Nothing caused this failure other than factory defect. I problem I have had is the sparkplug blow out of my vehicles cylinders it has happened on 3 separate occasions. Leaving me stranded. Also all 3 times I have had to buy new spark coils and spark plugs, this last time it ruined the treads in the block costing over $800 to repair. I do have the old parts
2003 Ford F-150 engine complaints
Page 3 of 4: complaints 41 to 70 of 97, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I was driving to work in my 2003 f 150 and heard a kind of tapping noise and strong vibrations coming from engine.. Pulled over and had truck towed to my house... As a friend of mine is a mechanic he came over and had me start the truck... As I did so the #3 spark plug shot out of the engine and bounced off the hood.... I started to research online and found hundreds of reports about the ford f150's doing this exact same thing and the majority of the problems seem to come from the #3 plug... Several people have spent 100's of dollars to upgrade at the dealerships... Only 3 thread on my head and all trucks now have 7 threads... Why did ford change it? Must have known about this lil problem....
Left dealership after lo-jack installation. Entered traffic lane and began lightly braking for approaching signal. I felt two forward surges and then increasingly rapid acceleration. I checked rear view mirror and then pressed on brakes with the sound of the racing turbo charged engine filling the cab. I then moved the gear out of drive and in my haste saw I had it between reverse and park. I brought it back to neutral and then the sound subsided. The entire acceleration incident lasted less than 10 seconds. The truck was immediately returned to dealership and then reported incident to the manufacturer.
I recently purchased a 2003 ford f 150, triton v8 from a local reputable dealer. It is in for repairs due to engine concerns. In researching the triton v8 I find that I am not alone and there is a concern with blowing spark plugs out of the engine head. I want to document my problem at this point so if the need to legally seek repairs I have a paper trail. At this point I am told that the repair will be $550.00, but in reading other consumer complaints I see that most began the same way.
I was driving 65 MPH. I heard a pop. The original manufacturers spark plug shot out of the engine. It completely ripped the threads out with it. Upon doing research online, this appears to have happened to hundreds of people once their ford hits 100,000 miles. My 2003 ford f150 v8 4.6l has 103,000 miles on it.
I have a 2003 f150 that has 135k miles. I have had the truck serviced regularly and have had no major issues until today. I am in the navy and was driving into work for duty when my spark plug was ejected from my engine. The explosion was so great that it broke the coil pack in three pieces and when I pulled over in investigate the noise I turned on the engine with the hood open to see the spark coil across the port where the plug had been and it was sparking (it's a wonder that it didn't catch the vapors on fire fron the cylinder) the plug also severed one of the vaccuume hoses in the engine compartment. I contacted the ford dealership in town and the mechaninc told me that was normal for trucks over 100k miles, and that they would 'start popping out like popcorn'. This seems outragous! I tried to fix it myself but now am having to concede to letting ford do the work since they have the replacement kit ( "because this always happens" - their own words). There is a potential that this could cause an engine fire! Please force ford to do a recall.
There were no events leading up to the incident. Driving 10-20 MPH the first times and 25-35 the second. 2 spark plugs ejected out of the engine twice in 4 days 1st time we took it to the mechanic and it was replaced 2nd time took it to the mechanic and it was replaced.
Ford f150 2003, 5.4 engine. The spark plug issue has just bitten me, now I have a 10,000 dollar peice of steel in my driveway because I am not paying 5400 and some change to fix a problem that should be recalled, the plug gettting hit by the piston or shooting out of the hole can be very dangerous by allowing fuel to come in contact with hot engine or electrical spark therefore starting a fire, this problem has been an ongoing issue and yet nothing is done I think a recall should be placed for the issue. Before someone gets killed.
Ford f-150 spark plug blow out, common in f-150's.
I had my 2003 ford f-150 shoot spark plugs out of the headers I don"t know why but this ids the 3rd time it has happened and if it would be possible to start a recall on the headers to change them to a 8 thread instead of 4.
Blow out of spark plug on 2003 ford f-150 4.6l triton v8.
2003 ford f-150 crew cab , 4.6 triton engine. Spark plug blew while on highway. Normal driving with no load in truck. No warning before failure. The truck has just over 100,000 miles.
Normal driving when the spark plug blew out of the motor leaving me and my kids stranded still trying to correct problem this is the second time repair bill approximately $3000.
I own a ford f150 with a triton v8 engine. One of the spark plugs blew out of the engine on 2/25/10 while I was driving on a highway. I had the truck towed to a local repair shop. After looking at the problem they sent me to a ford dealer. The dealer has told me it is a $1000 fix and that it was possibly due to the person who replaced the plugs for me.
2003 ford f150 5.4l #3 spark plug blew out of engine's head and stripped out all threads. Insert was put in to replace damaged threads at a cost of $500 from ford dealership.
While I was accelerating and entering onto interstate 80 at a speed of 50mph I heard a loud pop and lost power. The engine continued to run but with a great loss of power. I continued to drive at a moderate speed until I could get to a monroe service center approx. 20 miles. The #7 plug for the second time blew out of the head. The repair cost this time was $294.38 and the engine light is still on. It's been eight months since I had it repaired the first time. The #7 cylinder is now misfiring even though the plug has been replaced. Mileage to date is 200,892.
I had been driving my truck for about ten minutes and as I was driving on the freeway the engine spark plug blew. I got my truck to start up and drove a short distance before this occurred again. This repeated until I managed to get to my home which was about two miles away when the problem first occurred. Then I called venus, a towing and repair shop, to have my truck towed from my house to their shop. The towing service cost $80.00. When the problem was diagnosed they called me and told me what happened. They fixed my truck and charged $250.00.
On april 20, 2009, spark plug #7 blowout while accelerating from a traffic light. Approx. Speed 25 to 35 MPH. Engine lost compression, damaged the ignition coil, but I was able to make it to a firestone repair garage within 10 miles. The spark plug #7 was replaced with the heli coil and the ignition coil damage was also replaced. Total cost of labor and parts was $352.81.
1. Normal operation, no indication of problem 2. Spark plug blew out of the engine as my wife parked the vehicle in our driveway; 1st of 2 occurrences; repaired with helicoiled plug. Approx $400 repair expense. I'm now told that a bulletin was issued advising not to use this repair method. Having trouble verifying if that is fact or fiction.
1. Normal operation 2. Spark plugs are blown out of the engine head; this is the second occurrence; engine failure. Had the occurrence been 200 miles earlier, I would have been in the middle of peak traffic conditions on i405 near bellvue washington state, heavy rain with poor visibility - consequences would have been dire. 3. Ford acknowledges that they know of the problem. The service manager at the local dealership indicated that they have had a "ton" of these repair jobs. At $400+ per occurrence, I question why they haven't done anything to protect the consumer? Why no notification of the problem. I'm told there have been service advisory's issued, but shops and service counters share none of this with me. Now that my vehicle is 5 yrs old with 129k miles, what will the frequency of this problem be. As the f150 fleet ages, how many more occurrence will there be prior to food issuing a solution? I'm told by dealerships that the spark plug seat only consists of a few thread to hold the spark plug in. Plugs do not have a seat ring (compression ring) to assist in the plug to stay seated. As the plug loosens, blow by occurs and eventually blowing the plug out through the treads in the engine head. I've never heard of such a problem, let alone having this occur to my twice. Parts houses had concurred that the problem is prevalent and they laugh about it. Who is going to laugh when this known unsafe engineering flaw causes death or injury? Their repair has not resolved the problem, nor did they give up this information without me first seeking factual information. The public is being deceived!
I had a sparkplug blow out on my 03 f150.....which at first sounded like a noisy lifter. I took it in for repairs at the ford dealer and it cost me $1180.00 to install a heli coil.
The spark plug in me ford f-150 5.4ltr engine blew out of the #2 cylinder. All engine rebuilding shops and repair centers say this is common in fords. They finished my sentence when describing the problem. Please enact a recall on this problem. As I read this is an issue. Cost me 500.00 dollars to fix and I worry about the other 7 plugs...$3,500 to repair.
I have a 2003 f150 v8 5.4 l and I was driving down the road and I heard a pop, and I checked my engine and noticed the ignition coil was loose and the spark plug was attached to the ignition coil, so now the threads in the head are stripped and I cannot drive my vehicle!! This is a huge problem and I am very disappointed that because not enough people have complained that this is not recall issue it should be!!!
While traveling @ 65 miles per hour down a highway, the number 3 spark plug & coil blew out from the head causing damage to the coil & spark plug itself. Our 2003 ford f150 supercrew lariot pick-up truck, which is in excellent condition, had to be towed. This is the first time this has happened to our vehicle. The local ford dealership recommended a quick fix of a spark plug insert after the plug hole was retapped while stating several times that there was no guarantee that this would work. Another option was to replace the heads costing approximately $2500. The dealership also advised us that they were aware of this problem & has seen it happen on a variety of ford vehicles. We're extremely lucky that our vehicle didn't catch fire, as the coil that blew hit the fuel rail, which is held in place by two 8mm bolts. This experience is extremely frustrating & concerning to us as if we spend money going the route of the insert, it may last for one trip down the road & give out. It's disappointing that ford isn't standing by their product & fixing it appropriately. This is a well known problem that brings with it severe safety issues. We will not be purchasing a ford vehicle in the future.
The spark plug on my 2003 ford f-150 was ejected from the engine. The truck has 42,000 miles on it. There was a huge bang from the engine, and the gas vapors flooded the cab. Luckily I was able to navigate to the side of the road and my family was not injured. This problem appears to be well-documented online, and I will be following up to see where the federal safety agency is on this issue.
Blowing out spark plugs.
My 2003 ford f-150 with 5.4 triton engine spit out the number 3 spark plug. This is the second time this has happened to the same plug. Ford customer relations refused to even discuss the matter with me, saying there was no problem with its product!
On 10/1/08 I was coming out of a parking lot and heard a loud popping sound. Loss of power and ran rough . It was almost dark so I could not see what was wrong so I drove it the two miles home, along the side of the road. Next morning I took the truck to holder ford in lakeport, california and they said I had blown out the rear plug on the passenger side of the engine. They repaired it for $715.00 and I got it back on monday 10/6/08. Again on 10/11/08 saturday the same plug blew out. This time I was in the fast lane of the freeway in san rafael heading for san francisco. The truck lost power and every time I backed off the gas the engine died. I fought with the truck to get it started and keep it running to get it across three lanes of bumper to bumper traffic to an off ramp. When I stopped and raised the hood I saw it was the same plug that was just repaired. I called holder ford and they said service was closed and there was nothing they could do for me until monday. I drove the car to a toyota dealer only to find the ford dealer had gone out of business there so I called a tow truck and rented a car. I was 150 miles from holder ford and my towing would only allow 100 miles. Besides this blown spark plug almost causing an accident it cost me $400.00 for the tow and I don't know how much for a rental car. Now I find out there are only three threads in the head to hold the plugs in, and the heads are aluminum. The truck is a 2003 ford f150 lightning 5.4 triton v8 with 70,000 miles.
While driving home from work my wife had a spark plug blow out of the engine, fortunately the 2003 ford f150 supercrew pickup truck didn't catch on fire, I drove the vehicle another 15 miles to the mechanic not knowing what is wrong , I thought the it was just a bad exhaust leak but I found out the next morning the grim news that in fact the spark plug was the problem, I was told the repair would run between 700.00 to 2,000.00, shocked by the cost of repair and the problem of which I have never heard of I went online to check it out. To my surprise I found this is a major problem with the ford triton engines, so I thought ford would do the right thing I called ford and explained my problem, only to be told that it was my problem and ford wouldn't do anything for me. I know I'm not the only person that has had this problem, in fact if you do any research online you will see that hundreds and perhaps thousands of people have had this problem, I would hope that maybe you can help me and the other people that have had this problem, thanks in advance tim walsh
2003 f150 4,2 engine, upper and lower intake manifold gaskets failure, started leaking at 75,200 miles.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2003 Ford F-150?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history