Subject:
Date:     12/23/2004

I have a very well maintained Ford F150 Super Crew. This is my baby, my
pride and joy. At least it was until July 16, 2003. I was traveling about
40 mph when all of a sudden I hear a loud POP! followed by a continuous
popping sound and accompanied by a very bad idle. Being a car guy I
immediately shut down the vehicle (knowing that I might save what was left
of the engine).

After inspecting under the hood I noticed that the rear passenger-side
spark plug had blown out of the head. I was in shock! In all my years I
had never had a spark plug blow out of any of my vehicles (let alone a
near new one). After repeatedly trying to reinsert the plug I had the
vehicle towed to a friend of mine's machine shop.

I was informed that this was a common problem with the Ford F150 Triton
engines. Great, Ford and their better ideas! After researching this
problem a bit I have found that this is indeed a design defect. Ford
customers beware! I will complain to Ford on this but after reading so
much material on the subject I have a feeling I know what their response
will be -- too bad!

This is not the first problem that I have had with this truck, but it
certainly will be the last. Other problems include having the brakes done
every 6 months, the seatbelts have never operated properly, even after a
recall inspection by a Ford authorized dealer, oh, and my mechanic friend
just informed me that the power steering pump is leaking like a sieve and
I need a valve job! Toyota here I come!

Severe economic impact, as I use my vehicle for work. I see between 2 and
5 clients a day, my vehicle is my office. I estimate in the two days I
lost so far I lost between $500 to $1,000 in wages, a rental for a week,
$175, not to mention all the repair costs. The head needed to be pulled
and machined. Since the one head was pulled I had the valves inspected and
it was determined that a valve job would be prudent at this juncture (since
the entire top end was torn apart). The power steering pump was an added
bonus, bring the grand total to $2,400. And that was because the mechanic
was a friend of mine. The Ford dealership will only replace the head (with
a similarly flawed designed head I am sure) for a cost well over $3,000.
Call around for a good machine shop/car repair facility and save yourself
some money