2001 Ford F-150: tire blowout or tread separation

Filed Sep 28, 2015 · Acceleration, Engine · 263,458 miles · KY · fire

I had been at my neighbors house for over 1 1/2 hours. We heard a loud boom that shook the trailer we ran outside and discovered the drivers side tire blew out due to the fire. The entire hood was melting down onto the motor . There was no electrical components left under the hood by this time and the fire was spreading to the cab , but we finally put it out then the fire department came . I called my insurance co , they are investigating the cause of the fire . Please let me know if any of this pertains to my case . Thank you

Filed May 14, 2015 · Body · 163,787 miles · SD

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 ford f-150. While driving at 45 MPH, the contact heard a noise and noticed that the spare tire separated from underneath the vehicle. Upon further inspection, the contact noticed that the carrier cable that holds the spare tire fractured. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 163,787.

Filed Feb 18, 2012 · Engine · 180,000 miles · GA

I'm in the large growing number of owners that have had a sparkplug blow out. Ford knows this is a problem and have come up with a special tool to help in the repair of this. It rethreads the hole then they have an insert that goes in it. The problem is there's not enough threads to hold the plug. The thing is, if they don't want to do a total recall then they should at least cover the expense when it happens. I guess like everything else, it's going to take a death or serious injury before they will step up to the plate and do the right thing.

Filed Jan 13, 2012 · Engine · 122,989 miles · MD

Spark plug blow out caused excessive damage to engine. Engine had to be replaced at a cost of $6200.00. This is a known problem for 1999 to 2005 engines.

Filed Oct 13, 2011 · Engine · 143,000 miles · NJ

I was driving to work and heard a loud pop and stopped the truck and called the tow truck. The mechanic informed me that a spark plug blew out of the head of the engine and it was going to cost $550.00 to fix, he also said that it would be a temporary fix and that I would need a new engine because of the damage. I did some research and found that this has been a problem for some time with these engines because of the aluminum heads and there were only 3-4 threads actually holding the spark plug. A ford motor co. Warranty inspector says the ford triton v-8 engines are "dropping like flies" because of blown spark plugs. I would like to address the ford spark plug blowout issue. Ford triton engines from 1997 to 2003 had a problem where spark plugs would randomly fly out the cylinder head. This appears to be due to a few issues (engineering design flaw), first there are insufficient threads (3-4) in the head to properly hold the spark plug. Second the threads in the head are not inserted, in other words the threads are in the aluminum and are not very strong. Spark plug ejection is dangerous because fuel vapor starts coming out the spark plug hole, which is clearly a serious safety issue. The fuel vapor can be ignited by the loose spark plug - and in fact there have been a small number of cases reported of engine fires due to spark plug ejection/blowout. Ford needs to be held responsible for the repairs of spark plug blow out and should extend the warranty regardless of age on the spark plug blow out issue, they also should be forced to pay a fair amount of labor time, because most of the repairs cost thousands of dollars. Ford has been aware of this serious issue of an engineering-design flaw and needs to recall 17 million vehicles from 1997-2003.

Filed May 15, 2011 · Engine · 115,000 miles · OH

I own a 2001 f-150 ford truck. I have experienced 3x now in a year the spark plugs blowing out of the heads. The first 2x it scared me half to death to the point I lost control for a few seconds ( thank god no one was on the road at the time). I have had the plugs heli-coiled in twice and waiting on the 3rd one now. The ford dealership I take the truck to says, "it is a poor design in the heads of this motor that causes the plugs to blow out and ford motor company knows about the problem." I am concerned that it will happen to someone else and cause serious injury or even death due to the "explosion" sound at first and the extremely loud knocking noise.

Filed May 14, 2011 · Engine · 68,000 miles · PA

2001 ford f150 supercrew 5.4l. While driving this vehicle the spark plug forcibly came out of the cylinder head. Vehicle was not able to be driven after blowout of spark plug. Vehicle had to be towed to garage. Not sure how or why this happened.

Filed Jan 6, 2011 · Engine · 140,000 miles · NC

I have a 2001 ford f-150 with a 4.6 v8 engine and I have now had 2 spark plugs blow out of the passenger cylinder head. The truck has 145,000 miles on it. These did not happen at the same time they were about 12 to 18 months apart. The spark plug had been replaced over a year before the first blow out occurred. It also broke both coils on those cylinders. Until I started a search to see if anyone else had this issue I was unaware of the danger of fire.

Filed Jul 10, 2010 · Engine · 92,752 miles · IA

Spark plug blow out on my 2001 ford f-150 expensive repair to replace spark plugs. Dealer wants me to purchase a new cylinder head.

Filed Apr 18, 2010 · Tires · 76,000 miles · WI · crash

Driving 70mph on the interstate complete blowout 2x in one week... Sidewalls look like the rubber was weathered and extremely cracked...

Filed Mar 27, 2010 · Engine · 85,000 miles · TX

I own a 2001 ford f150 with a 5-4 triton motor.had a spark plug blowout while on the freeway,it occured on number 3 cylinder and 2 more that were loose on the engine.mechanic repaired by installing an insert do to stripped out threads.also when the plug blew out it damaged the coil pack.I saved the parts that were replaced.

Filed Mar 9, 2010 · Engine · 140,000 miles · WV

Ford f150 spark plug # 8 blow out while driving to work. There were noxious fumes that eventually become very strong. I have read numerous complaints about this and feel that this must be a safety hazard due to obvious raw fuel, heat and potential sparks.