I bought my 2022 Ford Lariat Powerboost this past February. In march it spent 29-days with the Dealer for the Exhaust Heat Exchanger Leak. I got it back and other problems developed. At a stop it would stay in 8th gear, the AC would freeze up and fail to work, collision warnings would sound for no reason, the headlight switch would randomly switch, and it had two recalls . I called the Dealer for help and he gave me an appointment a month later. I met the scheduled date and the truck stayed in shop another 10-days -- a total of 39-days in the shop during my first six month of ownership.

I got the truck back yesterday and decided to take a short trip down to Franklin, NC and on to Clayton, GA to test the truck, This would be 38-miles to Franklin, another 22-miles to Clayton, a total of about 50-miles.

The trip to Franklin was uneventful with no truck problems. We stopped at Franklin for about an hour then headed for Clayton. Ten minutes later, still in Franklin, all air from the Air Conditioner stopped and the cabin got very hot since the outside temperature was 85-degrees. I stopped on the south side of Franklin, opened the hood, and found all of the AC lines iced up, just as before.

I turned off the AC and left the fan on high. In about 4-minutes the ice was gone and the system worked okay. We drove another 10-miles and the air into the cabin stopped again. I stopped, opened the hood, and found the AC lines iced up. I ran the system with the AC off and the fans on high for a few minutes, the system thawed, and then worked okay. This AC problem did not happen again on this trip. This is a photo of the lines near the GA border.



On the return trip from Clayton, I had to climb three fairly steep mountain roads – one soon after leaving GA for NC, one leaving Franklin, and Balsam Mountain coming into Waynesville. For all of these climbs I was in Cruise Control with the speed set at 54 mph. When climbing all three mountains I got a lot of vibration from the drive train.

Upon arrival at home I tried to call the Dealer Service Department but could not get beyond the answering machine. So I drove to the Dealership and spoke with the Service Manager. He will call me next week when he has a loaner and I will turn the truck in for repairs. No doubt this will be another 10-days in the shop.

My work order from the last 10-days in the shop showed AC overcharged, reduced the refrigerant. Reset the "Shift Strategy" on transmission, could not duplicate the headlight or collision warning so no work was done.

The Dealer is working on a deal to take this 2022 Lariat back for a 2023 order and next week I will start with FMC for a buy-back. Nothing is ever easy!

I talked with the Service Manager at length about a buy-back from FMC since this truck seems to have problems. He said there are two options here. I buy another truck from the Dealer with the 2022 Lariat as a trade in or I request a buy-back from FMC. The Sales Manager,, is working on the numbers for a trade and I will press FMC next week.

I like the Lariat Powerboost and would like another one much like the one I have. Ideally FMC will buy-back my truck and give me the value for a trade on a new truck.

 

If the Dealer trades out the truck someone else is going to get stiffed on this truck as it will show only as a trade not as a LEMON or FMC buyback.

Not all buyers are savvy enough to ask for the service records on the truck along with the dealers not wishing to divulge this type info or playing the info down .

Please be fair to any other unaware buyers and make FMC buy it back.
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22,XLT,302a,2.7 payload package

 

Man I am so sorry about all the issues you have had. I saw your 8th gear problem in a thread a while back (at least I assume it was yours, that's a pretty unique issue so probably was).

I hope you get out of this truck. Every so often there is just that perfect combination of bad parts or whatever that gets into one truck, and it also won't be easy and just be something like a bad interior part, it will be stuff like transmission and A/C.

Definitely run from this truck. I know some will be like, "that's what the warranty is for, just get them fixed", and I say that in some cases as well, but not this truck. It needs to go back to Ford for a tear down and find out why all these things are wrong and how they can prevent it for future trucks.

There is hope though, my 2021 Lariat PowerBoost has been mechnically pretty flawless. My dealer visits have just been for the usual early 2021 stuff, the underbody insulator recall, waiting on BlueCruise updates, stuff like that. So I know a perfect truck is out there for you. I hope Ford makes the buy back painless and you can find one quick.

 

Thanks for the link. Truck goes in Tuesday will send him this link if he doesn’t know anything about the problem

 

Research your states lemon laws. I went through this on a Focus I had bought new. Legal protections in Iowa favor the consumer quite nicely (as it should be). In Iowa, mileage is prorated to 120,000 miles. I literally got 90% of total purchase price, including tax, paid back to me when I turned the car in. The overall process took about 5 months, mostly due to Ford's complete ineptitude on producing valid numbers for payback. I stuck with it, researched my states laws, and won out in the end, no lawyer needed. The laws give no wiggle room to the manufacturer.

They kept trying to fix the car in the interim, about 2 months before turning it it, they actually found the root cause problem and fixed it. I lemoned it anyway, since I no longer wanted the vehicle and was ready to be done with it. My 2018 F150 was my last chance for Ford and it has been problem free from day 1.

As part of the process in Iowa, after 20 days out of service (not work days, just days), you send a certified letter to Ford telling them, in short, you want the vehicle conformed to warranty. If they can't do that within 5 days of receipt of that letter, they have to buy the vehicle back or replace it, consumer's choice. A PCM that I was told was "on backorder" for 3 weeks magically arrived via next day air the following day, even my service manager was impressed. The fact is, they don't want to pull parts from current production for service, even though the same exact parts are going down the assembly line as we speak. Backorder parts for a current production vehicle is a myth/lie unless the production line is physically stopped, they just don't want to delay production.

I think of this every time I read a thready where somebody has had their truck at the dealer for a month, or they're working with sales to trade to the next model year. Unless that trade-in value is more than the pro-rated refund you would get through lemon law, you're leaving money on the table for free. Also, as stated above, if a vehicle isn't run through the lemon law process, the next owner may be getting screwed. And lemon law protections only apply to whomever bought the vehicle new.

 

Any new update about your truck, and the trade or Buy back?

 

I am in the middle of a possible solution at this time...

 

Having the same AC issue with my 2022 XLT Powerboost.
It likes to freeze up when it's 85+ degrees outside. Has happened multiple times on my long road trips this summer.
Took it in a month ago and they couldn't replicate the issue. Came home from a long road trip two weeks ago and went straight to the dealership because it was acting up.
It's at the dealer right now and hoping they can resolve it.

 

I wonder whether insulation would prevent the build up of ice.

 

Dealership said they researched my issue and found more similar reports in the system, since I first brought it in. Their solution is to replace the Evap Core. Parts are on order so we'll see what happens.