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Will it ever end???

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
Please tell me this will end eventually... im getting tired of working on my truck...

I finally bought an 04 F350 hoping to get away from always having to fix my truck... (had an 87 s10 before for those that dont know).. I knew buying used id have to do a "FEW" repairs... but this feels more like a divorced financial rape to me now...

Bought my truck the first week of last October... Going in knew it had a rear axle leak at the pinion seal... and the sway bar drop links were shot... Id heard the "factory replacements" of those links werent worth getting and being that i like Poly's id just went ahead and put in Poly bushings for the links... Problem solved there... also changed the intake to a CAI... factory filter was plugged and figured while i was at it lets upgrade.. (yes i know there no real gain there... but i did get 3 more mpg from it between a highway trip before and highway trip after so i say it was worth it..)

just before thanks giving weekend i had the truck serviced to replace that pinion seal... had the shop check and confirmed the rotors were warped... but i chose to do them myself since i wasnt paying $400 a rotor for them to do em... got the front done then since they were the worst...

After thanksgiving i went to change the fuel filters... that part was easy... the drain valve was not... the plug was frozen in there... (have a suspicion someone JB WELDED it in there).. i couldnt even get the plug out with an eazy out and pipe wrench... had a friend at the dealership order me the plate when others told me id have to replace the whole thing.. (that wasnt ever gonna happen) i finally get everything back together and running again for a bit... did the Blue spring mod while i was at it.. (no problem there)

That was all before Christmas...

Since the start of january... Ive had the Ring and Pinion strip the teeth off each other due to a bad pinion bearing (nice how the first shop told me the bearings were like new when they did the pinion SEAL)... I finally get the money to do the rear brakes... changed the rotors pads and shoes back there... in the process i discovered the inner hub seal on the passenger side was leaking... i changed the seal finished the brakes and got it all together... Took it to the work the next day and come to discover when i get home everything on the side i changed the seal on is coated in axle lube... Its leaked enough that it made a nice puddle under it... Changed the seal again... topped off the axle with 2.5 quarts of Mobile 1 LS gear oil...

other than the shocks being weak I think im close to being done now right??? WRONG!!! way home tonight i get 2 lights from my house and have to stop for the light... second i get stopped smoke just comes billowing from the driverside front fender... Apparently now the front driverside calipers dragging now and dragged so bad i could literally watch it smoking from the caliper itself..

my question is... will my problems with this truck ever end so i can start saving again instead of spending my entire pay check every month on it???
 

SuperCab

Moderator
Staff member
10,068
547
Montana
A lot of us have been there... It may seem like there is no end I sight. Stick with it a while, it will get better.

On the other hand, if the problems keep coming and coming you may just have a lemon... Some vehicles, regardless of manufacturer are just never right. Built on a Friday afternoon or something...

You'll probably get all the bugs worked out soon.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
A lot of us have been there... It may seem like there is no end I sight. Stick with it a while, it will get better.

On the other hand, if the problems keep coming and coming you may just have a lemon... Some vehicles, regardless of manufacturer are just never right. Built on a Friday afternoon or something...

You'll probably get all the bugs worked out soon.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner


i sure hope so... i want to get to doing the fun mods ive been wanting to do since i got the truck... not the updating maintenance and fixing things ive already fixed again...

In my list of fun things? I plan to install 9 Gauges into the truck to monitor things... already have Boost & Fuel pressure gauges. along with a tranny temp gauge (heard from several other ford owners the dash tranny temp gauge is useless)... others i want to add... Front & rear diff temp, Transfer case temp, Volt meter, Pyrometer, and outside temp gauge (yeah more for fun that one)... also want to add a snow performance meth injection system to boost fuel economy. also need to do that CCV mod.. its been sucking oil from the vent into the intake.. and wanting to change the 6.0 banjo bolts with the 6.4L banjos... also wanting to change out the STC HPOP Fitting.. heard it was prone to cracking and failing... but cant get to any of that if the truck wont let me recoup any money
 

LEB Ben

Arrogant A-hole At-Large
34,919
1,124
outside your house
My Lincoln was bought at 3 years old...the whole first year was a nightmare. NC lemon laws left a limited window for any sort of claim. I absolutely hated the car, couldn't lemon law it yet, had too much left on the loan and none of the dealerships could seem to fix any of the problems the first time. With a minimum 3-4 visits per each one of the dozen or so issues, over 9 or months, everything seems to have worked itself out. The only remaining issue is a sun roof that apparently can't align. So I'll say it can/will eventually get better...sucks you're not under warranty...but everything is fixable. I've been right where you are...buy something new so your backside isn't always over a fender...and the new car is no better. I'd have a hard time cutting my losses after so much has been invested and if it's as close to being 'right' as you think.
 
Last edited:

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
My Lincoln was bought at 3 years old...the whole first year was a nightmare. NC lemon laws left a limited window for any sort of claim. I absolutely hated the car, couldn't lemon law it yet, had too much left on the loan and none of the dealerships could seem to fix any of the problems the first time. With a minimum 3-4 visits per each one of the dozen or so issues, over 9 or months, everything seems to have worked itself out. The only remaining issue is a sun roof that apparently can't align. So I'll say it can/will eventually get better...sucks you're not under warranty...but everything is fixable. I've been right where you are...buy something new so your backside isn't always over a fender...and the new car is no better. I'd have a hard time cutting my losses after so much has been invested and if it's as close to being 'right' as you think.

I have an aftermarket warranty but doesnt cover the whole truck... (brakes are one thing that not unfortunately.. but did save me from that $3000 axle repair when the ring and pinion went).. i wanted to buy new but couldnt afford new at the time... being that i knew diesels were still "barely broken in" around 100000mi's it put it right in the price range i could afford... my old truck wasnt any better... it had close to 200K and was working on it every weekend trying to keep it running.. was hoping when i bought this truck id wouldnt be fixing it every other week...

I'm assuming this truck is a 6.0? How many miles on it when you bought it?

yup 6.0L and think now it has 115K on it.. had 113K when i bought it in October...
 

blacksnapon

Moderator
Staff member
Sparky........did you know that if you tighten the yoke too much after replacing the pinion seal will destroy pinion bearings? Just saying.......
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
Sparky........did you know that if you tighten the yoke too much after replacing the pinion seal will destroy pinion bearings? Just saying.......

i didnt replace the pinion seal myself.. i let the dealership near my house do that.. when i had it done i needed alot of work done and had 3 days to get it done in.. they did it for me in 1.. sad thing is they have a bad rep (didnt find out till after) about shotty shop work... when i got home from picking it up from them i discovered they left all the lugnuts soo loose i could take em off by hand...

when the ring & pinion stripped i let another shop play with it.. they did alot better job and kept us well informed every step of the way... they even fought with the warranty company over getting the axle covered because they initially didnt want to. Warranty company tried to blame me for the failure.. dealership told em it was the bearing going out that caused it...
 

rambler

New Shoes......
good luck on the truck,, my 2000 has over 220K 5.4 gas engine I have had my share of repairs I've done, but never had to do work on the rear axle... needs u-joints again soon though.. overall very happy with truck.... wonder if it was "rode hard and put away wet" too many times by previous owner....
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
good luck on the truck,, my 2000 has over 220K 5.4 gas engine I have had my share of repairs I've done, but never had to do work on the rear axle... needs u-joints again soon though.. overall very happy with truck.... wonder if it was "rode hard and put away wet" too many times by previous owner....

couldnt tell ya...but i have my suspicions it was... i have the maintenance records from the initial owner... they had it for the first 53K miles and looks like they kept it well maintained... 2nd owners doesnt look like they did anything at all except drive it... im still trying to get all the mudd and other crap off the under carriage... they seemed to like using it as a 4x4...
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
Well i made it back from a 800 sum miles trip with it... was a total of 20 hrs of drivin.... and truck still couldnt give me a problem free trip... on the trip up i got 40 miles from the finish line... climbing a steep hill, tranny downshifts, engine kicks up in rpms... POW!!!!!! (sounded like a shotgun went off under the hood) PSSSHHHVVVVTTTTTT!!!!... at first i thought i blew a tire... but when nothing "de-leveled" and couldnt find one i looked under the hood... soon as i look down next to the radiator i find the hose that connects the intercooler to the downpipe from the turbo had been blown off the downpipe side...

normally not a problem simple fix.. BUT.. i forgot to bring the tool box with me for the trip... (which woulda had all the tools i needed to fix this)... so all i had was a "roadside emergency kit" id won in a xmas bingo party that i only brought because i wanted the jumper cables JIC... so all i had to fix the hose back on was a flat head screw driver and a pair of pliers... which of course i ended up bleeding all over the engine compartment cuz that downpipe has a razor sharp edge on it and caught my finger pretty good...

got it sorta on... and limped it the last 40 miles to my grandfathers house... once there and unloaded i drove it up to his weld shop to fix it right with better tools 20 mins before having to be at a wedding lol... least the trip back was 100% problem free...
 

DNFXDLI

The Token Canadian
Staff member
That sucks but at least you didn't get stranded!
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
very true... if anything i suppose i coulda limped it up the last of the hill and the 3 miles down the other side to the harbor freight that was at the bottom of the hill and gotten some wrenches or something to do it with properly...

doubt the engine woulda liked it since it woulda been pulling in non-metered air and non-filtered air... but mighta made it that far at least...
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
update, update.... since my trip at the beginning of the month i finished off the rear brakes. had the hub seal on the passenger side rear changed twice... (2nd time was under mfg warranty.. they figured it was defective when it went in)... while they were at it i had them look at the front axle seals.. went ahead and fixed those since they were "shredded" as the tech put it...

got them to change the center support bearing... when i told em it needed replaced they didnt believe at first lol... but when the tech got into it they said it was a good thing i spotted it.. It was apparently getting close to failing..

still need to replace the shocks... did buy a nice filter for the truck though...

IMG-20130328-00186_zps89df9d78.jpg


IMG-20130328-00187_zps0ee0df6c.jpg


anyone care to guess what im gonna use it for??
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
truck seems to be getting better... been a good 2 months since its seen the inside of a shop bay... about the only things left i still need to change on it is the antifreeze and the shocks... antifreeze is going to wait till i can add a coolant filter... hoping to buy new shocks in the next couple months
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
will be glad when its all done... those shocks are getting louder under the truck lol..
 

DNFXDLI

The Token Canadian
Staff member
So what was the pump for?
 

Sparky83

Virginia Chapter member
5,566
219
Norlina NC
actually its a ccv filter for large marine vessels... its going onto the truck as soon as i can get all the parts i need.. stop the evil turbo from sucking them oil filled vapors from the crankcase into the intake.. copying a friends design...
 

DNFXDLI

The Token Canadian
Staff member
Holy crap, I think I'm going senile....you even mentioned that in your post :headbang:
 

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