I got my letter last week. My vibartion and steering wheel nimble are normal according to the DSB, who got their info from company statements. They had all the TSBs in my file and still have the nerve to say it normal. WHY IS FORD SPENDING ALL THIS TIME AND MONEY TO FIX THESE NORMAL TRUCKS ?
WHY DID I GET A LETTER FROM FORD EXTENDING THE WARRANTY ON MY TIRES FOR 36 MONTHS BECAUSE OF HARSH RIDE AND VIBRATION ? I don't know if the board has no common sense or is being paid off by Ford. I talked to my service manager and he told me the board denined another F-150 that has the vibration and an explorer ( dont know what was wrong )the same time as my case. I told him I wanted him to order every thing for the service bullentins and install them on my truck. I cant afford to get a lemon law lawyer and I can't wait 5-6 months for a lemon law case ( I have some money problems going on right now ). Because of my money troubles I'm stuck with this truck, I just hope one of these updates will really fix the problems I'm having. I thought I had an open and shut case, they had all my documents, I know they must have had other trucks with the same problems. I cant understand the reasoning behind their decsion, if anyone has some insight as to why a person cant see the facts staring them in the face please let me know.

 

Sorry to hear about your case.

Did you make a presentation to the board?

Did you rebut the company assertions that it was normal prior to the hearing?

Most Lemon Law lawyers do the first meeting for free and if they feel you have a case they will incorperate their fees into the judgement. Often just retaining a lawyer is enough to get things taken care of. When I retained a Lemon Law lawyer she told me that all she had to do was call someone she knew at Ford and the problem would get resolved. I never had to do this so I can't say if it was true, but it does make sense. Ford doesn't want to pay lawyers any more than anybody else

Is the service dept charging you for further repairs? One of the provisions of DSB or Lemon law is that if you are ruled against then those conditions are no longer considered "warranty" repairs.

Again, sorry about your case.

 

I got my letter last week. My vibartion and steering wheel nimble are normal according to the DSB, who got their info from company statements. They had all the TSBs in my file and still have the nerve to say it normal. WHY IS FORD SPENDING ALL THIS TIME AND MONEY TO FIX THESE NORMAL TRUCKS ?
WHY DID I GET A LETTER FROM FORD EXTENDING THE WARRANTY ON MY TIRES FOR 36 MONTHS BECAUSE OF HARSH RIDE AND VIBRATION ? I don't know if the board has no common sense or is being paid off by Ford. I talked to my service manager and he told me the board denined another F-150 that has the vibration and an explorer ( dont know what was wrong )the same time as my case. I told him I wanted him to order every thing for the service bullentins and install them on my truck. I cant afford to get a lemon law lawyer and I can't wait 5-6 months for a lemon law case ( I have some money problems going on right now ). Because of my money troubles I'm stuck with this truck, I just hope one of these updates will really fix the problems I'm having. I thought I had an open and shut case, they had all my documents, I know they must have had other trucks with the same problems. I cant understand the reasoning behind their decsion, if anyone has some insight as to why a person cant see the facts staring them in the face please let me know.

Sorry to hear about that, but unfortunately, you may have answered your own question. Lemon Law regs are quite specific on what does or does not constitute a coverered problem. The steering vibration falls into the same catagory as piston slap complaints- it's a nuisance, but doesn't impact the safety or reliability of the vehicle. As a general rule of thumb, it's always desireable to regotiate some type of settlement before the problem goes in front of the board. The manufacturers have a vested interest in winning Lemon Law cases, and frankly can afford better lawyers.

 

What state are you from? There is a website called lemonlaw dot (you know the rest) they are in 5-6 states and if they accept your case its free representation.
Tim

 

There are some auto/truck repair shops that specialize in diagnosing vibration problems. That may be a last resort since Ford is unfairly washing it's hands of your problem.

 

A few lines from my DSB settlement letter:
"The Preliminary letter the customer recently received outlined the Board's decision awarding the customer the option of having Ford Motor Company either replace the vehicle or refund the payments made to the customer's lending institution. The Board Determined that the vibrations/steering wheel concern remains unresolved. When rendering this decision, the Board was persuaded by the oral presentation and the Independent Inspection Report."

My complaints: driveline vibration between 45 & 65mph, steering wheel nibble 65mph+, rear scab doors not latching at the top (safety concern).

 

Does your state not have a lemon law? I've had to use the lemon law on 2 vehicles, the most recent being an 03 Mustang GT that pulled to the right. Of course Ford tried to blame it on everything except a manufacturer defect but the board saw through it. I would definately check with your state Atty General's web-page to find out if you have a lemon law.

 

Heres mine:

"The Board determined that the transmission,suspension/tires, and vibration concerns remain unresolved. When rendering this decision, the Board was persuaded by the customer's presentation."

My primary complaint: Driveline vibration between 45-65 MPH.

Secondary complaint: Rough transmission shifting.

Don't give up, take it to the next level if you have to. You will never be happy with the truck if you can't get it fixed and in the long run you will be willing to take a loss of several thousand dollers to get rid of it. You may as well dig in now and fight.

Think about this: If you try to trade it in and the repeated repair attempts and DSB rejection show up on the next dealer's computer or on a Carfax report you will most likely take a major beating. Your choice, fight now or get hammered later.

 

Hey Labrador, what kind of independent inspection did you have performed? Was your dealer also in your corner throughout the DSB process? I think I'm about to go through this process myself and I'm trying to gather all the info up front. My dealer knows there is a problem with mine and they are trying to fix it. They want it fixed probably more than I do.

 

Javelin389
The dealer will only do work on the truck that Ford will pay for. The service manager was netural in his writings to the DSB but told me that "one in four on his lot have some type of vibration, some more like mine and some less". The FSE drove my truck and his conclusion:” The truck is not abnormal" 2/20/04. The next week the first vibration TSBs came out. I had to email the FSE and tell him about it. Then he had to authorize the dealer to put a new driveshaft and the vibration suppression kit attached to the rear frame. That did not help and the FSE would not do any more work. (Many more TSBs have since been released about the driveline vibration and steering wheel nibble, "not abnormal" my Edited by admin
The DSB paid for and sent an independent inspector to “confirm or disavow my concerns”. The inspector was a retired GM engineer. He road tested the truck with me and sent a Vehicle Evaluation Report back to the DSB. The report had my description plus current mileage, condition of the truck, location of drive/length/time, weather, etc.
Results of tests preformed: "Vibration is present and steering wheel shimmies. Vibration and shimmy confirmed." If condition exists, is the condition abnormal when compared to a similar model: "Drove exact same model from the local dealer: no vibration or shimmy noted.”
In Georgia you must first use the manufacture's arbitration board and you give up your right to sue in court. If the DSB had turned me down I could have used the Georgia Lemon Law next but I still could not sue.
Former 2004 F-150 Scab owner

 

Thanks for the info. My salesman (VP of entire dealership) and the tech that has been working on mine, rode with me the other day and both of them confirmed my vibe. The tech doesn't have a clue as to the cause - and he's the one at the shop that has been working on the vibe trucks. Go figure. They're going to call our FSE and seek his advice as to the next step.

I guess you're better off going before the DSB if the dealership is standing behind your problems and are willing to put it in writing for the Board. I'm hoping that it doesn't come to that. I like my truck and would rather have it fixed. But after all of the TSB's were performed with no positive results, I'm not too optimistic.

 

I live in NorthWest Indiana (if anybody wants to come by and get a free truck I'll leave the keys in it)

Thanks for all the input but like I stated in the first post I'm having some money problems and it looks like the truck is going to haft to be turned back in. Looks like am going to be driveing a beater for awhile.

If anyone has free money to give me let me know.

 

I also had a vibration problem in my 04 super crew 4wd lariat. We first noticed it one month after we purchased the truck. At 65-70 there was a vibration in te steering wheel, hubby said it felt like a tire balance problem, I took it to dealer, they checked balance but said that tires ok. They said that there was a SB on a vibration. They then put in...new front end parts w/no improvments being made, next step new drive shaft, worse than before, then new rear axle, no change. Before they put in a new transmission they said that they would have to road force balance the tires, no change. Then they had a engineer from FMC come down and hook it up to his fancy computer, found out that the drive shaft they put in was bad, put in another new DS, vibration gone. They took about 2 months to go through all this. I made 4 phone calls to the Ford motor company customer service. and I got the phone number for the rep. After one rep got transfered from our area (what a jerk) we got a new rep who refunded 2 months payment and gave us a maintenance warranty that covers everything. Took me 2 1/2 weeks to get check, but at least it was something. Still not happy w/truck but like you feel stuck with it. I was told by the service manager that ALOT of the new 04 f150's have vibration probs.

 

Hey folks read this, I've had two clutch pacs one ring and pinion, two new rotors, idle reset, several balance and rotates alignments, and still have a strange feel in the steering when turning at low speeds. Plus a few other items, oh the dealership hit my truck too! The Ford rep (kimberly) gave me an extended warranty for the problems they are having with it. Her last suggestion was DSB. I've done this once before and hate it, but looks like I'm headed that way. I have 22k presently but my steering problems started at 8k and reported. We need to flood Ford with these problems. Keep this up and in 10 years they won't be here. My Service rep is (rick) and he is the worst I've seen. (LIAR)

 

I won my dsb and will get a new truck or money back (my choice). I had the truck in for vib. 8 times but they actually only did something 4 times and did not have any more TSB's so I filed and won.
I now dont know what to do. Do I take a chance on another F-150 or get money back and drive my old 94 scab with 200k miles? At least it does not vib. and runs almost like new.