general problems of the 2016 Ford Expedition

During normal dealer service interval, I was advised by car dealer that lug nuts were in need of replacement. As vehicle is less than 5 years old and has under 60k miles, I said that seemed abnormal. Service agent advised they “see it all the time. ” as this seems like a safety issue, I inquired if there was a recall or service bulletin. Advised, there was none. Work was completed. I contacted Ford motor company and asked about issue and reimbursement. They told me it was a known issue and that no recall existed and therefore they would not reimburse. They told me their current position is that lug nuts are a “wear and tear item” like tires. I told them never in my life of driving (over 4 decades and in excess of million miles) have I ever been advised that lug nuts need replacing.

I had a flat tire and needed to install the spare tire. I jacked the vehicle up and tried to take the wheel lug nuts off. The manufacturer supplied lug removal bar's head would not fit over the wheel lug nuts. Consequently, I was not able to remove the flat tire and install the spare tire. Saftey was compromised by having to drive on a damaged tire approximately 10 miles to a repair shop. Had I been out of town or on a highway the saftey issues would have been greatly magnified. The repair shop had difficulty removing the lug nuts. They had to use special half sized sockets and pound the sockets onto the lug nuts before they could be removed. The independent service center states that this issue is not unusual for Ford products with two piece lug nuts. This incident did not cause an accident, injury or vehicle damage. Nothing was reported to any authorities, excluding this incident report. Bottm line; in cases of road side tire failure, the damaged tire needs to able to be removed and the spare installed to facillitae safe transport to a repair facility.