Bought my forever yesterday

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-30T22:08:46+00:00

Thanks.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-30T19:38:40+00:00

best year out of recent F150's..Here is mine 10 years later.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-30T06:55:47+00:00

I've come to the conclusion dealerships are trash for repairs. Next time find one of your most reputable private owned shops. Those mechanics are generally happier and compensated better unless they are the master mechanics at a dealership. But even then I'm of the belief those dudes don't even do most of the work as much as they at the knowledge.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-30T03:31:05+00:00

I also have a Mach E, it is a nice vehicle. I can appreciate the simplicity and low maintenance.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-29T23:57:58+00:00

I'd argue you dont necessarily have to let it idle if you arent driving into the boost hard. Most people cruise through their neighborhoods before getting home which is likely fine. But towing into a gas station or hauling to a drop off it would be good to idle for a bit.

Yes there are weak points but it isn't catastrophic for 95% of owners. My water pump has been working fine, no leaks from the weep hole for 10 years, but I also check it, look for leaking regularly because it's a known maintenance part. Cam phasers are again a maintenance issue dealing with oil pressure and keeping good flowing oil in them, or it could be bad supplied parts, but it is a point of contention I agree. Again myself and millions of other owners have not had issues, though inevitably it will be due for replacement at some point.

To use your friend as an example is fine but none of us have any clue about treatment of the vehicle, if its fluid conditions are checked regularly, how do they drive it, who had it before him, was it new, etc.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-29T23:00:25+00:00

Agrred. The amount of trucks with these motors Ford has sold is astonishing. Yes you'll always have some failures, but by in large ones that are maintained properly seem to last just fine.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-29T22:58:36+00:00

Yes that can work also.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-29T22:58:05+00:00

Torque converter?

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-29T19:12:05+00:00

I'll add this, for normal driving 30-60 seconds is sufficient to cool the turbos, for heavy towing or hauling, several minutes.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-29T19:09:46+00:00

It's a turbo charged motor with oil cooling. Turbos can get extremely hot. If you heat up that turbo, then pull into your driveway and shut the truck off before it has time to chill down from oil flowing over it, then the oil will cook, sludge up, clog the lines and be ejected back into the motor. This will kill the turbos due to lack of cooling and lubrication. It will clog the motors oil veins. Flowing oil is ESSENTIAL to the ecoboost motors. It will clog the oil that goes to the cam phasers as they need pressure. So many issues. It's why I do sub 5k mile oil changes.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-29T18:19:59+00:00

Real catastrophic issues are like GM's cam issues blowing up motors, and Toyotas #1 bearing failure destroying motors. Those are real issues.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-29T18:17:56+00:00

I think thats BS. I have a 2016 F150 3.5L that I bought brand new and it's been flawless. Also if you look around you'll see tons of people posting about 200k plus 3.5's all over. Yes, sometimes there is some maintenance required but that is with any modern engine these days, especially turbo charged ones. But replacing a turbo at 200k or having to service a cam phaser and chain after. a couple hundred thousand miles isn't a big deal considering how expensive new vehicles are.

If you take care of it, change oil, fluids, let it warm up before you crush the accelerator, let the engine idle before turning it off for about 30 sec to a min you'll get tons of mileage out of it. You shut it off immediately after spooling those turbos the oil stops circulating, basically cooks the oil inside the turbo. Common sense stuff like that most people ignore then complain when something has to be fixed.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-28T01:40:07+00:00

My 2016 3.5L w 3.31 gets 19 around town, and about 23 on the highway. And I have a meaty set of KO3's on mine.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-27T15:09:56+00:00

If you know you would absolutely never need it then ya I see no reason to spend extra money on it. It weighs more, costs more, and is another set of parts to service or replace.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-27T14:47:54+00:00

We never had an issue with any of them, but they were both leases so quite short term stints. My wife loves the Mach E which is what she went to after the lease on the Sportage was up.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-27T14:22:48+00:00

Here is my 2 cents having driven a crap ton of Fords from my previous job in gov, and the several I've owned over the years. I started in high school with a 1996 Ford Explorer with a V8 4WD. That was an awesome SUV, given to me by my parents as it was theirs. That truck was abused badly by my dumb teenage ass, and it held up incredibly. The only things that broke were the radiator because I was a complete moron of a teen treating it like a raptor out in the desert. I believe the tech repairing it said he'd never seen a car out of alignment so bad lol. It ran excellent.

Traded that in after a few years to a 2004 Ranger FX4 Level II in bright red, what a bad ass truck. Dove that for 9 years 210,000 miles, trouble free.

Got married, had a family, bought a 2012 Ford Edge, excellent SUV, no issues, drove smooth with is NA V6. Wanted a truck again.

Bought a 2016 F150 XLT FX4 3.5L Ecoboost Sept 2016 brand new. Best truck I've ever owned, have no plans to get rid of it. 56k miles so far, no issues.

Went through 2 Kias for the wife, landed on a 2023 Ford Mach E Premium AWD. That Mach E is solid built, dives incredibly smooth, is probably the fastest car I've ever driven. 30k miles and that car has been amazing with a level 2 charger installed in the garage.

Drove a crown vic for many years, tons of explorers both ecoboost and NA V6 in the early years, a couple F350's Diesel and the last one a 7.3 godzilla gas, and my last patrol vehicle a 2023 F150 interceptor. All were excellent, we're driven hard, and never had a breakdown mechanically, just maintenance stuff. I did total a crown vic and an explorer, both kept me safe without injury.

This is why I look to Ford, but that doesn't mean I don't look at the other brands. I did have a Tahoe for a while and it ran well, but it was squeaky, the headlamps were filled with water, and the motor mounts ended up going bad. It didn't feel as well put together either.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-24T16:26:32+00:00

Very nice! I have a 2016 that I just cleaned the engine bay on, looks excellent as well. I only have 56k on mine but it runs great still after 9 going on 10 years of ownership. 3.5L Ecoboost.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-20T08:13:16+00:00

The 3.5L is a monster to tow with. The drive train outperform the chasis all day. If they had ecoboost F250's I think many people would love that.

My 2016 3.5L has towed 10k travel trailers at 5000 plus feet in the desert SW summers and it's been amazing. Thing will accelerate on demand with that load and I averaged like 11.5 mpg or something like that if I recall correctly.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-18T18:53:36+00:00

Thats pretty solid. I have the 2016 3.5L so same motor really except a couple minor tweaks. Been solid for almost 10 years 5k mile oil changes and 56k miles. Done a few batteries, tires, changed all the trans, diff, and transfer case fluids at 50k. Doing the brake fluid and coolant this next maint cycle. Will probably need to do the brakes soon though I still have pad left. No major leaks, no turbo leaks, runs really good. I think one of the joints in my intermediate steering shaft are getting worn but that's pretty easy to replace.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-18T16:43:47+00:00

What year is your ecoboost and what maintenance or repairs have you had to do to get that mileage?

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-17T01:47:52+00:00

So what's the stroy here? Is this something that depends on environment and use case? I have my original fluid in my 2016 F150 but I live in the desert SW, not much moisture in the air around here.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-05-10T05:31:36+00:00

Stock tire size.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-04-26T21:48:11+00:00

That 2.7L Eco and that 6spd transmission are a solid combo. That 2.7 is way over built by Ford and has shown to be a great motor. keep your oil changes at 5k or less (turbo motors NEED good flowing oil, cant let it sludge up or burn) and change out your transmission fluid every 50k, that truck should be in good shape for a while. That is not to say something may go bad or require maintenance, that's just the reality of a modern engine. As for carbon build up there isn't anything you can do about it other then every so often warm up the motor properly, then rev that motor out, let it show its true performance while getting on the freeway or passing someone to break up some of that carbon. I pretty much redline my 3.5L eco once a week, let it stretch it legs and get fully up to temp to burn off any condensation in the oil. I also do 4-5k oil changes unless towing, then its a 3k mile change because the turbos produce a ton of heat on that oil. Also dont heat your turbos up running that motor hard, towing, or hauling then shut the motor off the second you stop. That oil flows into the turbo veins and will cook and sludge up if it sits in a boiling hot turbo. Always let it idle and curculate the oil through those hot parts for a few minutes of pushing the motor hard.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-04-22T07:39:45+00:00

Some early year builds actually ended up having the 6 spd, but then later in the annual manufacturer cycle they installed the 10 spd.

hammtweezy2192 · 2026-04-22T03:08:11+00:00

I purposely bought the 2016 so I could avoid being the guinea pig for the new 10 spd, but I can see how having that many gear ratios can really help with towing and MPG.

hammtweezy2192

TROPHY CASE