general problems of the 2008 Ford F-150

The contact owns a 2008 Ford F-150. The contact had taken his vehicle to an independent mechanic for service work and was informed by a mechanic that there was severe corrosion on the vehicle's main subframe. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 144,000.

Took truck in for maintenance. Was called over by mechanic. He showed me the whole frame of the truck is rusted out. The truck has 100,000 miles and body is clean for its age. Local dealership quoted $6,000. 00 to repair. A small auto collision shop quoted +$3,000. 00. Both agreed this should never have happened. This is a serious risk that could result in bodily injury or death. Vehicle is no longer safe to drive on the road. Several other manufactures have had the same issue and have taken corrective action to repair or reimburse for the expense. It is documented out on the internet that it is an issue. There are 16 other complaints on this car complaint site for the same issue. I have been advised/suggested reporting the issue to the national highway traffic safety administration (NHTSA).

R r leaf spring broken. Vehicle has never been abused or driven rough. I firet noticed it when I would hit a bump in the road, sounded like spare tire rack was loose. After looking on the internet I found that there were others that have experienced the same problem. The center leaf of the three springs break generally in the middle of the leaf.

It felt as if steering was binding when making a turn. It would suddenly break free and oversteer was a problem. When coming out of a turn the wheel would not center on its own, but had to be turned back to the straight ahead position. Spoke with a Ford dealer and they wanted an exorbitant charge to just look at the vehicle and professed they had not heard of the problem before. I went on the internet and found at least two hundred (200) references to the exact issue. It was the lower steering shaft universal joints that had severely corroded. I lubed the joints and things went back to normal for a few days and the binding returned. I installed a new lower shaft - Ford part8l3zb767b- and the truck steers like new. The original part ended in a and the b represents an updated version. Obviously Ford is aware of the problem and has engineered a fix - and never notifying the consumer. A true concern is the following. Over the past few months when driving straight the wheel showed about 15 degrees of right input while tracking straight, hands off. I had the alignment checked and all ok. It was not pulling, just a displaced from center wheel position. This has all disappeared with the new shaft. On the same roads, same conditions the wheel is perfectly centered. This tells me the old shaft has suffered some type of deformation, most likely associated with the universal joints on said shaft. This is a definite safety issue and should be addressed by Ford.