Nebraska69162

Hi all,

As the title states, i have a 2013 F-150 5.0 with 130,000 miles. The truck has been babied its entire life, no towing, no driving like a idiot, no serious 4x4 situations and I drive it like a old man since I live in rural Nebraska and the closest town has 6 stop lights (i am not in a rush). The truck is clean and i have keep the vehicle extremely well maintained. Recently (developing over 3 months) i have had a check engine light on and the motor was idling rough. So i change all the spark plugs, no luck… threw a new coil pack on… no luck… my code reader was giving me the P0308 so i knew it was my #8 cylinder. After giving up on it and my not so mechanically inclined self I took it to a local repair shop. The shop did a leak down test and determined that the valve was effectively burnt off and that i needed a new head. The estimate from the shop was about 5,200$ after labor and the whole 9 yards!!!

The place i took the truck to stated that this in not normal wear and tear for this engine however they just had the same issue with a f-150 2 months before. I called several Ford dealerships and the first question they all asked was if it was the # 8 cylinder and they all acknowledged that this was a common issue with my motor….. awesome never would have bought it if i knew that at 130,000 miles id be half way to replacing the entire engine.

let me start this off by first, i have never called a company to complain about anything. I avoid altercations of all kinds and i genuinely hate being that guy… for the first time in my life I called a company to complain. I may be in the wrong here and i am aware that the motor is out of warranty but in my opinion this should never happen to any vehicle with under 200,000 miles especially under the circumstances of how i have taken care of it and my easy driving (feel free to correct me if i am wrong here). So… my first interaction via phone with ford was extremely promising actually, they told me that i would have to take it to a ford certified dealership and have a ford tech review what i was telling them and then we would go from there. Great news, except the ford dealership is about 1.5 hrs away which isn't the end of the world but regardless i drove it up to the dealership. Talking with the dealership they understand how these interactions have happened in the past where ford will use goodwill to replace non normal wear and tear issues and they understand how to facilitate this with Ford. So… i called Ford (corporate) back to tell them that i have dropped the truck off at the dealership and they quickly told me i was SOL, in a mere bleak of hope they told me to save my receipts in the event that a recall will ever be issued. This honestly irritates me because it seemed like a ploy to drum up business in their ford certified dealership for the repair. I was hopeful they would scratch my back somehow and at least review it with their ford tech but they never called the shop. I am realistic with myself and never expected them to flip the bill for it but i figured if they would donate the parts id be overjoyed (wishful thinking).

so my questions,

1- does this seem like a normal wear and tear issue for any motor? Specifically a 5.0?
2- am i being over dramatic by complaining to Ford?
3- if this is as of common of an issue as i am seeing by searching the internet and based off of what ford dealerships have told me… is a recall possible?

ultimately i will end up paying the ford dealership the 5k$ to get it replaced/fixed but am interested if anyone else has had experiences with ford on this situation. Additionally I wanted to share my experience.

fun fact… my neighbor has a farm truck 1995 f150 with 350,000 miles on it and all he has ever done is change oil and tires, if you can believe that!!!

thanks all!!!

Al_Maryland

Subscribed. I'm curious if this is as common as they say it is. I have a 2012 that just went over 100,000 miles. Only thing that has been done to the truck since I've owned it is a water pump, which I replaced myself. I wonder if it would be cheaper to get a used engine? As I don't know if it's worth $5200 for the repair unless you plan on keeping the truck until the wheels fall off. I plan on keeping my truck till the wheels fall off as I've done with all of my vehicles. So maybe I should start saving my pennies when that day comes. I hope you get this resolved and keep us updated.

Kung

I sure hope it ain't that common, as I have the same year/engine.

In all truthfulness I don't think it's *that* common - you'd probably hear all about it were it that common.

SoonerLS

DNA Dan

Compared to the past, it seems like it's premature for something like this to happen. However if you look at the nature of other things today, it's more a "sign of the times". I changed my timing chain and all the phasers at ~ 65K on my truck, just outside of warranty. There are many who replied "that is a serviceable item, just like other wear components." No help from Ford, so I did the job myself. Now I know a timing chain isn't the same comparison to what you're going through, but similarly, I have never owned a car in the past that needed a timing chain under 100K. To me it's a sign of 1) poor engineering 2) cheaper materials or 3) under-designed elements. - all for the purpose of cutting costs.

So although you probably feel this is a premature wear, it's more likely just the way things are today. If you don't like it, you're free to try GM or any other brand. My other car is a Toyota sequoia and I haven't had ANY issues mechanically with it and it just broke 100K. In short, by today's standards, longenvity is reduced and failure rate has increased.

Nebraska69162

yes, you are probably correct. At the end of the day I love my F150, i have had absolutely no complaints with it until now so my desire to switch brands is limited. And in my case my timing chains are still the factory ones that came on the truck…. i guess it is all how the cookie crumbles at the end of the day.

Glex25

Cylinder 8 issue has been a known issue on the 1st gen 5.0 Coyote motors and there are aftermarket solutions to combat this.
I replaced my motor at 185k for cyl 3/4 low compression with a junkyard motor with only 54k and installed the MMR cyl 8 cooling mod to prevent the issue you are having in the future.
I would look into a junkyard motor since it will definitely come out cheaper in the long run for you

https://mustangforums.com/forum/5-0l...need-help.html

https://mustangforums.com/forum/5-0l...8-failure.html

https://www.svtperformance.com/threa...roblem.885573/

https://www.svtperformance.com/threa...-8-cyl.795185/

Nebraska69162

Thank you! Yes i considered going that route but the issue with that in my mind is that I'm going to have to pay a shop to install the motor which is fine but in the event that the motor for what ever reason has an issue after it is installed then I'm on the hook for the labor getting that motor in and out. I have seen that those motors come with a warranty but the warranty doesn't cover the shops labor…. so maybe i am over concerned with it and that is the right way to go but at this point i already committed to having the dealership just fix it as it currently is. But i am more than eager to listen to ways to prevent this in the future.

ModularFord

Nebraska69162

Well i got it back…. $4,892 later and it runs like it is brand spanking new. The verdict was ford told me to pound sand on my inquiry if they would pay for it (to be expected). 2k in labor 2k in parts and 150 isn in taxes.