Ok, I just took my 08 f150 4x4 in for a front end alignment. normally I take it somewhere other then the dealer, but It's just about out of warranty and I needed some other tsb's repaired. Anyway, they called me and said that I had a bent rear axle tube on the right side. They are telling me it's bent Forward !?! They want $2000 for a new rear and $600 labor !!! This truck has just under 30k on it, on road use only, and has never been in an accident. Are they trying to rip me off ?! How could I have bent an axle tube ?!?
What I'm asking, is there any way I can tell if it truly is bent ?? Something I can measure by ?? A way to put a straight edge up to it. And if is is bent, can I just Straighten it back out again ?? Maybe heat it up and pull it back with a come along or a hydraulic jack some how ??
I crawled under the rear and it looks fine to me. How do they see its bent ??
HELP ! Any suggestions ??

 

That sucks...did you happen to talk to the guy that noticed it being bent? Where his eyes pointing in different directions? How does it ride? I am guess if its bent its going to give you some sort of vibration...

 

dont heat it up. itll weaken the whole axle. take it to another "stealership" or independent shop to get another opinion. cause sounds like a load of ****!!!

 

Maybe you could jack it up, put it in drive, and hold a laser light parallel to the axle to see its bent...maybe a safer way would be to turn it by hand.

 

on another note...I am not even sure what the the axle tube is.

 

I assume they are talking axel housing, and they are talking about replacing the whole thing. If it where bent it would probobly have a bad shimy, grind, or something i feel that would make your axel inside wobble or even bind. I think it would all depend on the severity of the bend. Anyways I would get another opinion!

 

I do not imagine that they charged you anything (to date) for the alignment seeing as they did not finish the alignment. Alignment and tire wear equate directly. You should have a strong indicator with 30K on those tires. What is the tire wear looking like? If it is clean and even then take it to another shop.

On another note I would ask them if the rear housing (bent tube) would be covered under the warranty as a factory defect as there is no evidence of abuse to the vehicle.

 

Sounds like a classic rip off!

 

An 08 with under 36,000 miles, isnt that still under warranty?

 

Oh yea they charged me $90.00. They said they made as adjustment.The truck will drift to the right slightly. But I'm thinking a little drift may just be the road. I called a friend, who's a mechanic, and thinks there full of crap. He said there is know way I bent the rear tube without me knowing I hit something hard. By the time I got off the phone and to the dealer to look at the rear, (5 min away), it was off the rack and in the parking lot. I like the laser idea. I was thinking of removing the tires and put a couple nuts back on to keep the rotor tight. Then clamp a 4 ft level horizontally to each rear rotor. Then measure across the truck at both ends of the levels. I guess the two measurements should be the same. What do you guys think ?? My buddy thought I could take it to another shop but I aint made of money.

 

About the warranty. I called Ford. They called the dealer while I was on hold.
Ford told me they could schedule an engineer to come out and look at the rear maybe in a couple days!! I said, set it up. Next day the dealer calls me and said the engineer wont come out because the truck is 2 years old, and if it was a defect, I'd have known about it long ago.And there is nothing they can do about it.

 

But you never mentioned if you are experiencing abnormal tire wear, vibrations, noises or anything. I think it's all BS personally and I would run it if everything seems OK.

 

Have you scheduled an appointment with another dealership or alignment shop to have it checked out???

 

Sorry, I do have slight tire wear but that was there. I had another alignment about a year ago. again pulling to the right. same dealer aligned it. Didn't say anything about the rear then. I haven't scheduled with anyone else because I like to measure it myself somehow. Plus there's another $90.00

 

Sounds like a load of crap to me, try measuring the space between the wheels from center to center and see if its off, chances of a bent axle tube with out off roading or an accident are pretty slim....