Hi all,

I have a 2024 crew cab long bed XL 6.8L that I bought new in September of last year to haul my family and camper. I’ve got 5100 miles on it so far and it’s been a great truck at this point. There have been a few minor things that I’ve had to over look due to my perfectionist nature, but there’s one flaw I’m looking for some advice on. The hood hits the driver side headlight when closing. Yes, I’ve tried closing it more softly. Even put it all the way down and just pushed past the latch. It still bumps and leaves a slight mark on the headlight. I noticed this right after buying it and the service manager where I bought it raised the stop slightly and we thought that had fixed it. Fast forward a few months and I’ve realized that it did not. I’ve talked to a more local dealer about it and they are willing to look at, the question is when exactly and will they actually fix it without screwing anything else up. I have terrible luck with things like this. All that to say, I’ve been looking around online to see if I could possibly fix this myself. It seems obvious to me and the the service manager and one tech at my local dealer that the headlight is up too high on that side, 1/8-1/4”. They think it may have gotten pushed when unloading. That puts it too close to the hood. Does anyone have any idea if I’ll be able to shift it down slightly? I know the grill need to come off and I’m comfortable removing that and the headlight. I’m pretty handy and do almost everything myself, just not sure how much tweaking might be involved here. I don’t know exactly what the headlight attaches to and if it’s adjustable or not. I know, it’s under warranty and I shouldn’t have to do this and I don’t want to, but I also don’t want the hassle that comes with trying to get someone else to do it.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

Here are some photos for reference.

 

Well you got me curious about my 2025 F350 XL long bed CC 6.8 so I took a look at it.
Sure enough the same thing.


Top photo passenger side bottom photo driver side before.


Made an adjustment with about four turns to the left of this adjustment **** with the black top.



The after photo.



I would think it would need to be checked once in a while from vibration. The **** moved easily with finger twisting and has no locking nut on it.

 

You might want to put a drop of thread locker, permatex purple low strength. on that bolt

 

Thanks for the reply! I’m sorry to bring something like that to your attention. It bugs the crap out of me. I think the gap on my passenger headlight is appropriate. I could live with the driver side too but it hits in the inside corner where it dips down, leaves a little mark on the headlight. Does yours leave any marks on the headlights? Both of yours look pretty tight. Definitely better after adjustment. That’s what the service manager did when I brought it up. Can’t go anymore though because the hood is starting to peek above the fender. I really like the truck and don’t want to be petty, but it’s frustrating to pay that much for a vehicle and have the hood actually hit the headlight.

 

Why can’t your stealership adjust the stops?

two stops one one each side….like the adjust stops on appliances…not rocket science

 

They already tried that shortly after I first bought the truck. Can’t go anymore though because the hood is above the fender. I thought it was fixed. Just noticed recently that it still hits. I’m just trying to figure out how much of a mess will be to fix it further.

 

No there is no marks yet thanks to you pointing it out. Probably would have if more time went by.

Yea unfortunately I think yours may need additional adjustment on the headlight. It should be an easy fix.

 

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s that easy on mine. Raising the hood stop more pushes the hood further up above the fender. I think the problem is that the headlight is too high. The whole thing needs to move down.

 

Sorry I meant the headlight itself. Looking into it more the headlight does not allow for movement when installed. It looks from this video I found it is a simple on off install.

Maybe the mounting brackets on the headlight were bent or defective. The dealer should inspect it. If anything they should replace the headlight under warranty because it was damaged by the hood.

 

The passenger side isn't aligned right. Either the headlight, the fender or the hood.....something doesn't look right to me.

 

Yes I watched that video. I’m debating about pulling it all apart to see what needs to be done. I have such a hard time getting things done right by the dealer, I don’t even care about a small mark on the headlights. This isn’t a show truck, but I think it’s reasonable to expect the hood to not hit anything when it’s closed.

I think the passenger side is correct, but the driver side is not. The passenger alignment looks great in person and nothing hits. The driver side looks like the headlight is too far up in the fender. From what I’ve been able to find, the headlight bracket appears to sit on the cross member so I’m not sure what all needs to happen to adjust it. I’m afraid taking it back to the dealer is going to be a huge fiasco and I can’t be without the truck for weeks at a time.

thanks again for all help and advice!

 

Maybe the fender is too low. If it was raised, the hood could be adjusted higher to still align with the fender, and not contact the headlight.

 

Reading threads like these, my dealer may not like me so much when I get my truck in about a week - I'll show up with a scale and actually be measuring gaps for them to align everything. LOL.

I did it on my current truck...though they gaps were pretty good. The dings from being on the lot for almost a year they had to take care of though.

 

My 2024 is the same way, I did have some adjustment and was able to move the hood up.