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- Joined
- Feb 23, 2012
- Messages
- 51
- City
- US lower 48
- Vehicle Year
- 2010
- Engine
- 4.0 V6
- Transmission
- Automatic
Early in calendar year 2015 my 2010 4wd Ranger XLT suffered two "severe whacks" to the front suspension. It is now having reoccurring alignment issues.
Episode 1: The first mishap was in March 2015 and during a torrential, frog-strangling rain storm. The rain was such that with wipers full bore I couldn't see anything except the lines in the road and maybe 10 yards ahead.
A possible tornado was on the way so I was making a run for home and took a road that has six (6) big-honking speed tables installed due to being the access road for a middle school.
The first table is about a half mile from the intersection and I knew I was approaching it, but as I passed the warning sign a big truck met me with lights on bright and I failed to see the sign.
About the time I let me foot off the gas to slow down for the table I hit it. Had I not been seat-belted in I'm sure my head would have smacked the roof of the cab.
At any rate, I could tell I knocked it out of alignment so the next day I took it to the local dealership and they realigned the front end.
Episode 2: The second instance was maybe three weeks later while going to the local ER to check on a friend. Access to our local hospital calls for either winding one’s way through a congested college campus (think “slow”), or taking a six lane thoroughfare (3 lanes on each side of a divider). The highway at one point goes under a railroad overpass and the trestle columns and road shoulders are wrapped in guard rails.
Traveling in the center lane, as I approached the railroad underpass a WOMAN ON A CELL PHONE began to move over on me and I laid on the horn and gave ground to the right. She kept coming and about the same moment she realized she was pushing me I hit the curb hard on the right side. I was just before moving back into a collision with her to avoid scraping down the guard rail on the right side. The impact seemed to bottom the suspension, and the impact to the right front wheel was hard enough that I later had to replace that tire. Of course she hung up the phone and sped off...
The next day - yet again, I took my truck to have it checked and sure enough, it was out of alignment. I've been doing business at this dealership for nearly 30 years and know many of the techs. The guy who aligned it said "Mr. Rick - you really need to lay off that right front for a while." No kidding…
What I've done: Since then I have had to have the alignment redone a half-dozen times after rolling over what should have been a routine, “no sweat” bump in the road or some other small hole. I never had this issue with this truck before the two mishaps; since then it has been frequent and the issue is always the toe-in of the alignment.
A momentary side-track: Retirement is less than five years out for me so last year my wife and I moved to a nearby smaller town. There is no Ford dealer in the new locale so I began hunting independent technicians. I soon found a semi-retired front end guy who runs a small shop near his home. He has a state of the art Hunter alignment machine in his shop and does a low-key but steady business in between time with grand-kids and deer hunting, fishing, and other hunting and fishing, and training his hunting dogs… You catch my drift.
He looked at it and recommended a camber kit and I can bear true witness; that kit made a huge difference in the way the vehicle drives. Why in the world Ford didn’t send the Rangers out of the factory with adjustable camber is a mystery to me.
Anyway – and the kit notwithstanding, the alignment is still weak. To wit: since having the camber kit installed I’ve knocked it out another three times.
The next step I took was to replace the front shocks (Bilstein 4600’s, btw). When the old shocks were removed the upper grommets were badly battered.
So my first thought is that rubber bits and metal sleeves in the suspension are damaged from the high-impact stress. The truck has 94,000 miles on it but may have the "wear" of one with twice that, so to speak.
Next, it could be that some metal part is damaged, but the Ford techs and my independent tech have looked and do not see any damage to metal parts.
Finally, when I roll over a dip in the road that suddenly unloads/reloads the suspension I sometimes, but not always, get a “clank” in the front end. Something, as we say in the south, “just ain’t right.”
My questions are three:
1. Will replacement of all the rubber bits and supporting sleeves cure the loosey-goosiness" in the front end and thereby the “won’t stay aligned” issues.
2. What other mechanical sources might be the cause of the issues?
3. What exactly should I state for a repair order: a full disassembly and rebuild, or to address some specific component that would be a direct contributor to the problem?
I am a wordsmith by trade and not an auto technician, so your feedback will be appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Rick
PS: the truck is bone stock – no lift or other changes
Episode 1: The first mishap was in March 2015 and during a torrential, frog-strangling rain storm. The rain was such that with wipers full bore I couldn't see anything except the lines in the road and maybe 10 yards ahead.
A possible tornado was on the way so I was making a run for home and took a road that has six (6) big-honking speed tables installed due to being the access road for a middle school.
The first table is about a half mile from the intersection and I knew I was approaching it, but as I passed the warning sign a big truck met me with lights on bright and I failed to see the sign.
About the time I let me foot off the gas to slow down for the table I hit it. Had I not been seat-belted in I'm sure my head would have smacked the roof of the cab.
At any rate, I could tell I knocked it out of alignment so the next day I took it to the local dealership and they realigned the front end.
Episode 2: The second instance was maybe three weeks later while going to the local ER to check on a friend. Access to our local hospital calls for either winding one’s way through a congested college campus (think “slow”), or taking a six lane thoroughfare (3 lanes on each side of a divider). The highway at one point goes under a railroad overpass and the trestle columns and road shoulders are wrapped in guard rails.
Traveling in the center lane, as I approached the railroad underpass a WOMAN ON A CELL PHONE began to move over on me and I laid on the horn and gave ground to the right. She kept coming and about the same moment she realized she was pushing me I hit the curb hard on the right side. I was just before moving back into a collision with her to avoid scraping down the guard rail on the right side. The impact seemed to bottom the suspension, and the impact to the right front wheel was hard enough that I later had to replace that tire. Of course she hung up the phone and sped off...
The next day - yet again, I took my truck to have it checked and sure enough, it was out of alignment. I've been doing business at this dealership for nearly 30 years and know many of the techs. The guy who aligned it said "Mr. Rick - you really need to lay off that right front for a while." No kidding…
What I've done: Since then I have had to have the alignment redone a half-dozen times after rolling over what should have been a routine, “no sweat” bump in the road or some other small hole. I never had this issue with this truck before the two mishaps; since then it has been frequent and the issue is always the toe-in of the alignment.
A momentary side-track: Retirement is less than five years out for me so last year my wife and I moved to a nearby smaller town. There is no Ford dealer in the new locale so I began hunting independent technicians. I soon found a semi-retired front end guy who runs a small shop near his home. He has a state of the art Hunter alignment machine in his shop and does a low-key but steady business in between time with grand-kids and deer hunting, fishing, and other hunting and fishing, and training his hunting dogs… You catch my drift.
He looked at it and recommended a camber kit and I can bear true witness; that kit made a huge difference in the way the vehicle drives. Why in the world Ford didn’t send the Rangers out of the factory with adjustable camber is a mystery to me.
Anyway – and the kit notwithstanding, the alignment is still weak. To wit: since having the camber kit installed I’ve knocked it out another three times.
The next step I took was to replace the front shocks (Bilstein 4600’s, btw). When the old shocks were removed the upper grommets were badly battered.
So my first thought is that rubber bits and metal sleeves in the suspension are damaged from the high-impact stress. The truck has 94,000 miles on it but may have the "wear" of one with twice that, so to speak.
Next, it could be that some metal part is damaged, but the Ford techs and my independent tech have looked and do not see any damage to metal parts.
Finally, when I roll over a dip in the road that suddenly unloads/reloads the suspension I sometimes, but not always, get a “clank” in the front end. Something, as we say in the south, “just ain’t right.”
My questions are three:
1. Will replacement of all the rubber bits and supporting sleeves cure the loosey-goosiness" in the front end and thereby the “won’t stay aligned” issues.
2. What other mechanical sources might be the cause of the issues?
3. What exactly should I state for a repair order: a full disassembly and rebuild, or to address some specific component that would be a direct contributor to the problem?
I am a wordsmith by trade and not an auto technician, so your feedback will be appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Rick
PS: the truck is bone stock – no lift or other changes
