2009 Ford F150 5.4 V8 - Long-Term Review (Reliability, 0-60, Towing, 4x4)

hey all you people what's going on today we have a 2009 ford f-150 platinum and today we're going to see how well it's aged so i'll run through a few of the issues that we've had with this [Music] now this is the infamous triton 5.4 liter v8 the 5-liter is superior in every regard power efficiency and reliability but the 5.4 wasn't necessarily the worst engine either my parents have owned this truck since 2011 and they haven't done too much to it the only thing they have done is these kind of ebay looking wheels and some nice ko2s which provide plenty of grip and just walking on the car you can see that there's some wear and tear here you know it's been used for its intended purposes it's a truck you know we've got a little bit of cab rot going on here you know the emblems are faded and there's plenty of scratches and dings to be seen around the cab so the engine's all warmed up why don't we take it for a ride and i'll tell you the pros and cons all right real quick if you guys aren't subscribed yet please consider subscribing consider liking the video commenting ask me a question if you want to [Music] plenty of room for my hat all right the first thing i want to say is generally the seats especially in the platinum are very comfortable there are a ton of ways to adjust these this one the driver's seat is actually memory so you can set it to i won oh that is not me that is not me oh jesus squishing my hat but the driving position isn't quite as customizable as you might want the steering wheel is only tilt it's not telescope but we do have telescoping gas and brake pedals which helps for shorter drivers that's for sure like my mother who is the owner of this truck actually i think this joke has run its course all right so with the platinum you get this lovely interior a ton of fake wood a ton of fake aluminum and a really terrific sony sound system in here there's tweeters here tweeters on the sides um independent subwoofer underneath the back seat the sync system from 2009 has become a bit outdated what else did you expect you know the bluetooth features are cumbersome and the rear view camera i'd say it's about the same quality as the 2020 mitsubishi outlander front seats are heated and cooled the cooled seat setting basically just sucks your butt through the perforated seats here this does have rain sensing wipers um they don't work super well in general i love the steering wheel visibility is pretty good out of it actually you might be familiar with fords they have this little dip in the windowsill here which allows you to see the mirror better driving position after you get yourself comfortable is good clear view at the front here the platinum actually handles really well stock because it came with lower profile tires but since uh my folks upgraded upgraded to the ko2s here handling has decreased slightly but you know traction has increased the ko2's also helped this ride a little better than with the stock tires i remember the ride being pretty stiff when my folks first got this in 2011 and it still is relatively stiff it has independent front suspension which helps but you know you got a light back solid rear axle and a lot of truck so this is before the f-150 went to an aluminum body which saved i think it was about 800 pounds from the turtle curb weight so this bad boy is heavy and you can feel it when you're driving it it is heavy but it's by no means cumbersome all right we're going under a little bridge here yeah it still rides stiff it's a little jittery and bouncy over bumps my rolls that i've gained during covid are perfectly illustrating that we've taken this on plenty of dirt roads up in new hampshire up in maine a combo with a solid rear axle stiff suspension and a light truck bed it does tend to skip out in the turns especially if you're in dirt noise levels very quiet in this truck ford has for a while been really good with their noise vibration harshness levels they add a lot of insulation to make the rides more comfortable and quiet you know steering's on the slower side but you you want sort of light easy steering especially if you're towing a trailer throttle response isn't too great this engine for all like the negative stuff you hear about this engine it's it's not that bad it really isn't i may have mentioned that the 5 liter coyote v8 was more efficient than ascension but for the time 11 12 years ago this engine wasn't that bad we're averaging around 15 miles a gallon combined most of what makes this truck feel sluggish is the transmission and the gearing so real quick i'll do a 0 to 60 and see how that was my four jack in the back so real quick i'll do a 0-60 and i'll see how this thing gets up to speed i will turn off the traction control for this i'll launch it in two-wheel drive [Music] those ko2's grip pretty well so and we're in the rain too so as you can see this does get up to speed it's just enough power as far as the looks of this truck go i do think that the look of f-150s are kind of timeless if this were my personal truck i probably would have gone with a slightly smaller wheel diameter and a thicker sidewall on the ko2's to add to that more aggressive look and i also think that it would have softened the ride just a little bit more which going on these bumps would be welcome now let's talk about towing i believe that when this came out forwards at the max towing capacity was around 11 400 pounds which if i look at that now and see a 11 400 pound trailer on the back of this f150 i'm gonna say that this triton would really be struggling my folks got this to tow their camper which is when loaded up around eight thousand pounds which is well within the capacity range of this f-150 and it did tow that very well if you all are looking to buy one of these and you're looking to tow more than about 9000 pounds see if you can stretch your budget just a little bit to get one of the coyote v8s from 2011 and up but yeah this transmission and gearing don't do this engine any favors you can put tow haul mode on which keeps up the rpm a little bit um and doesn't shift into overdrive it'll also engine brake a little bit i don't know if it was an option or not but this did not come with a trailer brake installed my parents had a trailer brake installed here it wasn't too difficult [Music] overall the suspension uh has held up pretty well with time sure it's not really the most modern but a lot of vehicles by 11 12 years old especially american vehicles would need a serious suspension refit if you wanted to retain any sort of handling capability right now we're close to 164 000 miles um you often see these trucks and most trucks for that matter breaching 200 000 miles plus so i don't have much worry that this is going to get to 200 220 000 miles with a few caveats there's a couple design flaws with the 5.4 triton and for this video i'm going to be talking more so about the 3-valve triton the engine's main flaw lies in its oil circulation the passageways that allow the oil to flow through the different parts of the engine and make sure that they're lubricated or designed to be too narrow which can lead to oil starvation in certain parts of the engine this is specifically why so many people have cam phaser failures in their tritons now although this is a design flaw the issue can usually be deferred or prevented entirely by routine oil changes every 3000 miles even if you use high quality synthetic oil it's only when the owner goes a little too long in an oil change at the passageways start to get gunked up the deferred maintenance by the owners can lead to other internal wear including timing chain guideware so the key to owning a more reliable triton is by keeping the oil fresh and clean a couple other design flaws with the three valve tritons have to do with the spark plugs which can vibrate loose and break people have actually reported their spark plugs physically shooting out of their engines due to threat failure the spark plugs themselves have these long aluminum tips that can physically react and bond with the steel inside the spark plug port causing the plug to break when you try and remove it one flaw with these engines that's pretty much impossible to prevent is the exhaust manifold gasket failures this is caused by different expansion rates between the materials used in the headers and the exhaust ports by consistently expanding and contrasting at different rates during engine warm-ups the gaskets become worn and the manifolds themselves might even crack so these are the major recurring problems of the late 5.4 tritons so how many of these problems have manifested in the f-150 that i'm driving well so far only the exhaust manifold gaskets have needed replacement now you might be saying that's the only issue they've ever had with this engine yeah it's the only issue they've ever had with this truck isn't that nuts it's people ragging forward for not being reliable but in such a competitive market like the truck market they have to be one small issue is that the step rails tend to freeze over in really cold weather especially when it's wet but the issue resolves itself when the weather warms up the frame is surprisingly rust free especially having spent its whole life in new england but the corners of the cabs are starting to see a little bit of rot and same with the rocker panels i think the only other slight issue my parents have had was they brought it to ford a while back and ford had to re-flash the transmission i'm not sure they didn't have to replace the transmission or do any repair only reflash it in the sense it's been better [Music] i am six feet tall and that's not really gonna play into effect here uh this is what american cars do i think it's a regulation the front seats actually can't recline past a certain point because it's a safety thing if you're far enough backwards and you're getting a front-end collision you're just gonna right underneath your seat belt i think it's kind of dumb this does it my mustang used to do that my friends sierra does that as well all right we're gonna see if they'll sleep in the back seat sam can you try and close the door what do you think no you can't sleep like that so let's try all right see now you're gonna slam it shut let's see if i'll fit okay we have one more option i'd like to try that's not gonna work this bed is the shortest bed configuration you can get because it has the longest cab configuration you can get with f-150 it's around five and a half feet long i have tried this though and it will sleep me horizontally kitty corner but it's not that comfortable i did not pass the will it sleeping also hindi car guy segment and of course last but not least i have to mention the four wheel drive system it's shift on the fly four wheel drive you have a two high four high and four low switch here it's pretty quick to shift it does have a limited slip rear end and combined with these ko2's the four by four in this truck is pretty kick ass turn off the traction control and i have bombed through a field of foot and a half deep snow once that was with the stock tires so traction not an issue ground clearance also not an issue especially thanks to the retracting step rails [Music] i'd say if you can find one of these used um just know the limitations of it no don't expect it to be a new truck but i think it will serve you right if you take care of it alright everyone thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it consider subscribing consider liking the video and i have plans to do a lot more of these how well has it aged videos where we look at older cars and see how well they've held up to the use and abuse that their owners have put them through all right take care bye bye now

Channel: Not-So-Handy Car Guy

Views: 151,705

Keywords: f150, 2009 f150, 5.4 v8, triton v8, 4.6 v8, high mileage, problems, off road, overlanding, towing, payload, 3 valve, 3v, reliability, unreliable, ram, sierra, silverado, 5.7, 5.3, not so handy, eric the car guy, 4wd, awd, 4x4, four wheel drive, transfer case, interior, the car wizard, humble mechanic, american trucks, ford vs chevy, f150 vs ram, f150 vs silverado, f150 vs tundra, Toyota Tundra, hauling, camping, tongue weight, platinum, supercrew, comfort, road trip, cargo capacity, mpg, mileage

Id: E3VeGi9JP6w

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2021