Well I've owned my 2011 FX4 for about 3 1/2 weeks now. Hands down, my biggest "creature comfort" complaint is the crappy door detent rod. The one that is SUPPOSED to firmly hold the door at the half-open or fully open position. What the heck? The "halfway" position is weak as water and only allows the door to open a few inches. I tried to fix a floor mat at work today while my truck was parked between two cars. There was plenty of room on both sides, but I couldn't let go of the door because it wanted to drift out too far and hit the car beside my truck. Please tell me there is a fix or replacement detent bar that allows the door to actually open to the halfway point and firmly stay in place?

 

http://www.northlightlabs.com/#2848

Try here. I don't know if any other aftermarket part exists.

 

THANK YOU!!!! That's perfect. I'm just really glad it's not just me. HOW could Ford screw something like that up. Doors have been opening the right distance for decades.


Does anybody know if this annoying problem got corrected on the 2012 models or above? And, if so, could a person get a set of the later model rods as a fix for the problem?

 

It's a common complaint, one I have also. I'm not motivated enough to do anything about it though. I believe that all 09-14 models use the same detent arm.

 

As mentioned, this is an old and common complaint. I have to assume that Ford has a reason for doing it this way but I can't figure out what it is.

 

My wife has a 2011 Expedition, which has an "older" styling throughout as compared to the same year F-150. The door detent rods on it work perfectly and hold the doors at a nice "half-open" position that allows easy entry and exit from the vehicle. A person can actually trust them to hold the door firmly, unlike the ones on the F-150. I noticed it is a completely different design, and the rod is actually curved on the Expedition. So it obviously cannot interchange with the F-150.

 

My 13 had the same problem. I purchased and installed the detents from Northern Light Labs too

 

Northern light labs claims their part is made from a genuine ford detent bar.
So one can probably modify the one they have, should you not want to spend $90.00.

$90.00 seems like a reasonable price to me tho.

 

+1 to this hero. I just got a 2012 Fx4 Super Crew for my work truck and promptly door-dinged my wife's beautiful 2010 black Expy Limited. So the $90 for the Northern Lites detent bars, although steep, is much cheaper than repeatedly repairing my wife's truck. By the way, the detents on the Expy are rock solid and appropriately located.

 

Considering they use a 5 axis CNC machine and OEM detents to start with, I think it's a very reasonable price.

Some more info on how they're made: Door Detent 3.0 by northlight labs | How It's Made

The passenger side was a bit challenging to install. Here are some pics of when I did mine: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post13297024

 

the door detents from Northlight are awesome. I wish I would have spent the money a few dings earlier.
They are still an issue on the 2013 model. And you are correct as our 2011 Expy does not have the issue.