Ruggers

Well, I had my truck in for my 30K oil change/tire rotation last week and thankfully, as I pulled up to service door, truck started 'whining' on the front end so I was able to have the tech ride with me and he heard the noise! what's funny is that every tech that rides with me knows exactly what I'm talking about and have seen this in a lot of trucks. So I will work 3-4 hours from the service center today so they can replace/lube/whatever they do to make the noise stop. I will be talking to the dealership & service mgr asking more questions as I'm considering taking this issue to corporate. I agree with JAMIE930 that they are NOT FIXING the issue, rather putting bandaids on it and when the mfg warranty runs out, we are all screwed. This is not a new issue-it's been a quality defect from what I can tell for at least 7 years and they can't figure it out. I will update the group here on the results

FordService

I understand where you're coming from, Ruggers. I'll keep an eye on the thread for an update from you.

Brittany

Johndspencer

I agree. They replaced both IWE's on my MY15 with less tha 3000 miles on it. Issue showed up within the first week of purchase. The LEAST they should do is offer a free extended warranty.
There's one of two issues going on. Poor design or poor manufacturing. Each component in the vehicle is supposed to be validated over extreme temperatures (-40C to +95C) and conditions (hundreds of thousands of cycles without failure) to ensure the design is reliable. It's also validated under these same conditions to ensure that the manufacturing of the part is reliable. Most likely these parts are designed and manufactured by a tier one supplier. Every failed part should be returned to that supplier for root cause analysis. Ford should be all over this supplier to provide a corrective action plan to resolve the issues. Until that point we as consumers, need to continue to have the defective parts replaced every time we notice an issue. The supplier will be responsible to reimbures ford for every defective part ( including labor). If the bill gets large enough because of a extreme number of repairs, they will be forced to improve their design or manufacturing process. It appears that they haven't reached that level of discomfort to the pocket book yet.
It appears that the issue is a leaking seal within the IWE itself so that it cannot maintain a proper vacuum to fully disengage the gear from the hub. On my vehicle it was more prevelant during cold temperatures (cold temps causing components to shrink causing a temporary seal failure. Once the part warmed up, the components expanded and the seal functioned again. If your dealership is having a hard time troubleshooting the issue, suggest that they check the vacuum on the part in a cold state (the part should function properly down to -40 degrees). This can be done while still on the vehicle by simply removing the vacuum line from the IWE and placing a vacuum pump and gauge in it. If you're lucky enough to live where it doesn't get cold enough, a can of freeze spray may do the trick.
Sorry for the long winded rant......

powerranger262

If all the defective parts need to go back, they are going to need one hell of a huge *** building. One for IWES, one for fpdms, one for idler and tensioner pulleys, one for cam phasers and timing components, and so on, and so on.

Hammer8

Ruggers & Brittany
I am having the same issue with my 2012 F-150. The dealership fixed the issue last year, but I just noticed the noise is back. Is there a permanent fix in the works? I really don't want to go to the dealership every winter. Like it has been mentioned before they wont work on it unless they hear the noise - even though they know what the issue is by the customers description.
Hammer8

FordService

Thanks for reaching out about this, Hammer8! What's the current mileage on your truck? I'll research any available options. As I'm not a technician, I can't speak to permanent fixes, and definitely suggest having the dealership take a look and diagnose your truck.

Brittany

Ruggers

just getting back now...dealership took care of me but still no answers about root cause, any current actions to determine root cause, etc-problem still unknown and heard the "now they're telling us to lube the pins" regarding corp telling the dealership how to address the issue. The tech told me again, "we see this problem here on a weekly basis" which doesn't make me feel very good about my new IWE's and probability of future failure as he followed that up with "Ford hasn't been able to provide a solution yet."
Ron (Customer Service Reg. Mgr) followed up with me and after explaining my situation, he said I have no worries because I'm covered through 2020 because I bought the extended warranty at time of my truck purchase (thank God I did that). I asked him if there's a current corrective action on this issue and he had no clue and referred me back to the dealership for answers. I told him about this forum and asked him about the folks who don't have the ext warranty, he said he's not concerned about them, just about me and this current customer complaint.
Bottom line, as consumers we need to be the squeaky wheel if we want any action to be taken. I will again, follow up with the service mgr at the dealership and post here what his response is but I don't anticipate any earth shattering news. BTW, I still haven't found any tendencies when the noise occurred-cold, warm, washed, dirty, etc...it's extremely erratic and this past occurrence, the noise became very loud one weekend so much so I was concerned something else was going on but once the IWE's were changed out again, all the noises have ceased #frustrated

Ruggers

and here's my response (email) back to Ford's customer care response center:
Sarah-

Ron (regional service manager) did follow up with me but was very unhelpful in terms of providing any answers regarding my specific vehicle issue or providing any information on this known issue with the IWE’s and if/how it’s being addressed at corporate. All he was concerned about was ensuring me that because of my extended warranty purchase, I will be covered until 2020. He did absolutely nothing to reassure me this issue is being worked on, provide information about the history of this problem, etc.

As a consumer and working for a large corporation who is very customer focused and has a relentless pursuit of quality with continuous improvement baked into our culture, Ron’s response is unacceptable. I have not been given any sort of information on this issue, I have a forum on social media going where other F150 owners are experiencing the same exact issues and are getting the same exact responses from their service departments. I’ve asked for feedback on any sort of corrective action being conducted at Ford and my question has continued to go unanswered which is disturbing and creates a sense of distrust for me as a Ford truck owner.

I’m going to continue to follow this up through other channels until I get what I feel is a reasonable response from somebody at Ford who can provide me with a root cause (analysis) and a corrective action that is being implemented and executed as any manufacturer should have when it comes to quality and customer satisfaction.

Thank you
John

Johndspencer

Brittany, what about us that didn't buy the extended warranty because we didn't know we were purchasing defective parts? You can see in Ruggers post that the dealerships don't care. They just replace the part and send the bill to Ford if it's warranted or expect the consumer to pay if its not. And frankly this isn't a dealership issue, it's Ford Enginerring and Ford corporates. Anything you can do would be appreciated.

Hammer8

Brittany,
I am at 38,800 miles...I do have the extended warranty, but that doesn't help when the same exact parts that I already had changed twice go out again after I reach my warranty.