'03 F-150 Supercrew:

Bought the truck used last year, and just recently needed spare tire down. Hex-Head key is nowhere to be found. Ford Dealer says they can't help - must cut winch cable to get tire down and install new winch to put tire back up.

Surely there is another way?

Any help?

 

I'm not sure the newer body style 2004+ truck has the same 'key', etc. You're kind of in the wrong forum. You should try the 1997 - 2003 forum at https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/f...splay.php?f=25

 

After having just paid to have my truck towed, after one of my BFG ATs shred to pieces, coming back from the ranch in 107 degree temperatures, and spending last Sunday afternoon, sitting on the side of a busy Texas rural highway, unable to lower the perfectly good *&$^ spare tire underneath, I wanted to see if I could keep everyone else from having the same problem.

By the way, I would like to thank all of the other motorists, including the Wise County (Texas) Sheriff's Department (passed by both directions, twice - 2 units at different times - I'm pro law enforcement, but that was ridiculous), who did not stop to see why I was on the side of the road for 4 hours in the blazing sun...as well as the Texas Longhorn fans who honked and waved (since I have Texas A&M stickers on my PU - I guess that makes it funny) while I was in full panic mode. I hope you all get coal for Christmas...

The problem:

1) My 2002 Ford F150 Supercrew XLT 4X4 was equipped with a spare tire lock, which is nothing more than a metal plug covering what would normally be the hole where you insert that long jack rod/spare tire lowering handle, to lower your spare. The "key" to the lock is supposed to be in the glove box or, in some instances, where the jack is, behind the back seat (on Supercrews). I bought my truck new and it has NEVER had one, which I recently found out, to my sweaty, miserable chagrin.

2) I later called several Ford dealers and was told that the spare tire lock "key" is specific to that truck and is NOT indexable/replaceable by the VIN at the dealer. If you lose the key, you are out of luck. The dealers also told me to cut the lowering cables or drill the "lock" out, and buy a completely new spare tire winch assembly. The offered no other answers but doom and gloom - same for the parts houses. They were wrong, so don't do it!!!!

What I did:

1) First of all, that "lock" can be popped out of the hole where the handle inserts, WITHOUT being drilled out, leaving you the normal area to insert the jack handle, like most other vehicles. The problem is that you cannot get to it unless the spare is lowered. The lock is nothing more than a small metal piece of poo, with a cute little design (as some have said, like a Coke machine/burglar alarm key) keeping you from that insert hole. I hate being kept from the insert area, even though I am married and accustomed to some of that, from time to time.

2) I removed my rear bumper (4 nuts - sorry you will have to do this, but it's easy), cut that stupid black plastic tube away (that goes to the "lock" area from the bumper), reached over the top of the spare with vice grips (you will need them - small ones are good), clamped them to the outside of the lock, and began the 1 hour process of slowly, incrementally lowering (by turning the outside of the lock - the shiny part - counterclockwise) the spare. The difficult part is that you can't get a full revolution of the "lock" because there isn't much room to work because of the spare and the crossmembers.

3) Once the spare was lowered and I got it off the truck, I unbolted the spare tire winch (also VERY easy - 2 nuts), ate a face full of dirt, and slid it off the crossmembers down into my loving arms where I thought of beating it against my house. Destructive, yes, but I couldn't get over the hurt of last weekend.

4) Once I had this down, I took a screwdriver and POPPED THE LOCK RIGHT OUT OF THE HOLE. Voila! Problem solved. You may very well be able to pop it out WITHOUT taking the tire winch out, because there is a hole in the crossmember that you can get a screwdriver in to pry the lock out, very easily.

5) Once the "lock" is popped out, you now have a normal jack handle insert hole and you can raise your spare back up with the handle and NO KEY or vice grips. No drilling, no new spare winch assembly, no dealer bill, NADA.

I am no mechanic, I'm over 40, and this whole thing was very simple. The worst part was slowly lowering the tire, but that wasn't bad.

I hope this helps someone - I have never posted here, but some of you helped me with making a decision about what to do, so I wanted to perhaps curtail some suffering for others...

Good luck.

 

Though I've never seen one, just want to thank you for the write-up that may help some-day, and to say your writing style is very clear (and comical).

Best,

GD

 

Welcome to the forum KellerAg and thanks for the great first post

 

i had the same issue with a 2001 f-150 it was my friends and we were on I-5 going to Fresno and it blew a tire. spent 20 mins looking for the key in the truck but no luck. decided it was just a flimsy lock and used the tire iron in the truck with the large flat head screwdriver on the end. i placed the flat part in the slot where the key would go and hit the end of the tire iron with a rock i found on the side of the road in 3 or 4 attempts the lock broke and fell out of the hole.

 

This thread really sent up a red flag to me for I do not want to get caught up in the high country on a 4-wheel drive road and not be able to change a tire because of some lock in the spare tire channel.

So, I have carefully checked by truck (2001 F-150 Gen III Supercrew 5.4 V-8) to see if I had the parts in question. With the jack were factory instructions and a lug nut wrench. It seems that the supercab and regular cab have this extension to the lug wrench (Parts A & B) but the Supercrew doesn't. Then I got under my hood and grabbed the jack handle, put it into the hole in the bumper, the black sleeve, and zowie, it turned and the tire began to come down. Either the previous owner (got truck at 25000 miles) had this lock removed or the Gen III's didn't have this lock. Just thought I would add this comment so that it will help others when checking for this same problem.

Mert

 

I rotate my tires myself. So I know where my key is. But if you have the bag yet, there is a keycode and a phone number to order a new one. I kept a copy of that sheet with the code and phone number at home in case I loose it. Also a copy in my owner's manual.

Now if you didn't do that and lost the key, I thought I read where "some" dealers have a "master set" of keys. I guess there's only like 20 different keys. You might try going to to the dealer and see if they have one of these. If they do, they usually let you try all the keys and find out which one to order.

 

As part of my regular preventive maintenance I check my spare tire. A couple times a year I will lower the spare to check its condition, clean, and check pressure. Although it hasn't happened to me yet, the last thing I would want to happen is to have a flat without access to the spare.

I advised a friend of mine who also has a Ford truck to check his spare on a regular basis. He has a house on the beach in New Jersey and didn't listen to my advice. He got a flat at 6:30 AM on the way to work and his cable to the spare was all rusted up. It took him two hours to free the spare while laying in the dirt on the side of the road.

 

Well, I bought my truck new. I don't remember any bag or key. I looked briefly through the truck, in the glove box, console, seat pockets, etc. No key! I distinctly remember when buying the truck mention of whether I wanted to keep the dealer installed alarm and wheel key. I declined. So now with the discussion in this thread, I wonder if said wheel key was the winch key and since I didn't buy their add on product they kept the key. I guess i will have to clean out the truck before I bad mouth the dealer too much.

 

I visited my dealer last week and discussed the problem with the sales manager. A very nice gentleman, he grabbed the attention of a young salesman and instructed him to take care of my problem.

After showing the young man what I needed in the owners manual and illustrating the lock with a strong flashlight beam, and a try of the handle by itself, he trotted off to the parts department. 15 minutes later he returned and said that a new key would be in the next day.

Two days later we finally hooked up again and he provided me with the new key/lock set. The new key, being a different pattern than the original, the key won't fit. So, now I need to make an appointment for them to install the new lock/key all at the dealer's expense.

Makes me a happy camper!

 

I just did this. I'm heading on a longer trip this weekend and thought I should have a spare so I head down to the tire shop and buy a wheel and have a tire mounted. I get home and WTF (of course used truck no key, so I come here and do a search). Mine was somewhat easier as I had no spare yet so nothing to lower.
I took the two bolts from the hanger and used my small vice grips to get some extra cable. I wiggled it around until I could get it out from the cross member.
Once out I bashed it with a hammer and screw driver (I figured either this will work or I buy a new hanger, this one is no good as it sits now). Well low and behold the lock seems like it is starting to move, this is where I giggle like a school girl. Anyway a few more smacks and out pops the offending lock. I mount it back up drop the cable to the ground and now I have a correctly mounted spare.
Thanks for the info guys.

 

Awesome write up kellerag. I can tell this will come in handy!

 

Well everything isn't as rosey as I was led to believe. While the dealer did order and provide me with a new lock/key kit, they want me to pay for the service department to install it. Kind of makes me mad and .

 

Thanks KellerAm for the excellent writeup. I got into this problem earlier this year without any spare lock key when buying used a year earlier. Luckily my co-worker has a 2001 Supercrew and I ended up borrowing his spare tire. Guess I best get myself dirty and remove the lock before putting this off too long. Hate to admit that this is a indeed drawback with the Ford on this glitch, and sharing this to my Chevy friends.