WWW.BROKENSPARKPLUG.COM

PERSONAL TESTIMONIALS FROM PAST CUSTOMERS

Gary of San Jose, CA

To David Mahlmeister and to any Potential Customers:

"Blownoutsparkplug" saved the day for me! My son, Kevin, and four friends were traveling to Disneyland from San Jose on Thurs, July 26. About 20 minutes from Anaheim, my 1998 Ford Expedition had a spark plug blow out. Fortunately, Kevin stopped by an auto store, bought a plug & tools, inserted a new plug not knowing it was blown out, and was able to reach Disneyland. However, the plug blew out again at Disneyland. On Monday, Kevin had the Expedition towed to a Ford dealership. Ford said they could repair the blown out plug by replacing the head ($3000 or more) or repair the failed plug threads (Heli-Coil) with no guarantee because the fix would eventually fail again. It seemed like I had no choice and was arranging for Ford to do the repairs and renting a car for Kevin and his friends to return home. Once the Expedition was fixed, I would fly to Anaheim and drive back. Fortunately for me, my cousin found  "Blownoutsparkplugs" on line. David Mahmeister happen to be home (Santa Barbara) Monday and I called him. Rather than have my Expedition towed approximately 120 miles to Santa Barbara to be repaired, David drove (2 hrs) to the Ford dealership in Anaheim with all of his equipment, drove my Expedition to his mother's (a few miles from the dealership), and fixed the failed plug and replaced the other spark plugs. I decided I might as well give the vehicle a 100K tune-up since it was due in about another 15k miles). By 6:00 p.m., Dave returned the Expedition to my son at Disneyland ready to go. My son returned home at about 2:00 a.m. Tuesday morning in time for everyone to return to work. Dave saved the day for me!  All I had to do was make arrangements with Dave over the phone! He took care of everything else! The total cost was $1000 and all work is guaranteed for one year or your money is returned. I was expecting $4K-$5K and lost time from work. Considering the situation, things could not have turned out any better if it were not for David and the service provided by Blownoutsparkplug!!  Also, many thanks to David's mom who allowed David to do the repairs at her house!!

P.S. David was prepared to do the repairs in the parking lot at Disneyland by using a portable generator.

Gary Kawaoka
105 Moundhaven Ct
San Jose, CA 95111

408 578-3701
email: gkbunga@sbcglobal.net

Dawn of Gonzales, CA

Dave,

Thank you for coming to our rescue on Saturday afternoon. 

After having our spark plug blow out of the engine on the highway and doing a little research we were dismayed to learn that Ford would do nothing about this and it would cost us in upwards of 3000+ to get it fixed.  Luckily my husband found your website and we anxiously awaited your arrival on Saturday morning to fix our car. 

Dave and his son were both professional and a joy to deal with.  They were in and out in less than 4 hours allowing us to enjoy the rest of our Saturday. They explained to us what they were doing as they went along. 

Thanks for all the hard work and spending your weekend fixing our car!!!  It runs better now than before!

Dawn

Brinkerflower@yahoo.com

I have an used 99 Ford F350 V-10 with 125,000 miles. I got it at a car auction site and thought it was a good deal. Still do THANKS to RIC at Blownoutsparkplug, he is the plug guy.

A little background on myself, I've been told I'm a talented welder, I make cement pump trucks for a living I live in Gillette Wyoming and driving home one day I thought I had blown out a exhaust gasket so I drove to a mechanics shop.

Because this is my primary work vehicle I needed it promptly, they told me it was a sparkplug told me they could not fix it. They told me it was an aluminum head, with not enough sparkplug threads, they told me they thought there was a guy here in Gillette that fix it, called wife to come get me and I came home to computer looking for blown out sparkplug problem.

Because of my experience dissimilar metals I knew I had a greater problem, then that what could be fixed in a short time, I got on computer and the second web site I came to was Ric out of San Diego at Blownoutsparkplug, I E-Mailed him my phone numbers and he called me back within 20 minutes. I was a little confused not remembering I had given him my numbers, his promptness and professionalism is second to none.

Today's date is June 13, 2007 this all this happened on April 16th, the process to get Ric here to Gillette, was an airplane ticket and a drive of 300miles to get Ric to my truck and back to the airport all in 2 days. Thanks Again Ric.

I was contacted the next day by the guy who thought he could fix it he said his success rate was not as good as Ric's. I contacted another rebuild shop 150 miles from Gillette said they needed the head for 20 hours and the labor bill would of been double Ric's price. The local Ford garages cost was about the same as new head, minus half the parts, plus labor from my pocket.

I called Ric and set up appointment to get him here to fix my truck, Thanks again Ric. While Ric was here, he diagnosed other problems with two of my other Ford vehicles.

Thanks Again Ric,
Your friend Ron

Contact me at Brinkerflower@yahoo.com for references.

Phil.bostrom@gmail.com

Just wanted to say thanks for coming out and fixing my truck. The dealer wanted $5,248.00 to repair it! you saved me a lot of money and did a great job in no time at all. You found another plug ready to leave us and did all the repairs. Thanks for all the help and I'm sure you will be busy for quite so time to come! Thanks again for a job well done!

Philip Bostrom

ARTICLES FROM CONSUMER AFFAIRS
www.consumeraffairs.com

Michael of Santee CA (06/08/07)

Blown Out Spark Plug! I have a 2002 Ford Supercharged F-150 Harley Davidson Edition. I currently have 74,174 miles on it. I am the second owner of the vehicle. On my way home I heard a pop and the engine began to make a loud pop, pop, pop! I called my handy Ford Repair Advisor and he informed me that it sounded like a spark plug had blown out. I then asked if this was common and he informed me yes it was.

Engine years and types I was told were 97-02 5.4L and 4.6L in F150's and Expeditions. I asked if this problem was covered by the extended warranty since it was a known issue. To my surprise it was not cover by any warranty or Ford product recall. I am very unhappy with this since the repair quote was around $3500 to $4000 dollars.

I at this point was ready to abandon all hope since that type of cash does not grow on trees. With this type of quality in American made automobiles it does not surprise me to see foreign car sales above our own and see young Mr. Ford drive the company into the ground! Anyway in my frenzy to search the web for an alternative I found an Excellent and Professional Company that specializes in Blown Out Spark Plug Repair. The company's name is Ric's Automotive, you can find them at blownoutsparlplug.com.

I explain the problem and was quoted a fair price and the job was completed in one day versus the Ford alternative of a week or so without my vehicle and the high cost of a repair that should have been covered since in my opinion it was a Ford deficiency. The mechanic was knowledgeable about Ford not taking care of their loyal customers and provides a much better alternative.

This company will send a mechanic anywhere in the country to repair a blown out spark plug! They will also inspect, replace, and verify the other spark plugs and spark plug ports are free of debris and make sure they are in good repair, and not going to shoot another spark plug out in a week. The company is located in El Cajon, Ca and their Business number is (619)306-4700. Give them a call and maybe they can you like they helped me, since the Ford Motor Company won't help their customers.

Arvi of Temecula CA (06/06/07)

Well, chalk another one up on what appears to be a rapidly growing list of complaints. It started about 30 days ago when the #7 plug shot out on my 2001 Expedition. At that time there were still enough of the 3 threads for me to replace the plug as well as the coil as that was destroyed also. Then last week on May 31st, as my wife was driving home from school drop offs it blew out again.

This time taking what was left of the threads with it. I was out of town so she was careless for 4 days. Upon my return, I started doing some research on the net only to discover how wide spread the problem really was. Needless to say I was and still am thoroughly disgusted with Ford. I very rarely wish for anything bad to happen to a person or business but I truly hope that Ford goes out of business.

To turn your back on the very people that support your company is nothing short of heartless. I know it would be a huge bill to compensate consumers for this engineering blunder but hey, put out a good product and guess what - you won't have to worry about issues like this. Out of all this, there has been one saving grace in the form of Ric Mahlmeister. Ric is the proprietor of www.blownoutsparkplug.com.

After quotes of up to $4000 to fix this problem and researching do-it-yourself kits, I found Rics website and liked what I saw - especially the price! No matter where you are in the country, Ric will come out to you and fix your vehicle at a major fraction of the price a dealership or after market service station will do it for. I personally watched him perform the job and was nothing short of impressed. To take it even further, he replaced ALL the plugs and checked the threads of all the remaining ports - in short; he went above and beyond what anyone else would have. Professional, courteous and affordable do not begin to describe Ric and the service he provides.

Do yourself a favor and check out his website; give him a call and save yourself much heartache and most importantly MONEY. In case you missed it, his website is www.blownoutsparkplug.com. I've been considering my next course of action and am leaning heavily towards trading this money pit in for a Chevy. Since I cant get my money back from Ford I might as well never give them another cent. Chevy's may be more expensive but I have not found ANY problem such as this on the net.

Between the spark plugs, Firestone tires, burning down of SUV's, I can't believe they can look at themselves in the mirror everyday or sleep at night. That's my two cents. Good luck to all of you who drive Fords and if it happens to you - give Ric a call; he'll save you and your pocket book.

Mike of Victorville CA (06/03/07)

I have a 2002 F250 V10, I bought the 100,000 mile warranty and never had to use it. I never tuned the truck because it ran so well, at 190,000 miles it blew #3 plug. Everyone had a solution, from heli-coil to allowing ford to fix the problem, for thousands of dollars, on a motor with 190,000 miles. I went online to see this problem could legitimately be fixed. That was when I found blownoutsparkplug.com, check it out.

Doug of Sandy UT (03/29/07)

After reporting my experience (below), I was a little hesitant to spend $3500 on a new head -- or undertake the risky operation of putting in a helicoil type insert myself. Additionally, I worried about how long it would be before the problem reappeared on another cylinder. I was planning to fix then immediately sell the truck.

While searching the internet I found a company at Blownoutsparkplug.com with a Ford engine mechanic that focused on the triton engine sparkplug problem. They do the repair in San Diego OR anywhere they can fly to for a VERY reasonable price. Additionally, their experience is that Ford's torque spec on the spark plug is too low -- easily leading to loose plugs and eventual blowouts. They flew out to my house in Salt Lake City, Utah and -- for the cost of the plane ticket and $800 did the insert work, replaced the coil and all of the plugs and tightened them down to a higher torque spec. Ric, the mechanic said that in 250 replacements where they have retorqued all of the new plugs, they have never had a second plug blowout. I am now planning to keep the truck.

POSTS FROM FORD TRUCK ENTHUSIASTS FORUM
www.ford-trucks.com

ARTICLES FROM PAST CUSTOMERS WEB SITES

http://www.motowerx.com

Did your Ford Aluminum head engine blow a spark plug?

Well if it did, you are not alone in that department. The Ford Motor Company designed aluminum heads have a major flaw and there are simply millions of these affected engines out there. The 5.4 Triton seems to be the most affected. However the 4.6 and V10 engines do it also.

The jury is out on exactly why this happens. My Company 2002 F-250 popped the first at a little over 80k. #3 back on the passenger side seems to be the most likely to go. Then at about 100k the #3 plug on the drivers side went. Theories abound...Improper torque from the original factory install, to not enough threads in the head to hold the plug secure.

After two home remedy fixes the driver side plug blew again prompting me to find a permanent solution. The Ford dealership quoted me $2800 for one side and $4500 for both sides. "OUCH"!!! I use this truck everyday for my Electrical Contracting business and cannot be without it for several days. Now I'm pretty mechanically inclined and figured I would just do it myself if I had the proper tools. Soooo....with much searching of the web for threading tools, I had settled on three different brands with hope that one would do the trick...

Then I found Ric Mahlmeister of El Cajon, CA. His web site stated he would install a threaded insert in the affected hole, replace and torque all plugs, install a new coil pack and guarantee it for $650 at his shop. I called him immediately and was pleasantly surprised when he answered the phone even though it was late. The Time-Sert tool is $450, the coil pack is $50,(Auto parts store )and a set of plugs is $52. That's over $ $550 and I haven't opened the hood yet. Is this guy nuts? Well probably because he's an old Motocrosser from way back. But, $650 at his shop, all parts and labor, Guarantee, and a old motocrosser! This is a no brainer.

I unplugged the fried coil pack, disconnected the fuel injector, and drove 120 miles to his shop with an open cylinder. Cant hurt it. 3 hours later and (several MX bullshit sessions) I'm back on the road.

I love a man that perfects his craft and finds the science in it. Ford plug blown??? What are you waiting for?? Click the link below. And let him know Scott Johnson sent you.

We are now compiling additional comments from many of our customers and should be posting additional content very soon.


Note. Only minor spelling and punctuation changes have been made to the original emails