Hi everyone, I'm my cousin's new "maintenance guy" for his sole company vehicle now, and I'm looking for help creating some sort of periodic maintenance schedule for his 2007 E-250 with the 5.4L motor.

I'm not a professional tech by any stretch of the imagination, but I know enough maintenance and repair stuff to get me by on my own for the most part, and just so you know, I'm new to the whole Ford thing, never having owned or worked on one.

I can start with some details. This is my cousin's company van, he uses it for his gardening business. it is never overloaded and he does not pull a trailer with it. A couple months ago was the first time I have worked on it. At that time, I replaced all four ball joints and the drag link and tie rod. Prior to that, he had replaced the front brake pads and the driver's side caliper, apparently it had seized. A couple days ago, he asked me to come down and look because one of the brakes was squealing intermittently. I inspected them, and found nothing to be alarmed about. There was normal wear and tear on the rear rotors and pads which were probably still at about 60%. I pulled them apart to check for perhaps a rock lodged in somewhere, but found nothing. After that, I opened the rear diff cover (Dana 60) to drain the fluid and inspect for any excessive wear or damage after he told me he has never checked it, and thought it was making some noise. Except for the fluid being black sludge, everything seemed okay. In two weeks, I will be replacing the rear brakes, since the noise has not gone away, and hopefully that solves it.

What I'm hoping for is suggestions for anything else I should be looking into, or maybe someone can help me create a periodic maintenance schedule,since the only ones I see available all stop at 150,000 miles, and this van has over 187,000 miles and still going pretty strong.

Thanks, folks

 

Welcome to the site..

Generally the scheduled or interval maintainances are just repeated, so even out beyond 150k you could just follow the Ford Service interval recommendations. But being a commercially used van, you may want to use a duty schedule that applies for the type of use it see’s, be it excessive idle times, lots of stop and go etc, more of a severe duty even if it falls short. Oils cheaper than engines as the story goes!

Brake pad squeal isn’t all that uncommon when cold, but should quiet quickly as they warm up. Be careful when purchasing linings as all are not equal, even if the same composition.. Some carry better attached and designed anti squeal shims. Graphite grease applied for slip and heat disapation helps as well, and new rattle clips/wear plates should be used when possible. Some lining kits only supply the linings.

 

Thanks, @Hayapower. FYI, I sent my cousin this link to order pads and rotors, since I won't be able to work on it until a couple weekends from now:

REAR 325.88 mm Premium OE 8 Lug [2] Brake Disc Rotors + [4] Ceramic Brake Pads https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EQMR44S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ISRNAbK7CAWPZ

Since my cousin has told me he has never done any fluids other than oil, I'm thinking I ought to just go ahead and change all of the rest of them (tranny, brakes, steering), as well as go ahead and hit all the zerks I can find.

 

Sounds like a plan

Being it’s had a caliper seizure and not overly uncommon given the mileage, but some to quite a few just push the caliper piston back into its bore to accept the new pads. Possibly causing collected debris at the systems low point to then be pushed backwards into the system, and sometimes can help hang up a caliper, used or newer. Harsh compressed air used to clean the caliper dust and baked on road debris prior to a piston bottomed or a combination of both.. Doesn’t sound like a caliper drag, but mentionable as a check as the pistons are being moved back for free and equal movement.

Coolant was replaced last? When was the last trans service/fluid exchange? The torque converter won’t have a drain plug which limits the pan drop to about 5 qts.

 

My cousin honestly doesn't know the last time they were changed. He didn't know that anything other than oil needs changing. Yes, apparently there are some people that exist that have literally no mechanical understanding.