Hi All,
New to forum. Long story short. My son bought his first vehicle 3 years ago...2001, F150 4.2 6cyl. 76k miles. Bought from a mechanic. Good truck. Son's a good driver.. doesn't abuse the truck. Now has 101K. In the last year, major repair. Rebuilt rear axle... $1600. Turn signal issues but I was able to repair that by looking at youtube vids and forum advice. Recently, check engine light on for air intake error. Mechanic says gaskets are bad in both upper and lower air intakes. Plastic... wow. In process of diagnosing, he discovered the upper plenum is cracked...lower intake leaking oil. He was gonna try to buy an upper from a junk yard. Couldn't find one. Lower intake fine except for bad gasket. Went to his supplier and supplier said he would have to buy both upper and lower intake with spacer. Wouldn't just sell upper. Before I jump to my first reaction, wanted to see if there was a logical mechanical reason for this. The mechanic's not trying to gouge us. Charging basically at cost (with tax) for parts and charging very fair labor to try to save my son some money. Why both intakes? Thanks for help.