Was cruising in my Ford lightning, when I heard a loud pop and then sounded like my engine was running off the headers. Pulled over and had to catch a tow truck, to the shop. They told me my spark plug had shot out of the head. $1,100 bucks later it is back in the shop now and having the entire motor pulled cost not known but approximately 5-10 grand...

- Seattle, WA, USA

I exited on I-75 onto sr 200, traveled 100 feet approximately 20 mph, heard popping sound like baseball card in spokes of a bicycle wheel. Happened Saturday night while bringing my son home from college. Cost $75 to tow home to unload the 2001 F150 5.4 liter V-8. $75 to tow to Ford of ocala, belleview, who diagnosed blown #3 plug, charged $98, then $75 tow to Ford of ocala in ocala told $4000 to replace head or $6000 to replace engine. This was a common occurrence with this faulty head and plug design. Ford should be made to fix this problem since replacing either the head or engine with the same faulty Ford product was not an option to me. Estimated charges were outrageous even for a physician to pay. Please see www.F150online.com forum for additional disgruntled F-150 owners whom have had same problem. This was a fraud alert.

- Ocala, FL, USA

Spark plug # 7 blew out of the Ford F-150 truck with a V8 motor. The plug and coil stuck the fuel rail above this area, and took a chunk of the fuel rail out, almost crating a leak, vehicle could catch on fire. Over 100,000 reports on the exact same spark plug along with # 3 plug doing the same thing with the fuel rail also. Usually the other plug blew a few months after the first one blew out of the engine. Repairs were to pull the header, and drill hole in header to install a coil to replace threads torn on the head, and install a new plug due to blow out and coil.

- Wyoming, MI, USA

Have 2001 Ford F150 supercrew 5.4 engine with 51K miles. Accelerated to enter highway and heard loud "pop", then lost engine compression and heard loud un-muffled engine noise eminating from the engine compartment. Having a fair knowledge of cars, I thought I blew the head gasket, but upon inspection by a local dealer (cosway Ford in stafford, NJ) was told I blew a spark plug and it is not a covered item under my extended warranty. The service tech seemed to know right away what the problem was when I described it, leading me to believe this is a very common problem. As I gathered, upon researching the internet, this is more than common, it is a manufacturer defect in the aluminum cylinder heard. I am 33 years old and have been around cars for a long time and have never heard of this problem. I bought the truck new and babied the vehicle. It seems this problem is limited to those year 5.4's that use the flawed 4-thread cylinder head, as to why in 2003 Ford changed the design to 8-threads. Please help force Ford Motor Company to fess up and recall these vehicles. I understand it can happen again. This repai will be costing me $501.80, plus the rental of a car (was far from home on vacation).

- Fairfield, NJ, USA

While driving home from work today, approaching the on-ramp to the 280 on sand hill road in menlo park, ca. The 2001 F-150 5.4L pick-up with 75,000 miles, started making a loud popping sound while driving about 35 mph. I pulled the truck over to the side of the road immediately and turned the engine off. The car was towed by flatbed to the local shell gas station repair shop to be seen by the mechanic in the morning. The mechanic indicated that the #3 plug on the passenger side of the car had come out of the head, the threads to the spark plug stripped. He was unable to get a new plug into the head and wanted my approval to spend about 5 hours or $750 to remove the head and inspect the cylinder head for a possible stripped socket. The Ford dealership separately quoted me $1,010 for a new cylinder head and the Ford service adviser at the palo alto Ford dealership quoted my an estimated 12 hours to tear down and remove the head for inspection. The hourly rate quoted is $105. I checked with another local auto repair shop, where the mechanic told me that the blown plug and stripped head was a common problem. He agreed that the five hour estimate to remove the head sounded right (why is Ford quoting me 12 hours?).

- San Jose, CA, USA

Check engine light came on at 49000 diag reports erg/back flow/solenoid. Replaced all and reset computer. Next day light returned, diag reports erg/backflow/solenoid failure. Telephone to Ford states, several have this problem, excessive buildup of carbon in exhaust manifold. Extended warranty covers repair (design flaw).

- Lawrenceville, GA, USA