Body problems of the 2004 Ford F-150 - part 1

The truck has had a complete body frame failure. The entire frame is rusted through with large holes. I am unable to put it on a jack to change the tires. It has failed inspections and has not been inspected since 2019. I have a 1992 Ford truck that has no rust issue on the frame. This year is a complete design failure where they used substandard steel or other garbage. It is a safety hazard.

Hitch broke off due to Ford common frame rot. Frame is rotted from leaf spring shackle and back.

The frame is rotted completely. It is a safety issue that when discovered and searched seems to a huge issue. I was advised not to drive the vehicle as it not safe to drive. I bought this two days ago.

Tl- the contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. The contact stated while undergoing routine maintenance (changing muffler) the contact discovered severe rust and corrosion on the frame of the vehicle. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or an independant mechanic for repairs and the manufacturer was not notified of this issue. The approximate mileage was 167,000 tp.

Paint cracked ,coils malfunction,springs front.

Tl- the contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while in for routine maintenance the independent mechanic discovered that the frame and chassis of the vehicle had rusted and corroded. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer flagship Ford(850 fern dr, baldwin WI. ) and the manufacturer were notified of the failure. Vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 138,000. Jft.

The underbody frame is 95% rusted out, this vehicle is available for inspection upon request. I could have been fatally injured, not knowing the under frame was gone, until vehicle was taken in for new tires. The vehicle was inspected by firestone tire and gene butman Ford. There were no warning messages and the problem was first noticed in 2019 and was told the vehicle was unsafe to drive, a hazard and should not be driven.

The main frame rails( that run from front back) have an extra cladding that is welded to the main frame rails. This area I am referring to is where a cross member( holding the weight of the rear engine and transmission) is welded to the cladding and the two main frame rails. The cladding was not completely welded so water has gotten between the cladding and main frame rails causing severe corrosion and failure of that connection point. Even though it could be said I take extremely good care of my vehicles this area suddenly presented as a bulge and subsequent discovery of an extreme failure. This consistent failure happened on both frame rail connection points. I feel that this failure will be overlooked as it was with me . . . . And could cause frame failure causing public harm.

This a. M. As I entered my driveway, a neighbor stopped me to talk. I stopped and rolled down my window. He went on and on. Suddenly, my truck accelerated at full throttle toward my garage 70 feet away. My foot was on the brake to no avail. I turned slightly to the right and hit the corner of the garage. The air bags deployed. My glasses went flying. I was not hurt. A tree had soften the impact. I was severely shaken. My blood pressure was elevated. Ford motor company is not helpful. My insurance company, geico, is handling the issue.

Tl the contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for repairs. Once the vehicle was placed on a lift, the mechanic noticed that the main rails that support the frame and the frame of the vehicle had extensive rust. The failure could cause the structure to potentially fracture or disintegrate. The independent mechanic diagnosed that the frame needed to be replaced. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The VIN and failure mileage were not available.

The frame on my truck has split in half always been taken care of. Ive had it for 6 years and it been good. Until recently the bed has started to shake very violently. My dad and I have figured out that the frame on my truck has split in half! I did some research on this issue of frames failing. Most 11th gen owners like me have or had this kind of problem. Some frames have rotted out completely due to Ford. This truck is very unsafe! and ive asked Ford if they could do anything and they couldn't do anything. They wont back up their products.

Brought my 2004 f150 XLT to have some service work done, the truck needed a muffler and a new front upper control arm, I was advised by the service manager that I should have my frame looked at before going any further, both right and left sides of the frame in the middle of the truck have severe rust and I believe the structure is doomed to fail, I had planned on driving this truck for several more years as it is my daily driver. I am now left with a truck that cannot be certified for resale and has lost its value and further it is no longer safe. By the way the truck only has 190 thousand kms on it.

I have a 2004 Ford F-150 xl extended cab pick up with 140,000 miles. I recently purchased new tires and an exhaust . Dropped of the truck at the mechanic to have items installed. Received a call the next morning that there was a problem, so went in to see what the issue was. Turns out the frame of the truck has rotted on both the passenger and drivers side, where the bed meets the cab. When they tried to lift the truck to install the tires the truck didn't move, the lift just started crushing through the frame rail. Quite devastating news to receive since the truck runs and drives great, but is now a big hunk of scrap. Worrisome also as I had just taken my family on a 7 hour trip in the truck a month earlier and hate to consider what could have happened if we had been involved in an accident. I feel that in this day and age a 13 year old truck should not experience this issue and the manufacturer should step up and take some responsibility for their product. Built Ford tough. Yeah, right.

The contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. While performing routine maintenance on the vehicle, the contact became aware of extreme corrosion to the subframe of the vehicle. The contact was concerned that the vehicle could fracture and separate at the center between the bed and the cabin. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 75,000.

The contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. The contact stated that the rear driver side frame of the vehicle was rusted out near the fuel tank. The contact took the vehicle to the langley Ford dealer who stated that the vehicle was not included in any recall regarding the frame. The vehicle was not officially diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and confirmed the dealer's information. The approximate failure mileage was 124,000.

My truck has 106,xxx miles on it. I have only owned it for 9 months. I took it to the shop for a repair and was told the frame was so rotten out they couldn't put it on the lift.

My truck has always been well taken care of has 92, 000 miles on it which is very low on a 2004. It was always serviced at the dealer where we purchased the truck. I had 2 extended service warranties through this dealer. There is no rust on the body at all. I took it to another garage to have some work done on it and when they put it on the lift the box on the truck started to pull away from the cab. When it was lowered, and inspected the frame on both sides of the truck was completely rotted thru. I had no idea that it was this bad. The frame must be completely reconstructed and of course Ford and the dealer don¿t want to take any responsibility for it. Someone could have been killed not knowing the severity of the frame. I depended on Ford to construct a safe vehicle and for the dealer to service my truck in good faith. People should be reimbursed by Ford to get the problem fixed and for their lack of a quality product and service. Something needs to be done before someone loses their life.

The contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. The contact stated that the frame was fractured. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 89,000.

Both rear suicide doors will not open, the latch mechanism is broken and apparently cost over $700. 00 to fix both. In addition I have replaced the wheel bearing on all wheels twice and now another one is going bad. It seems like I never have a period when all the bearings are good.

During an oil change it was noticed that the left hand front differential mounting bracket appeared to have a crack pursuant with TSB 06-11-12. However upon closer examination it was shown that the damage was more extensive then the "concern of the left hand front differential mounting bracket separating from the frame rail. " mention in the TSB. Instead of the aforementioned mount breaking, a section of the frame approximately 1/4 of an inch around the welds for the differential mount on all sides had separated from the rest of the frame leaving a hole in the frame approximately four inches across.

The frame of my 2004 f150 is almost completely rotten from the front of the leaf spring all the way up to the drivers door. The bed supports are also rotted completely off making the bed unsafe and unable to use.

The mirror(s) are full of corrosion and the drivers side mirror fell right off the car while driving.

-repair shop-2004 Ford f150 crew cab, frame completely rotted through, frame replacement required. Customer will not have repaired.

The contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. The contact stated that the frame members were extremely corroded. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or independent mechanic. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure and current mileage was 109,000.

When driving at relatively low speed, the hood lifted violently. The driver was able to stop the truck safely. The portion of the hood which secures the hood striker gave way, allowing the hood to open so violently that the grille flew off. The hood was properly closed/latched before the incident, and the striker was still in the latch (complete with pieces of aluminum torn off of the hood) after the incident. It appears that galvanic corrosion (steel striker on aluminum hood) likely caused the issue. Since this truck is in a fleet, the remainder of the F-150s of the same body style (my2008 and older) were checked, 65 of 580 trucks had either cracking or corrosion around the striker bar which may lead to this issue. Note - this is an ontario, canada fleet but these issues likely affect us-sold vehicles.

Was driving down the road at approximately 55 mph and the left driver's side window came crashing down. I thought a rock was coming through the window and almost went off the road.

In late-June 2012 a loud clunk/thud/pop/small explosion occurred in the passenger-side door of my 2004 Ford F-150 regular cab truck, while the vehicle was stopped and idling, and the window dropped into the door frame. When I returned home I removed the door panel and discovered that a small piece of molded plastic, 1 1/8" x 1 7/8" (probable cost to Ford about 39 cents) on the window regulator had disintegrated/failed, allowing the regulator cable to release the window. I have found a replacement window regulator on the internet for $70 (Ford charges $175 for the part) and will repair the defective item myself. I notified Ford of the failure of a less-than-quality plastic piece on the regulator and asked for reimbursement. Ford responded: "there are no factory warranties or programs in effect on your vehicle that would provide financial assistance for your current vehicle concern. " however, they did add: "recommend that you keep your repair receipts in case Ford initiates a recall or customer satisfaction program in the future based on customer feedback or further engineering review of similar complaints. " I see from the large number of complaints on this website by Ford truck owners that I am but one of hundreds who have been affected, and obviously, there will be hundreds more; the odds are very high that the majority of the plastic pieces on Ford truck window regulators will fail sooner or later, and I seriously doubt that the 2004 Ford F-150 truck is the only model year that contains plastic parts in the window regulators. $70 to replace a failed piece of plastic that initially probably cost Ford about 39 cents to produce is a sad commentary on quality.

Is anybody doing anything about the Ford window regulator problem. Over the years all of my sons windows have all fallen down. At times leaving the kids with exposure to whoever passes by. . . This is not safe. Two windows failed on the same day. Tried to call Ford and got no reasonable response. . .

The contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. The contact stated that there was rust forming on the rear driver and passenger side tire wells. The failure recurred continuously. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the entire rear panel needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 84,800.

Rear passenger side quarter panel rust due to rubber panel being improperly installed at factory. Full rust through in the middle of the panel, from the inside out.

Rust in the rear passenger quarter panel due to a know factory defect of a rubber pad being installed improperly, contacted Ford about the problem, they refuse to repair or assist in any way.

I am the owner of a 2004 F-150. This is my fifth Ford product on a row, two of them purchased new. Recently the passenger side rear window regulator failed, causing the window to slide down into the door. In December. I purchased a replacement regulator/motor assembly and just finished the installation. When I examined the old unit I found the operating cable incorrectly spooled onto the primary pulley. When the cable overlapped itself the end pulled out of the lifting block. When I was searching for information about the replacement procedure, I came across numerous websites detailing complaints about the failure of f150 window regulators. This leads me to believe that the problem is due to a faulty design and should be addressed by Ford with a redesigned part and a recall to replace existing units. I will be contacting my congressman, about this expensive and annoying defect. . Read more...

2004 Ford f150 lariat. Right rear window suddenly dopped into the door. Thw window will not go up. This is a saftey hazard. Whnn the window went down the noise was distracting and I had no idea what happened. I had to look for a place to stop. After stopping, I exited the truck. I thought I had a tire tread seperation. After checking all of the tires I decided to look over the vehicle. Since I had no idea what happened I was prepared to have the vehicle towed to s shop. It was then that I noticed that the rr window was down. I tried to put it up and could not do so with either the driver window controll or the rr door control.

I was traveling on a main boulevard when all of a sudden the drivers side window slid down with a loud sounding bang. The window did not break. However, what seems to be a spring loaded mechanism, must have broken causing the window to collapse down inside the door. The sound was so loud, it caused a nervous reaction in me which resulted in pulling on the steering wheel to one side. Thankfully, there were no vehicles to that side and I was able to correct my steering to get back into my lane. As if one experience was not sufficient, it happened again 9/1/11. This time on the passenger side door. The same exact experience repeated except that this time I was driving at 75mph on I-25. I expected to find a recall to this dis-functional mechanism. What are the chances of this happening almost back to back within a 6 week period?.

Door power window regulator fails (broken plastic piece) and door window glass falls into the door. This usually occurs while driving - see thousands of internet reports. This is a dangerous defect in the regulator that Ford knows about and refuses to recall. Repair part and labor cost approx $400 per window. I have had 2 window regulators fail so far! Ford should be responsible for this.