Ford F-150 Tierods

Sep 19, 2003 1 Replies

I'm new to this group - and new to trucks as I just purchased my first one, a 2003 F-150 SLT Supercab. Love the truck!



One thing that has been bothering me a bit is that I've been hearing lots of stories about these trucks breaking tierods - just snapping them off, not wearing gradually. The "word" is that Ford has had this problem for a number of years and has refused to address it by putting better metal in these parts so that year after year the same problems arise.



I've spoken to two people who had this happen to them when the trucks were fairly new (still under warranty) and have heard the same from several others who "heard it from someone... who heard it from..."



I'm wondering how prevalent this is. I'm not a mechanic, but this would seem to me to be a safety issue for sure. Anybody have personal experience with this situation?



Keith


About a month or so ago I broke my left tie rod. Just snapped at the joint. It's a good thing I was only going about 35MPH when this happened because the left wheel went independent and I did a bounce dance off the road into a ditch. Managed to back out of the ditch dragging the pigeon-toed wheel along and then had to get towed. Cost around $250 to get replaced.

About a week before this I was under the truck and noticed the tie rod looked a bit sick. Just before it broke I hit a large pothole and I think that's what finally did it in.

'97 F150 4x4 extended cab, 80K miles.

If I was on the highway I'm wondering if the truck would have flipped.

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