2003 Ford F350 6.0 liter from North America
Faults:
Hi, have owned this 2003 F350 long box crew cab since 2006, 88ks. I take care of it better than myself.
I really like the truck, and would like to continue to enjoy it. But the first summer I had it, I was towing my 4000lb travel trailer back and forth to Kelowna and around that area. As I was climbing up one of the long hills, all of the sudden I would hear a loud air blast from in front of the dash, in the engine compartment, then the truck would start to chug and miss, it would blow black smoke in spurts from the exhaust. It eventually cleared up for some unknown reason.
So I took it to Ford and received the same first answer as every one else. “Oh I don’t know what this would be, we haven’t come across this much” This I know is crap; I learned that there are a lot of complaints of this; the fix for this I believe is a faulty EGR sensor. They charged me $350.00 to fix this.
The next summer, the same thing when pulling a load up a hill. I took it back to Ford, they replaced this sensor or what ever it was, and told me that they only cleaned it the first time, but now they replaced it. They wanted to charge me again. I put up a little fit and said absolutely not. At the end of the day Ford paid for it. I still do not know for sure if this glitch is solved. But now the engine light goes on and off. The code says I need ICP sensor what ever that is. But Ford wants $370.00 to fix it. I can not seem to win with this truck. Note 88ks.
Thanks, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 23rd January, 2009
26th Jan 2009, 07:00
I believe, like me, your now a victim of "Ford's Spark Plug Blow Out". 1997- Early 2003 Triton V8's have major issues with spark plugs being ejected from the cylinder head because of only having 4 threads rather than 8 holding down the spark plug. Also, they used steel threads on an aluminum head, and because most Triton engines are high compression, the spark plugs literally work themselves free and blow out, ripping the threads out and popping the coil packs out.
This is a manufacturing defect, the fact that the dealer doesn't repair or service this under warranty is laughable. The dealer did not replace the head, they inserted a heli-coil placement and said it was repaired. LOL, they used a steel heli-coil.