain looks good.  

Will be changing the brake fluid in the near future.

So how does the fire get from the coil over plug to the plug without a boot?

http://www.partsgeek.com/gbproducts/DC/28998-05289102.html?utm_content=DN&utm_term=2008-2010+Ford+F150+Spark+Plug+Boot+Motorcraft+WR-6133+08-10+Ford+Spark+Plug+Boot+09&fp=pp&gbm=a&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ff&utm_campaign=PartsGeek+Google+Base&gclid=Cj0KEQiApIGnBRCFx-idn7-E2Y8BEiQAc6fQbDFQSlrRVVLmfdQ9RQu7Jetw-xdLKHe1uhmU_HqsVzUaAl-Z8P8HAQ

Yep, I recently replaced my plugs with Motorcraft and boots also. You can do the whole coil. I thought about some eBay ones that are US made and Cooper vs aluminium, about $100+.

All the coils I've seen come with the boots.  I didn't know you could replace just the boot but do now.  Did some online searching and found that some people think that the coils fail because the boots get hard and then cause arcing....which then causes the coil to fail.  

Good info.  Thanks.

Changed the transfer case fluid, transmission fluid, and rear differential fluid today.  Simple job but my main gripe about the Ford so far is there aren't drain plugs (except for the transfer case).  My Toyota has a drain plug on the differentials as well as the transmission so changing fluids is super easy.  I had to remove the differential cover to drain the fluid and drop the pan to change the transmission fluid.  It's not hard but it's messy.  Sure wish Ford would put drain plugs on!

Also replaced the transmission filter.  There was some residue in the transmission pan but nothing unusual.  Ford doesn't seem to think that the fluid needs to be changed very often in the transmission but I don't like the idea of fluid running that long in the truck.  Getting the fluid into the transmission wasn't hard but checking the fluid in the Fords is a bit of a pain.  I would much rather have a dipstick and fill from the engine compartment.

Go to you tube and look up fordtekmakuloco before you do that trans fluid change. They hold pressure and there is a procedure for releasing it. He is an excellent source of information on other things Ford as well.

Coil packs are a mixed bag. I have a 2008 Taurus, spare car, that has 144,000 on 2 of the coil packs and 110,000 or so on one other one. Other 3 have around 40,000 on them.

My 2009 F-150 4.6 3V has never been touched, although its only at 76,000.

MPD165

Already did the filter and fluid.  There is vacuum in the pan and you have to remove the fill plug/dipstick to release the vacuum to allow the pan to drop down.....and then it drops down with lots of fluid going everywhere.......

I don't think I have ever changed a fluid that didn't spray or drip everywhere, no matter how careful I was. Good times.

MPD165

I really wish Ford put drain plugs on their transmissions.  It wouldn't cost hardly any more.  For some reason, American car manufactures don't seem to like to put drain plugs in some things.  Annoys me.  I might eventually drill the pan and put a drain plug in.  But for now, it's been changed so I feel a lot better about it.