F150 Repair Advice...

[tp308]

Long story short... my 2016 F150 (3.5 Eccoboost) started eating spark plugs and coil packs a few months ago. Took it to a local garage, 3 large repair bills (totaling $6k) from him later. New plugs & coil packs twice, replace valve cover gasket & valve cover... each time telling me that he was finding oil in certain cylinders. This is the 4th trip back to this shop in a month, today he tells me that there's no compression on cylinder 3 and I need a new engine. I ask him what about the $6k I've dropped with him in the last 3-4 wks and he says "it sucks man". Picking this truck up in the morning... my question is, what would you do? Should I hold this guy accountable for milking me dry the last 3 wks and what would you do with this truck at this point? 180K miles Ford telling me a new engine is $10-12k. I'm at a loss.

 

[TSAMP]

I'd get a second opinion first before anything else.

Then I'd start calling salvage yards and see about finding a motor that route. I'd guess you can find a decent one for 3k. Maybe reuse the new parts off the old motor.

 

[adieatrick]

Taking it to him that many times without a 2nd opinion sucks and it is probably money lost IMO. Hard saying what was the root cause without another opinion on the diagnosis. Might be at a point where you're investing another 10k and driving the wheels off or taking that $6k on the chin and moving on. I went through that with my old F150 5.4 and the cam phasers. Finally just traded it off and said enough was enough.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Trash that MF and find something else had to do that with my 08 and went back to a diesel for a few reasons. I wouldn’t fight with it unless it’s your dream truck and even then I’d think real hard.

 

[jmez]

Did you get it new? Do you like it?

Would you rather pay 10k for a motor with 0 miles on it or 30k for a motor with 60 thousand miles on it.

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[tp308]

Did you get it new? Do you like it?

Would you rather pay 10k for a motor with 0 miles on it or 30k for a motor with 60 thousand miles on it.

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Leaning towards a new motor... tough call though, tranny or turbos could fail the next day

 

[BRTreedogs]

So who is to say it didn’t need those other repairs as well?

And you would have to some how prove he lied and it didn’t need those repairs as well.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

I imagine at 180k+ you’ll just keep dumping money into it. Would it even be worth $12k with a new motor?

I don’t always trust Google reviews but would be interesting to see what others have to say about the guy.

I got a mechanic recommendation from a local hunting forum. Guy was a long time member and a lot of the members there recommended him. Ended up being a great guy to work with. Find a mechanic with a shop like this next time, he’ll shoot ya straight!

 

[tp308]

So who is to say it didn’t need those other repairs as well?

And you would have to some how prove he lied and it didn’t need those repairs as well.

Not saying it didn't need those things, it might have... but I feel like maybe he should've started with checking the compression first. If I would've known it needed a new motor, I certainly wouldn't have invested in these other expensive repairs.

 

[jmez]

Transmission is solid on them, very few problems if you change fluid occasionally. The valve body is another story, there are issues with them and I would replace that if your putting in a new motor. Pretty easy fix I'd you are mechanical, just messy.

Turbos I don't know anything about.

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[displacedtexan]

Not saying it didn't need those things, it might have... but I feel like maybe he should've started with checking the compression first. If I would've known it needed a new motor, I certainly wouldn't have invested in these other expensive repairs.

Why would he have checked compression?

 

[Marble]

If it was eating spark plugs and there was oil in the cylinders I would have compression tested it. If the spark plugs are out, it's not hard to do.

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[cnelk]

Why would he have checked compression?

Because when there’s oil in the cylinders it’s usually a ring problem.
And that means compression

 

[displacedtexan]

Because when there’s oil in the cylinders it’s usually a ring problem.
And that means compression

In my experience oil in the cylinders comes from above.

Also, I'm mostly a diesel guy.

 

[fmyth]

You might consider a used lower mile engine and pay the mechanic to swap it. I use this search engine to find used parts: car-part.com.

 

[Jake Larsen]

Swap it out for a 5.0 instead of an eco boost…like it should have been from the start


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