Cracked Front Diff Housing

[amschind]

Hello all, I'm new to this site so sorry if I fumble around figuring it out. I have a 2021 and my front differential blew apart. I was in wet snow in my flat driveway trying to back up in 4WD. When the tire started slipping. I put it in low range for better control and tried to back up and POW, differential blew. Been driving 4WDs for 49 years and I have never had an issue like this. I has less than 18,000 miles on it. Ford denied the warranty claim. They said outside influences caused the damage. That is completely untrue. Anyone else had this happen to them?

It's suspicious how many "individual circumstances" have caused this specific part in this specific truck in this specific model year to fail. I guess everyone who bought a 4x4 2021 F150 is just ragging out their trucks doing crazy stuff like backing out of their driveways in 4LO. Clearly the trucks aren't designed for that sort of irresponsible abuse.

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[WhiteLightningnshitshadow]

Yeah this is probably the most unacceptable design flaw I've seen in a while. I'm not even sure it's a quality issue, but is likely a design engineering issue. Waiting on that next recall.

 

[halbritt]

Status update: dealer is doing a warranty repair, but they’re way backed up, and asking me to leave my truck there, they can’t say when they’ll get started and when they do it’ll be 7-10 days because they don’t keep shims on hand and would need to order them.

I’ll take it in next week alonh with a Torsen diff I picked up, I’ll whine about the duration and ask them to do me a solid and install the Torsen for me while fixing the rest.

As for a design flaw, I’m not so sure. Same design has been used for quite some time. Friend has a 13th gen, and the part numbers are the same. Reports I’m seeing suggest that this is happening most often on ‘21s, so maybe a bad batch of castings or a new supplier or some such.

I ordered the VAS differential brace and will install it after the warranty repair. Hopefully that addresses the issue. It was built for folks that do really hard 4wd launches in high HP trucks, so, maybe.

 

[HANCOCK]

Does anyone know if a tremor front differential is Different Than a standard 4x4 F150?
Just curiousIt comes with a Torsen front diff . so would it be made stronger the differential to take the load ?

 

[Snakebitten]

It is a different front differential on a Tremor.
Whether it is stronger or not, I don't know. But I'm with the previous posts suggesting that there's gotta be something wrong with a "batch" of the front differentials. Of course it could be a batch bigger or smaller than we might speculate, because there's so little information available at this point.

If it's true that the part number for the failed differential is the same as Ford has used in the previous generation F150, that would certainly lend credibility to the batch theory too. Those trucks number in the millions at this point, and there are many folks who have beat on them pretty severely.

I'm far more concerned with these recent posts where Ford or any dealership would question the validity of it being a warranty claim. In my opinion, that is the kind of nonsense that destroys a brand, far quicker than the statistical percentage of problems that are inevitable and get discussed on a forum.

 

[amschind]

Status update: dealer is doing a warranty repair, but they’re way backed up, and asking me to leave my truck there, they can’t say when they’ll get started and when they do it’ll be 7-10 days because they don’t keep shims on hand and would need to order them.

I’ll take it in next week alonh with a Torsen diff I picked up, I’ll whine about the duration and ask them to do me a solid and install the Torsen for me while fixing the rest.

As for a design flaw, I’m not so sure. Same design has been used for quite some time. Friend has a 13th gen, and the part numbers are the same. Reports I’m seeing suggest that this is happening most often on ‘21s, so maybe a bad batch of castings or a new supplier or some such.

I ordered the VAS differential brace and will install it after the warranty repair. Hopefully that addresses the issue. It was built for folks that do really hard 4wd launches in high HP trucks, so, maybe.

The working theory is that the design probably is good....IF quality castings are used. It appears that during the depth of COVID, Ford turned to whatever suppliers they could get and the results are showing up now as.....well this.

 

[Snakebitten]

The working theory is that the design probably is good....IF quality castings are used. It appears that during the depth of COVID, Ford turned to whatever suppliers they could get and the results are showing up now as.....well this.

That certainly applies to a lot of components, I'm sure, but Borg Warner is Borg Warner. Are these differentials not all supplied by the same manufacturer?

 

[Gros Ventre]

That certainly applies to a lot of components, I'm sure, but Borg Warner is Borg Warner. Are these differentials not all supplied by the same manufacturer?

They do not have to be from the same manufacturer, just the same design. I've seen in the Navy Supply System different manufacturers for the same part number. Could be different year made or, if it's a high demand item, they just farm it out to several makers.

 

[Pedaldude]

Hello all, I'm new to this site...Ford denied the warranty claim. They said outside influences caused the damage. That is completely untrue. Anyone else had this happen to them?

Since you’re new, you might not be familiar with the generous helping of warranty denials at Ford dealerships.

Go to another dealership and get your differential replaced there. Some dealerships are just scumbags.

Right now there’s a thread with a dude that has a pretty new truck with the taillights delaminating and the first dealer told him to pound sand, while the second one was more helpful.

Good luck!

 

[JBHBILL]

Th

Since you’re new, you might not be familiar with the generous helping of warranty denials at Ford dealerships.

Go to another dealership and get your differential replaced there. Some dealerships are just scumbags.

Right now there’s a thread with a dude that has a pretty new truck with the taillights delaminating and the first dealer told him to pound sand, while the second one was more helpful.

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice. The dealership told me that it was Ford Customer Service and not them and that the dealership was working to get Customer Service to change their minds about the not covering the warranty. I didn't find out until after the truck was repaired at my expense that the service manger and the owner of the dealership were in agreement with Customer Service. They lied to me from the beginning, had I known I would have absolutely taken it to another dealership.

 

[Snakebitten]

That's how a brand is destroyed one truck at a time.

I'd love to hear the conversation that REALLY took place between the parties involved in supporting the product that they officially represent.

And I wonder how different it might have been if just ONE voice as an advocate for the customer and the brand was present?

Really unfortunate for @JBHBILL

 

[JBHBILL]

That's how a brand is destroyed one truck at a time.

I'd love to hear the conversation that REALLY took place between the parties involved in supporting the product that they officially represent.

And I wonder how different it might have been if just ONE voice as an advocate for the customer and the brand was present?

Really unfortunate for @JBHBILL

Or if they would come out and talk to the customer face to face. I'll let folks know how it goes. I'm working through the VT Attorney General's office now.

 

[amschind]

That certainly applies to a lot of components, I'm sure, but Borg Warner is Borg Warner. Are these differentials not all supplied by the same manufacturer?

I don't know. I didn't think that BWA did the diff housings, but if they did, they normally have a BWA prefix on the part number. Someone with a less substantial skid plate might be better at checking that than I am.

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