Complaint 1797571
2019 FORD F-450 • STEERING • incident Apr 8, 2019
Complaint Summary
STEERING
Owner Narrative
Truck has experienced multiple occasions of "death wobble" since purchase. Excessive unexplained tire wear on the passenger front tire. On second tire on passenger front. Have 81k miles on truck and all other tires are wearing normal. Have had truck in alignment twice with no issues showing with alignment, wheels have been balanced. Ford service tech contacted Ford engineer and told me to increase air pressure to 100psi on front tires, I questioned this since door tag states 90psi. Still same issues, all recalls have been done. Passenger front tire is almost bald and need to purchase new tires at $400 plus, seems stupid to put new tires on and not resolve issue. I have worked with Ford dealership, two independent tire stores, Continental tire engineer, and have asked many mechanics about this with no answers. The other issue is the power tailgate will open on its own. This has occurred twice while driving. Once is while I was pulling fifth wheel and tailgate opened. Spilling out a 70 qt cooler carrying 40+ water bottles and a stand for my grill. I have no knowledge at what time this happened during trip, no dash indicator or warning. The second time this happened is we were towing a horse trailer and it opened. The only warning was when we made a turn and the trailer wheel jack pinched against the tailgate and bent both the tailgate and trailer jack. Ford had a recall on tailgate which was performed prior to these incidents. Wire harness was replaced in between events at Ford dealership. Dealership answer now is to disable rear button to open tailgate, also since tailgate is bent it will bind and not open sometimes. I think it's funny that there is a warning light for the hood if unlatched, and prior to disabling rear button I had to push the door lock button to open tailgate. To me it's a design issue because the female connector faces up and plugs into male connector, where moisture can get in. All these are safety issues putting me and others in danger.
Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.
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