way2fasts

Hey everyone, i got a long story but I replaced my radius arm bushings last year, i took my truck into a dealership thinking that they would perform the service as how it is supposed to be done, picked up my truck never thought twice about it, well i had my truck on a lift today and i noticed that they cut all of the radius arm bracket rivets off and replaced them with screws, now i just found this out an hour ago and I am really pissed, i know that over time rivets will stay in place where as screws will start to move around, making the holes bigger and possibly leading to frame damage, I am going to go in tomorrow with a receipt of the work and tell them i didn't catch it until now, what do you guys think i should say or did i just get totally hosed. I know that i could have just cut the rivets and replaced them with bolts myself, but i wanted it done right and I paid a lot of money for it to be done improperly.

tass96

Thats how they do it nuff said if you want rivets do it yourself

sylver91

Did they put smaller bolts then the size of the hole?

jefpel

I replaced mine last year, used heavy duty bolts and lock washers. Haven't had any issues. Got the brackets from the pick and pull $25/each.

way2fasts

the issue i am having is that i took it to a dealership so that they would do it the correct way, which means dropping out the front end so that you can move the arm forward to replace the bushing, There was a reason that the factory chose to use rivets instead of bolts, overtime rivets will not loose their rigidity even with harsh weather conditions, where as bolts will expand and contract at a different rate than the steel around, which overtime could lead to them creating larger holes, thus having the brackets rattle around and destroying the front end ride.

anyone can cut off rivets and replace them with bolts, just because it can be done dose not mean its the right way to do it

4wheeldevil

did you get anything that said they would use rivets otherwise i dont know what you can do. i know that the bodyshop at the dealership i used to work at didnt even have the tools to replace rivets that big. they would use the bolts to line something like that up and either leave the bolts or butt weld the holes up. well you might be able to get them to do that.

way2fasts

yea that might be able to work, but i took it to an actual ford dealership, just assuming that they were going to do it right, but the actual rivets are not supposed to be touched, you are just supposed to undo some the springs, shocks and a few other things so that you can slide the entire radius arm forward without messing with the bracket. I have been looking at alot of f150's today and about 90% have the rivets still intact, with bushings that look newer

and the receipt just says replace front radius arm bushing, I have a feeling that this is just a lesson that I am going to have to learn the hard way

Warlockk

The reason the factory used rivets is because it is much cheaper and faster on the assembly line. The rivets are notorious for coming loose. It is not necessary to remove the bracket to change the bushing. It a actually is a lot if work. Technicians are paid flat rate so time is money. The only reason they would have spent precious time cutting out rivets and installing bolts is because the rivets were found to be damaged. Nuts and bolts are the factory approved replacements procedure and as a plus can be serviced when necessary. If your still concerned talk to the service manager or email Fords service line. A suspension part is not only wareented work but a liability concern. It's not something a service department wants to risk. To further ease your concerns many people on here have replaced those rivets with bolts due to failure and no one has reported a problem yet.

f150cam

when people install lifts they replace everything with bolts, you will be fine if people are driving around with 10" of lift and going through mud holes. aslong as the bolts are the same size as the hole, IMO i think bolts are better.

4wheeldevil

right before i moved from mn to va i had my radius arm bushings replaced. the right side was bad but since the local shop i took it to pulled the whole front end apart and the other bushing only cost another 20 i had them do both. for that and an alignment it only cost me about 120. that was a year ago everything is still good. they didnt need to touch the brackets.