1994 Ford F150 XL review from North America

The seat belt latch jammed up and would not release at around 40,000 miles. Had to cut the belt. Dealer replaced the belt no problem, safety parts are required to be replaced by the feds.

The oil pan gasket has leaked for the last 20,000 miles replaced it two times so far. Without any luck in getting it stopped either. I just checked again for a different type of gasket and it looks like NAPA might have a couple different ones this time. Hopefully they will have one that is reinforced with steel, like they did the 302 pan gasket. This is a real problem on ford trucks. My dad has been a for mechanic for the last 30 years until his retirement last year and he tells me some times they would use up a few gaskets just to get one that would not leak. The gasket material they use for these things is very lightweight. The secret is not to tighten the oil pan bolts to tight. So far I am not doing it right, maybe next time.

I have had to replace the strut bushings a total of three times on this truck. The black bushings are not any good. I believe now this is fixed the bushings now sold for this are white and very hard. If you need to replace these make sure you get the white ones!!

I have rebuilt the alternator one time on this truck, wore out the brushes at around 120,000 miles.

The idler pulley went out at about 130,000. When this happens don't buy the whole thing, just get the pulley and use the arm over. There is a really big price jump, and swapping them is really easy.

Now to the good things about this truck. I just turned over the 200,000-mile mark and it still runs the same as the day I bought it. I do a lot of interstate riding, about 90 miles a day when I drive this truck to work. It is geared 290 manual 5 speed so I bought it for this ride. The mileage is between 20 and 23 per gallon on the highway. Around town and pulling my boat this drops to somewhere around 14 to 16 mpg.

I am still running with the brakes, clutch that came on this truck when it was new. The alignment of this truck is very solid I generally get 70,000 to 80,000 miles on a set of tires. This is without rotating them. But please remember I don't do much turning or stop and go riding down the interstate. I do pull my 19ft bass boat with this truck. With the 290 gears and over drive transmission I don't get to use 5th gear much unless the road is very flat. But with care it does an OK job of pulling this.