I dropped my truck off this morning for warped rotors and some weird sound in the steerign column. I did ome research and saw that there were a couple TSB's that were called out on this vehicle (04 F150 2wd). When I asked them about it, they said "Those are TSB's and not recalls". Recalls are mandatory Ford fixes while TSB are not. I didnt understand as I would think a TSB published on their site would mean they know of this issue therefore, acknowledge the liability.

Am I smoking crack?

 

TSB = Technical Service Bulliten
Recall = Safety Hazard that could kill or seriously harm the consumer.


No liability. Just further clarification

 

A recall is where you are requested to take the vehicle back to replace/repair for a discovered problem that normally could be a safety issue. A Technical Service Bulletin is just a notice to the technicians on how to repair a problem that seems to be recurring. Technically, the consumer is not even supposed to know the TSB exists. A dealer might do the TSB and not charge a customer or they might even get paid by Ford, but they may not collect whereas on a recall, they will definitely get paid. Ford will generally pay the dealer for work performed involving a TSB if it is still under warranty.

 

A TSB is a streamlined repair for a common concern or complaint. It's mostly engineering shooting from the hip to spend the least amount of time and money on a particular problem.

Recalls break down into a few different types. Safety recalls are the only ones that are mandatory and must be performed no matter what. Some recalls are "service only if concern is present" and some have time and mileage limits.

 

ok this is good info guys, thanks. has anyone wondered or questioned "if" ford see's a problem and acknowledges it as a TSB, doesnt that mean "they've found an issue or a defect" in their product? and that warranty or not it should be fixed free of charge? i do have an extended warranty so i think i'll be covered but i wont know until they call ford. seems a little illogical to me.

 

I'd say a TSB (in my opinion) is a known problem Ford finds out about after they build and ship the vehicle to the customer...so then the customer usually has to find out about it on their own and pray it's still under warranty or they'll be stuck paying for it out of pocket. Example, the A/C leaking water into my truck. If it happened under warranty it would be covered at no cost to me...even if Ford knows it's a problem. At some point you can't expect Ford to go back and work all TSB's for free, but I think there should be a little grace period after the warranty runs out for things like this. Remember that sound deadening material they slapped on the 2004's that had people's passenger side rear quarter peeling paint when moisture got under that material? I had that TSB worked for free since I found out about it in time by watching this forum. If I didn't know about it and my paint was ruined later on after the warranty expired, I'd be screwed.

 

That was a recall.