We bought a ford 350 passenger van about 3 years ago. And i pulled into the shop one day ro change the front brakes and the frame just crumbled under the jack. Someone had filled the frame with bondo and painted over it . 🤣 🤣 🤣.
We run a fleet of transits. Probably 300+ of them across our company. Our mechanics rules: every 100k new plugs, all 10 coolant hoses, belts and tensioners. Antiseize coil bolts and intake bolts when installing. Transmissions, crossmembers, bolts, and waterpumps at 150k.
@@F1USA Problem is we are a small fleet compared to Amazon, FedEx UPS, and Ford only allows us to buy so many at a time. Maybe a dozen or two a year. And we are a growing company and can always use trucks. So we keep them on the road till the frame rots, and sometimes we put a frame in em. We like to keep the vehicles as long as we can.
@@ztj-vv9zpkeep them as long as they're running good. I worked for a small delivery company in the 90s that had the Ford vans with the 5.4 triton engine. Most of those vans had 300k plus miles on the original engine and transmission.
Misfires destroyed the cats!! Tell him to drive till the wheels fall off. Tell him he bought a rotted out lemon!! Nothing beats the old 80s and 90s Ford Econoline Van's with the 300 six and auto trans!!
I will never leave Las Vegas. Nice weather and zero rust. Cars last forever unless crashed. My 73' Mustang Mach One still has chalk marks from the original build underneath.
That's not a good enough reason for me to live in Vegas. Great place to visit but I hate crowds after about three days! I can live in the Sandhills and still have zero rust vehicles. You know the place where there are more cattle than people? lol
@@billmonroe8826 You're thinking TV shows. I don't live near crowds. I live in rural outskirts where people have horses. And speaking of sand hills, we spend most of our holiday weekends at the dunes. BIG DUNES. We all have dune machines up to 1400 horsepower. Las Vegas is surrounded by high mountains and deep forests. It's not like it is on TV.
Out here in the SW part of the US, we only see corrosion of that type when Snowbirds come out for the winter and we’re just flabbergasted at the condition of some of these vehicles.
we're called the rust belt for a reason. 8 years ago my truck didn't have a spot of rust, now? yikes! at least underneath isn't bad, and i have a stainless steel exhaust. up here in michigan it's salt salt salt every day, all winter long, and we have long winters.
I can't believe the sub frame is already rotted out. If they're all like that then they should do a recall. It's a shame car companies produce garbage like this and get away with it.
@@ericd7532 I live in Cleveland so I understand the salt and the rust but most vehicles don't rust out that quickly. Ford cheaped out is what happened.
Ford foisted this turd on us. The old Econoline vans were an indestructible workhorse. The Transit vans are OK for consumer use but professional they just don’t hold up. Most companies that actually buy their vans vs leasing them are turning to Chevy and GMC because they’re the only ones that are durable.
thanks for this info, i owe you one about the cowl leak. i was watching this while it was raining and i went out and popped the hood and water was pouring everywhere right onto the electronics and one of the drain trays was even missing. thanks again. now i can sort this out before i have a problem instead of after
We have 2 of these for building maintenance at the post office in Toledo, I did subframes on both of them. This is sad and a serious safety issue. These vehicles are fairly clean, there's no way they should be rotten. The dealer had the subframes in stock....... that should tell you something right there! Keep up the videos, I enjoy the content!
Most cities now use more caustic salt compounds that do clear the roads faster but are MUCH more harmful to the environment and automobiles. They do this while pushing earth friendly agendas. Just imagine the 'runoff' after a rain which pours these chemicals right into the river supply.
Hey Rich this is Bobby I used to have a F-150 with a 4.6 Liter engine it seemed like I have to replace spark plug number 8 every month that piston I don't know what it would do to that spark plug but it would always foul out and I would always have to change it finally I sold it but don't get me wrong I still love Ford pickups
If the customer is using it for professional heavy duty usage he’d be better off with a Chevy or GMC van. They’re still real trucks not this suv based piece of garbage. Or he could find an older Econoline. Transit vans are OK for consumer use but nothing else.
@@Michael-yi4mc Not really, I live way north of there where we see salt a couple months longer a year and the wife's 2010 minivan has 225k on it and it has no rusted out cross members or sub frame. Just starting to get crusty a bit around the edges on the body so far that's all. lol
@@Ilovegirlfights2 I don't care how beat the shit out of it was. A cross member or sub frame should not rust through that damn fast. They must be made of the thinnest steel they could get away with and painted with the cheapest paint on the planet. That is janky.🤣
And I thought my trucks were bad!!!!😂🤣😂🤣😂 Ahhh...who am I kidding. Mine ARE worse. I am not at all sold on these Ford version of the Eurotrash mobiles. Sad to say, but at this point, I'm buying used Chevy Express vans with the 4.8s as they NEVER did DOD/AFM on those.
Thats the same thing happened to my 08 Chevy Express 6.0 bought it had misfire soon as i got misfire fixed bam cats where making same noise but i live in Tennessee no RUST DOWN HERE
Agreed. Ford Transit is not a great specimen. But any vehicle with coil on plug that develops misfires, it's going to effect other things. This vehicle looks like it was driven very hard and never washed or taken care of. Even at 85,000 miles, that could be it's lifespan if abused. I've seen engines come apart at lower mileages from complete lack of oil changes. Maintenance is worth the pennies.
Tinny noise is often a broken weld on or cracked catalytic heatsheild. Broken substrate more like 2" rocks rolling around in a tin 1 gallon can. Do the thump test.
i soaked my subframe inside and out with fluidfilm after this video! and i would have been the guy who kept driving with a misfire and done more harm without this video
Not too bad. I just did Brakes Rotors ball joints Tie rod ends control arm bushings 1 hub and wheel bearing and a rack and pinion on a 2015 S.H.O with only 68K cost me $ 5.500. The previous owner NEVER Missed a pothole.
FBM, Did you ever think of doing a video on vehicles to Avoid & ones to buy? And vids on specific issues for Fords, Pros and Cons? Besides that which you already do & teach. Thanks
I work for ford I hate the transits we’ve got one at our shop right now driver side manifold was leaking cause 2 of the studs broke the guy working on it had a hell of a time finally got it back together you can still hear a slight leak 1 of the manifold bolts is broken on the passenger side now he’s gotta do that too I feel bad for him and you couldn’t even hear it until the driver side was fixed
Good luck with that. Back in the 70s when Ford made the Pinto they were famous for catching fire when rear ended. Someone came up with a cheap way to fix this design flaw. Ford said it was cheaper to pay for the wrongful death lawsuits than actually fix the problem.
I wasn’t a huge Ford fan. I’ve always driven vans for my job. Mostly Ford Econoline vans and had a few Chevy Express vans. While the Chevys ran better, the Ford was more truck like. I do commercial and industrial HVAC so whatever I’m driving is just driven by me. The absolute best van I ever had was a 2012 Ford E350 Super Duty. It went 113,000 miles and other than basic maintenance the only thing it went through was 1 set of tires. The brake pads were still original. It got totaled when someone hit it parked on my street and tore the whole driver’s side off with a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was hit so hard it actually moved about 3 feet. Driver tried to run but only made it about 1/2 a block before it quit with the front fender dragging on the ground. Said he was only going 25. I find that hard to believe.
Your story is only ONE of probably hundreds of similar Transit repair nightmares. I've encountered more than my share of such nightmares. Try having to cut intake manifolds, the rear coolant crossover pipe off, due to rusted bolts. And then the injectors seized into the cylinder heads on the EcoBoost engines. Rotting cross members and needing to cut lower arms off during removal seems to have become routine Transit repair stuff. Mind boggling is that poor water drainage management engineering is what's responsible for a good majority of this mess like you mention.
The 3.7 is a good engine if looked after, I've seep upwards of 700k on those engines in many transits. The issue with the intake and ignition coils is real doh lol the water just rotts away the bolts. Your lucky its not a ecoboost 3.5 thoae are even more fun lol
GM still building their savannah vans like there's no problem. Ford had their successful & well appreciated econolines & said, "Well everybody loves these things, lets get rid of it & make some crap!"
Crazy right? What a waste of money and time. Chasing rust as a customer never pays.. I'm still driving a 2001 Explorer Sport, manual trans. Daily. Take care of your stuff.
Help, got a 2001 zr2 4.3 automatic trans. I have a fuse repeatedly blowing in my underhood fusebox. Ecm1 15 amp fuse blows as soon as i turn to start position.
bad relay or a shorted wire. Pull the relay, turn the ignition on. Fuse pops, bad wire from the ignition switch to the fuse/relay panel. If it doesn't, swap relays in the panel. Turn it on, if the fuse pops, bad wire to the ECM or the ECM has shorted internally. If it doesn't pop, replace the relay. just double checked it. The ECM1 fuse feeds the ignition control module, ignition coil, all 6 fuel injectors, and one of several feeds for the PCM. Check the pink wire to each of those components, and the components themselves, for a short to ground. You can do this good luck bud
Just throwing this out there... What would cause intermittent random misfires under 1500 RPMs? (2.9L V6 in '89 Ford Ranger). I've changed everything but the distributor and ECM
@@FordBossMe ok thanks… it’s been very annoyingly and unpredictably intermittent which has made it hard for me to diagnose so I’ve been throwing all new parts at it out of frustration… sensors including O2, MAP, IAC, IAT, ECT, TPS, PCV, Fuel Pump + Filter, Fuel Injectors, Coil, Plugs + Wires, & Cap & Rotor… now it’s down to Distributor and ECM.
@@rodneyadamson8270 yeah I checked for vacuum leaks… it either runs perfectly or has terrible random misfires. Every cold start it will fire up and idle at about 1600 RPMs like it’s going to normally warm up, but then suddenly after only 2 seconds it drops to about 500-600 RPMS while misfiring until I drive it down the road and warm it up and then it will start idling like normal next time I come to a stop until I shut off the engine, then the very next time I start it (whether the engine is warmed up or not) it will start misfiring again until I drive it down the road (usually highway).
I had a Mercury Villager (1998) with a Nissan 3.0L V6 that used to shed carbon from the distributor cap down and onto the optical sensor. Caused misfires that nobody could figure out. I got so frustrated that I pulled the distributor to take a look. I didn't find carbon tracking on the cap but down deep in the area where the sensor was I found A LOT of carbon dust. Cleaned things up (CRC brand electrical contact cleaner and air), put the distributor back in and was good for another 10K miles or so. Problem would come back (after a long while) because there was no way to keep the dust permanently away from the optical sensor. No TSB or kit from Ford/Mercury regarding this problem.
Sometimes being a mechanic and having to tell someone the awful news that they're $%&@#? has to be like being a doctor and telling someone their loved one is in really bad shape and might not make it.I bet thats one of the worst parts of being a service manager and mechanic.
Did this car not get inspected before selling work!? All this could have been avoided with a proper visual inspection, at least the expensive subframe, control arms etc. so then the customer could have made an educated choice on to punt it or fix it up front.
This is why I will only ever drive a lexus with a v8 or a GM v8 powered car. Any car with less than 8 cylinders isn't worth driving unless it's a turbo 6.
Always test drive.. Everything would have revealed itself with a test drive and monitoring data stream. Having a whole bank of misfires would have been the first red flag.. Actual misfires mean fat long terms, restricted exhaust shows lean. Let's not forget MAP's or a good old fashoined vacuum guage. Could have saved you and the customer a can of worms.
Government mandated complications, this is why you see cars from Japan and Korea dominating sales in most of the world. They seem to adapt to building a car to regulations the best. I hate newer cars for that reason.
It is terrible. I'm not a fancy Ford tech... however, I've seen some really bad frames, especially sub-frames on vehicles less than 7 years old. (Gotta love the rust belt) It's hard to break the worst news to a customer. There are too many dishonest people selling death traps to unsuspecting people.
These engineers at these companies should be fired - you have to remove a valve cover just to change plugs - good grief! The sub frame can be blamed on the salt....
Your shop should just stick to the salty Chicago commercial Ford Transit Vans. = They are rusty gold-mine of work. -These are the dangers of looking for a "cheap" Chicago (
