Was the "Spark Plug issue" fixed by 2008?
12-10-2014, 01:38 PM
#11
Mark
iTrader: (1)
From Everything I've found both here and elsewhere if you have brown coils on your 2008 you have the redesigned spark plugs. If you have the black coils you have the two piece design. I have the black design.
Surprisingly, compared to the 97-2004 5.4 the spark plugs seem much easier to get to. I'll buy the right tools for the job and start doing the pre-change "tricks" (Fuel system additives, etc).
Surprisingly, compared to the 97-2004 5.4 the spark plugs seem much easier to get to. I'll buy the right tools for the job and start doing the pre-change "tricks" (Fuel system additives, etc).
It's not the color of the COP...it's the color of the COP Boots...
01-19-2015, 09:29 PM
#12
Senior Member
look at build date on door, i have a 2008 made in august of 2007. bought in sept. 2007 with 2 piece plugs. date posted in earlier post. color will tell also.
05-05-2015, 10:37 AM
#13
Mark
iTrader: (1)
05-07-2015, 12:31 AM
#14
Correct its the engine build date that is the cut off but as others have said the telltale sign is the brown coil boots. I did a lot of research as well to decide if I wanted to tackle the job myself or not. While I did find a few post of people saying they had black boots but still had the 1 piece plugs I have not found anyone say they had brown boots and 2 piece plugs, I think this is because the boots were replaced before they got the vehicle.
The easiest thing to do to make sure is just pick the easiest coil/plug to access and look at it, if they are brown its the one piece 509 plug, if you want to be extra sure actually take the plug out and look at it, this will also give you an idea of what shape they are in. If it were me I would look into replacing them soon but if your not experiencing any problems you dont exactly need to rush.
If you have replaced plugs on other vehicles it really is not that hard to do on the 2008 F150. I just did mine yesterday and it took me about 3hrs but I went very slowly and did a few other little things and breaks in the process, I could have easily done it in an hour. I found it easier then any other vehicle I have done (4.0 explorer, 2006 Rendezvous, 2009 Traverse, 2004 Buick Regal) There is a decent amount of room to get to them, the rear ones are kind of "blind" but not hard to get to. I did remove the PCM as others have suggested but did not move anything else. My 2008 has only about 53,000 miles and I was very surprised with the shape the plugs were in, no not terrible but worse then I would have expected with that low of mileage. The biggest surprise for me and what took the most effort was just how much crud was in the cup a couple of them I actually had to use a long thin screwdriver to chip away stuff and I used my compressor and air a lot, (make sure you have a long thing air tube to stick in there). I would say the previous owner never once cleaned out the engine bay, also there are a lot of dirt roads around here and just across the border where it came from. It is a fairly easy and cheap job to do yourself total for motorcraft 509plugs and Delco pro boots for me was about $80.
The easiest thing to do to make sure is just pick the easiest coil/plug to access and look at it, if they are brown its the one piece 509 plug, if you want to be extra sure actually take the plug out and look at it, this will also give you an idea of what shape they are in. If it were me I would look into replacing them soon but if your not experiencing any problems you dont exactly need to rush.
If you have replaced plugs on other vehicles it really is not that hard to do on the 2008 F150. I just did mine yesterday and it took me about 3hrs but I went very slowly and did a few other little things and breaks in the process, I could have easily done it in an hour. I found it easier then any other vehicle I have done (4.0 explorer, 2006 Rendezvous, 2009 Traverse, 2004 Buick Regal) There is a decent amount of room to get to them, the rear ones are kind of "blind" but not hard to get to. I did remove the PCM as others have suggested but did not move anything else. My 2008 has only about 53,000 miles and I was very surprised with the shape the plugs were in, no not terrible but worse then I would have expected with that low of mileage. The biggest surprise for me and what took the most effort was just how much crud was in the cup a couple of them I actually had to use a long thin screwdriver to chip away stuff and I used my compressor and air a lot, (make sure you have a long thing air tube to stick in there). I would say the previous owner never once cleaned out the engine bay, also there are a lot of dirt roads around here and just across the border where it came from. It is a fairly easy and cheap job to do yourself total for motorcraft 509plugs and Delco pro boots for me was about $80.