Repair Costs - Help Me Out

[expy09]

I have no idea how bad the play is...I only need to tow about 200 miles so I wish I could get away with not doing the front end repairs until later.

The issue does cause vibrations in the steering wheel that are fairly bad after i get over 50 mph.

 

[expy09]

Hah, where'd you go, to Greenway off of 417? Are you in Orlando right now? I'm at school right now, but will be off in a couple hours. Fuel filter shouldn't be too hard if it's like mine.

I have a service manual so I'll take a look at it. I'll be online for the next hour or so.

Is your filter here?
http://expeditionforum.com/showthread.php?t=2994&highlight=fuel+filter

Also, is your Expy 4x4?

Yup I'm in orlando right now. Currently off of Conroy Road.

Mine is 4.6 liter 2x4...I guess my filter is in the same spot as yours since we both have a 2003 expy.

 

[Stoned06]

I have no idea how bad the play is...I only need to tow about 200 miles so I wish I could get away with not doing the front end repairs until later.

The issue does cause vibrations in the steering wheel that are fairly bad after i get over 50 mph.

That's not a promising sign prior to towing 6000 lbs. With the front end most likely getting lighter while towing, that will only make the issue worse. Your best off getting it fixed prior to towing, but you may be able to take it easy and get away with it until you get home.
If it were me and I could do the work myself and save a lot of $$, I would wait. But if I had to pay someone to do it when I got home anyway, just go ahead and have it done where you are now.

 

[ELVATO]

I see, so you're downtown. Heh, I'm on the east side of town.

Hmm, so Autozone sells the lower ball joint, not the upper one. My guess is that for the upper one, you have to change the whole thing out, which is why they are "including" the upper control arm. On Tascaparts.com, they sell the upper control arm for 211 and 179 (right and left). They list MSRP for 320 and 275 (right and left). To remove the upper control arm, you have to remove the spring/shock assembly, then loosen 3 bolts, which means you'd need to get a spring compressor big enough to compress the spring. I wonder if you can borrow that from Autozone.

For the lower, as mentioned earlier, you can get the ball joint at auto zone or advance auto, which makes it seem like you should be able to replace that without the control arm (which is why the quote for the lower is a lot cheaper.) The manual doesn't list a specific way of doing this, though.

As for the coils, you can get Global coils for like 80-90 for all 8 (I think these are the ones that everyone on F150online uses). The plugs, you can get at Autozone/Advance for like 5 each and do it all yourself. I could help you with that.

For the injector flush, you could try Gumout Regane Fuel System Cleaner. You can get it at walmart. Has to be the one with regane. Get the complete one, not the high mileage one.

Don't flash the PCM. If it's worked till now, it shouldn't need to be "flashed".

And as I said before, the filter should be easy.

I'll call my friend to see if he knows any good shops, though not sure if he'll get back to me right away. Also, have you done a visual inspection to see if anything is physically broken? Lift the front up and see if there's any play in the wheel.

 

[expy09]

I see, so you're downtown. Heh, I'm on the east side of town.

Hmm, so Autozone sells the lower ball joint, not the upper one. My guess is that for the upper one, you have to change the whole thing out, which is why they are "including" the upper control arm. On Tascaparts.com, they sell the upper control arm for 211 and 179 (right and left). They list MSRP for 320 and 275 (right and left). To remove the upper control arm, you have to remove the spring/shock assembly, then loosen 3 bolts, which means you'd need to get a spring compressor big enough to compress the spring. I wonder if you can borrow that from Autozone.

For the lower, as mentioned earlier, you can get the ball joint at auto zone or advance auto, which makes it seem like you should be able to replace that without the control arm (which is why the quote for the lower is a lot cheaper.) The manual doesn't list a specific way of doing this, though.

As for the coils, you can get Global coils for like 80-90 for all 8 (I think these are the ones that everyone on F150online uses). The plugs, you can get at Autozone/Advance for like 5 each and do it all yourself. I could help you with that.

For the injector flush, you could try Gumout Regane Fuel System Cleaner. You can get it at walmart. Has to be the one with regane. Get the complete one, not the high mileage one.

Don't flash the PCM. If it's worked till now, it shouldn't need to be "flashed".

And as I said before, the filter should be easy.

I'll call my friend to see if he knows any good shops, though not sure if he'll get back to me right away. Also, have you done a visual inspection to see if anything is physically broken? Lift the front up and see if there's any play in the wheel.

Thx for all the details, but I have no way to do the repairs myself. I've called 8 different shops and the price range is about 1300-1600 total.

Good point about the plugs, they want $200 for doing all the plugs...I'd like to find someone to do the fuel filter and the plugs and then have the rest of the work done at a shop.

What kind of plugs do I need? Mopar? I'll pick up the injector flush today

I haven't done a physical inspection, I have no way of lifting the truck front end.

 

[ELVATO]

They have OEM plugs at Autozone, I think. As for the front end, just jack one side up with the OEM jack.

 

[04DrBlur]

If those are indeed your factory plugs your coil is prob fine. My #7 threw a code and I flipped two coil packs and still threw #7. Looked at my plugs and for some reason whoever owned my truck before changed all plugs but #7. New plugs got rid of the coil problem.

Correct me if I'm wrong but shimmy in the wheel would be tire out of balance. A bad ball joint would make enough noise for you to know its bad.

 

[expy09]

They are indeed the original factory plugs...thx for the input.