I joined the Ecoboost Family yesterday!!

[OurJayco]

I have owned my 2006 Ford F150 Lariat for about 6 years now.
220,000 miles later, it decided it needed a rest. My wife and I went to a dealership to "look" at newer trucks.
After 3 hours, we drove away with a 2012 Ford F150 Platinum with Ecoboost!!






Anyone have any tips on a 2012 with Ecoboost that I should be aware of other than the spark plugs? This truck has 60,000 miles on it so I asked them to change the plugs. They are changing the plugs for me next week.

[Locky66]

Very nice looking truck.

[Flapper]

Mine also is a 2012, about 48,000 miles. Had one warranty issue with one of the converters getting plugged, seriously dropping the milage. Other than that, just routine maintenance. After over 10,000 miles over both east and west coast mountains with a 5th, still only 1/2 way through the original brake pads, and original plugs!
Mileage plummets in the winter - mostly due to the longer times for the engine to come up to temp. But now that we are in the 60's here in Minn., that shouldn't be much of an issue! Towing the 3500 lb boat in the summer gets me about 15 mpg. Towing the 8,000 lb fifth wheel gets 10.5 mpg. Goes up 6% mountain grades with the fifth like a scalded cat - passes all the trucks and most other RV's. Without towing, on 35W, it gets 20-22 mpg in the summer. My usual around the Twin Cities is 17.5 mpg

[t2daniel]

Nice truck! I miss the more comfy seats in my old F150.

Just make sure your payload rating is ok. Those high option trucks eat up payload like crazy!

[spoon059]

Nice looking truck. My only comments/concerns are the high weight of options on the Platinum edition and the lower payload. Of course if it has max tow and max payload, it might have more available payload than your old one.

[Seann45]

Tip.. after towing or hard driving let the turbo cool down for a few min. before shutting off the engine.. The turbo will last longer...

[Brownie]

Congratulations on the new EcoBoost and welcome to the club! Very nice looking, and should look great with your trailer. As others have posted, the SCrew Cab & 4x4 eat up a LOT of payload capacity, as does that fiberglass tonneau cover. Since that's not OEM, you'll want to get the weight from the manufacturer and subtract it from your available payload.

I love my EcoBoost, and it pulls my trailer with ease. I'd recommend you change the air filter often. Those twin turboes need a LOT of clean air to maximize fuel economy.

Enjoy!

[Plowtoy]

She's a beauty, there's nothing prettier than a white truck IMO! Let me know when she reaches 200K and I may be able to afford one by then :-)
The only thing I've heard about the Eco boost, is to leave it bone stock, don't do any output mods to the engine or computer, and especially the turbos (no HP programmer's). They are at their max output from the factory from what I've heard

[Plowtoy]

Originally Posted by Seann45

Tip.. after towing or hard driving let the turbo cool down for a few min. before shutting off the engine.. The turbo will last longer...

This is a very good tip. Not sure about the gas engines, but on diesels, you can buy an aftermarket remote start, that also can be used to allow the turbos to cool down. I think their called "turbo timers" and before you exit the running truck, you hit the button on the key fob and the system acknowledges it, then you turn the key to the off position, pull it out and once you exit the truck you lock the doors with the fob, the truck will run for several minutes and then shut off.

[OurJayco]

Originally Posted by Brownie

Congratulations on the new EcoBoost and welcome to the club! Very nice looking, and should look great with your trailer. As others have posted, the SCrew Cab & 4x4 eat up a LOT of payload capacity, as does that fiberglass tonneau cover. Since that's not OEM, you'll want to get the weight from the manufacturer and subtract it from your available payload.

I love my EcoBoost, and it pulls my trailer with ease. I'd recommend you change the air filter often. Those twin turboes need a LOT of clean air to maximize fuel economy.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the advise on the tonneau cover. That was my first concern. I like the look of the fiberglass covers, but not very useful for ME.






So I took the fiberglass cover off and replaced with the a roll up cover like I had on my 2006 F150.

[fielro]

Great looking truck, congrats

[Mustang65]

You will love your truck!!!

We had our 2012 ordered directly from the factory because the dealer could not locate the truck we wanted/needed in a 3 state area. So we ordered it from the factory (received it in less than 3 weeks - LUCKY).

There are a few things to check when you get a chance. If you happen to know the original dealer that sold/serviced the truck head over there and ask the service manager to pull the service log, as services (other than warranty work) do not appear in the Ford database. You will get an idea as to how it was serviced (if they used Ford). Ask them to pull a warranty work log, to see what warranty work was performed on your truck, do not go by word of mouth.

Depending on when your manufacture date was (ours was Jun 15, 2012) and if it was manufactured before, I believe it was Nov 1, 2012, you may encounter a problem with the Turbo-Intercooler/CAC when driving in very humid weather. It is a know issue by Ford and they have taken action on this issue. You may want to read this post on the Truckinginfo.com site.

Ford: Moisture in Cooler Causing Loss of Power in F-150 EcoBoost Engines - News - TruckingInfo.com

It goes into detail. Being in Florida, we took our truck on its 1st 500 mile shake down between Clearwater and Maimi in June of 2012 and yes it happened to us 2x. We (DW actually) were instrumental in forcing Ford to acknowledge this issue, through her constant harassment.

They replaced our InterCooler/CAC with re-engineered/modified units, now standard on all installs, since Nov 2012, and have not had any additional issues.

It is a helpless feeling when going to pass a truck and the RPM's wind up to 3000 and flatten out (no acceleration or power). Oh and it was a tropical storm that we ended up driving through the entire way to Miami. The engine service light came on and the service-department printout showed that cylinders 4 and 6 were miss-firing.

If you do not drive in humid weather (like most of the southern states) you may not encounter it, BUT I would take the necessary actions to ensure that the updates were completed and get it in writing from the dealer. If you plan on driving in the southern states make sure everything has been done.

Since then NO ISSUES, performed GREAT in the Colorado mountains, and down to the KEY's in December of last year.

Don

[William]

Check to see if the previous owner towed with it or not you'll need to put the fuse and relay in number 9 and 21 in the fuse panel. The 2011 I just bought the guy never towed with it so I had to get the fuse and relay from the dealer. I pulled with it the first time this weekend it was amazing compared to my Tahoe.

[Mustang65]

One more thing, you can go to the FORD sight and you can set up your SYNC account which will give you a vehicle report (our Ford prompts us monthly) sent to your email or you can do it manually and it will send the report. It gives you some information, not a whole lot.

Don

[William]

Thank you I will look into it so much to learn. Got my Fit mirrors today. Great look.

[SkyBound]

What is your published payload, by the way? It's located on a sticker inside your driver's door.

Good looking truck for sure. It was stated earlier in this thread to let the truck run a while and cool down after running it hard and long. This is for the purpose of cooling the turbos so the oil doesn't coke up after shut down. Ford claims that the coolant passively continues to flow and cool the turbos after shutdown, so running it after a drive isn't necessary. However true this may or may not be, I still let mine run a few minutes after she's been snorting.

I had one of those turbo timers on my Toyota Supra. I would turn the key off and leave the car and it would continue to run for a predetermined amount of time, shut off, lock the doors and arm the security system all automatically in that order. It was really slick but not required for my style of driving with the truck. That Supra got worked hard and I never once had an issue with the turbo.

I also switched to Mobil 1 fully synthetic 10W30 in the Eco. I'm a believer that premium synthetic is worth it in high heat, turbocharged engines. It stands up to the heat abuse and doesn't coke and carbon up like dino oil can. Change your oil often in that Eco too - the direct injection system can cause fuel dilution as some fuel slips past the rings. If you see your oil level coming up and smelling like fuel, you have this issue. Don't stretch change intervals... I get mine dumped out at 6000-7000km. And yes, air filters are a frequent change requirement. This thing needs to breathe!

[dennis b]

another nice truck!

[Canadian couple 1983]

Very nice!

[blderman]

Change your oil every 5,000 with high quality synthetic. Direct injection motors have a bit of fuel dilution in the oil and if you follow the oil change computer it will let the oil interval go way too long.

Also plan on spark plugs every 20-30,000mi Make sure they are gaped to .028-.030

[OurJayco]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

What is your published payload, by the way? It's located on a sticker inside your driver's door.

Hi SkyBound
I have attached a photo of the label on the driver's door. I hope this helps you.