Camera realignment not covered under warranty?

[FrankThompson]

Edit: For those that fall upon this thread. I wrote this in the heat of the moment and I think that caused a lot of confusion. I took the truck in because I had the "Reverse Brake Assist" error. I had read that could be caused by the tailgate being removed and when added back needed to have the cameras realigned (I had mine removed to have spray in bedliner put in). Which most had done free of charge free by the dealership either as courtesy or under a TSB (linked to later in the thread). The issue was not me wanting the cameras realigned for free for no reason. I took it in to fix the reverse brake assist error and since I focused on the camera recalibration as the solution (which it is), I made this thread sound like I wanted my cameras recalibrated because they were a little off from taking the tailgate off and putting it back on. That's not the case.

I had spray liner put in my bed and to do so they took off the tailgate and of course that messed up the camera alignment (wire removing the tailgate and putting it back on messes with the camera alignment. I have no clue ) so the reverse brake assist does not work. Now my dealership is telling me that they won't cover that under warranty because somebody else remove the tailgate. Has anyone else had this issue?

I have another dealership in town I can go to if I have to. I just think it's really weird that they won't do this stupid camera realignment. I haven asked the service manager if its really acceptable that if I take my own tailgate off and put it back on that I would have to pay for camera realignment every single time and of course she didn't have an answer.

Sponsored

 

[fordtruckman2003]

I wouldn't expect that to be a warranty job.

Check in Forscan I think it might have a calibration for that.

 

[FrankThompson]

I wouldn't expect that to be a warranty job.

Check in Forscan I think it might have a calibration for that.

But why not?

I did an operation covered in the manual (removed the tailgate and put it back on) and now the reverse brake assist doesn't work. Everything I've found online says that the cameras have to be recalibrated, something only Ford or some specialized shops can do.

For an operation covered under a manual, I would not expect to have to pay to have the cameras recalibrated every single time I do it (at cost to me).

 

[imnuts]

I'm not sure why you're expecting the dealership to fix it, whether it's a potential warranty thing or not. It should be on the bed liner shop. I didn't have any issues when mine was done, and several others haven't either. I don't know what triggers the problem, but the shop you used caused it so they should be responsible to fix it.

 

[Blue22]

I got the same reverse brake assist error after I had my bed liner sprayed by a third party company. I took it to my local dealer and they recalibrated it under warranty.

 

[fordtruckman2003]

I would suspect the shop moved more than the tailgate. When I had my 2011 done they pulled the bed bolts and slid bed back away from cab to get everything covered from over spray. They put the bed back on slightly crooked so had to fix that.

Talk to the shop about it that did your bed spray and the Ford dealer. Get the shop to pay for getting your camera alignment done because they messed it up.

 

[m_bt54]

Not surprised at all that this isn’t covered under warranty. Also not surprised that at least one dealership recalibrated as a courtesy.

With that said, I wouldn’t waste too much time stressing out over it or fighting with the dealership. It takes 5 minutes to do this yourself with Forscan. I personally wouldn’t even let a dealership do something like this for me where it is quicker and easier to do it myself.

 

[discothan]

My new tow mirrors were installed but the cameras were out of alignment. I had the Ford dealer 'collision shop' do the realignment. For my dealer, this was not done by the usual mechanical issues Service Department.

 

[FrankThompson]

I'm not sure why you're expecting the dealership to fix it, whether it's a potential warranty thing or not. It should be on the bed liner shop. I didn't have any issues when mine was done, and several others haven't either. I don't know what triggers the problem, but the shop you used caused it so they should be responsible to fix it.

Because we followed an process outlined in the manual. I helped the guy remove the tailgate and put it back on. He didn't move anything except to unplug the tailgate and plug it back in. Again, this is outlined in the manual. It is also very common for this issue to occur if you remove the tailgate and the truck is not in full sleep mode (which was not an option when I did this as we couldn't wait 20 minutes for th truck to go to sleep).

As some one mentioned above, their dealership covered it under warranty (which until today I had not heard otherwise)

I would suspect the shop moved more than the tailgate. When I had my 2011 done they pulled the bed bolts and slid bed back away from cab to get everything covered from over spray. They put the bed back on slightly crooked so had to fix that.

Talk to the shop about it that did your bed spray and the Ford dealer. Get the shop to pay for getting your camera alignment done because they messed it up.

I helped the shop remove and put the tailgate back on (the guy was there alone). We followed the manual to the T. He did not remove bed bolts or anything. We removed the tailgate, he masked off and sprayed and we put the tailgate back on after.

 

[FrankThompson]

Not surprised at all that this isn’t covered under warranty. Also not surprised that at least one dealership recalibrated as a courtesy.

With that said, I wouldn’t waste too much time stressing out over it or fighting with the dealership. It takes 5 minutes to do this yourself with Forscan. I personally wouldn’t even let a dealership do something like this for me where it is quicker and easier to do it myself.

It is my understanding that you have to actually have a "Setup" to recalibrate if the truck refuses to do it itself (drive for a 1 mile in a straight line). The service manager even mentioned "we would have to pull out all the checkerboard stuff".

If there is a way to do this via forscan, sure, tell me how, but as far as I'm aware, it's not possible.

 

[Aron]

Because we followed an process outlined in the manual.

I don’t think that this is the rock-solid defense that you think it is. Lots of processes are outlined in a manual; warranty only covers defects.

For example, changing tires is outlined in a manual, and part of that process is balancing/alignment. You wouldn’t expect the dealer to perform an alignment under warranty just because you had the local NTB put new tires on, would you?

 

[FrankThompson]

I don’t think that this is the rock-solid defense that you think it is. Lots of processes are outlined in a manual; warranty only covers defects.

For example, changing tires is outlined in a manual, and part of that process is balancing/alignment. You wouldn’t expect the dealer to perform an alignment under warranty just because you had the local NTB put new tires on, would you?

I get it....however this is documented pretty well over the internet that removing the tailgate has a high probability of causing you to have to recalibrate the cameras. Even if you follow the process to a T.

I may be coming across as "I want something for free!", but honestly I think it was "sticker shock" for lack of a better term. When I had the work done (which granted was a year ago), all I heard was "yeah, I had that problem, my dealership just recalibrated the cameras for me under warranty".. Never once did I hear "Yeah, my dealership charged me to recalibrate".

The worse part is that since the cameras are not aligned the reverse brake assist also won't work. At the end of the day, I haven't had that feature for a year and only had it for a month before I had the spray bedliner put in. If it' costs too much I'll just turn the feature off.

I do get what you all are saying, but it's not like removing your tailgate is uncommon and at the rate that these recalibrations have to be done after this standard procedure (based on my research) I think is a failure on Ford's part.

 

[takalow]

When I had my 2011 done they pulled the bed bolts and slid bed back away from cab to get everything covered from over spray. They put the bed back on slightly crooked so had to fix that.

I hope they used new bolts. Those bolts are supposed to be replaced and not reused per Ford

 

[fordtruckman2003]

So you are on here complaining now because dealer denied fixing something that you did to the truck over a year ago?

Just get Forscan and take care of it yourself.

 

[Aron]

I get it....however this is documented pretty well over the internet that removing the tailgate has a high probability of causing you to have to recalibrate the cameras. Even if you follow the process to a T.

I may be coming across as "I want something for free!", but honestly I think it was "sticker shock" for lack of a better term. When I had the work done (which granted was a year ago), all I heard was "yeah, I had that problem, my dealership just recalibrated the cameras for me under warranty".. Never once did I hear "Yeah, my dealership charged me to recalibrate".

The worse part is that since the cameras are not aligned the reverse brake assist also won't work. At the end of the day, I haven't had that feature for a year and only had it for a month before I had the spray bedliner put in. If it' costs too much I'll just turn the feature off.

I do get what you all are saying, but it's not like removing your tailgate is uncommon and at the rate that these recalibrations have to be done after this standard procedure (based on my research) I think is a failure on Ford's part.

Understood. It’s not an unreasonable assumption that it should be done as a standard component of that work (and not a separate fee for you). It just seems to me that the bedliner dealer would do it as part of their work. After all, they “broke” it.

The Ford dealer had nothing to do with it, so I can see why they might resist doing that work and trying to get reimbursed from Ford.

Sponsored