Spark plug blew out today

[36FORD Mike]

I've never taken my truck to a car wash, but I did today. The drivers seat was a little dirty and the Hand Car Wash advertises on TV that they shampoo the seats. So I thought I'd have them clean it. The truck was in perfect condition and has never had any problems.

I leave my truck running at the vacuum area and go inside to pay. After maybe 10 min. I see my truck going throuth the wash through a big window they have to view the wash operation.

I then went outside where they dry the vehicles. I hear a POP-POP_ing noise and see my truck being driven out of the wash area. I ran over and said "What the XXXXX happened". Of course they say they just drove it into the wash rack and did nothing to cause the problem. I got the owners name and number, but I can't prove they did anything.

I took the truck to Ford and sure enough, it has a plug blown out. I bought the truck in August 2002 and it has 30,800 miles on it. Of course it's out of warranty and Ford won't do anything to help.

God I'm upset!!

 

[fat rat]

INT THIs semi normal??? ive heard of this happening to folks

 

[LightningMAS]

ur gonna have to helicoil the sparkplug hole... so it wont blow out again..

 

[MMShaggy]

I believe it was the 03 models and above that they fixed the amount of threads in the block to help prevent that from happening.

That really sucks, sorry to hear that. I had the same thing happen to my $3,000.00 stereo system. Brought my old car into a tire place to get new tires put on... Stereo was fine. I go to pick up my car later that day, start to drive away, turn the radio on, and every speaker was blown to shreds.... Did an immediate U-Turn, and all they did was hand me a nice coupon for a free 55gallon drum of KY.

 

[SWThomas]

Look into taking it to a tuner in that area. Ford will charge you an arm and leg to do that work and they'll probably only fix that one hole. Take it to a tuner and have them put inserts in every hole so this doesn't happen again. It'll probably still be cheaper than Ford....

 

[blownsvtlightning]

Threading the hole is just a patch, the correct fix is to replace the head with an updated head.

 

[36FORD Mike]

Got a call back from the Ford dealer.. $4,097 said he would give me a discount for being in the auto business, $3,282

I did a google search for Ford 5.4 blown spark plug and came up with a lot of cases.
Maybe I'll try a small claims court case... if anyone has had simular problems pls reply

 

[Lightningfr]

small claims?? i cant see them doing anything.......

 

[36FORD Mike]

Thanks...

 

[nates03L]

do a search on this forum and you will find out it is very common in the 99-02 Lightnings. As far as i know if you dont have a warranty your not gonna get anything now matter how hard you try. Even though those heads should probably be a recall there isnt a chance in hell Ford will admit they are jacked up.

 

[Stewart_H]

do a search on this forum and you will find out it is very common in the 99-02 Lightnings.

Actually, you'll find it's common for the modular heads Ford produced. This problem is far from restricted to Lightnings only.

Stewart

 

[I'D WIN]

Actually, you'll find it's common for the modular heads Ford produced. This problem is far from restricted to Lightnings only.

Stewart

Stewart is right...it is a widespread problem ranging from several models in the Ford family as well as other MFG. We just don't hear about those because we are mainly HERE.

 

[bmfgsxr]

its not the car wash's fault. its fords fault.. thats why they updated the 5.4l heads after nov. 12, 2002. its not just related to lightnings, but the s/c motors dont help the situation.. like someone mentioned bring it to a known tuner in the area and have them do the "timecert" fix. just search this forum for that word.. you can do it yourself for about $150

 

[jaminc]

shit just happened...blew #3. DAM IT..!

 

[bgstew6]

it can happen to all 5.4 mod motors pre nov 02 build..SC or NA

 

[I'D WIN]

shit just happened...blew #3. DAM IT..!

Check THIS out.