Nabster
Has Slutty Mustangs
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2007
- Messages
- 4,582
- Location
- DFW
- Car(s)
- 1969 Mustang Coupe, 2019 Mustang GT, 2011 F150
Alright, I teased my purchase of something twin turboed in the Random Thoughts thread and people seemed to go wild with the possibilities.
Prepare to be underwhelmed.
It's a 2011 F150 Lariat Supercrew, with the Ecoboost twin-turbo 3.5L V6.
So what's happened is that my family's land and cattle company recently got a new ranch truck, and no longer needed the old one- this one. So they offered it up for sale first to family members at a price quite a bit below market value. And local FG hoodlums @Der Stig and @Crazyjeeper made me buy it.
After buying it and getting it down from the ranch to my actual possession it required a fair bit of work. Being a ranch truck, this was the vehicle used to get around the ranch, tend cattle, shuttle hunters around, and just in general serve as a tool to do work. It had just under 90k miles, has had a couple thousand dollars of recent work done including new front strut assemblies, evap/AC work, etc. Structurally it's sound, but it's quite apparent it's been used and not babied. Most of that ranch life was spent driving around dirt roads, in and out of the truck, windows down, in dirty work clothes. The entire interior was covered in dust, dirt, and some mysterious stains, and every side on the exterior has some dents and scrapes. It also came into my possession filled with a bunch of ranch detritus- various hand tools, electric fence testers, wasp spray, animal use only digital thermometers, and 2x4 scraps. I was off in some parallel universe and never took pictures of the before condition, so sadly you'll basically have to imagine it based on what's left.
After the first round of cleaning, which ruined many towels:
With Proof: 
The condition of the interior isn't so bad, the worst bit unsurprisingly will be the drivers seat, which isn't really all that bad for 90k miles of hard use. Luckily much of that time it had a seat cover installed.
It's a bit weirdly optioned. Almost no fancy options, but it does have full power adjustable, heated, and air conditioned leather seats, which are quite comfortable. Ranch Truck.
The sort of party trick of the Super Crew cab configuration is the ridiculous rear seating room. There's more room in the back seats than in the front seats of many other vehicles. They also fold up and leave a huge open space, with so much room for activities:
I've had a good laugh at being able to basically walk through the back seat area.
In any case, major problems included a lack of functioning keyfob remote and non-functional rear door locks. Job one after getting it in my possession was tearing apart the rear doors to investigate the locks. @Der Stig kindly helped out for much of this, clearly enamored by the irresistible manliness of the vehicle. Doors apart the lock actuator units were removed and determined to be packed up with dirt, inoperable. A run to the auto parts store for new ones, then some annoyance at refitting them (particularly with the use of T27 Torx screws) restored function to the rear driver door. The rear passenger door remained inoperable, and after further investigation it was found that it was suffering from a known issue- the door wiring in the flexible conduit from pillar to door had been abraded by the internal hard plastic support rod thing which had been roughly cut so the sharp pointy which terminates midway through the conduit and slowly cut its way through the 5 of the 8 wires in the harness. Luckily @Spectre was on hand with his electrical repair kit, so I bribed him with dinner to splice the wires back together while I continued along on other things.
A visit to the dealership determined the keyfob that came with the truck was non-functional. Likely circuit board failure. $173 later I have a new functional fob and will spend some time probing at the old one to see if I can resurrect it.
That job done and proper working locks again the next thing to tackle was the brakes. While stopping there was a strange sort of rattling metallic vibration noise in concert with a bit of squealing. After I crawled around under the car tapping on things with a hammer I found a small heat shield on top of the exhaust just after the headers which appeared to have been rubbing as there was a small spot of bare metal showing through the dirt. Some pliers to bend it back a bit and a length of safety wire for overkill killed the weird vibrating noise.
Before:
After: 
So on to the brakes, I changed out the front pads with theassistance heckling of @Der Stig on Friday evening.
They were due. Also caked with dirt. So much dirt. Also packed with dirt are the frame rails up front, which I discovered when the front wheels were off. Here's some grass growing inside them:
Ranch truck.
Saturday evening after a lovely lunch with the gang and @Misrabelle I returned to work to change the rear pads, which were a bit more difficult with their different design and the fact that one of the rear wheels was solidlyrusted stuck onto the hub. It required a lap around the block with slightly loose lugnuts to break that free.
It's probably due for a brake fluid flush as well. I'll be paying for someone to do that as I'm quite done with brake work.
Meanwhile up front while chasing down the non-functioning windshield washer fluid pump, I found half the cause.
That required a ghastly overpriced $36 new connector and more SpectreSplicing™ The other half of the problem was the mouse that chewed the wiring also chewed through the fluid hose, so I had to run a new section of line as well, resulting in much amusement as the truck dribbled all over me and the driveway.
With the brake pads all redone I piled @Der Stig , @Misrabelle , and @Spectre in with me and we went for a test drive and dinner. A short bit of brake testing and bedding in accompanied, along with a small demonstration of the drifting capabilities of the truck. Boost.
Today I also pulled out the little in-seat air filters to have a look. They matched the color of the interior, so I've since cleaned them. Before and after:
Still on the list is replacement of that drivers side tail light assembly, of which I already have a replacement on the way from eBay. The rear power window only opens halfway, so that will need investigation as well. And more cleaning. It's still rather dirty and will take some James May vent brushing to finish sorting out. The engine bay will also receive a hosing down at some point.
So all said and done it's a quite nice truck. It drives very well, is quiet and comfortable inside even at highway speed, and has enough pep to keep me mostly happy. That turbo lag is an annoyance as I'm much more used to direct throttle response, but I can make due. The main point of getting this thing that I now have a practical vehicle to move things and people with, rather than just my sporty cars. It's also already beat up, so I literally don't have to care about damaging the body, where I park it, or generally keeping it spotless. This is a true beater truck.
Prepare to be underwhelmed.
It's a 2011 F150 Lariat Supercrew, with the Ecoboost twin-turbo 3.5L V6.
So what's happened is that my family's land and cattle company recently got a new ranch truck, and no longer needed the old one- this one. So they offered it up for sale first to family members at a price quite a bit below market value. And local FG hoodlums @Der Stig and @Crazyjeeper made me buy it.
After buying it and getting it down from the ranch to my actual possession it required a fair bit of work. Being a ranch truck, this was the vehicle used to get around the ranch, tend cattle, shuttle hunters around, and just in general serve as a tool to do work. It had just under 90k miles, has had a couple thousand dollars of recent work done including new front strut assemblies, evap/AC work, etc. Structurally it's sound, but it's quite apparent it's been used and not babied. Most of that ranch life was spent driving around dirt roads, in and out of the truck, windows down, in dirty work clothes. The entire interior was covered in dust, dirt, and some mysterious stains, and every side on the exterior has some dents and scrapes. It also came into my possession filled with a bunch of ranch detritus- various hand tools, electric fence testers, wasp spray, animal use only digital thermometers, and 2x4 scraps. I was off in some parallel universe and never took pictures of the before condition, so sadly you'll basically have to imagine it based on what's left.
After the first round of cleaning, which ruined many towels:
With Proof: The condition of the interior isn't so bad, the worst bit unsurprisingly will be the drivers seat, which isn't really all that bad for 90k miles of hard use. Luckily much of that time it had a seat cover installed.
It's a bit weirdly optioned. Almost no fancy options, but it does have full power adjustable, heated, and air conditioned leather seats, which are quite comfortable. Ranch Truck.
The sort of party trick of the Super Crew cab configuration is the ridiculous rear seating room. There's more room in the back seats than in the front seats of many other vehicles. They also fold up and leave a huge open space, with so much room for activities:
I've had a good laugh at being able to basically walk through the back seat area.
In any case, major problems included a lack of functioning keyfob remote and non-functional rear door locks. Job one after getting it in my possession was tearing apart the rear doors to investigate the locks. @Der Stig kindly helped out for much of this, clearly enamored by the irresistible manliness of the vehicle. Doors apart the lock actuator units were removed and determined to be packed up with dirt, inoperable. A run to the auto parts store for new ones, then some annoyance at refitting them (particularly with the use of T27 Torx screws) restored function to the rear driver door. The rear passenger door remained inoperable, and after further investigation it was found that it was suffering from a known issue- the door wiring in the flexible conduit from pillar to door had been abraded by the internal hard plastic support rod thing which had been roughly cut so the sharp pointy which terminates midway through the conduit and slowly cut its way through the 5 of the 8 wires in the harness. Luckily @Spectre was on hand with his electrical repair kit, so I bribed him with dinner to splice the wires back together while I continued along on other things.
A visit to the dealership determined the keyfob that came with the truck was non-functional. Likely circuit board failure. $173 later I have a new functional fob and will spend some time probing at the old one to see if I can resurrect it.
That job done and proper working locks again the next thing to tackle was the brakes. While stopping there was a strange sort of rattling metallic vibration noise in concert with a bit of squealing. After I crawled around under the car tapping on things with a hammer I found a small heat shield on top of the exhaust just after the headers which appeared to have been rubbing as there was a small spot of bare metal showing through the dirt. Some pliers to bend it back a bit and a length of safety wire for overkill killed the weird vibrating noise.
Before:
After: So on to the brakes, I changed out the front pads with the
They were due. Also caked with dirt. So much dirt. Also packed with dirt are the frame rails up front, which I discovered when the front wheels were off. Here's some grass growing inside them:
Ranch truck.
Saturday evening after a lovely lunch with the gang and @Misrabelle I returned to work to change the rear pads, which were a bit more difficult with their different design and the fact that one of the rear wheels was solidly
It's probably due for a brake fluid flush as well. I'll be paying for someone to do that as I'm quite done with brake work.
Meanwhile up front while chasing down the non-functioning windshield washer fluid pump, I found half the cause.
That required a ghastly overpriced $36 new connector and more SpectreSplicing™ The other half of the problem was the mouse that chewed the wiring also chewed through the fluid hose, so I had to run a new section of line as well, resulting in much amusement as the truck dribbled all over me and the driveway.
With the brake pads all redone I piled @Der Stig , @Misrabelle , and @Spectre in with me and we went for a test drive and dinner. A short bit of brake testing and bedding in accompanied, along with a small demonstration of the drifting capabilities of the truck. Boost.
Today I also pulled out the little in-seat air filters to have a look. They matched the color of the interior, so I've since cleaned them. Before and after:
Still on the list is replacement of that drivers side tail light assembly, of which I already have a replacement on the way from eBay. The rear power window only opens halfway, so that will need investigation as well. And more cleaning. It's still rather dirty and will take some James May vent brushing to finish sorting out. The engine bay will also receive a hosing down at some point.
So all said and done it's a quite nice truck. It drives very well, is quiet and comfortable inside even at highway speed, and has enough pep to keep me mostly happy. That turbo lag is an annoyance as I'm much more used to direct throttle response, but I can make due. The main point of getting this thing that I now have a practical vehicle to move things and people with, rather than just my sporty cars. It's also already beat up, so I literally don't have to care about damaging the body, where I park it, or generally keeping it spotless. This is a true beater truck.
