The pickup is a 2016 Ford F150 V6 Cylinder Engine 2.7L,1 owner and it has been serviced regulary. It has 60k miles, just over the warranty. It's my dad's truck. It went in limp mode with a cylinder 3 misfire engine code. He drove it for a week like that. He's not very handy with autos. When he told me we took it to the mechanic asap and they pulled out the spark plugs below. Don't mind the white specks of dust. They replaced the spark plugs and that took care of the limp mode + engine code. Engine is sounding fine, but they told me I should take it to Ford and have the engine looked at. We drove it back home and hasn't been turned on since. Warranty is out the door. What are my options here? I don't want to trade it in and have someone else suffer too. Any way Ford can fix this? The truck only has 60k miles.

 

Options? Take in to a Ford dealer of your choosing asap. Some or all parts needed could be still under warranty. You could be given a break since you are barely over the mileage warranty. I wouldn't give up on a three year old truck because the engine isn't running correctly and screwing up the plugs. That one plug which is broken has me puzzled. It is either from detonation or interference from the piston .You would likely have to pay more in sales tax on another vehicle which you could put towards getting yours right.

 

At 64k my plugs looked something like that. You might have dodged a bullet.

 

You got a lot of carbon and possibly oil. That is certainly not normal for V6 ecoboosts at 60k miles that had regular maintenance.

I would still take it to the dealership, because if it's a factory problem it happened way before warranty was due. I wouldn't give up that easy.

 

Take it to the dealer and also show them the plugs you took out of it.

 

What kind of oil and what weight do you use? That info may be useful.

 

Definitely take it to the Dealer, couple of points to ponder though. How much highway driving does he do? What grade of fuel does he use? It appears that roughly 15,000 miles a year are put on the truck. Does look like carbon build-up on them, hence driving at 70 + will help that, so will midgrade fuel. He doesn't have to use premium fuel regularly, but occasionally won't hurt. Just purchased a 2018 EcoBoost Mustang, the wife was told to use midgrade fuel only. We'll see if that happens, I will put Premium in it every 6 weeks. She drives about 15 miles to work on a toll road at 75 to 80, so that should help the carbon problem. Hope it works out for your Dad.

 

Fuel or driving habits is not going to ruin the plugs like that, unless his engine was preigniting thus destroying the one plug w/o the ground electrode. When operating properly, modern engines run so well, you will not have plugs looking like that, short trip or highway.

 

Thanks all for the responses. I went to the dealership. As soon as I got there I asked to speak to an advisor. When I showed him the spark plugs, he picked up a noticeably cleaner spark plug that was sitting right in front of his monitor. He said "Yeah that's normal, just look at this one. It even has worse gap on it."Right away i mentioned the black gunk on the plugs and the oil below it. He then goes "It's normal, this one was just cleaned a bit." Why would you clean a spark plug that you're comparing? I said spark plugs shouldn't look like this. I also mentioned what my mechanic said, but he wouldn't budge. He was too ready with an explanation. Is it normal behavior to keep a spark plug at hands reach? That means others have went there and asked questions. Thoughts?

 

Truck has seen nothing but premium fuel in it. All oil changes have been done at the dealership regularly. My dad communities to different work sites in different towns. The truck sees a lot of highway miles.