tjaas,

When you select the truck that you want for replacement...drive it! The dealer let me drive my truck for two days. I drove it all over the place before making the decision to buy the truck. My truck has no vibes or shakes; however as we all know that could change. My FX4 was good when I first purchased it but around 1,500 miles the dreaded vibe started to rear its ugly head.

Ron

 

If someone could host these TSB PDF files that would be great. I think there are worth reading and better yet the dealers might get the word a lot quicker via this forum than from Ford itself in regards to these TSB's.

Ron

 

10-4 that is why I have been test driving a hand full off them by the time my deal goes through I will be able make a good decision. I think my vibe was there from the start, it just took a while for me to settle down with my new purchase. And also I swear my vibe is worse in the warm weather ( I purchased in Dec 03 started noticing vibe in March ). Anyway I'm just waiting to move on.

 

HELP!

I mentioned earlier in this post that my Blazing Yellow truck is currently in the shop for the vibration.

After two days, the dealer called me yesterday evening and said after mounting sensors everywhere on the truck, the truck is vibrating in so many different places they don't know where to start to try to fix it!!!!!!!

They told me to come pick it up Saturday morning and bring it back on the 15th since they are bringing a Ford rep in to look at it. Has anyone else been through this?

They said the tires, driveshaft, rear end were all vibrating and they don't know how to fix it. They also told me it's the worst one they have ever seen.

I guess this is good in a way since they could have told me it was within specs and live with it. Also, by calling a Ford rep in on the first visit to the dealer, could this possibly mean this is to my advantage?

I'm really confused, but at least they are trying. Also, they freaked out that I knew about these new TSB's before any of the service writers and others at the dealership. The dealership had turned my truck over to a service manager to follow it along through the diagnosis. Like I said, they seem to be very helpful and trying to resolve it.

How about, let's resolve it with a new truck!

 

Stunna,

I have been through everything that you are going through right now. If you read my posts the DSB awarded me a replacement vehicle. I have a new 2005 Lariat now that does not vibrate. Let the dealership try and fix it. Stay patient. Its hard but you need them to go through the process before you can have a good solid case, especially if you decide to go through with the DSB process.

Just so you know there are two vibration issues and they are being addressed seperatly. One is basically a steering wheel shake or nibble at certain speed ranges and the other is driveline vibration or a pulsating vibration that can be felt in the pedals and floor boards.

Ron

 

As a 2004 FX4 Screw owner and ASE Master Tech/Former Ford Tech these new TSB's posted at the Yahoo Groups site are great reading. Sure there are all the ownership issues, Ford should build the truck correctly, Ford should replace defective trucks, Ford should keep their dealer network informed in a timely manner, and all the other issues that have discussed over and over in this thread and others. However, from a technical standpoint, these latest TSB's make the situation very clear. What we 2004 F-150 owners have here is a platform, for whatever reason, that is extremely sensitive to any rotation vibration brought on by normal, for Ford anyway, manufacturing tolerances. Let's look at the list of causes from TSB 04-25-8.
We have everything from the wheels and tires alone, to the wheels and tires being a contributing factor, the ring and pinion, the driveshaft (inaccurately assembled by staking the u-joints), the torque converter, and finally the components inside the transmission itself. Moving on to the other TSB, 04-25-7, this one deals with just the wheel and tire issues, it clear that Ford is up against the wall, so to speak, from a repair standpoint. Understanding that that the tire wheel assembles always have the largest chance to contribute to any vibration due to their shear size, manufacturing techniques, and the fact that they are unsprung weight and have no means to dampen any vibration other than through the carcass of the tire itself. The most disappointing part about TSB 04-25-7 is that they have you attempting to index the wheel/tire assembly to the wheel hub itself via feeler gauges between the hub center snout and the wheel itself. This is, of course, is an attempt to offset the runout of the tire and wheel with the runout of the wheel mounting studs in the hub itself! See Figure 2 - Article 04-25-7. Problem with this of course is that the moment that the tires are removed for any reason, such as rotating which is recommended by Ford in the owners manual, all balance is lost and can only be regained by repeating the whole tire balance, index procedure which requires a trip to dealer and all resulting hassle's. Clearly these TSB's show that this trucks design, so far, is incompatible with the normal manufacturing tolerances for components such transmissions, tires, driveshafts, rear end components, wheel hubs, wheel bolt circles, etc, etc. It also shows that the trucks affected by this may well have an issue that is not any one single part but the cumulative effect of many, much like an allergic condition in people.

 

mryeATwi.rr.com

Thanks!

 

Here's a link recently posted by someone in another thread.

http://www.tremainegarage.com/tsbs/

 

Thanks!

 

My dealer is starting on these tomorrow. Appears my dealer is doing one step from each.

1) Road force balance (Borrowed from somewhere)
2) Damper (Not sure where this is going, TSB doesn't say)
3) Body mount

Not sure why there lot jumping to U-Joint on DS.

 

TSB's please! joel****erson@sbcglobal.net

I think I'm getting the run-around from my dealership. They keep finding different ways to tell me that they are balancing my tires, and it's not working. And of course, as a result of the vibration everything in my truck rattles. Pleasant.

 

Scroll up on this page to the link in DrkShadow's post.

 

Mine wobbles pretty good at 70mph. It's back at the dealer for the third time. Hope they figure it out soon.

 

Yep, mine rattles more and more as the vibration is not taken care of.

 

It's back in the shop this morning to start the new TSB's. Will see what happens. Took a ride with the customer service manager and at least he did say, this is not tire related. He said this is the harmonic vibration I read about. He seems sure they will fix it with the rear-end and/or steering damper and new body mount.

Will see. Until then, I'll drive the soccer mom mobile. Lovely Mercury Mini-van. Ohh what pain!!