Removed Active Air Dam From my F-150 - DIY Writeup

[Lricaud81]

This is next thing i really need to do as I messed mine up recently.

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[jakearb]

This is next thing i really need to do as I messed mine up recently.

Mine was torn off on one side from going over a small tree branch on the highway last year. I just ripped off the active part and left on the motors. Probably should have removed them, but it's company truck that I'll have for another few months, so... ?

 

[aviator]

I believe you can disable them as well in FORScan from deploying.

 

[Lricaud81]

Mine was torn off on one side from going over a small tree branch on the highway last year. I just ripped off the active part and left on the motors. Probably should have removed them, but it's company truck that I'll have for another few months, so... ?

Mine was from a small shrub I ran over in the woods. Its ridiculous how flimsy they are

 

[jakearb]

Mine was from a small shrub I ran over in the woods. Its ridiculous how flimsy they are

Haha, yep. If it was my own truck, I'd just get rid of it.

 

[TMicallef]

Update...

So my son has the identical twin truck to mine - same year, motor, even color (except for a different vin) and he sends me a message on the instrument panel that says..."Active Air Dam System Fault" today. His was stuck down and not functioning. Of course this happens here in Michigan where the high is maybe 20 degrees today. I told him that these are useless and more trouble than what they're worth and that I removed mine along with the motors "and" disabled it altogether in FORScan so no more DTCs. He sprayed it off and it went back up.

So...needless to say...the next warm day we will be removing his as well!

 

[aviator]

I've left my air dam in place but disabled it in FORScan. So far no fault in the cold we have had here

 

[SteveL]

I removed mine today. I haven't read this entire thread, but there was a slight difference between mine and the one in the OP. The moving portion of the dam was attached with three 7MM bolts on each side, and the motors were attached with three 13MM bolts on each side. There were no torx bolts to removed. Mine is a 23 and I think the one in the OP is a 21. I trimmed the fixed piece without removing it from the truck and then hit it with some sandpaper to clean it up a little. I disabled the active air dam in Forscan and I plugged the wiring harnesses on each side with some plugs I bought on Ebay.
I plan to add the Tremor skid plate at some point. I also plan to add the sensor for adaptive cruise control, and since both mods require removing the bumper I'll probably do them at the same time.

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

I've left my air dam in place but disabled it in FORScan. So far no fault in the cold we have had here

So everything is intact it just is non-operational?

 

[Tinman1227]

Update- mine did not throw a code (motor entire removal not just the blade) on my STX (XL)
Next I am removing the rear tire dams. Why? Check out how thin of a gauge the aluminum is they are attached to. If you just tap something with that silly hung down air dam it will bend up the body part. Thanks for posting the parts needed to order. Great Thread

 

[Tinman1227]

Just ordered my stone guards.
BTW- I left my non active air dam on as is (so far). I do not mind that its flexible , helps with mileage, etc. . My truck is not leveled either. I am a builder/developer and use it for work and my dailey. These things are just accidents (active air dam and rear tire air dams with such thin aluminum for a mount ) and/or problems waiting to happen.

 

[andy18_00]

I did what OP did today. I think it came out great. He was right the 1.5 inch tape is about the correct width

 

[ontheroad]

I was driving on the freeway and something hard just came out from my right. My air dam cracked from the impact but I was also wondering if it hadn't been the air dam, it might have damaged truck's underside?

See the damage driver side of the air dam (several oval cutout severely deformed and the front surface caved in at two spots, suggesting two impacts, one major impact followed by a minor one when the object was bounced off from the first impact)

In comparison, the intact passenger side:

Even though I do not feel that the air dam provided a lot of benefits in reducing drag, the peace of mind in such incident made me to keep it in place.

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