No not the Roady being replaced.......

I thought my trusty F-150 was going to kack on me.

1. Since the new year, it started driving like crap, but only on an intermittent basis.
Some times it'd drive smooth, then it'd start riding rough, like a mild shudder as you drive.
& it would get much worse when you braked... sometimes .....other times it was fine.
It was really hard to pin point because it didn't do it all the time
-didn't feel like tire balancing (recently done)
-didn't feel like warped rotors
-etc....

Needless to say it was very frustrating.

2. A couple of weeks ago, it started going through oil like a banshee.
I started adding oil every 2nd day
It has the 4.6 V8 & previously it hadn't used a drop between changes......

At this point I'm freaking, because there is absolutely ZERO room in the budget for a vehicle replacement.

So..... I talked to a mechanic buddy of mine & went over for a visit.

re #1
We went for a run...
"Yup... not warped rotors & not tires. Let's go over to the garage & pull a wheel. (Sunday)"

Turns out it WAS the rotors, but not due to warping.
They're ventilated rotors, they only had 44K klicks on them (at least 50% wear left).
They were rusting out from the inside

The rusting area was the size of a toonie.
The rust would build over time to the point it would just touch the brake pads...
that's why I could feel a shudder while driving.
& I could only feel the shudder when braking sometimes because the pads would clean the raised rusted area off, untill it built up again.....
DAMN... cheap rotors, must have been a bad batch the last time I replaced them.

#2 Oil
him - "Those engines are usually really good, IDK.... adding oil is cheaper than a new engine......"
me - (thinking) - thanks, just what I wanted to hear!

Then he said... "When did you replace the PCV valve last?"
me - "Never have"
him- "pick one up & see what happens, it could just be sucking oil because of a bad valve"

...picked one up last Saturday;
I haven't added any oil this week. (fingers crossed)


I feel like I (my budget)dodged a major hit
Time to go by a Loto

 

Thats a nice ending to a frustrating dilema Ian. So nice that a a cheap replacement PCV valve cured the oil problem.
As to rotors, believe it or not, I am still on the original rotors on my 97 Z71.

Just think of all the money you just saved. Should be able to treat yourself to a few more Z mods, eh

 

STill monitoring the oil closely... but yeah, it looks like an $8 repair did the trick.

I got close to 100K out of the last rotors...
I wouldn't be surprised if these were an outsourced product from China or something.

LOL... I'm on a short rope re the Z mods too.


The other thing I did was replace the thermostat... it was running a little cool.
& WOW what a difference in gas mileage!!!

I normally go through a tank a week; fill up on Friday like clock work.
...I noticed this morning I still have a 1/4 tank left

 

LOL, Ian....sometimes we get lucky and an $8 part does the trick......

You dodged one this time.......

C.

 

Glad to hear that you were able to fix all the problems without a major hit to your wallet.

Good luck with the lottery ticket, it's 10 Million tonight!

 

Good story Ian and an even better ending.

I think you've got lots of life left in the truck yet. As you know rotor quality varies enormously between makes. It's hard to know what is decent.
The 4.6 is bullet proof it seems to me. My dad has had 4 of them with over 200-300k km and hasn't done anything to them. He has had to replace a trans and oil pan due to rust. That was on a 10 year old one. I'll check with him on any other little things to watch for.

 

My wife's 5.4 Expedition had headgasket issues as a result of a poorly-machined head, I had a major scrap with Ford about that, I tell ya. No rotor issues, though. Thinking maybe I ought replace that PCV valve, though...

 

Good story, better ending. BTW, Save your money on that last colourful mod.

 

hahaha.. ya think?

 

those 4.6 modulars are hard to kill, i've had two so far, both running fine after over a decade, only reason i got rid of them was accident damage, i've seen a few others that have gone past 500,000 miles, an at least one that's done 900,000 as a new york cab.

 

I'm at 250,000 now..... I'm hoping to get another 200K out of it yet.

 

Not often enough, if you ask Nancy.

 

PCV has a valve? and I thought I knew cars... I better check that out

 

David it's actually called a Positive Crankcase Ventilation valve, or PCV valve for short, it's a check valve (one way valve) that enables the escape of the gases from inside the engine's crankcase.