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I have a 2000 ranger offroad with the 4.0l engine and automatic. It now has 48,000 miles and it is on its fifth set of front hubs. Fortunately Ford keeps paying for them. I wanted to see if others have had this problem and get suggestions as to how to go about getting Ford to fix what is really wrong.
FWIW: When I worked at a Ford dealer in 2000 it was a problem. I did not consider it a good thing for hubs to be failing on practically brand new trucks. Many others have had the same problem. It is from water getting into the assembly and its been three years and no fix yet. Just document everything and hope they do not fail when you really need them.
FWIW: The autohubs in my 1997 (then only three years old) failed on and off and then entirely at 35k leaving me in 2x4 on a snowy and icy night. Even though it cost Ford over $600 per hub to replace them, they refused to replace them with cheap manual hubs. Now I refuse to buy any truck if it does not have manual locking hubs and a manual transfer case.
First of all, the hubs in a 2000 Ranger are not replaceable with manual hubs.
Second, just out of curiosity, what percent of the time would you say you drive with 4x4 engaged? Because I know people who do serious off-roading and have never had trouble out of these hubs, and I personally have never had trouble out of the operation of mine either at almost 75,000 miles.
The right front axle on my 97 Ford Ranger has a bind in it and therefore the right hub doesn't engage! I'm waiting for warmer weather to dig into it. I'm hoping that it's only the needle bearing inside the right side spindle that's bad. Of course, the shaft would be chewed up too!
Originally posted by WXboy First of all, the hubs in a 2000 Ranger are not replaceable with manual hubs.
That I did not know.
Second, just out of curiosity, what percent of the time would you say you drive with 4x4 engaged? Because I know people who do serious off-roading and have never had trouble out of these hubs, and I personally have never had trouble out of the operation of mine either at almost 75,000 miles.
The truck is offroad on average 2-3 times a month. Some weeks it is offroad everyday. My offroading is almost exclusively for work so it usually is wet farms fields, muddy trails, etc. No rock climbing But lots of mud and water.
With this particular truck the hubs have now been replaced 4 times. I haven't kept a set of hubs long enough for the Ford parts warrenty to expire. My interest is that since this keeps happening and has been happening since the truck was knew is are the hubs breaking a syptom or result of something else (axle, spindle, etc.)