Regrets?

[powerboost]

I used to be co-owner in a shop – if anyone brought a "come-along" into the shop I'd probably fire them or get them drug tested. If you need a special tool, you either buy it or make it, you don't resort to fence-building farm equipment. Porsche has several tools in the category "shop made" which they expect the mechanic to fabricate (usually pretty simple devices, things like a bracket to hold a transmission or a tube to align a clutch plate.) If they need to build a puller to separate a transmission housing, they should get a fabricator to build the puller or jig. There's also the OSHA requirements to use correct tools and equipment and not have high tension mouse trap contraptions slinging 500lb transmission around the shop …

Maybe Jethro forgot to take all the bolts out on that new fangled device..... tie a chain to the Edsel and lets give er' a good yank. ........

Sponsored

 

[Snakebitten]

Are you a fan of the 6.5’ bed? That’s what I plan to order.

Everything about it is a plus to me, except turning radius, of course, but it's not really longer than the millions of SuperDuty trucks in the parking lot.

And for towing or Payload, obviously the extra space and stability is a bonus. What's amazing is that it increases curb weight by a mere 21 lbs!

 

[powerboost]

I have had one major repair issue. The electronic brake booster went out and caused several other issues at the same time.

.........And that is why we buy a Ford premium care warranty wholesale from Flood or Ziegler because that assembly is so complex that it will be expensive to buy in a few years.

 

[F-150 Prius]

Everything about it is a plus to me, except turning radius, of course, but it's not really longer than the millions of SuperDuty trucks in the parking lot.

And for towing or Payload, obviously the extra space and stability is a bonus. What's amazing is that it increases curb weight by a mere 21 lbs!

Spot on. Many times the short bed would have come up short. Every time the long bed turns out too long.

Compared to previous trucks, the advantage now is the cameras and sensors … you can get to within an inch of every corner touching … turns a 15 point frustration fest turn into a pretty quick and painless three point with little risk of a costly scrape.

I'd like Ford to put rear-wheel steer on the F-150 … all the cool kids are doing rear-wheel steer now. : )

 

[IrishFordGuy]

Any regrets so far? I absolutely love my PowerBoost, it's my first ever truck. But with the minor, but annoying, issues that are starting to build, and the number of complaints and problems from so many other PB/14Gen owners, I'm really starting to annoyed. A $55K vehicle at 6-months old should not be having this many problems.

No regrets and no issues to report after 2 months and 3500 miles after long trip. This is my 6th F150 and definitely the best I've owned. Comfortable, Powerful, Quiet and Smooth ride

 

[Jus Cruisin]

Have you or anyone at the dealer confirmed all the Fuses in the fuse boxes are seated properly? Second day of having my Powerboost I started getting alerts for the rear backup sensors and the system would disable itself along with a check engine light. I checked the fuse box on the passenger side and the fuses were all good. I checked the fuse box in the engine bay, every single fuse had to be pushed in. They all made a click when I pushed them in, after that no warnings or engine lights. Been running fine for 3 weeks now.

Those were checked 5 months ago when this all first started....

 

[Jus Cruisin]

A little follow up. I got the truck back this afternoon. It was a $6,800 warranty repair. The drive unit was most of the cost. About $5,600. It's starting and driving.. Am I thrilled? Right now, not really because nothing was obviously broken. It seems this repair was the best guess. An expensive one for sure. All I can do is hope it's fixed permanently. I'll certainly wonder every time I hit the start button that it'll go ready or not.
If there was a bunch of inventory, I'd be swapping the truck now. But, there's nothing close to what I would want laying around. I'll make a decision about ordering after the holidays assuming the dumb thing doesn't strand me again.

 

[F-150 Prius]

A little follow up. I got the truck back this afternoon. It was a $6,800 warranty repair. The drive unit was most of the cost. About $5,600. It's starting and driving.. Am I thrilled? Right now, not really because nothing was obviously broken. It seems this repair was the best guess. An expensive one for sure. All I can do is hope it's fixed permanently. I'll certainly wonder every time I hit the start button that it'll go ready or not.
If there was a bunch of inventory, I'd be swapping the truck now. But, there's nothing close to what I would want laying around. I'll make a decision about ordering after the holidays assuming the dumb thing doesn't strand me again.

Well, that's progress. I know the feeling of "trust" that's shaken once a vehicle lets you down. Miles will help bring back confidence. Here's hoping this closes an arduous chapter.

 

[Stang66]

I will start with I have owned 3 Tundra Crewmax’s over the last 8 years before this, and never had any issues outside any manufacturers recalls. I was really excited about getting the 2021 F-150 because of the Powerboost engine, the redesigned interior, it having much more options overall and the comfort compared to the Tundra. It is the most comfortable truck I’ve been in, between the overall ride, and both front and backseats are comfortable for long drives. Which has not been the case in pretty any of the trucks out there.

Than being said, I bought my F-150 Powerboost the end of February 2021. To date it has been to 2 different dealership shops a total of 14 times. I would say I am more disappointed in the quality of the truck and Fords customer service, if you want to even call it that. Especially for the price at $70k. I’ll be keeping it for now, but if the problems continue, I might consider getting something else.

Biggest issues have been are:
The heat shielding under the passenger portion of cab keeps coming lose and will lay on the drive shaft/transfer case. I finally gave up on Ford fixing it and just fixed it myself.

The transmission can some be clunky, particularly in lower gears. Sometimes it will downshift really hard.

In cooler weather, about 50 degrees and below, one of the fans makes a loud clicking noise. Sounds like the fan blades are hitting the fan shield or something similar. (It’s so loud in several drive thru people have asked if what’s wrong with it)Had 2 fans replaced and still the same issue. No fix to be found yet, as they don’t really
know what it is.

The tires are wearing out super fast. Before I hit 5,000 miles the fronts were getting worn on the outside edge. By worn I mean smooth, nothing left. I have had the alignment checked 4 times, by 2 different places. I’m told it spot in. Rotated tires 3 times now, at just over 13,000 miles and will need new ones soon.

Several of the cup holders have broken, one on the 1st day we had it. Had to wait 3 months for the parts to fix.

The handle on the passenger side front has come loose and they had to replace the whole panel.

The drivers side door panel had to be replaced. As the window controls stopped working all together.

On the tailgate, the piece that houses the backup camera was stating to pop out from the frame. This was within the 1st week of having it. They tried to fix it but ended up having to replace the whole thing.

 

[Snakebitten]

I've had Ford trucks for decades and currently have 8 in the family fleet and all of them put together haven't had the terrible luck you have had with that one truck.
That's got to be very disappointing!

Honestly I don't know if I could defend the Ford service department because I don't know if they are good at their job or not. That's kind of my point too. You shouldn't be needing them so much.

If I found myself in your position with the Powerboost Platinum that I currently have, I'd be trading it in and taking the hit because with my history I know what to expect and that truck isn't meeting up to it.

I need to enjoy something that is that big of an investment. I don't want to be irritated with it every time I think about it. Lol

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I will start with I have owned 3 Tundra Crewmax’s over the last 8 years before this, and never had any issues outside any manufacturers recalls. I was really excited about getting the 2021 F-150 because of the Powerboost engine, the redesigned interior, it having much more options overall and the comfort compared to the Tundra. It is the most comfortable truck I’ve been in, between the overall ride, and both front and backseats are comfortable for long drives. Which has not been the case in pretty any of the trucks out there.

Than being said, I bought my F-150 Powerboost the end of February 2021. To date it has been to 2 different dealership shops a total of 14 times. I would say I am more disappointed in the quality of the truck and Fords customer service, if you want to even call it that. Especially for the price at $70k. I’ll be keeping it for now, but if the problems continue, I might consider getting something else.

Biggest issues have been are:
The heat shielding under the passenger portion of cab keeps coming lose and will lay on the drive shaft/transfer case. I finally gave up on Ford fixing it and just fixed it myself.

The transmission can some be clunky, particularly in lower gears. Sometimes it will downshift really hard.

In cooler weather, about 50 degrees and below, one of the fans makes a loud clicking noise. Sounds like the fan blades are hitting the fan shield or something similar. (It’s so loud in several drive thru people have asked if what’s wrong with it)Had 2 fans replaced and still the same issue. No fix to be found yet, as they don’t really
know what it is.

The tires are wearing out super fast. Before I hit 5,000 miles the fronts were getting worn on the outside edge. By worn I mean smooth, nothing left. I have had the alignment checked 4 times, by 2 different places. I’m told it spot in. Rotated tires 3 times now, at just over 13,000 miles and will need new ones soon.

Several of the cup holders have broken, one on the 1st day we had it. Had to wait 3 months for the parts to fix.

The handle on the passenger side front has come loose and they had to replace the whole panel.

The drivers side door panel had to be replaced. As the window controls stopped working all together.

On the tailgate, the piece that houses the backup camera was stating to pop out from the frame. This was within the 1st week of having it. They tried to fix it but ended up having to replace the whole thing.

Good morning. Would you please send over a private message with your VIN? I would like to see what I can do to assist with these issues you are having with your truck.

 

[Jus Cruisin]

Today's update. I figured I might as well see what's up with it yesterday. I ran it down near Port Clinton Ohio to check on my boat. It started multiple times ? But now I have to go through trans learning. It was wonky at times in surface street traffic. Hopefully it learns quickly.

 

[Oxford_Powerboost]

I'm not the OP, but I'll give a few with my 2021 PowerBoost Platinum 4x4:

1) Trailer brakes cut out: I was towing a camper, went to stop at a light, no trailer brakes. Hit the lever on the dash...nothing. Managed to swerve off the road to avoid an accident, pulled into parking lot. Moved forward, hit lever...nothing. LEFT THE TRUCK RUNNING, got out, checked the wiring plug, wiggled it a little, tried again...nothing. Got out, unplugged trailer, re-plugged trailer...nothing. Turned the truck off, turned the truck back on, tried again...trailer brakes worked. Trailer is even newer than the truck, so it clearly isn't corrosion on the plug. Apparently, I had to REBOOT the damned truck to get the brakes working again. I've read online that a few other people have had the same thing happen.

2) Wireless CarPlay: If I leave the truck running, and take my iPhone out of range of the truck, it of course loses connection. Understandable. However, it should re-connect when I get back. Fairly often, not only does it NOT re-connect automatically, it refuses to re-connect even when I go to "Phone List", select my iPhone and select "Connect to CarPlay". It sees it, but won't connect. Problem isn't on the iPhone side, because the Pioneer aftermarket stereo in my old 4Runner re-connected automatically EVER TIME, without fail. Today, when I started the truck up, pressing the "CarPlay" tab at the bottom of the screen gave me a black screen where the CarPlay stuff should have been...even though music WAS playing from my iPhone through CarPlay.

3) Various settings reset themselves: Numerous settings (Trailer Sway feature, Lumbar support, Audio Source setting, etc) sometimes (always for some) reset to default. My lumbar support sometimes resets itself to "None" while driving. The Trailer Sway features turns itself back on EVERY DAMNED TIME I TURN THE TRUCK OFF. The Audio Source will occasionally change itself to Sirius Radio (I don't even have a subscription)....usually when I turn off the truck, but a few times while driving. The Climate Control does this, too, but I THINK it's by design...the truck seems to be trying to anticipate whether cooled seats, steering wheel heater, heated seats, etc, should be on. Some might like that, but I find it annoying. If I want the seat cooling on, I'LL TURN IT ON!!!! If it's not supposed to do that, then add it to "issues."

4) Had someone in the back seat for the first time the other day. After they got out, the truck sometimes indicates that the person in that seat needs to fasten their seat belt...sometimes when someone is there (but buckled) and sometimes when no one is even IN the seat.

5) Awful gas mileage while towing. Yes, I know towing MPG simply sucks. I've towed plenty before. However, I'm getting about 8-8.5 while towing a 5100# trailer, and keeping it under 60mph and babying it as much as I can to increase mpg. By comparison, when I towed a similar-sized camper 10 or so years ago with my 2002 GMC Envoy (also a 6-cylinder), I averaged almost 12 mpg. And yet when NOT towing, my F150 PowerBoost gets close to the advertised 24mpg, while the Envoy's rating was only 15/21.

6) The USB media storage option is damn near useless. At least 75% of the time (likely more like 90%) it tells me I can't select music to play because it's indexing. It's been doing this for 6 months (I haven't removed the USB drive since plugging it in, so it shouldn't have had a reason to re-index).

7) The Built-in Navigation: Probably the worst I've ever used. I've had Garmin, TomTom, Apple Maps, Google Maps, various car built-ins, etc. My F150's Nav frequently sends me an absolutely idiotic way to get somewhere, or tries to send me in a loop for no reason whatsoever. And yes, I've checked to make sure there isn't some weird setting causing this. On Saturday I was heading to a store. The Nav system sent me down the street BEFORE where the store was, into a housing development, had me turn into a cul-de-sac, and asked if I wanted to continue in "Off Road" mode (since the store was 150 yards BEHIND the houses). The Nav showed the location of the store correctly, it just screwed the pooch on actually getting me there.

8) Trailer brakes Part 2: The instruction manual says to essentially adjusting the gain on the brake controller up until the trailer brakes lock up when you squeeze it at 20mph or so, then back it off by 1 notch (so they don't lock up). Mine is at 10 (the max), and they're nowhere near locking up. The trailer (24' camper) is also brand new, and I had the brakes checked by the dealer. Had the brake output levels (voltage, etc) checked by the Ford dealership, and they said it's where it should be. This could be either the trailer or the truck...the dealers are blaming each other (no surprise). Taking the trailer back to be re-checked this week.

9) The wireless "Qi" charger for the phone: Takes FOREVER to charge. I have a $15 Anker Qi charger at home that charges my iPhone XS fully (from under 10%) in a little over an hour. I've noticed the truck's is slow, so I timed it. I put my iPhone on the one in the truck for an hour the other day, and an hour later it had only increased by 12%. I didn't have any CarPlay features running....and even if I did, that's pathetic.

10) Kinda stupid that the in-truck WiFI can only be activated while the truck is running. I'd hoped to use it while camping, but not if I have to leave the truck running. That's more of a design annoyance than an actual "issue," though. Because of this, I'll be letting it lapse after the trial period is over....makes it useless to me.

11) SYNC display comes back on randomly while the truck is off. Several times I've walked by the truck at night (like, when I just remembered to go get the mail), and the SYNC display was lit. Nothing was on it, but there was a faint glow on the display. Bizarre.

12) Shifter is sometimes a little wonky. There have been times that I've put it in gear (either D or R) and it wouldn't go. I had to put it back in park and try again.

13) Not necessarily an issue, may just be a design stupidity (or part of #3 above), but if I want to run in Eco, Tow/Haul, or any other mode, I have to re-select it EVERY SINGLE TIME I get in the truck. If I want it back in "Normal," I'm perfectly capable of spinning the selector to change it!!!!

And that's all off the top of my head...I'm probably forgetting something.

This is all very frustrating, given that I'm coming from a 2006 Toyota 4Runner that had exactly ONE thing ever actually go wrong with it....a failed alternator at 150,000 miles. Granted, the truck has worlds more technology in it, but this is pretty ridiculous, especially for such an expensive vehicle (I paid a premium price for premium features...I expect them to WORK).

Mechanically, it's been overall very solid...it's all the technology crap that has been VERY disappointing.

Thanks for any suggestions to fix any of this!!!

Craig

Hope I can shed some light on a couple things for you - and the trailer brake issue is definitely a huge issue that hopefully they can figure out…

#5 - this vehicle has turbos. Turbos are great for torque and power, but they suck gas. You can always lock out gears as you see turbo boost build. Many who tow with ecoboosts do this and notice significant fuel economy gains. Additionally, tow haul mode locks out electric driving, which is where a lot of your unladen efficiency comes from. For what its worth, my buddy has a 2020 5.0 V8, and just towed his and his wife’s side by sides about 600 miles (6500ish lbs). He averaged 8.2 mpg. Not much better than ecoboosts.

#7 - I’ve never used the truck’s nav - why don’t you just use Apple Maps or Google Maps since you have CarPlay?

#9 - The wireless charger issue is not an F-150 issue, it’s by unfortunate design constraints. iPhone XS wireless charging rate is limited to 5W, or 7.5W for Apple approved devices. I’m going to assume the truck is not Apple approved, so limited to 5W. On top of that, a lot of energy is lost in wireless charging, so the phone doesn’t even get the full 5W into the battery. My dad has a 2019 Tacoma with a Qi charging pad - if I run maps on my phone while it sits on his charging pad, the battery will slowly die or just barely be maintained.

#11 - is this really an issue? Doesn’t seem to affect the truck in any way. It’s probably running some self checks or updating the info in your Ford Pass app to help with continuity of connectivity.

#13 - annoying design choice, but forced to a degree by governing bodies. My previous car could only “remember” eco mode or normal mode. It couldn’t restart in sport, smart, or custom drive modes, it would default to normal. As I understand it, the EPA requires only modes that it was fuel economy tested in to be automatically resumable. It’s actually kind of nice that the F-150 will ask you if you want to return when you restart the truck.

 

[Losi]

I confess I’m holding out for a Lightning, but I’ve flirted with the idea of getting a PB, even looked at the new Tundra hybrid, which looks promising. I understand that modern engineering has made transmissions and engines far more reliable and efficient than ever, but my g-d, have you looked under the hood (or more informatively, under the entire body itself)? I’m both amazed and horrified by the complexity, and I’m reminded of Murphy’s First Law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. But the PB will respond: yes, but nothing serious for a long, long time.

 

[Jus Cruisin]

I was out with mine earlier and the trans is much better after shutting it down yesterday. As long as the dumb thing starts every time, I'm good. But.... If there was a solid black loaded Ecoboost King Ranch laying around someone's lot, I'd be there working on a swap.

Sponsored