With not a lot going on truck-wise in 2018, I felt it wasn’t necessary to update you all on how my Ford F-150 was doing. Then the fall came, and lots of stuff happened between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The saga continues, so I’ll probably be doing quarterly updates in 2019. Until then, read on for what’s going on with my truck and how it’s been in its third year under my stewardship.
Stats:
Time Period: 12/21/2017 – 3/20/2018
Miles Driven: 3,750 / 23,070 (this update / total) (2,667 in previous update)
Average MPG: 17.4 mpg (reported by on-board computer)
Time Period: 3/21/2018 – 6/20/2018
Miles Driven: 2,370 / 25,440 (this update / total) (3,750 in previous update)
Average MPG: 17.0 mpg (reported by on-board computer)
Time Period: 6/21/2018 – 9/20/2018
Miles Driven: 2,728 / 28,168 (this update / total) (2,370 in previous update)
Average MPG: 16.5 mpg (reported by on-board computer)
Time Period: 9/21/2018 – 12/20/2018
Miles Driven: 2,698 / 30,866 (this update / total) (2,728 in previous update)
Average MPG: 16.2 mpg (reported by on-board computer)
Total Time Period: 12/21/2017 – 12/20/2018
Total Miles Driven: 11,546
Avg MPG for Year: 15.97 (hand-calculated)
Costs:
Maintenance Costs: $678.79
Repairs: $50.00
Total Cost (non-fuel): $728.79
Services Performed:
- 1/17/2018 – Replace driver’s side running board (warranty); TSB on inoperative door latches
- 3/7/2018 – Replace windshield ($625 – insurance paid all but $50 deductible); Replace front brake rotors and pads (maintenance package); Oil change / tire rotation (maintenance package)
- 8/2/2018 – Replace 2 rear tires (one had a nail in it, the second one was replaced to make sure both tires on the rear axle had the same amount of tread on them) ($196.43)
- 11/27/2018 – Replace 2 front tires in preparation for winter so both axles have similar amounts of tread on them. ($463.39); 3 wheels showed corrosion, replaced by Ford (warranty); Oil change / tire rotation (maintenance package)
- 12/5/2018 – Replace batteries in one key fob (message on dash; included 2 batteries) ($18.97)
- 12/15/2018 – Clean and re-grease sunroof seals (did at home with silicone grease)
- 12/18/2018 – Rebuilt front differential (warranty)
Summary:
This year started off great – the F-150 continued to perform admirably. In January, I used the truck to pull on a redbud tree I was removing from my front yard – it was leaning towards the house and had a severe crack in it, so it had to come down. I tied a length of paracord to the tree trunk high up, and then to the ball in my truck’s receiver. It kept the tree from falling into the house as I made my felling cut – like I said, it was leaning towards the house and had a bad crack in it. I used it twice to tow my sometimes-will-run-sometimes-won’t 1979 Kawasaki KZ650SR to my local motorcycle mechanic. (after a few relatively inexpensive fixes, mostly replacing 40-year old rubber, she runs great!) In July, it hauled over 20 plants and a combined 30 bags of top soil and mulch for some landscaping. This was also a big “purge” year in our house, so the F-150 and I took a lot of old junk to the county dump. Having a bed you can wash out in these situations is great!
In August, things started going downhill. I noticed a slowly leaking tire, and with a road trip on the books, I had the tire replaced under the tire warranty that I was given when I purchased the truck. To ensure matching diameters between both tires on the rear axle, I had the other tire replaced too.
In November, as a joint early Christmas gift, I had the truck’s windows tinted (the joint part is that I also had the windows tinted on my wife’s Escape). Frederick Window Tinting did a great job, and the results are fantastic! They did the job quickly and at what I thought was a good price. The truck looks sharp with tinted windows, for sure!
In early December, I decided on some preventative measures, namely an oil change (which was due anyway) and 2 new tires for the front axle. That’s when the wheels came off – literally. In the process of changing the front tires, the chrome-like PVD coating was coming off the wheels. It took a week of back-and-forth with Ford, but in the end, 3 of my wheels were replaced under warranty. If it happens again, aftermarket or take-off wheels will be installed – at $640 or so per wheel, it’ll be far cheaper to get something else and swap the tires and TPMS sensors over.
Shortly after getting the 2 new tires replaced, I noticed a decent vibration coming from the front end. The dealership’s diagnosis: a bad front differential. According to the shop foreman, Ford had a batch of bad bearings, and a rebuild would fix it.
I also noticed some noise from the sunroof again, so I cleaned and re-greased the seals, as I had done previously. This involved isopropyl alcohol and silicone grease. Wrapping a shop towel around an old credit card and then putting the alcohol on the towel, I was able to clean all 8 edges of the sunroof. This was immediately followed by a fresh shop towel with silicone grease on it, to really get in the nooks and crannies. Finally, the underside of the movable front panel was greased up, as it sits on rubber stoppers, and then the sunroof was opened/closed/tilted a few times. The noise went away, job done!
The day after I got the truck back with its newly-rebuilt differential, I noticed a different vibration – this time it was worse! I have tinnitus, so vibrations can give me severe headaches and nausea. This was doing both. As a sneak peak (since this happened on the truck’s 3rd birthday), I decided to try a dealership closer to my home, and they quickly diagnosed the issue as a combination of worn-out IWEs and at least one tire out of balance. IWEs are Ford’s automatic-locking 4WD hubs, and they’re vacuum operated. They were partially engaging, leading to at least part of the vibrations I was noticing. The IWEs were replaced and tires balanced, and the headaches went away. I can’t recommend Lindsay Ford of Wheaton enough at this point. They will be featured in the next update (and possibly more) as we work together to diagnose still more vibrations coming from the truck’s front end. The service manager, shop foreman, and service writers have been quite friendly and attentive to my specific issues (not a lot of people with severe tinnitus in my area, I suppose).
Overall I’m still happy with my truck, as these issues are all fixable and are happening during my warranty period. If they happen outside of warranty, I’m not sure I’d be so happy – the differential rebuild was almost $1,000 alone. But, the truck is still comfortable to drive and fairly up-to-date with its tech and safety features. I’m curious as to what Ford will do with their 2020 or 2021 F-150, when their bread-and-butter truck is due for a new generation. I’ve already seen spy shots of a plug-in hybrid F-150, so the folks at Dearborn are hard at work innovating in the full-size truck segment Yes, I know GM had hybrid trucks several years back, but they weren’t plug-in, nor did they really improve on fuel economy – they were rated at 20/21 MPG city/highway. The hybrid also cut deeply into payload and towing – two things truck buyers prioritize, otherwise they’d get sedans or crossovers.
I won’t say I didn’t have a wandering eye this winter with my truck, as I did test drive a 2019 RAM 1500 Limited (review coming soon!), for many reasons. The biggest of which was a lack of trust I had in the dealer I’d been taking my F-150 to since I bought it. On my way to test drive the RAM is when I decided to give Lindsay Ford a shot, and I am quite pleased that I did – like I said, they’ve been nothing short of phenomenal since I first walked in the door. I can’t say anything about their sales department, but their service and parts employees couldn’t be any better. I’ll mention more about them in the next update, which because of my delay in writing this one, won’t be long, so stay tuned!
Dated Notes:
- none
General Observations:
- none
by John Suit