bostiguy

Hi guys,
I didn't know where to post this question but I know someone can send me in the right direction.
My buddy has a newish (maybe 2003) Ford F250, he had the motor replaced under a warranty he had due to it spitting out the spark plug a couple of times. Problem is the garage is charging him $3200 for the labor involved. To me this sounds way over the top for labor. How can we find out what the "normal" time is for such a replacement? We can then estimate the garage rate and see how long they took.
Any help on how to argue this cost he is going to have to front in order to get his truck back??
thanks for any help....

Hvytrkmech

Is it the V8 or V10 engine. Why are they changing the engine? Usually it is a head replacement after the second plug fart.

bostiguy

It is a V8, I don't really know the whole story off the top of my head, sorry. They were going to do a head only replacement but then ran into some issues and ended up replacing the whole thing.
Do you know how to find out the dealers time allowed for a swap?

Hvytrkmech

I can get the dealer hours for you tomorrow.

bostiguy

I'd appreciate it, thank you.

Riflemanusmc

There is an aftermarket repair made for the Fords spark plug problem and can be done without taking the head off. Kind off a pita, but cheaper and way better than the route than your bud is going. PM me. I'll show you the way grasshopper..

mini14

http://www.timesert.com/html/ford_sparkplug_faq.html

http://www.fordproblems.com/spark-pl...m-engine.shtml


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2opNGDKGdkQ

Shovelhead

I'm wondering if this is another Ford "Gotta pull the body off the frame to get to the engine" procedure.

klx650a2

For the record, the Timersert is an awesome solution. Expensive but very good. Used it a few times on my dirtbike and works well.

Grit Dog

Doesn't make sense. They appear to have replaced the engine for a bad spark plug thread. Then they warrantied teh cost of the parts (new engine), but not the labor?
That doesn't make sense, as even if they were trying to screw him by replacing the whole engine, it costs more than the labor they charged, so they're in the red on this one. (Unless they submitted parts and labor for warranty then charged the customer labor on top of that...then it's just fraud!)
I had a V10 work truck that spit 2 different plugs. Both were over the fender repairs and no where near $3200!

ofcmarc

Going off the top of my head IIRC Engine R&R on an '01 F150 was 10.5hours. (depending on A/C or not)

R&R of 1 head was 9.5hrs.

It's close but it'll come out with the body still on. But if you complain about the time the factory rep will tell you it's easy to pull the body off to change the engine or head......

bostiguy

I'm trying to remember the whole story and it's fuzzy to me...
This is a hole in the wall garage doing the work, he WAS trying to help out a small local shop by giving them the business in the past. Whenever his truck needed something he brought it to them, even small jobs ( he is not mechanical at all BTW).
Once his truck spit out a plug they told him he needed a new head and it snowballed into him buying a new crate motor..I don't remember how much but it totaled several thousand, he was hoping the job was done and in the past and he would have smooth sailing because he now has a new motor.
Now several months later this new motor spit out a plug again, they informed him they were going to replace the head instead of the 'helicoil' type fix. (Would have been under warranty) Again somehow this snowballed into replacing the motor again (I don't know why right now), and this is where it stands. They told him the motor was covered but not the labor.
Sounds to me like and ideal situation for the garage to keep making money.
He was going to try and work something out with them today so I don't know if he got the truck yet or not.
TBC.

Hvytrkmech

Sounds to me like that garage gorked up an attempted head repair and sold your friend an engine on their mistake.

My friend said 20+ hours for a v-10 swap.

Sorry for the late response.

dougger222

A friend of mine had one blown out plug housing repaired at Ford for under $600. It was a 99 V8 with under 50K miles.

dodgeguy71

That don't make sense. When I had my shop if I bought a crate motor from Advance and the engine took a dump they would replace the engine under warranty and Advance would pay XX amount of dollars per hour to me for having to replace the bad engine.

Your buddy spent good money to get the engine replaced the first time, therefore he should not have to spend a dime on this repair if the so called "shop" said it was engine failure with no fault on your buddy. I'd call foul, sounds like your buddy is getting major screwage here.