Photo: Bull-Doser / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain. Representative of the generation, not necessarily this exact model year or trim.

13th Generation · P552 · 2015–2020

2018 Ford F-150

First aluminum-body F-150 (2015). The big trap is the transmission: the 10-speed did not replace the 6-speed in 2017, it joined it. Through 2020 the base V6 is still a 6-speed. Match parts to your engine, not to your model year.

About the 13th generation F-150

The 13th-gen F-150 is the one that went aluminum. Ford swapped the steel body for military-grade aluminum alloy in 2015, took about 700 pounds out of the truck, and kept the steel frame underneath. It worked - fuel economy went up, payload went up, and the truck outsold everything else in America for the entire run. It also gave a generation of owners a body panel that dents if you lean a ladder on it and a body shop bill that assumes your shop has an aluminum-certified bay.

For maintenance, the thing to understand is that this generation is really several different trucks wearing the same sheet metal. Six engines were sold across six model years, two of them turbocharged, one a diesel that only existed for three of those years. Two transmissions overlapped from 2017 to 2020 - the 10-speed did not replace the 6-speed, it joined it. So the oil, the filter, the plugs and the transmission fluid your neighbour's identical-looking F-150 takes are quite possibly not the ones yours takes. Everything below is sorted by engine for that reason.

What owners like, and what they complain about

The good and the bad on a 2018 Ford F-150, from the things that actually come up — not a balanced-for-the-sake-of-it list.

The good

Aluminum body does not rust. Ten-year-old trucks in salt states still have clean bedsides and clean cab corners, which is not something the steel generations can say.
The 2.7L EcoBoost is the quiet win of the range - it tows more than people expect, returns real fuel economy, and has been the most trouble-free engine in the generation.
Parts are everywhere and cheap. It is the best-selling vehicle in the country, so filters, plugs, pads and batteries are stocked by every store in America and priced accordingly.
5.0L Coyote V8 trucks routinely pass 200,000 miles on ordinary maintenance.

The watch-outs

3.5L EcoBoost cam phasers. A cold-start rattle that turns into a repair bill; Ford extended coverage on 2017-2020 trucks under CSP 21N03, but the program has an expiry and plenty of owners have aged out of it.
10R80 10-speed shift quality on 2017-and-later trucks - harsh 1-2 and 2-3 shifts and a light-throttle shudder. PCM reflashes fix many trucks and not all of them.
Aluminum body panels dent more easily than steel and cost more to repair, because the shop needs an aluminum-certified bay and separate tooling.
Six engines in one generation means a lot of wrong parts get sold. Buying by model year instead of by engine is the single most common mistake on this truck.

Which engine do you have?

A 2018 Ford F-150 left the factory with one of these 6. Your oil, oil filter, air filter and spark plugs all follow the engine, not the model year. Pick yours and the shelf below narrows to the parts that fit it.

How to tell which one is yours

Engine identity is NOT on the driver-door Safety Compliance label. Two places on the truck carry it: the underhood Vehicle Emission Control Information label, which prints the displacement in liters, and the 8th character of the 17-digit VIN, which is Ford's engine code. We have not sourced Ford's 13th-gen VIN-position-8 code table from a Ford document, so we do not publish a code-to-engine mapping - use the underhood label. The fender or tailgate badge is a fast visual check on most trims, but it will not tell a standard 3.5L EcoBoost from the High-Output version, and from 2019 a Limited can be either.

Which trim?

Some parts were only fitted to certain trims, headlights being the usual one.

The series name is on the driver-door Safety Compliance Certification label and on the truck's own badging - front fenders or doors for XL, XLT, LARIAT, KING RANCH, PLATINUM and RAPTOR, plus raised LIMITED lettering on the hood for Limited. Do not mistake a package for a series. FX4 shows as FX4 Off-Road decals on the bed sides and STX shows as STX decals on the cargo box, and both of those trucks are still an XL, XLT, Lariat, King Ranch or Platinum underneath - read the fender badge. The definitive answer is the window sticker or the vehicle-order sticker, usually inside the glove box or on the driver's door, which lists the equipment-group code and every package by name. Two quick visual tells: 22-inch wheels mean Limited, and a noticeably wider body with flared fenders on a 4x4 means Raptor.

The seven retail series below are the complete retail ladder. The five 2015 series are quoted at their start, Limited and Raptor are quoted at theirs, and the 2020 end rests on the 2020 brochure giving each series its own equipment-group page - we quote the XL and Limited headings from it, not all seven. Two things are deliberately not in this list. Fleet configurations - the XL SSV and the F-150 Police Responder - are ordered through the fleet channel and are enumerated under option_packages. And Ford's equipment-group codes (100A/101A, 300A/301A/302A and so on) are the real ordering axis inside each series; we have not enumerated them because that needs a Ford dealer order guide for every model year and we only obtained four.

Which cab and bed?

Floor mats, liners and covers are cut to the body, so a set for one cab does not fit another.

Two checks, either one settles it. BED - measure the box floor from the front bulkhead to the inside face of the closed tailgate, along the floor. Ford's own figures for that dimension are 67.1 in for the 5.5-foot box, 78.9 in for the 6.5-foot box and 97.6 in for the 8-foot box, so a tape measure cannot get this wrong. The boxes are named for a nominal length, not the measured one. CAB - count the rear doors and look for a back seat. Regular Cab has two doors and no rear seat at all. SuperCab has four, but the rear pair are short, hinged at the back, and only open once the front door is open. SuperCrew has four full-size, normally hinged doors and back-seat legroom close to the front. Cross-check on wheelbase if you like, but note that SuperCab with the 6.5-foot box and SuperCrew with the 5.5-foot box are both 145.0 in - the cab check breaks that tie. On a Raptor the box is always the 5.5-foot box, so just count the doors. The driver-door Safety Compliance label does NOT state cab style or box length.

And which transmission

2018 Ford F-150 buyers had a choice of 6-speed automatic (6R80) or 10-speed automatic (10R80). They take different fluid, so it is worth knowing which is under yours. Driver-door Safety Compliance Certification label, the box marked TR. Code "6" is the six-speed 6R80, which the 2015 manual prints as 6R80E. Code "G" is the ten-speed 10R80, and no code table carries that row before 2017 - on a 2015 or 2016 truck the table has one row, because there was one transmission. If you have no sticker, count the gears on the shift display. Do not use the model year to answer this from 2017 on - that is the year the ten-speed JOINED the six-speed rather than replacing it, and the two overlap through 2020.

What fits a 2018 Ford F-150

Products whose own fitment list names this truck, graded the same way as everywhere else on the site — for how well they work and for what they do to the person using them. Ordered by how often you will be back for one.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure

Fitment here is our research against manufacturer catalogs, not a test fit. Check any part against your owner’s manual before you buy. How we source fitment

Motor Oil

All 18 motor oils that fit →

The one part of this list that is different for almost every engine in the generation. Check yours above before you buy a jug. Check yours first.

Pennzoil Ultra Platinum Full Synthetic 5W-30 Motor Oil

Motor Oil · Pennzoil

Ultra Platinum Full Synthetic 5W-30 Motor Oil Top Pick

CCT
Score7.6*/10

Health8.5Env5.0

About the 13th generation F-150

What owners like, and what they complain about

The good

The watch-outs

Which engine do you have?

How to tell which one is yours

Which trim?

Which cab and bed?

And which transmission

What fits a 2018 Ford F-150

Motor Oil

Oil Filter

Cabin Air Filter

Engine Air Filter

Automotive Battery

Brake Pads

Brake Rotors

Headlight Bulb

Spark Plug

Car Floor Mats

Windshield Sun Shade

What changed for 2018