Top 5 Problems Ford F-150 Truck 12th Generation 2009-14

Hey, friends. It's Len here from 1A Auto. Today we have a 12th Generation Ford F-150 in the studio and I wanna go over some of the top problems. Let's get started. Now, for our first problem on this truck, we wanna talk about ignition issues. For this particular ignition issue, what you might happen to find is a check engine light on your dash. You go ahead and pull the coat and it's gonna come up with a PO 300 through maybe PO 306. Essentially that's gonna tell you that you have a misfire. The first place that I would go looking for that would be directly under the hood. Now, just to mention right off the bat, this involves the 3.6 EcoBoost engine. What we wanna do is we wanna look for the coils which look a little bit like this and the spark plugs which look a little bit like this. Essentially, once you find the coil, you wanna go ahead and pull it up and out of there. It's not gonna look exactly like this because our vehicle is perfect and this one was well at what I've got hanging around.

So essentially this boot right here is something that could cause an issue, but we're not gonna stop there. We need to get underneath the coil and get to the spark plugs. Fully remove the spark plugs so you can thoroughly inspect them. Once you start spinning the spark plug, what you might happen to see as a crack in the porcelain. Sometimes you might just see a crack like this, other times you might see a crack that looks like it has black all around it. That's more than likely carbon buildup, and typically it's because your coil sits on top of your spark plug like this. And if that porcelain's broken, it's trying to arc out through the coil boot to your engine. It's basically trying to ground out that way instead of going through the whole spark plug there. That's obviously an issue.

Now, if we're gonna talk about fixes for this, what it's gonna come down to is checking those spark plugs like I said. If you see any of them that are cracked, go ahead and replace them. Make sure you're up to your maintenance too, by the way, because if you're behind, these spark plugs are usually good for approximately every 100,000 miles, I believe. But if you're behind on that, why not just replace them anyway. Typically, if you have this issue, it does come down with the spark plugs and sometimes these cracks, like I said before, aren't gonna have the black where the crack is, so you might not even be able to see the crack. Just go ahead and replace the spark plugs. And if you've got a second, go ahead and replace the boots that come on the coils as well. They should just pop off. They're gonna have a little electrode in here that goes from the coil down to the spark plug. Replace both those at the same time with the spark plugs, clear your check engine light, and then take it for a road test.

Now, for our second problem on this truck, we're gonna talk about intake carbon buildup. Essentially what I'm talking about is over on your engine here. On both sides of your engine, you're gonna have valve covers, and those are gonna be sitting up just like this, essentially. On top of one of the valve covers, you're gonna have a PCV valve with a line that goes up to your intake. Essentially, the reason for that is because there's gonna be gas buildup inside of your engine, essentially, and it needs to work its way out and it wants to get reburnt through the engine before it gets pushed out through the emissions chamber or the tailpipe.

A lot of times what happens is on the inside of the intake system, you're gonna get a lot of carbon buildup. And essentially this is the back of a throttle body and you can tell that this one at one point had a lot of oil getting dumped into it before it got re-burned through the engine, and like I said, out the tailpipe, eventually. This could be really bad. You might notice when you try to accelerate, it just has a hesitation, you might also notice a misfire, or just kind of stumbling while you're driving. Obviously this is something that people will try to take care of. Essentially what people might try to do though, is instead of taking your throttle body apart off of the engine at least to clean it and then cleaning the intake area, they just try to use some cleaners straight on through. And essentially those cleaners work their way into the intake system, they start getting onto the valves and everything that's inside there, and they could potentially damage it. Not just that though, with these 3.5 V6 EcoBoost engines, they have a turbo. If that cleaner gets into where the turbo is, it could wipe out the bearings or anything else that's inside there such as the turbine. Obviously, if you wipe out your turbo, you're probably not going anywhere, especially not going anywhere very fast.

Now, for fixes for this Ford actually made an updated PCV valve. They also have an update program for your PCM or the computer of your truck, and essentially what that's gonna do is it's gonna help limit the amount of carbon/emissions that are getting put out through that PCV valve system into the intake. Now for the third problem on this truck, we're gonna talk about condensation in the turbo inner cooler. Something that might happen is if you're driving down the highway at highway speeds for an extended period of time and maybe it's damp outside or just super humid, your inner cooler, which is this area right here, and it has a lot to do with your turbo system is gonna actually get condensation build up inside of it. The condensation will eventually sit down at the bottom of the inner cooler and it's just not gonna go anywhere. It doesn't have an opportunity to dissipate/evaporate from down there.

What Ford did was they came out with a new fix for this, and essentially what they wanted you to do was to take this air dam that comes across right here, and essentially you're gonna turn it over and make it cover down at the bottom of the inner cooler. The reason for that is because that's gonna help it actually evaporate the condensation that's located inside the inner cooler. I haven't done anything like that, so I can't give you the particulars on the process itself, but that's what Ford says. Take off this little cover-up along the top here, put it down across the bottom, and that's gonna help with the condensation in the bottom of the inner cooler.

For our fourth problem, we're gonna talk about a turbocharger coolant leak. The symptoms you're gonna find for this would mostly be maybe your engine temperature's running a little bit high, and that's typically because your coolant's running a little bit low. You might also notice if you take a peek under your truck, you see it a little drop a underneath there. We actually have a big old puddle. It really depends on the size of your leak. But where you're gonna notice it is generally behind the wheel area in the center of the vehicle, which would be essentially the backside of the engine. Now, these 3.6s had that turbocharged engine. Of course, a turbocharger is gonna run a little bit hot, so it needs to be cooled down by something. That's why they have coolant that runs through it. There's gonna be some little fittings that attach the lines to the actual turbocharger itself, and typically the fittings tend to go bad. Generally, if you were gonna refine the leak there, you could try using some dye or something like that if you can't tend to see it, but essentially getting underneath there with some glasses in a nice flashlight, you'll probably be able to see where the moisture's coming from, unless, of course, you're doing this in the rain. But if you do happen to find that the issue is at these fittings, which is the general area where this typically happens, you're gonna replace the lines at the same time.

Okay, friends. So stay with me. We've got one more for you, problem, number five. For this one, we're gonna talk about the EVAP vent valve. That's gonna be located in the middle of your truck and it's gonna be on the canister. Typically a symptom for this is only gonna be a little maintenance light that comes on your dash and it says, "Hey, check your fuel cap." Typically what people might try to do is they would come right over here, open this up, and they're gonna look for their fuel cap. They're gonna notice, obviously, they don't have a fuel cap. No fuel cap. But right inside here, there's two little petons on the sides. You push those out and then you should be able to force this in right here. That's gonna be, of course, how you add your gas. The problem is in between this metal area and this area up here, there's gonna be a rubber seal. If there's splashed up gas onto it or anything else such as debris, it could potentially get damaged, in which case, it's not gonna seal up very well. If that's the case, it's something that you're gonna need to service.

Let's talk about the typical problem with this, which as like I said, the canister vent valve. That's gonna be located underneath the driver's side of your vehicle on the other side of the frame. It's essentially gonna be inside of a big old carbonized box. It's gonna be black and it has a lot of stuff inside there that's gonna help prevent bad emissions getting shot out into the atmosphere. There's gonna be a vent valve on that as well. It needs to be able to vent properly, whether it's at a certain time or whatever the case may be. But if it has an issue internally, maybe it's clogged up with some debris, maybe you went four-wheeling, it's got some mud in there, some water or anything like that, it could potentially make it damaged. You could, of course, try to unplug it, disconnect all the hoses, see if you can blow everything out. There's probably a couple of tests you can do for it. But generally, once people replace this, clear the light, take it for a road test, you got no other problems.

Okay, friends. So that's pretty much what I've got for top problems on this 12th Generation F-150. Every truck and car is gonna have their own problems. If you've got something that you wanna talk about, maybe a story of your own, leave it in the comments section below because I always love to read them and I always love to hear from you. I hope you liked the video. If you did, smash on the Like button for me. It would mean the world. While you're at it, why don't you go ahead and subscribe and ring the bell, that way there you can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks.