Pissed at Ford Engineers!!!

[lancerdood]

My bet would be Costco did it. Had tires mounted on my wife's car and specifically asked the guy up front if they use impacts and he said no. Came back later to pick it up and noticed it was missing 1 lugnut. Went in and asked why and they tried to say the lugnut was bad. I asked to see it and they dug it out of the trash and you could clearly see it was striped by an impact when they were taking it off. I went out and checked the others and 3 more were also damaged from impact.
Automotive manager told me to pound sand when I asked for replacements. So I spoke with store manager and not only did he replacement them he gave me 20.00 store credit. But the best part was he chewed the Automotive manager a new asshole right in front of me.
Wouldn't hurt to ask Costco to replace it.

I think I tend to agree but now I am stuck replacing it at a cost of $180. Live & learn. Now that I know it's a weak spot I will be telling anyone who touches my truck beforehand and calling it out before & after any service. I have to get my front end aligned next so this will be called out when dropping off my truck for that!!!!

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[lancerdood]

The location of these suspension sensors is almost as idiotic as the trailer light/brake plugs.
First upgrade I did after buying mine & researching these things was the armor for the sensor.
Now I just need the confidence to cut into my plastic trim to relocate the trailer plugs.

Agreed - now that I know, I know. Yes, the trailer plug will be my next move as well. I bought the ride height sensor armor covers and will install those ASAP.

 

[lancerdood]

Wo Ho, $20! That's 13 hotdogs!
Good that the manager set them straight. Costco is supposed to be customer oriented.

So, what's the purpose of ride height sensors? Does it adjust something in steering or suspension, or is it just for automatic head lamp adjusting?

Ride height sensors are a super important part of the dynamic suspension and computer control - with a broken or F'd up one the suspension modes, steering modes don't work and your ride will be all F'd up.

 

[BrrRaptor]

I think I tend to agree but now I am stuck replacing it at a cost of $180. Live & learn. Now that I know it's a weak spot I will be telling anyone who touches my truck beforehand and calling it out before & after any service. I have to get my front end aligned next so this will be called out when dropping off my truck for that!!!!

I would speak to store manager and ssk them to pay. Mine had no issue. They are customer oriented.
My father always said It doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[Havasu RR]

So I did the 2:1 spacer lift on my 2025 Ranger Raptor. I did the front myself and all came out fine. I was too busy with work to do the back so I paid someone to do it. I then got new 35" K03's mounted on Bronco Sasquatch wheels I picked up. All good so far.....I then went to set the new ride height VDM in FORScan. When I went to do this it showed some crazy settings for the rear (see photo) and threw a bunch of errors and now I have a service error on the dash. Long story short, I found the culprit. The right rear ride height sensor got broken somewhere between the guy I paid to do the rear spacers and Costco mounting the new wheels/tires. Not sure who to blame. So. I am stuck buying a new sensor (Pt# MB3Z5A967G) at a cost of $180. My anger at Ford stems from the fact that the FU*KING arm on the sensor is made out of PLASTIC!!!! WTF!?!?!?!?!?! This thing hangs pretty low on the truck and is susceptible to damage and being plastic sure doesn't help (see photo). I just got back from the Ranger Raptor Assault in Utah and even asked those guys "why the hell is this made out of plastic"? They simply said, "those Ford Engineers can be a little crazy"

What a nightmare.! Hopefully the part will be here by Friday and I can get back on the road with the VDM set and all working.

Truck looks great though

IAG Trail Shield™ Lower Trailing Arm Sensor Relocation Kit for 2024+ F – IAG Off-Road https://share.google/EMVmFjyOw5uPf4pSg

 

[some_guy]

As an engineer this 100% is not an engineering fault. It’s the bean counters. An engineer would always prefer to over engineer something rather than design something to a price

So please go easy on us engineers. Blame the board room wankers instead please

Yep, if you want to see the last truly engineered driven cars look at 80s and 90s Mercedes Benz. Engineers now are subject to the demands of every other department in the company, such that their job is just to "make it work", with those parameters dictated to them. You know they shed a tear when they are told to put the battery inside the passenger wheel arch, only accessible by taking off the liner and wheel, [cough] GMs.

 

[OxygenMask]

Yep, if you want to see the last truly engineered driven cars look at 80s and 90s Mercedes Benz. Engineers now are subject to the demands of every other department in the company, such that their job is just to "make it work", with those parameters dictated to them. You know they shed a tear when they are told to put the battery inside the passenger wheel arch, only accessible by taking off the liner and wheel, [cough] GMs.

We had a 14 Dodge Challenger 5.7 manual, and a 05 Dodge Magnum wagon, AWD 5.7 (rare.)
Under the hood they were near identical, except the Challenger has a cabin air filter and no power steering reservoir! Turned out power steering pump is electric, and located inside the p/s wheel well, completely inaccessible....

 

[Lion77]

Why dont you just replace the ball stud with a stainless unit?

GOAT Ride Height Sensor Pivot Ball Upgrade

Note that Ford already uses a steel ball on the lower part of the sensor arm.

To install that you drill out from the back side the molded in pivot ball and thread that one in.

In order for that to fail, the entire arm would need to snap rather than just the ball stud.

Btw maybe someone in the US makes the same thing or you can find the ball stud size and order one.

Heck maybe 1/5th scale RC ball studs might even work for upper links, you can find stainless ones at hobby shops.

Losi 5.8mm Ball Stud

 

[Lion77]

Do you have a calipers you can measure the ball stud diameter with?

Might be worth saving the broken one and installing a ball stud in it for a spare. Thats basically what im recommending.

But as others have said, ive yet to see one break during use. Its always because people doing lifts forget to disconnect them so far! Id make the mechanic reimburse you, he should have been diligent enough to know that, all Raptors have ride height sensors now and many other vehicles do too.

 

[lancerdood]

Do you have a calipers you can measure the ball stud diameter with?

Might be worth saving the broken one and installing a ball stud in it for a spare. Thats basically what im recommending.

But as others have said, ive yet to see one break during use. Its always because people doing lifts forget to disconnect them so far! Id make the mechanic reimburse you, he should have been diligent enough to know that, all Raptors have ride height sensors now and many other vehicles do too.

Ya, thanks for the info. I actually not only ordered the metal ball kit from GOAT yesterday but also ordered new extended arms from them that is made for a Raptor with a 1” lift in the rear and 35” tires. I’ve already ordered the entire replacement sensor assembly from Ford. I had over $85 in points from when I bought my ProCal Tune from Ford so the part is costing me approx $100. I will have the metal ball kit and the arms if this ever happens again. I wish I could blame the mechanic and make him pay but I have no proof. I’m pretty sure that’s he is the culprit but live and learn. It could have been Costco too. IDK
So now, any future work I have done or any place I take my truck for anything, including the dealer, I will point this out prior to letting them have the key; Including taking photos before.

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