Hi all, this is a really great forum. I've been browsing for some time and finally registered because I just bought my first F150 last night. It's used (2004 Lariat) but had under 50K in miles and was practically new. The guy who owned it was old and didn't drive it much. It still had the remnants of mildew growing in the cracks as it was left outside for some time. Other than that it was basically perfect looking. Got it home, washed it and it looks practically new. It shows no wear on the inside at all, not even a spec of dust. It came with all the maintenance receipts, clean carfax, new tires and the guy even put floor mats over the stock mats to keep them clean. He installed a full dual stainless exhaust, hard fiberglass toneau cover, and even purchased a carpet kit for the bed to keep it from getting scratched. Never towed anything. Anyway, I took my dad to go look at it yesterday, well actually he drove me just incase I bought it. Had to drive about 200 miles to go see it. My dad is an old crusty guy who is always scepticle and he said....."If you don't buy it, I will!" Bought it, filled it full of gas, and drove it home. Ran like a champ, no vibrations, no pulse in the brakes, no engine noise (except for the exhaust system makes a great rumble with the 5.4). All in all, it seems practically new and it was about $5K less than any other private party whos had a lot more miles on it. I think the guy was on hard times which is why he sold it so quickly and cheaply. I'm happy with it.

I've been browsing the site for some time and found some good things here and there, but was wondering in a nutshell, what should I look for in this truck? I know about the spark plugs and the cam phasers. I'm going to take it down to the local mechanic and have him change out the plugs for the Champion ones (and add the anti-sieze), and the cam phasers seem fine as there is no noise. I still have 1 recall that needs to be done, something about a wire harness in the air bag, so I will take care of that next week.

I'm pretty handy mechanically as I own an older Benz and work on it all the time. All the time, which is why I got this truck. I'm fed up with fixing cars all the time.

One thing I would like to know is the hardware on this truck. Specifically bolts and nuts. On my japenese cars, they were weak and would just round off or break. On my benz, they were much stronger and would hold up to some serious torque. How is the hardware on this truck?

Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and thanks for all the information posted here.

 

Awesome! Enjoy it.