I will be selling my 00 Scab 2wd 5.4L soon and getting a Screw 5.4L swb 4x4... 2004 or later ... so in the 04 to 08 years is there a consensus on which year was best or were there too few changes made to matter...

 

Personally I'd go 07 or 08 simply because of the sparkplug issue. I believe the 07's were the first year where they figured it out, but maybe someone else will chime in and correct me if I'm wrong. One thing about selling my 06 is I won't have to deal with the issue at all.

 

Id say '08 because by then they had all the bugs worked out or atleast as many as they bothered to work out.

 

id go with the 08 since its newer, has a warranty, and most of the problems have been fixed. itll have less miles on it. and all the little problems like the water on the passenger side floor and the wiper cowl coming up can be fixed before the warranty expires

 

Thanks for the inputs...

Those are the kind of tips I was looking for...

I was under the impression the spark plug thing continues to thru the 09s but will re-examine that...

Not familiar with the cab leaks...mine never leaked in the 9 years I have had it...for that matter it still has the original spark plugs...found out about that just in time as I would have prolly snapped them all changing them out myself as they are due now...lol

I guess I need to search about the cab leaks...any help is appreciated...thanks again

 

I heard the problem with the pre-2004 models wasn't that the plugs snapped off in the heads, but rather they liked flying out of the heads.

 

From what I read on this forum it's both and continued well past 04...

It's all news to me...

Ignorance is bliss... lol

 

as far as the leaks go: the front passenger door sill has a common leaking issue (im still not sure where it actually comes from) and the third brake light seal is the other common one. i had both leak on my truck, i bought an aftermarket third brake light but i still havent fixed the other one. appearance wise the only differences i can think of off the top of my head is the front bumper. 04-05 have a bigger opening in the middle and rectangular fog lights. 06-08 have a smaller opening and round fog lights. i dont have fog lights but i recall reading that one or the other has a problem with moisture getting in them, i cant remember for sure but i think it was the round ones. i almost forgot about the funky cloth seats, STAY AWAY, lol they suck. every drop of water leaves a stain and its impossible to get rid of it.

 

Spark plug issue was fixed in 2008 on vehicles with engines built after October 2007 - might want to check that if buying a used 2008 as some still had the older engine and thus the spark plug issue...

 

Assuming your wanting a 5.4....if your after the 4.6 or 4.2, then the spark plugs are not an issue.

As to cloth seats and water stains, I disagree with the cleaning issues, as well as the "they suck" issue: my 2005 STX was bought used. It has the grey cloth seats. I used by Bissel carpet/auto cleaner on the seats when I first bought it. No stains remained. I then used 3M scotchguard on the seats to protect them. I spilled some coffee on the drivers seat awhile back, and the coffee came right out with some auto cloth seat cleaner.

Leather can be just as much a pain; if leather cleaner/conditioner is not used often, the leather can crack and/or show "spider web" cracks in it's finish. Not only that, but sitting on leather seats in the summer time wearing shorts can be a "sweaty" experience!