NHTSA Safety Recall (23V-896) on 113,000 F-150 Trucks with Trailer Tow Max Duty Package

[JJSnell]

Still partially skeptical about my "broken bolt".
I took the truck in for this recall as well as the zip tie\ebrake\wiring recall and they called and said the bolt was broken.
I have never heard any banging or clanging and I have my rear windows down every morning getting my coffee so my dog can stick his head out the window.
This is supposedly my bolt but, wouldn't I hear something?????

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[Snakebitten]

I never heard a sound, but discovered the broken bolt when I was changing the oil and rotating tires.

I don't personally have any complaints with how robust the axle design is. I think it's well up to the task of the Powerboost. But for whatever reason, that Bolt is experiencing forces that eventually fractures it, usually in that void between the big washer and the beginning of the threads in the axle itself.

Ford has to figure it out. If they haven't already. I think they know what is going on and are debating the least expensive way to address it.

I only own one truck with the axles. I'll deal with it if my new bolts shear as well. I'm really hoping that I have greatly diminished the destructive forces on the bolt by lowering the torque it's tightened to, as well as switching to a more "machined" thread.

When I googled, I found 84 ftlbs to be an adequate torque for a 12x1.75 bolt at 10.9 hardness.

 

[Unicorn]

Spline shaft pressed in a matching splined hub. A bolt to unite the two, with gap between the bolt head and the shaft end. I thought the purpose of a spline, was meant to be free to slide axially. If the gap is intentional, I don’t understand Ford 3/4 floating concept… Hence, I doubt a lower torque figure can solve the problem.

 

[scott011422]

Spline shaft pressed in a matching splined hub. A bolt to unite the two, with gap between the bolt head and the shaft end. I thought a spline was meant to be free to slide axially. I don’t understand Ford 3/4 floating concept… Hence, I doubt a lower torque figure can solve the problem.

A lower torque and better bolt may stop or delay the bolt breaking due to better quality and less preload. As the shaft starts to move the bolt isn’t already maxed. Will prolly last longer.

 

[Snakebitten]

A lower torque and better bolt may stop or delay the bolt breaking due to better quality and less preload. As the shaft starts to move the bolt isn’t already maxed. Will prolly last longer.

If they last 3-5k miles, they will get replaced. They are inexpensive, easy to acquire, and take more time to remove than a lugnut.

And worse case scenario, I feel pretty good about being able to extract a broken one and salvaging the axle.

 

[PatchManager]

I never heard a sound, but discovered the broken bolt when I was changing the oil and rotating tires.

I don't personally have any complaints with how robust the axle design is. I think it's well up to the task of the Powerboost. But for whatever reason, that Bolt is experiencing forces that eventually fractures it, usually in that void between the big washer and the beginning of the threads in the axle itself.

Ford has to figure it out. If they haven't already. I think they know what is going on and are debating the least expensive way to address it.

I only own one truck with the axles. I'll deal with it if my new bolts shear as well. I'm really hoping that I have greatly diminished the destructive forces on the bolt by lowering the torque it's tightened to, as well as switching to a more "machined" thread.

When I googled, I found 84 ftlbs to be an adequate torque for a 12x1.75 bolt at 10.9 hardness.

Where exactly was the broken bolt when you discovered that it was broken? Was it sitting in the location where it normally would and then you removed it, did it fall on the floor when you removed the wheel, or something else? I too assumed I would hear something, but now I think I should check mine.

 

[Snakebitten]

It was sitting in the hub cavity trapped. It probably jingled in there a bit at low speeds, but I never heard it.

The KingRanch with windows up and normal listening level entertainment is more than enough to have left me clueless.

 

[JJSnell]

Where exactly was the broken bolt when you discovered that it was broken? Was it sitting in the location where it normally would and then you removed it, did it fall on the floor when you removed the wheel, or something else? I too assumed I would hear something, but now I think I should check mine.

Well I can't speak to Snake and other people here who had the broken bolt but couldn't hear it... but when my dog is with me in the truck I'm not cranking up my music. My windows are down, I drive past cars parked alongside the road and usually there's some sort of echo coming off of those cars and back to me.
I couldn't hear anything so it just surprises me that they had to recall check and lo and behold there's a broken bolt sitting there. I mean I guess it could have happened but after everything happened with covid and all that crap I just get wary of things. I go in for a cold checkup in my insurance will pay $85 for that but if it ends up being covid then the doctor's office gets awarded a thousand bucks or whatever so guess what everybody on the planet had covid....
It just makes me think of a possibility, 'well we checked your car for free and there was nothing wrong so we're not getting paid' vs. 'we checked your car found a broken bolt now we get to replace two new axles and Ford corporate is going to pay our dealership $500 in labor' or whatever it is...

 

[UGADawg96]

Well I can't speak to Snake and other people here who had the broken bolt but couldn't hear it... but when my dog is with me in the truck I'm not cranking up my music. My windows are down, I drive past cars parked alongside the road and usually there's some sort of echo coming off of those cars and back to me.
I couldn't hear anything so it just surprises me that they had to recall check and lo and behold there's a broken bolt sitting there. I mean I guess it could have happened but after everything happened with covid and all that crap I just get wary of things. I go in for a cold checkup in my insurance will pay $85 for that but if it ends up being covid then the doctor's office gets awarded a thousand bucks or whatever so guess what everybody on the planet had covid....
It just makes me think of a possibility, 'well we checked your car for free and there was nothing wrong so we're not getting paid' vs. 'we checked your car found a broken bolt now we get to replace two new axles and Ford corporate is going to pay our dealership $500 in labor' or whatever it is...

I've had both sides break, about a year apart. The first time, the driver's side, Nov '22, I could hear a clank sound at extremely slow speeds with both windows down. Basically, foot off the brake, but not on the gas pedal. Once over 5mph, the sound stopped as the rotational force held the broken bolt from tumbling around. The best analogy I can provide is a front loading washer or dryer. At slow speeds, clothes will tumble, but at faster speeds, clothes stick to the outside of the drum. The same thing is happening here. Now when the passenger side broke, Oct '23, I couldn't hear the tumble, but I did hear weird clicking in reverse when braking in a driveway that sounded way different than a tumbling bolt and more so like an axle or brake issue. But when I pulled the wheel cover, the damn bolt was staring at me like a cat laying in a window sill.

Looking back at the pics, this is interesting..

Driver side sticking out and not too rusty:

Passenger side sucking in and very rusty:

 

[scott011422]

The shaft on the rusty side has become loose. Looks like its loose enough some shmoo has worked its way out of the axle.

 

[Atlee]

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I do have a general question. Why is a "one time use only" bolt used, instead of a high quality unlimited use bolt?

 

[scott011422]

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I do have a general question. Why is a "one time use only" bolt used, instead of a high quality unlimited use bolt?

A one time use only bolt is normally torq to yield. Meaning you actually stretched the bolt tightening it down to maximum torque. Once that’s been done, bolt can’t be reused. Lots of head bolts are this way

 

[lrb_35128]

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I do have a general question. Why is a "one time use only" bolt used, instead of a high quality unlimited use bolt?

Fusible link? eg, a part or component planned to fail before more expensive (time, resource, cost) component is compromised or fails.

When building a car for open road racing, I never upgraded the stock transmission. It was cheaper (and easier) to replace that than to rebuild the engine or replace the rare geared limited slip rear-end. Thus, if something was to fail, I wanted it to be the transmission.

 

[Snakebitten]

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I do have a general question. Why is a "one time use only" bolt used, instead of a high quality unlimited use bolt?

Don't know enough about such engineering to know why/when to use a one-time approach.

But your question pretty much describes my low-tech experiment.

It'll add about $32 annually to the cost of ownership. My way of saying that I don't really think I'm taking any kind of serious risk.

If one of these Dorman bolts snap, I think I will look into Hammaman's comments regarding something "elastic" between the big steel washer and the hub surface. A stiff polymer washer that has a little give and can perhaps absorb the forces in play against that steel bolt head?

Of course Ford might come up with something far superior. But until we know,....... Well, we just don't know much.

 

[HammaMan]

Don't know enough about such engineering to know why/when to use a one-time approach.

But your question pretty much describes my low-tech experiment.

It'll add about $32 annually to the cost of ownership. My way of saying that I don't really think I'm taking any kind of serious risk.

If one of these Dorman bolts snap, I think I will look into Hammaman's comments regarding something "elastic" between the big steel washer and the hub surface. A stiff polymer washer that has a little give and can perhaps absorb the forces in play against that steel bolt head?

Of course Ford might come up with something far superior. But until we know,....... Well, we just don't know much.

Are these TTY? They appear to seal the axle and the hub together to mitigate gear oil leakage. My idea is a whole other configuration entirely, not just a washer.

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