2007 F150 5.4L with Gryphon

[Caforddude]

Waiting for the teardown on march 9th...Meanwhile rental cars are expensive!

[Caforddude]

I have been in limbo for a bit so I waited to update.

I got the news a few days ago that the engine was toast. It needed either a complete rebuild or a whole new engine.

Service writer said they had to call Ford to get approval and that prolly meant sending out one of their engineers to look it over. They had to get the final tear down done early this week and hoped to have the engineer out by Friday and a decision by Monday.

This morning the service writer called and said the ole good news/bad news. Good news was that Ford gave them the authorization for a brand new engine. The bad news is that it would take a few days to get and then a few more days to install. She said when she initally called Ford they said ahhhhh NOPE. Her service manager called back and did whatever it is he did and came back with an authorization number for a new engine.

She is supposed to call back with a few more details this afternoon, maybe I can persuade them to drop in a 6.4....

Anyway, needless to say I am happy with the news.

I had some friends ask me over the last week or so if I would buy another Ford if they denied my warranty claim and I said YOU BET. I still feel that Ford makes the best OVERALL truck on the market and would have a hard time seeing myself in another brand. They all have their good and bad points but I really like Ford. I use the "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" analogy to them. Every brand has an issue at some point in time.

[Power Hungry]

Aaron,

That's awesome news! I'm quite glad to hear that Ford is still able to show their integrity when dealing with warranty issues. I'm disappointed it's taking so long to get it done, but I can't imagine where you'd be at if you were still at that other dealership. Probably still sitting in the parking lot, I'd suspect.

Have a great weekend.

[mgd26]

so in the end of it all did you ever find out what the prob was with the old engine? or what actually caused it?

[Caforddude]

Well I talked to the service writer again today. Unfortunately no 6.4 in my F150's future.

She told me after tearing it down they found a tear in some sort of seal or gasket. That tear caused the engine to burn oil and subsequently kill the engine.

Seal fail first or oil pump fail first? Chicken or the egg was her response. Couldn't tell which went first but they both went causing failure.

Ford is picking up the tab for the engine and hopefully part of my rental car.

The game plan was finishing pulling the engine out today (Friday). New engine should be here this weekend and they hope to have me back in my truck on Tuesday..WOOHOO.

I asked about warranty for the engine and she said that is kind of the bad news. If a customer pays for the engine it comes with a warranty, If Ford replaces it then the warranty only last the inital 3/36. An extended warranty is pretty reasonable and she said they would cut me a deal so I will probably do that.

[Caforddude]

Apparently the "Tear" is a known defect in the 5.4 engines.

They also called the first dealer that I had taken it to and the first dealer told them:

"There was almost no oil in the engine and that what little oil that was in there was brown and gritty"

This service writer called BS on them asking them why that wasn't written down on any paperwork anywhere and they had no explanation.

[Caforddude]

Well I went up to the shop today to check on my trucks status and snapped a few pics. They have the new engine dropped in already and man does it look clean.
As long as the truck is in the shop I'm also gonna have:
The fuel filter changed
The tranny flushed and inspected
A brake job.
Basically the 30,000 mile check up before I get her back Tuesday (hopefully) Prolly cost me a couple hundred bucks but it needs to be done and the shop has treated me right so I think I owe it to em.