Help buying a used F-150

[sk8erord]

I'm looking at picking up a used F-150 for camping, towing, winter, etc. The usual. I'll drive the Mustang whenever I can, but having a truck as a standby will be nice. I just want to pay cash for it, so I'm looking cheap - $5-7,000 range, I think. What should I look for?

A buddy told me to try and get a 2004 or newer. How do the 5.4 tritons hold up? Seems like in that price range, I'm looking at 200k mile trucks, since I want 4x4 and a back seat. Granted, I'm not going to be daily driving it, but I don't want to be stranded if I take my boys camping in it, either.

Are the pre 2004 models that bad? I saw a 2002 king ranch 4 door for about $6k with 265k miles, but again - how reliable are these things?

Thoughts? Things to look out for? I've never owned a truck, so I don't really know if I need to look for things beyond what I'd look for in a used car, and I know NOTHING about their reliability.

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[Strokerswild]

I had a 2004 regular cab shortbox FX4 with the 5.4 and it was 100% bulletproof for me for nine years. Gas and go, changed oil and tires when necessary. I absolutely loved that truck, and traded it off on what turned out to be a total lemon of a Jeep. :frusty:

IIRC, about the only things that go wrong with the '04 up 5.4 is cam phasers going when they get up in miles, and the whole broken spark plug at change time thing. Most likely both would have been addressed by now on something with miles on it.

 

[Pnasty]

oh man, id rather take out a small loan and get something reliable then never know when its going to break down and leave me buying parts

 

[Pnasty]

ie: http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/ctd/5606150882.html

 

[Zodiac]

Shame you are so far away. My brother is getting ready to sell his 2006(?) FX4 with like 160k miles. He's in NY though.

 

[CommyO]

Got a 2000 expedition xlt with the 5.4 triton. About 100k miles on the odo and runs great and has had no engine problems.

 

[chris_5oh]

I have a 2002 with the 5.4 triton, has about 140k miles and have never had an engine problem

 

[Joe 5.0]

Shame you are so far away. My brother is getting ready to sell his 2006(?) FX4 with like 160k miles. He's in NY though.

Can you PM me details? I have a friend that *might* be interested.

 

[powerhogger]

The pre 09 5.4s have problems with VCT and spark plugs. 2003 and lower 5.4s tend to blow out spark plugs out of the cylinders. 2004-08 5.4 have spark plugs that get stuck in the cylinder and break in half when removing. Also, the 2004 and up have vct that causes a diesel like sound to them which can be annoying to some.
With that being said, I have a 06 5.4 and did the spark plugs myself and broke all 8. I even followed the Ford TSB procedure. They do have a tool to extract the plugs but it took me 2 days to complete everything. I also did a full tune up on the truck including exchanging all the fluids and it runs like new now. I see it reaching over 200k easy.

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