I have 15,000 miles on my F-150. My rear end was shuttering from day 1, my brakes squeak, and my steering wheel shakes when I'm on the freeway at 45 to 100 mph, and also when I'm stopping. Also, the seat seam split and I'm very careful about getting in and out of my truck. I took it to the dealer with 13,000 miles on it, and they told me that the steering wheel was shaking at stopping and on the road, because I didn't rotate my tires. They rotated the tires, replaced the clutch pack in the rear end, and the front roters. My roters were warped. The brake pads still had 75% life on them. They also ordered me a new seat cover.

However, the shaking in the steering is still noticable on the freeway, but not as bad. The brakes still squeak, and now there is a vibration throughout the whole truck when going 45-100mph. The dealer said it's vibrating because I didn't rotate my tires back when I needed too, and they tires are choppy from this.

But now, 2000 miles later the shaking wheel, the vibration and the squeaking brakes remain. I am very unhappy to say the least. This is my first Ford, besides my 76 Ford Bonco which I love. My prior two trucks were Chevy's and they both had 100,000+ when I got rid of them> Niether of them ever vibrated, or had squeaky brakes, or shaky steering, and I rotated them 2 or 3 times through 2 sets of tires.

So, I don't understand why my $40,000 truck is having these kind of problems so early on. Don't get me wrong, I love the way the truck looks, and it is very quiet, but having to take it to get fixed all the time, and still not have the problem resolved is very frustrating. I'm self-employed and don't have a lot of time to do this. I count on my truck day in and day out.

Very Disappointed,
Bill

 

bfab3 . . . there are many 04 f150 owners in your same boat. Do a search on any of the problems you've had and you'll see tons of info. I will say that you should take it to a different Ford dealer if that's how the previous one is going to treat it.

There is no way that occured from not rotating tires, and it's proven in the many threads and debates waged on this site in the past months. The problem is that they don't know what is causing it and they can't figure it out. No it's not happening in all of the 04's but it is in a great too many. Those that were lucky enough to get a truck w/o any of these problems love the truck immensly due to its many strong points, but can't understand the feeling of hopeless those of us with the problems feel by the inability of Ford to be able to rectify the situation.

Alot of people think that there are many different reasons for the vibrations/shimmies/shudders, etc., but there must be a common thread because they are all 04's and way too many of us are experiencing it for them to be isolated instances.

There are many routes you can take if you're not getting proper service (different dealer, DSB, Lemon Law) . . . Good Luck and do as I do, stay posted for all the latest info from around the nation. This site has helped many of us in one way or another.

 

Hang in there, I heard ford has already bought one of these lemons back already. I will keep taking mine back to ford till I satisfy the lemon law and watch out ford here I come. I demand to have one of the problem free fords as I truly do love this truck.