I have approximately 66,000 miles on my 2013 F250 truck and noticed a small drip from the front drivers side around 40,000 miles. That random drip is now a leak and the truck will be going into the shop to replace the Primary Radiator.

I absolutely love this truck, but what a disappointment that this isn't a recall. What scares me is that my buddy who has a 2014 F250 will be going in for his second primary radiator in 3 years of ownership.

I was wondering if anyone has made this repair out of pocket and a had a roundabout cost, so I don't puke when I get the bill.

Thank you!

 

~$1200 I've seen other mention in their posts.

 

Thanks for the heads up! Because of my location I am going to assume ill be charged closer to $1600 for the same job.

 

This such a joke on owners. How can Ford get away with long time ongoing Rad problem?
My first 6.4 went through 2 rads before I finally got fed up with it and got rid of it.


Took me until 2016 to buy another F350 6.7L Now rad problems again.
I was really debating hard to go the 6.2. I love diesel however and this truck so far, hope I did not make a big mistake.

 

Ya it's pretty disappointing that this is an on going problem, and even after spending $1600 to have it repaired there is the possibility of it occurring again.

 

LaxPlaya21 - Yup... it's one of those annoyances for sure. And even Mishimoto's have failed. There is some design flaw, but the weird part is that some trucks eat radiators and others nevr see a failure. Really wish we could figure out why that is. As some people that expect to kill radiators, don't.

 

Never has lost a radiator. My 6.4 was fine as well as my current 2013.

 

My 05 never leaked either in the 10 years I had her.

 

But...they are pathetic. Should be like radiators used to be made.

 

I believe the radiator problems started with the 6.4l. My brother had a 2011 and had his replaced around 80,000 miles. He has the ESP and Ford covered that and a turbo issue. He was told he had about $6K of work done. He was very happy he had the ESP.

I have an ESP on my 2012 F350 but haven't had to use it yet but only have 46,000 miles on it.

 

Don't hold me to this but, I believe it has to do with the off-road driving a lot of torsion in the front twist in the radiator. All I can tell you is most gentlemen around me that are younger guys seem to have radiator failure then me just driving down the highway hauling tons of weight my 6.0 never had a radiator problem, while my friend had Three replacement he was an big Hunter always going off road just saying don't know if that's what the causes his. There have been plenty of videos explaining how the front of these trucks twist and the little rubber bushings go bad up front causing failure I posted a video from one gentleman who even broke the aluminum aftermarket radiator.

 

I think I've not heard of gassers from 2008 thru 2016 having this issue.

 

I guess I should have purchased the ESP, but they wanted $4100+, for an additional 3 years 60,000 miles. Truck is going into the shop Thursday for the repair, hopefully it is a quick turn around.

And, the only time the truck was off the road was going down on the beach. Nothing aggressive at all.

While I was at the dealer I did test drive a new F350 Crew Cab Lariat. MSRP was $76,000!!! It was definitely a beautiful truck. Ford did a real nice job. The only thing I was disappointed with was center part of the dash and around the Nav. It just looks really cheap, it also looks like the Nav is a smaller screen (might just be an illusion). Oh and one other terrible upgrade they made was the keyless ignition. So if you turn on the truck get out, run back in the house to grab something and accidentally put the key down on the counter you can return to your truck still running and drive away. Which means you could end up 60 miles away and if you shut off your truck... that is where she stays until someone brings you your key!

 

For those reading this thread, don't give up on the ESP based on the price at your local dealer. They will GIVE you the truck, if they can sell you the ESP, much more profit in that for them than the truck. Check Flood Ford or one of the other online discounters. Same ESP, from an official Ford dealer, much lower price.

 

But not all ESP will cover the radiator replacement. I've got the diesel care plus but it only covers the drive train, meaning the block and anything bolted to it. Anything connected to the engine via hose or wire is not covered.

My truck is getting a new radiator right now and I'm going to have to pay. All I can say is at 129,000 miles this one has lasted longer than any previous I've had since 2008. My 2008 truck went through 4 or 5 of them, my 2011 truck went through 2 and a water pump. This 2015 has been much better.

Why some fail and some don't? I have no clue. I tow heavy and for thousands of miles/month but other people who do the same don't lose radiators. Some folks never tow anything and just commute to work and back and they lose radiators. It would take a very detailed and large sample size study to figure this thing out.

And no, the 6.2 doesn't have this issue. But believe me, if I had to tow what I tow for 40 hours a week behind a 6.2 I'm quite sure I would have shot the 6.2 with my 9mm by now...