Active Air Dam Issues - No Recall Yet?

[smarty39]

Just wondering if there is an 'official' fix for this from Ford yet or am I wasting my time going in to the dealer? I live quite a ways from my dealer so taking it in for warranty and not having it fixed properly is a real pain. That being said, it looks as though mine is stuck most of the time and causing the plastic to deform to the point where it looks like I hit something. Any feedback is appreciated!

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[rado]

I haven't heard anything yet. I got tired of popping mine back in so I'll just leave it until a recall comes out.

 

[Beef_Stew]

I work in auto body. It’s attached to the bumper with a few bolts on each side. It appears you could loosen those bolts and put some washers in between the motor and bumper as spacers to gain some clearance between the bumper valance and active valance.

 

[DaftJak]

I just took mine off because it gets stuck so often, this is even after ford has replaced it. It’s ridiculous.

 

[LHoffmanjr22]

What exactly is the issue? I saw a post about the air dam under the bumper Beijing dented in, but that’s not the active air dam right? You’re referring to the shutters behind the grill that open and close?

 

[smarty39]

What exactly is the issue? I saw a post about the air dam under the bumper Beijing dented in, but that’s not the active air dam right? You’re referring to the shutters behind the grill that open and close?

My apologies if I’m mixing up the names…my issue is with the lower valence on the front bumper that moves up and down. It constantly gets stuck and is deforming the plastic.

 

[LHoffmanjr22]

My apologies if I’m mixing up the names…my issue is with the lower valence on the front bumper that moves up and down. It constantly gets stuck and is deforming the plastic.

I actually didn’t know that moved up and down. I thought it was fixed. Now I’ll have to look at mine and see if there’s damage or anything. Thanks!

 

[jeffrt]

Mine keeps getting caught too. Don't want to go to the dealer unless I know there's a real fix for this. Come spring, I'll take a look to see if I can fix it myself if nothing reliable comes from Ford.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Just wondering if there is an 'official' fix for this from Ford yet or am I wasting my time going in to the dealer? I live quite a ways from my dealer so taking it in for warranty and not having it fixed properly is a real pain. That being said, it looks as though mine is stuck most of the time and causing the plastic to deform to the point where it looks like I hit something. Any feedback is appreciated!

Hi there! Can you send us a private message with your VIN and Ford dealership name, along with some more details about your situation? I’ll look into this for you. Thanks!

 

[ohioboy]

You may be wasting your time, I know I have wasted mine thus far on this one - 2 dealer trips plus hours on the phone to Ford customer service, and maybe this post.

I first noticed the air dam issue with my truck at 600 miles. I’m in ne Ohio and no significant snow here this year until mid January. I immediately took it to dealer (that day), they got it right in and said it was stuck down due accumulated snow and ice, said it they fixed it and sent me on my way. Drove 2 miles home, low and behold, stuck down in middle again. Immediately drove back, adviser shrugs shoulders and says need to make appointment.

I then return a week later at appointment. I am told I must have “hit something” and that it is my problem. No witness marks, scrapes, gouges, etc. on air dam. They agree that is was probably snow that I hit and caused it.

I tell them that this device is flimsy, poorly-designed, and has no business on the front of a 4wd pickup. Snow and ice accumulation on the front of vehicle operated during the winter here is normal. Once this thing sticks down that’s it, it is stuck as the top edge of the air dam is now caught under rubber lip just beneath bumper - it will not self correct, it is caught there - it will now remain low and very vulnerable to contacting accumulated snow, ice and slush at driveways, parking areas, shoulders, etc. This is until you become aware that it is stuck, stop, and crawl under there, pull it down and push it back behind rubber lip - that is until it deploys again and becomes stuck again - rinse and repeat.

The way this thing is designed (6’ long, flimsy and easily twisted, i.e. torsionally weak) and supported only at the ends by the actuators when deployed an application of sufficient force rearward near its bottom edge causes its top edge to twist and roll forward (pitch, technically) toward the rubber lip beneath the bumper. Since the top face on this air dam isn’t very tall, it’s top edge gets trapped beneath the rubber lip below the bumper - it is now stuck - and it will not self-correct. A simple solution to mitigate this would have been to make the upper face of the air dam taller (over an inch of clearance to inside of bumper ceiling exists when fully retracted) and/or the rubber lip beneath bumper taller so as to make it less prone to trapping itself. In other words, this would help ensure that the upper part of air dam remains lapped behind bumper’s rubber lip.

While I applaud Ford‘s effort to improve fuel economy, this thing has no place on a truck driven in winter on snow covered roads. One can turn the auto start-stop off, why cannot this be turned off or deactivated? That would make sense wouldn’t it?

Here’s the kicker: I have driven approximately 1,000,000 documented miles for my occupation in the last 25 years in a multitude of cars and trucks. I have driven many light trucks, sedans, coupes, and station wagons as work cars in the winter all over the northeast and upper midwest US. All of these vehicles have been literally caked with accumulated snow/slush/ice on their front ends at some point, all these cars have air dams or spoilers, and all are lower to ground than an f-150. With none of these cars have I ever had a problem with an front air dam or spoiler being damaged. This I did not experience until I bought a new f-150 truck - built ford tough. I have largely done all of my own service, until now and am about kicking myself for having to deal with this new vehicle b.s. There is something to be said for dealing with known problems rather than denied problems.

Thus far I have had nothing except “we are sorry for your inconvenience“ on this. All this ill will generated over an underdesigned, poorly implemented $80 part (actuators are reported as ok, dam blade is apparently warped/ “bent”) that I told them I would personally remove the damn thing every winter and replace it every spring.

So again, good luck, thus far I have not had any with this nonsense…..

 

[grog]

I've had this happen multiple times. After the second or third time that I "fixed" it by pulling the upper lip out it stopped happening. No easy way to tell if the actuators died or my temporary fixes eventually solved it.

 

[harvey6530]

Does anyone know if you remove the active air dam and motors does it throw a code from the computer. Looking at adding a front 2 inch receiver to move travel trailer around and a personnel home plow

 

[MHarvey]

Does anyone know if you remove the active air dam and motors does it throw a code from the computer. Looking at adding a front 2 inch receiver to move travel trailer around and a personnel home plow

Here’s a thread where someone removed theirs and said they’ve not had any fault codes yet. There’s some good info in there on removal as well.
https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/removed-active-air-dam-from-my-f-150-diy-writeup.2246/

 

[Beef_Stew]

For anyone curious about an update for the lower air dam. Ford already has one. First picture is the old air dam that gets stuck. Second air dam is a replacement we received from Ford as this truck was in a collision. Notice the added length to the top.

 

[smarty39]

I’ll have to go check mine. Just to close the loop on my original question… I took mine in and the dealer replaced it no questions asked. Hasn’t hung up again since but now I’m curious if I have this ‘updated’ part or not.

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