Complaint 2084856

Complaint Summary

UNKNOWN OR OTHER

Owner Narrative

The grab handle on drivers side that is put there to assist the driver to enter the vehicle is the issue. On 4/17/2025 I was attempting to enter my truck. I am severely disabled. I grabbed the handle that is attached to the A pillar as I have hundreds of times since I bought the truck in 2008. I am the original owner. Vehicle only has about 36,000 miles on it. As I was pulling myself in the entire handle detached from the A pillar sending me into a bad fall onto my driveway. Luckily I was not seriously injured. I'm 6'4 190 pounds, so its not like I'm terribly heavy. The next day I went to see just what happened and removed the the handle assembly. I was shocked to find that it is not attached to the steel A pillar. A steel plate is attached to the pillar under the handle but the handle is anchored to that plate only by two plastic wells that the screws go through. Both of the bottoms of those wells broke clean off which then allowed the entire assembly to pull away from the A pillar. I did some research and there is like a 5 year period of this being a known issue. I found dozens of examples of the exact same failure online. There is no "better" replacement part available either. I'm shocked that Ford would not secure this handle into the frame. Something thats meant to assist people entering the vehicle that will be pulled on anchored with PLASTC?? Ford needs issue a recall for this and provide a fix. If i had been 4 inches closer to my brick wall corner of my house I would not be here now to report this. I have included pics. the red circled parts are the plastic that hold the handle to the pillar that broke.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.