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ugh's avatar
ugh
Explorer
May 13, 2015

I am at lost. Another bad luck with my TV

Some of you may recall that I totaled my truck on the way to pickup a camper in January. Few moons later, I bought another truck and bought a different camper. Yesterday my wife drove the truck because her car broke down. On the way home, my truck broke down. Yep, you read it right. Both vehicles broke down within two hours. I fixed my wife's car, so she is using that. I don't need my truck as I work from home, but we need it when we go camping.

However, my truck has more serious problem. It blew a spark plug from number 3. I ordered a timesert tool set to fix it. I never done that, I am sure I will be able to fix it as long as nothing fell in the hole.

I am starting to have doubts about my truck. I only had it for 2 months. I put less than 300 miles on it. The truck is primary for pulling our camper. I replaced a lot of warned out parts. I am starting to think that I should sell it and get something that is few years old with a lot less miles. My truck has 160K miles and it was one owner. I could take on another payment, but I don't really want to. that will bite into our play money.

I am curious. Is anyone out there hauling a camper with older and higher mileage truck with no plans to replace it? Should I just risk it? I have three little kids and I would hate to break down in the middle of the highway with the camper in tow. Our first trip this year is 900 miles away and I have not camp with this truck yet.

My camper has a GVWR of 7650 pounds. New 1/2 town truck can two much higher than that. So, I could get a 1/2 ton, but I prefer 3/4 ton as it has higher payload.

54 Replies

  • I had a bi-fuel (CNG) 5.4L in a Ford of that vintage. I bought it used with about 100K miles on it; it had been a State of Texas (prisons) vehicle. It blew a spark plug. Got it fixed. Blew it again. Got it fixed. Blew a different plug! Got it fixed, and sold it. Good riddance! Happily, gas prices were way up at the time I sold it, so I got enough extra out of it to pay for most of the repair bills. (When gasoline prices spike, people will pay ridiculous amounts for a CNG vehicle.) But I will never buy another 5.4L.
  • Don't get discouraged. Really common in the earlier Mod motors...4.6, 5.4 to do that. It can be tricky to fix, I had a Mustang before my Camaros and Firebirds. Mine did it and I fixed it. Just take your time and relax. Remember with those miles stuff will break. If you plan on doing the other plugs heat the engine up and pull them out then. The possibility exist that they will pull the threads on the other ones.

    Just do a search on the net plenty of info about it out there!
  • We had an 01 Expedition with the same 5.4 motor (3.73) rear end.
    Pulled a 5000 lb. loaded trailer lots and lots of miles...but the tranny went and was replaced. The 5.4 is a really good motor...a solid work horse...but...

    160K that you have is a lot of miles. I can't advise you on what you should do, but with that many miles you are going to have stuff start to go. Probably looking at many constant and nagging repairs.

    Good luck with your decision.
  • I think you will find that is a very common problem with early model Ford V-8 gas engines. Often the problem surfaces after a spark plug change.