philosopheriam

Folks,

Before I begin, let me say that I DID read the related sticky in the forum...

Long story short, around 9000mi I began to notice a pop/knock/rattle in the steering wheel of my 2014 F150 Subercab 4x4 (built in April of 2014). My truck currently has about 14800mi on it. This rattle is not audible, but it can be felt in the steering wheel. It is difficult to replicate, as it does not occur consistently when the truck goes over small bumps or potholes - sometimes the problem will occur when the truck is going in a straight line down a smooth road with a few expansion joints or small bumps in it. However, the problem is definitely related to temperature, as the pop/knock/rattle is very prevalent when it is 85+ degrees outside.

Around 12000mi, middle of summer, I took my truck to the dealer from which I purchased it. I included a very detailed note including a description of the problem. My note was NOT given to the service tech, and after 5 days (had some other minor work done), I received my truck back with a line of BS and a note on the work order stating that they could "not replicate the problem" with the steering. This is the second time I have had a poor experience with my original dealer. It took them 8 days to replace 4 bearings in my transfer case and perform a TSB on the trans - warranty work does not appear to be their priority.

PS: By trade, I am a professional heavy equipment mechanic. I know how long repair jobs take...

Fast forward to last week (9/8), the pop/knock/rattle was really starting to drive me nuts, so, I took the truck to another local dealer, Fair Oaks Ford, 5mi from my house. I dropped the truck off labor day evening, and they were gracious enough to look at it the next day. Joe, the service adviser, called me early Friday to inform me that the tech did in fact feel the pop/knock/rattle in the steering, yet he could not identify its root cause. As a preliminary measure, they replaced the lower steering shaft and asked me to bring the truck back immediately if the problem continued.

After driving the truck for a few days, I was hopeful, and then the popping reared it's ugly head one evening when it was 81 degrees outside. I dropped the truck off at the dealer the next day (9/15), and this time, Joe called me and asked if the tech could drive my truck to/from work for the next couple days in hopes of pinpointing the problem. I happily agreed.

Today, I received a call from Joe and he claimed that the tech was able to replicate the problem *twice* and that I am NOT crazy. He also stated that they have gone through the suspension and front end multiple times and can't find any broken/loose/defective parts. Also, I sent him a link to the sticky in this forum about the aforementioned problem - he claimed that he read it and had reached the same conclusion - the tech is working with the engineers at Ford and the goal is to replace the EPAS rack under warranty.

Thus far, the communication and service at Fair Oaks Ford has been excellent - this is part of the reason I made this long winded post. Knowing that I had two bad experiences with my original dealer, Fair Oaks has gone out of their way to make sure that my problem gets solved. I genuinely appreciate this.

However, my other reason for this post is to let the crowd know that the 2014's are not immune to EPAS issues. I can only hope that this is not a recurring problem, as I really dig my truck.

According to Joe, if everything goes according to plan, my truck should be ready by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week (9/22 or 9/23). I'm lucky in the fact that I drive my service truck (I'm a field mechanic) to/from work every day and I am not in need of a rental. When I'm at home, I can drive the girlfriend's car. Unfortunately, for someone who does not have this luxury, diagnosing and replacing an EPAS rack might turn out to be a 2+ week affair.

RLXXI

That is a very exclusive club. They won't let me join with my 13.
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NASSTY

X2
Very few belong to that club.

Snowflake

I've had and 11 and now a 14 and still not allowed in the club almost a 100k between the 2. Some people have all the luck.

M0RRIS

Should I be careful with my 12 getting me into said club?

eyecandynsx

Its an expensive club to join if you're out of warranty... $1400 + for me...

philosopheriam

For those who haven't joined the club, is it because:

A: Your truck doesn't have the problem yet

OR

B: Your truck has the problem yet Ford refuses to fix it under warranty

shortride

iTrader: (1)

Because the dealer can not replicate the issue I'm not sure what you expect the dealer to do. I realize it frustrating when these thing happen but there's no magic wan can be waved to make it go away. I hope you don't expect the dealer to become parts changers until they find the issue.

Have you done any modifications to the truck? Some dealers are better than others. It like any other service. We expect the best but unfortunately that's not the real world.

philosopheriam

My truck is bone stock - the impetus behind my original post was to make light of how Fair Oaks Ford put some serious effort into replicating and attempting to diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, for a multitude of reasons, some dealers drive a truck around the block for 5min, decide that the problem "cannot be replicated," and send the consumer on his/her way. Without going off on a tangent, a big part of this has to do with how a dealer compensates its techs for diagnosis time.

RLXXI

When we had intermittent issues we would request the vehicle over night and someone, usually the person that lived farthest away from the dealer, would take said vehicle home, better chance of replicating the concern as it will be operated thru at least 2 heat up/cool down cycles. Dealer discretion.

Small town dealers are more likely to give better service.
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