Zeus Liger

Dear Ford,

You can’t write this script any better or shall I say worse. The start of my family’s annual trip to Mammoth Lakes, CA started off amazing - having just purchased a 2017 F150 Limited Fully Loaded with every single bell and whistle you could order, we were stoked to get in this over the top badd *** truck and take it up to the snow for the first time. Up HWY 395 and we are crusin, everything going great - the interior, the options, the cabin room and the ride in general was perfect (Damn I love this truck!!). As we got closer to the mountain, snow started to fall and I put her into 4x4 - felt like a dream.

The next morning is when this F150 dream turned into a nightmare. A quick trip down to the grocery store to load up for the long weekend, snow storm and Super Bowl Sunday - 4x4 the whole way and everything was still going as planned. While leaving the grocery store parking lot @ 5mph, (still in 4x4) we heard a huge CLUNK that came from the front left wheel well. At first I thought it was a big piece of snow caught up wheel well but this one wasn’t breaking free. It was similar to the standard clunking you hear when cars shift into 4x4 but since it was already in gear from the start, it didn’t make sense. As I pulled out into the snow covered street, I rolled down the window to see if there was a flat tire or chunk of snow still stuck in the wheel well, nope.. As we continued back up the road, the front driver side wheel felt as if it was hitting a speed bump on every single rotation, I knew right then something went MAJORLY wrong. Broken axle under 600 miles????

This is AWESOME! I just spent $65k on a fully loaded truck, have a wife, 2yr old, 14yr old and family friend on the journey and we are now stuck without 4x4 and have a storm on it’s way ready to dump another 3 feet in the next 48 hours. No problem, let’s call Ford Roadside Assistance - I’m sure they’ll hook us up since we bought all the extra warranty stuff as well. Gave them a call only to find out that they can’t do anything for us other than tow the truck to the nearest dealer which was 42 miles away. Okay, fine... things happen right.. what about a rental car since I am stuck here with my family and have no transportation? Sorry sir - that is on you, roadside assistance doesn’t cover that. Are you F’ing serious Ford? Do I really have to spend 5 hours on the phone tracking down someone who can help me? Apparently... Yes.

Instead of a 4 day fun family getaway, this was a 4 day Ford disaster trying to get transportation so we could make it out of town in time instead of getting stuck for additional days due to road conditions. To add insult to injury, Ford happened to be sponsoring a Mammoth Mountain snowboarding event so I got to see a ton of Ford marketing and promos while my brand new baby was being towed away only to find out that the Front Axle had broken inside the boot. Is this a sign of more issues to come? Does the steel on the other axle have the same issues? What if this happened when I was going 75mph with my entire family in the car? Should I have just got the Denali? What about the rust all over the bottom of the truck I saw on day 1? Is that a sign of future steel failure?

So here we are, it’s Tuesday (4 days later), I still don’t have ANY status from Ford on my vehicle other than the diagnosis of a broken axle, it is still @ the dealer it was towed to and they still haven’t ordered the part from the factory. Ford, this is NOT the way to treat a customer who purchases your TOP OF THE LINE TRUCK. Get your **** together - compensate me for a blown 4 day trip with no accommodations (loaner vehicle, rental car, etc.) when things went wrong and deliver my truck back to my house ASAP!!

Martian

Wow... strong first post.

I can appreciate how you feel about your truck breaking, but I have to admit, deciding to take a brand new truck on a HUGE trip before even its first thousand miles - let alone one which you could reasonably expect to use 4x4 - was a terrible idea. Things have to have time to either break in or just break. New stuff breaks. They do. They break. That's why warranties are there. Things on brand new things break. I cannot repeat that enough. Everyone knows that, which is why warranties exist.

Regarding a loaner car / truck, I can understand your pain there too, but that's up to the dealer, not Ford corporate. That's a common topic around here. The warranty doesn't include a loaner, and you never signed anything that guarantees you one, sounds like.

I hope it's fixed for you quickly. Lessons learned, methinks.

spotdog14

Is your truck lifted? Seems to be a lot of space in those wheel wells.

Undercover Brother

iTrader: (4)

There is never a good time to have a break down. So all the other circumstantial inconveniences are just that, an inconvenience.

As to spending $62K, that does not get you any better luck than the guy who spent half. Just your turn in the barrel. True test will be them fixing it and honoring the warranty. Any angst or expectations of being made whole because of a bum trip is not going to get resolved by Ford other than honoring their warranty.

Zeus Liger

No, it came stock with 275/45R22's which makes it sit like that.. I thought it looked a little weird too but that's the way it came.. I think the 22's dont allow for a thicker tire..

species8472

Looks like the truck was leveled if not lifted. 275/45R22 still gives you 32" overall so it should look the same as any other stock vehicle.

Pierce330

Gorgeous truck! Good thing for warranty. I am upset with frozen locks, never mind a Limited with a broken axle...

Zeus Liger

Tru tru.. I get it undercova, but still lame that something like that breaks under 600 miles.. I'm just concerned about the rest of the vehicle at this point.. Did I get a lemon? Is that rust that I saw from day 1 an indicator of future steel issues on the other parts? I can't afford to be in the mountains again and break down regardless if they honor the warranty or not. Knowing they aren't going help you when you are stranded doesn't help my confidence either..

Martian

No, a lemon is all dependent on your state's lemon laws. To me, it sounds like it's just a flawed part that needs to be replaced. That happens. That's why I mentioned it was a bad idea to take brand new equipment on such a demanding trip. On paper, it would've been fine, but in reality, your equipment hadn't been battle tested and given a chance to break yet before you actually needed it.

Did you purchase rust protection? Like some kind of coating? If you did, tack that onto the list and get it fixed while you're there.

ns_redneck

that sucks your truck broke. but the bare steel under the truck will rust. it does it on them all. did you have the truck hopping in 4 wheel drive are anything that is a pretty odd failure.