Just learned my truck's spark plugs were 40,000 miles overdue

Was poking around under the hood of my '05 F-150 last weekend trying to figure out why it was idling rough. Grabbed my service manual from the glove box and flipped to the maintenance schedule. Turns out the recommended interval for changing plugs is every 60k miles. Well, my odometer said 102,000 and I've had the truck for 4 years without ever touching them. Pulled one out and the electrode was practically worn flat, gap was way off. No wonder I was getting 14 mpg on the highway instead of the usual 18. Ran to AutoZone for a set of Motorcrafts and swapped all 8 in about 2 hours. Thing runs smoother now and I swear I can feel the difference in throttle response. Has anyone else ever let something slide way longer than you should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

casey94315d ago

Oh dude, actually the recommended interval on those 5.4L Tritons is more like every 30k miles, not 60k! They're notorious for seizing up if you let them go too long. You got lucky pulling them at 100k without snapping one off in the head.

the_joel15d ago

Man that is a scary close call with the Triton motors, I've heard those horror stories about plugs fusing to the heads. You must have been sweating bullets pulling those out hoping none of them snapped off! I had a similar moment with my old civic where I realized the timing belt was 20k over due, felt like I was driving a ticking time bomb until I got it changed. Glad you caught it before it turned into a bigger headache, that smooth idle and better mileage payoff is totally worth the 2 hours of work. Nothing worse than realizing you've been driving around on worn parts when a simple swap fixes everything.