GEN 1 The last Ford I'll ever buy...

Sadly, this won't be a happy go lucky post and I'll try to keep the rant to a bare min.

To preface, I'm an LEO, so I drive ford products literally for a living....unfortunately. As I'm the shift Sergeant my vehicle in an Expedition
(when its not broken) and other times one of the Interceptor SUV's. I tried to put my poor experiences aside from our work vehicles and ended up special ordering a 2013 Raptor SCab. I was extremely hesitant in this purchase as a result of my negative experiences with our cruisers. However, I personally knew the head tech at the dealership I ordered the truck from and was more than confident in his abilities. Sadly, two years ago he was tragically killed in a sky diving accident.

Over the last few years I've experience the "normal" Raptor related issues and sort of just sucked it up....until now.

Roughly two months ago I noticed that the rear suspension seemed stiffer than I remember it ever being before, but had kind of just blown it off knowing that sometimes the cold weather will effect the shocks a bit. At the end of last month it had gotten worse and I now noticed that the truck would shudder pretty badly as the rear suspension unloaded after a bump.

Thinking maybe the vibration dampener had failed (again) I took it in to the dealership. Once there they drove the truck and also noticed that something was amiss. The dampener was intact this time, but they found that the left rear shock was not performing correctly and was actually making a fair amount of noise.

Please note that my truck currently has 28,000 miles on it, and at that time was 2 months past its 3 year factory warranty. I purchased the Ford extended warranty at the end of my first year of ownership but we all know that it does not cover the Fox shocks.

The dealership notified Ford of the issue, who promptly denied the claim. The head of the service department actually recommended that I contact Ford Customer Service to see if they would be willing to change their mind regarding the issue seeing the low mileage, and that the truck had only been out of the 36 month warranty by 2 months. At that point Customer Service told me to bring the truck back into the dealership so that they could go through the paperwork one more time and get to the bottom of the issue....great news I thought. They did state that I would have to leave the truck there until this was resolved, which was a bummer as its my Daily Driver.

Over a week goes by and the dealership calls me....guess what. After all of this, Ford denies to fix the issue....AGAIN.

I'm so completely over this company and their lack of standing by their product. I purchased their top tear truck, a truck that was claimed to concur Baja, although mine has lived on road for 99% of its mileage, and the only off roading its seen has been 20mph on the beach in the summer months. I'm insanely **** with my vehicles, and have built several cars from the bare chassis on up at this point, so I'm not someone that can be BS'd when it comes to anything automotive.

Just to top it off, I had the truck up on my lift (I'm fortunate enough to have a full working garage) changing the oil at the beginning of this week and noticed that the front right shock is now pissing shock oil out of the shaft seal at an alarming rate. Keep in mind I'd just cleaned the shock less than 2000 miles ago, yeah...I'm that ****.

Left Rear Shock


Right Rear Shock


Left Front Shock


Right Front Shock



At this point I'm pretty upset that I'll have to come out of pocket to fix the issues with my truck, an even more upset regarding how ford has chosen to handle, or not handle this (these) issues.

I will say that I am very pleased with all the dealership has done for me and will continue to support them with future purchases, as they are also a Dodge dealer. Who knows, at this rate....maybe a Power Wagon is in my future.

- Travis

Understand your frustration with the whole situation and how its handled makes me go back of why I have never purchased a GM product for 30yrs.

My first thought when it sounds mainly like an overall shock issue, is it time to just upgrade to some 3.0's but with your limited off-road time, I would hesitate to spend money when they might not go to use.

I would look for a used set as you can find them at good prices. I would not replace with new. Then send yours off to get rebuilt and either sell them or swap back.

Or clean them up real good and sell the truck and get that Dodge.

So let me get this right... You're upset that Ford won't replace a shock either outside of the factory 3 year warranty or under your extended warranty that clearly states that it doesn't cover shocks?

Ok....

All this over one shock absorber. One part among thousands in the truck.
Are all of those parts supposed to be foolproof?
Fox can't have any quality control challenges, and neither can their suppliers?
A shock replacement is a relatively straightforward fix, and you have a lift in your garage. (wow!)
You might consider buying a new part and replacing it like the rest of us would do.
It's just a suggestion, of course.

Rebuild them and move on, pretty simple fix.


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Seems like an unreasonable expectation. Shocks and brakes are wear items.

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RDFTS said:

Understand your frustration with the whole situation and how its handled makes me go back of why I have never purchased a GM product for 30yrs.

My first thought when it sounds mainly like an overall shock issue, is it time to just upgrade to some 3.0's but with your limited off-road time, I would hesitate to spend money when they might not go to use.

I would look for a used set as you can find them at good prices. I would not replace with new. Then send yours off to get rebuilt and either sell them or swap back.

Or clean them up real good and sell the truck and get that Dodge.

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Purchasing the 3.0's or any other upgraded shock makes zero sense for my usage so that won't be an option.

bmacked said:

So let me get this right... You're upset that Ford won't replace a shock either outside of the factory 3 year warranty or under your extended warranty that clearly states that it doesn't cover shocks?

Ok....

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I'm upset that there's clearly a QC issue that neither Ford or Fox is standing by. At 28K miles of light use these shocks should not be failing. I'd have no leg to stand on if the truck was beat to hell, or on the other end of the spectrum, just parked and never used.

Ruger said:

All this over one shock absorber. One part among thousands in the truck.

Are all of those parts supposed to be foolproof?

Fox can't have any quality control challenges, and neither can their suppliers?

A shock replacement is a relatively straightforward fix, and you have a lift in your garage. (wow!)

You might consider buying a new part and replacing it like the rest of us would do.

It's just a suggestion, of course.

Click to expand...

Nothing is fool proof, and of course one can expect QC issues. However, I do expect said company to stand by their products when purchased by the public. If I were the only case of this issue, I couldn't complain....but as this is an ongoing issue with the majority of the trucks, I have a problem with that.

Its not just this one issue...this is just the issue that has broken the camel's back for me with Ford. Like I said, I drive a great variety of their products and have been for the last 15 years. I've seen the quality plummet and they flat out ignore the issues.

I've got no issues working on my own junk, I prefer it actually. I'm ****, and like knowing it was done correctly. However, I simply feel its unreasonable to have to replace a set of $2300+ shocks with only 27K on them, out of pocket.

AZEngineer said:

Seems like an unreasonable expectation. Shocks and brakes are wear items.

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See above.

JanT said:

I know it's frustrating when you broke something but you are talking about minor things like shock seals. Any good offroad shock needs to be serviced once in a while and these shocks are not exception. This is something you can do yourself or use shock exchange program in this very forum. There is bunch of vendors here that can rebuild them too.
I have few buddy's with RAM's and i can say that your life is not getting any better with Dodge.

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I only say Dodge as I'd like to use the dealer I bought the Raptor through again. They've been great to work with, and it just so happens they are a Dodge dealer as well. Personally....I much prefer the Chevy/GMC's if I'm honest.

Ford and Fox would go out of business if they replaced all of our shocks after the warranty has expired. Even if the truck was still under warranty, as others have said, the shocks are a wear item. Also, the claim could be denied due to the fact that you have aftermarket coil springs. Have the shocks rebuilt and they will perform better than when they were new.

FYI, I also tried to have my shocks replaced under the extended warranty, so I feel your pain. GL

It's not a QC issue. Would you leave the same oil in your truck for 38 months and expect it to perform the same even though you don't drive it? As you said, it's a known issue. I posted back in 2012 Ford extended warranty doesn't cover shocks.

I've had good experience with Ford and other than Raptor issues haven't had problems with them standing behind their product. They just replaced an engine in one of our vans with 48,000 miles under their power train warranty. That's one of about 100 vehicles that we've had that needed a new engine. I think Raptors bring more attention, especially the shocks, because of people taking advantage of Ford and warranty claims. In 2010 there were no questions asked when it came to warranty claims. Now Ford looks at every situation that has the potential for abuse and not a valid warranty claim.

There are a few vendors here that can rebuild shocks or send you to someone that can. It's really not that big of an issue.