11 Month Ownership Report

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ChevyChad

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So I’ve had my 2017 raptor for about 11 months now. We all know by now how impressive it is and all the fancy bells & whistles, so I won’t be regurgitating those points and beating a dead horse. I’m also not going to pretend like there is nothing at all wrong with the truck or it has nothing more to be desired. This definitely is, without a doubt, the best truck I have ever had- hands down. No disputing that. I love the looks, the tech, and the utility of it. I wanted to use this thread though as a platform to document the issues I have had with the truck to let others know of some of the snags that could potentially happen to them if they own a gen 2, or at least give others something to look out for as their truck ages a bit.

My mods are in my sig, and it now has 15k miles on it.

Luckily, I have not had any major catastrophic problems with the drivetrain or anything like that. Hopefully I don’t experience anything like that either, but I know such unfortunate events happen to even the best vehicles inevitably with any substantial mass produced vehicle. I received the recall notice a couple months ago about the back seatbelt, so I went ahead and took my small laundry list of complaints to the dealer for them to address while it was going to be in for service anyway. Here are those complaints:

1) Transmission shifts VERY hard into 10th gear while on long drives. This doesn’t happen on a daily basis at all since my drive to work is about 15 minutes, and even when I go into town, the drive is still relatively short (30-45 minutes). So really, unless I go on a road trip where I will be on the highway for like over an hour, this doesn’t happen at all. But when it does, the whole truck jolts pretty bad. This issue has me the most concerned, and also scared that they won’t be able to reproduce the issue when they diagnose the truck. Not sure what they are going to do about it, but will update this thread once I get the truck back with the result. I didn’t even notice this issue until I took my first long trip just over Christmas break. Drove from GA to OK, about 1000 miles each way. So not sure if the truck has always had this issue, or if it is a recent development. But the first time I noticed it was on this trip last month.

2) The rear is very squeaky. You can’t hear it inside the truck, but from the outside, it sounds horrid when going over bumps or even when entering/ exiting the truck, sounds like the rear shocks or leaf springs or something are 30+ years old. It’s pretty embarrassing when pulling up into a parking lot and people are looking at your new truck but hearing that squeak. Hopefully an easy issue to resolve.

3)The driver’s seat shifts when making hard turns. Almost like a bolt or something is loose. Doesn’t affect me most the time, but when it happens, it’s pretty annoying. Again- should not be an issue on a brand new truck.

4) Back up sensors give false alerts constantly when I am backing up, it will say there is a car coming from either the left or the right and there is no car around at all. Happens every time I am pulling into my driveway. Most the time it’s the left one, but occasionally the right one gets triggered for no apparent reason too.

5) Lane Keep Assist intermittently does not work. Within the first month or 2 of owning the truck, I actually got malfunction errors. I dismissed them thinking that perhaps just fog on the windshield was causing the error on chili mornings. The errors stopped when spring came around and it worked probably 90% of the time, but occasionally for no apparent reason, the whole system just will stop working or wont “read” the lines on the road. I thought perhaps it would be because of certain roads, or types of roads (narrow, or different types of lines), but even on the same roads it is not consistent on when it decides not to work. I can typically turn the LKA off then back on again and it will then start working again, but I have not got any more errors since the first batch of errors I got those first couple of months.

6) The center console lid rattles. It took me a while to find the single rattle source in the cab. It was not consistent because I often drive resting my right arm on the center console, so it drove me crazy for about 6 months trying to locate the rattle. I did notice that the bottom side of the lid has a couple round recesses in it where it looks like some rubber pads should go, but there was nothing there. I took a look at the loaner they gave me, and it does have the pads, so I am sure this is an easy fix for them on my truck.

So speaking of the loaner- they did me right on that. When I took my truck in Wednesday, they knew it would need to be there more than just over night, so they hooked me up with a brand new 2018 King Ranch Fx4 with a 5.0 and 10-speed. That truck had 34 miles on it when they handed it over to me. They literally took it off the new car lot and gave it to me to drive while the raptor is being serviced. Kudos to them for that. The king ranch is nice- not my style at all with all the brown & woodgrain interior, but it’s no slouch for acceleration and its suspension actually surprised me going over the crappy railroad tracks by my house.

I am doing all the service at OC Welch in Hardeeville SC. They are the local dealer where I purchased the truck (walked in and bought it off the lot for MSRP- I didn’t pre-order it) and also had my first couple oil changes performed there. They gave me a 2 year maintenance plan for free with purchase, so that was a nice gesture. So far I am happy with the dealer, but this is the first time I am taking my truck there for warranty work. Hope they can maintain their good service when it comes to this aspect as well.

They called me last night and said my truck should be ready by tomorrow (so today). I am going to call them before I take my lunch break and see if it’s all wrapped up and if so, should be going to pick it up hopefully at lunch time today. I’ll report back with updates at that time.
 
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ChevyChad

ChevyChad

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Nice. I hope its an easy fix then. Glad to know I was not imagining it. The first few times it happened I thought maybe it was just me.
 

kandewinn

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Squeak is most likely the clamp that holds leaf springs together. My gen 1 did this, drove me crazy, WD40 on the clamp, noise gone. The shifting seat, in my opinion, is a memory seat track issue. My Gen1 (memory seats) did this, my gen2 (power/non memory seat) does not, and I have same mileage as you. My backup sensor will set itself off if theres even the smallest piece of ice frozen to the outer ring on the sensor. Does not need to be on the inner ring to do it. I know that you're in SC, make sure theres no mud etc...anywhere on the sensor. Personally, I cannot believe how super sensitive it is. Hope they get you squared away.
 

cliff2084

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Good luck at the dealer. The hard shifting is going to be tough to duplicate for the dealer. Hopefully there are others who have reported a similar issue.
 

MGD

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How did the transmission feel in the loaner vehicle you have?
 

SilverBolt

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Not a TSB it's a recall.

Recall Date: NOV 29, 2017
Recall Title: SEAT TRACK PIVOT LINK BOLT INSPECTION AND REPAIR
NHTSA Recall Number: AWAITING
Ford Recall Number: 17S40
Recall Description: AFFECTED VEHICLES ARE EQUIPPED WITH SUSPECT POWER DRIVER AND FRONT PASSENGER SEATS. FORD TEAM REVIEWED SUPPLIER PROCESS, MAINTENANCE AND WARRANTY RECORDS TO DETERMINE THE POPULATION OF AFFECTED PARTS. THE FORD PROCESS IS CAPABLE OF TRACING FRONT SEAT ADJUSTER PRODUCTION TO THE VEHICLE IN WHICH THE FRONT SEAT ADJUSTER IS INSTALLED.
Risk to Safety: A FRONT SEAT CUSHION WITH A MISSING UPPER LEFT-HAND PIVOT BOLT MAY EXPERIENCE INCREASED SEAT DEFLECTION IN A CRASH AND NOT PROPERLY RESTRAIN OCCUPANTS, INCREASING THE RISK OF INJURY.
Remedy Program: OWNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY MAIL AND INSTRUCTED TO TAKE THEIR VEHICLE TO A FORD OR LINCOLN DEALER TO MEASURE THE TORQUE OF THE POWER SEAT TRACK UPPER PIVOT LINK BOLT. IF THE BOLT PASSES THE TORQUE INSPECTION, DEALERS WILL REMOVE AND CLEAN THE BOLT, APPLY NEW THREADLOCK, AND REINSTALL THE BOLT TO THE SPECIFIED TORQUE. THIS REPAIR WILL COMPLETE THE FSA. IF THE BOLT FAILS THE TORQUE INSPECTION, THREADLOCK WILL BE ADDED AND THE BOLT WILL BE REINSTALLED AS AN INTERIM REPAIR FOR SOLD UNITS UNTIL THE FINAL REPAIR IS AVAILABLE. UNSOLD UNITS WILL BE HELD UNTIL THE FINAL REPAIR IS COMPLETE. THE FINAL REPAIR WILL INCLUDE REPLACEMENT OF THE LIFT LINK WITH NEW BUSHINGS AND FASTENERS. PARTS TO COMPLETE THE FINAL REPAIR ARE ANTICIPATED TO BE AVAILABLE DURING THE FIRST QUARTER 2018.THIS SERVICE WILL BE PERFORMED ON ALL AFFECTED VEHICLES AT NO CHARGE TO THE VEHICLE OWNER.FORD PROVIDED THE GENERAL REIMBURSEMENT PLAN FOR THE COST OF REMEDIES PAID FOR BY VEHICLE OWNERS PRIOR TO NOTIFICATION OF A SAFETY RECALL IN FEBRUARY 2017. THE ENDING DATE FOR REIMBURSEMENT ELIGIBILITY IS FEBRUARY 2, 2018.FORD WILL FORWARD A COPY OF THE NOTIFICATION LETTERS TO DEALERS TO THE AGENCY WHEN AVAILABLE.
Status: 12 - RECALL INCOMPLETE. REMEDY NOT YET AVAILABLE.
Manufacturer Notes: TO CHECK FOR NON-SAFETY-RELATED PROGRAMS APPLICABLE TO YOUR VEHICLE, SEE HTTP://WWW.FORD.COM/ OR CALL YOUR FORD DEALER.
 

kandewinn

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I'd say the hard shift is only noticeable on 1 hour road trip because the trans has time to come up to operating temperature. I can drive my truck 20-30 minutes around town and the trans still registers as cold. Make sure they get the trans up to temperature before they diagnose. Same phenomenon on a Jeep SRT I had. Shifted fine cold, once hot, shifted hard. Took forever to figure that out, techs could never duplicate problem cause temp was always cold when they attempted diagnoses. Once they got it hot, they realized what my complaint was. Fix was to adjust clutches and reflash trans.
 

cayenne

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So I’ve had my 2017 raptor for about 11 months now. We all know by now how impressive it is and all the fancy bells & whistles, so I won’t be regurgitating those points and beating a dead horse. I’m also not going to pretend like there is nothing at all wrong with the truck or it has nothing more to be desired. This definitely is, without a doubt, the best truck I have ever had- hands down. No disputing that. I love the looks, the tech, and the utility of it. I wanted to use this thread though as a platform to document the issues I have had with the truck to let others know of some of the snags that could potentially happen to them if they own a gen 2, or at least give others something to look out for as their truck ages a bit.

My mods are in my sig, and it now has 15k miles on it.

Luckily, I have not had any major catastrophic problems with the drivetrain or anything like that. Hopefully I don’t experience anything like that either, but I know such unfortunate events happen to even the best vehicles inevitably with any substantial mass produced vehicle. I received the recall notice a couple months ago about the back seatbelt, so I went ahead and took my small laundry list of complaints to the dealer for them to address while it was going to be in for service anyway. Here are those complaints:

1) Transmission shifts VERY hard into 10th gear while on long drives. This doesn’t happen on a daily basis at all since my drive to work is about 15 minutes, and even when I go into town, the drive is still relatively short (30-45 minutes). So really, unless I go on a road trip where I will be on the highway for like over an hour, this doesn’t happen at all. But when it does, the whole truck jolts pretty bad. This issue has me the most concerned, and also scared that they won’t be able to reproduce the issue when they diagnose the truck. Not sure what they are going to do about it, but will update this thread once I get the truck back with the result. I didn’t even notice this issue until I took my first long trip just over Christmas break. Drove from GA to OK, about 1000 miles each way. So not sure if the truck has always had this issue, or if it is a recent development. But the first time I noticed it was on this trip last month.

2) The rear is very squeaky. You can’t hear it inside the truck, but from the outside, it sounds horrid when going over bumps or even when entering/ exiting the truck, sounds like the rear shocks or leaf springs or something are 30+ years old. It’s pretty embarrassing when pulling up into a parking lot and people are looking at your new truck but hearing that squeak. Hopefully an easy issue to resolve.

3)The driver’s seat shifts when making hard turns. Almost like a bolt or something is loose. Doesn’t affect me most the time, but when it happens, it’s pretty annoying. Again- should not be an issue on a brand new truck.

4) Back up sensors give false alerts constantly when I am backing up, it will say there is a car coming from either the left or the right and there is no car around at all. Happens every time I am pulling into my driveway. Most the time it’s the left one, but occasionally the right one gets triggered for no apparent reason too.

5) Lane Keep Assist intermittently does not work. Within the first month or 2 of owning the truck, I actually got malfunction errors. I dismissed them thinking that perhaps just fog on the windshield was causing the error on chili mornings. The errors stopped when spring came around and it worked probably 90% of the time, but occasionally for no apparent reason, the whole system just will stop working or wont “read” the lines on the road. I thought perhaps it would be because of certain roads, or types of roads (narrow, or different types of lines), but even on the same roads it is not consistent on when it decides not to work. I can typically turn the LKA off then back on again and it will then start working again, but I have not got any more errors since the first batch of errors I got those first couple of months.

6) The center console lid rattles. It took me a while to find the single rattle source in the cab. It was not consistent because I often drive resting my right arm on the center console, so it drove me crazy for about 6 months trying to locate the rattle. I did notice that the bottom side of the lid has a couple round recesses in it where it looks like some rubber pads should go, but there was nothing there. I took a look at the loaner they gave me, and it does have the pads, so I am sure this is an easy fix for them on my truck.

So speaking of the loaner- they did me right on that. When I took my truck in Wednesday, they knew it would need to be there more than just over night, so they hooked me up with a brand new 2018 King Ranch Fx4 with a 5.0 and 10-speed. That truck had 34 miles on it when they handed it over to me. They literally took it off the new car lot and gave it to me to drive while the raptor is being serviced. Kudos to them for that. The king ranch is nice- not my style at all with all the brown & woodgrain interior, but it’s no slouch for acceleration and its suspension actually surprised me going over the crappy railroad tracks by my house.

I am doing all the service at OC Welch in Hardeeville SC. They are the local dealer where I purchased the truck (walked in and bought it off the lot for MSRP- I didn’t pre-order it) and also had my first couple oil changes performed there. They gave me a 2 year maintenance plan for free with purchase, so that was a nice gesture. So far I am happy with the dealer, but this is the first time I am taking my truck there for warranty work. Hope they can maintain their good service when it comes to this aspect as well.

They called me last night and said my truck should be ready by tomorrow (so today). I am going to call them before I take my lunch break and see if it’s all wrapped up and if so, should be going to pick it up hopefully at lunch time today. I’ll report back with updates at that time.

I bought my 2014 Roush from OC Welch. They are good people. Negotiated and signed a buyers purchase order remotely in Virginia. They delivered my new truck to my office doorstep and returned with my trade. Was one of my best experiences. Good Luck!
 
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