Front inner wheel well issues

[jimgt2k24]

Does your template work for both sides?

Here was the earlier post of my $6.00 wheel well fix in case anyone is interested. Feel free to contact me if you have any question on it.

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[Woobar]

Does your template work for both sides?

Yes, you just flip around the template. I used 1/16" rubber and it is very flexible and easy to manipulate.

 

[dollybud]

Ford will give no explanation, its on every car and they will consider it normal, like it or not. Best we can do is what we've been doing.

I’m curious if someone is buying and also knows about the holes before purchasing and Ford considers it normal what’s the dealer going to do about it? They don’t care if it eventually will lead till rusting rocker panels etc. it’s ok for a longer time with summer weather cars with just water to contend to. It would be nice if a Lawyer has a holy car and would start a class action suit against Ford and their whole disregard. I’ll be talking to my dealer soon after getting out of storage. To me it’s bull shit Ford and maybe dealerships just keep on selling them and not telling future customers. I know if I were buying one and it had holes in it the dealer would fix it or lose the sale. I like most will fix it as we love our cars. Sorry for long rant.

 

[REV745DH24]

I’m curious if someone is buying and also knows about the holes before purchasing and Ford considers it normal what’s the dealer going to do about it? They don’t care if it eventually will lead till rusting rocker panels etc. it’s ok for a longer time with summer weather cars with just water to contend to. It would be nice if a Lawyer has a holy car and would start a class action suit against Ford and their whole disregard. I’ll be talking to my dealer soon after getting out of storage. To me it’s bull shit Ford and maybe dealerships just keep on selling them and not telling future customers. I know if I were buying one and it had holes in it the dealer would fix it or lose the sale. I like most will fix it as we love our cars. Sorry for long rant.

Well spoken!

 

[SSuperDave]

Like it or not, they will consider it normal regardless of what we think. Until I bought mine and read this thread, I'd never even considered it, and I can assure you that no one in sales or service at any dealership has either.
I have no legal background, but with no proof of damage , there is no case. Something that may or may not happen at some point in the future is probably not grounds for a lawsuit. If the bottoms start rusting out of all of them 5 years from now, maybe.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but 45 years in the car business and 5 years at Ford tells me anything else is just beating your head against the wall. Buy the covers, make your own, or do nothing and just enjoy the car. Its a mid price level, domestic, union assembled car, and our expectations should be set accordingly.

 

[DCS]

Well spoken!

I sent the @TUnica video to my sales rep. All he said was, "That's crazy".
I plan to show the video to the service manager.

 

[JPGC_S650]

Y'all are tweaking. $100 to cover a hole that isn't a problem to begin with just put some tape over it if you're concerned, I promise nobody will ever look or care about your wheel well.

Honestly, this is really a non-issue for me....and I do get under the car and do all my work myself on it. So, I have looked at that area. However; unlike some others, I don't drive on dirt roads or in snow, etc. I may pull the panels down every so often, just like the front and rear covers to clean the small amount of dirt and debris. If it do discover wear to the paint/coating, Ill touch it up at that time. I prefer to have the airflow through that area to allow for the area to dry properly.

 

[TUnica]

Like it or not, they will consider it normal regardless of what we think. Until I bought mine and read this thread, I'd never even considered it, and I can assure you that no one in sales or service at any dealership has either.
I have no legal background, but with no proof of damage , there is no case. Something that may or may not happen at some point in the future is probably not grounds for a lawsuit. If the bottoms start rusting out of all of them 5 years from now, maybe.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but 45 years in the car business and 5 years at Ford tells me anything else is just beating your head against the wall. Buy the covers, make your own, or do nothing and just enjoy the car. Its a mid price level, domestic, union assembled car, and our expectations should be set accordingly.

Sadly I agree with you assessment, I'm quite sure Ford will do nothing.

It is interesting to me that Ford puts up a front with their customer service and case number nonsens. It's like a placebo they provide to make you feel like they are interested in what you have to say or worse, care what you say.

Regardless, I've personally accepted the poor design and ive taken care of it.

 

[dusman59]

Just fix it or leave it alone. Ford has done this on purpose and is not going to change what they designed. Do some simple research about wheel well turbulence. I personally covered it up as Ford wants it there and I do not. Its great for higher speeds but not for the average person that doesn't do 100mph. I believe Ford did this primarily for the DH and didn't want to have two part numbers for other models. JMHO.

 

[steveo1960]

For me, I would be interested to understand why Ford designed the liner like this.
Is it for aerodynamics?
This looks like engineering 101 mistake to me.
If the major car magazines like C&D, Motor Trend and others would write about this it might get explained and fixed.

 

[TUnica]

My guess the openings have something to do with the assembly line.

I have not seen openings like this on any performance cars that I’ve had the opportunity to work on.

If any of you have, please let me know what the make and models are - Thanks

 

[SSuperDave]

I'd bet that they are like this so the car can sit on a fixture as it goes down the assembly line, I can see no other reason for it. The only other possibility is for air to flow thru this area to dry it out, which in an ideal world, might work. Anyone live in an ideal world? I sure don't...
Years ago, some GM cars had small holes in the front of the rockers, the idea was for water to run down the inside of the fender and thru the rocker to flush out dirt, and even advertised it as a feature. Well, the first couple of leaves that went down there blocked it and the rockers rusted out. I don't mean to offend any engineers that may be monitoring the thread, but at least automotive engineers are constrained by budgetary consideration, and design things they'll never have to touch, and so are out of touch with the field.
When we got the new design Ford Explorer in 2020, we had a lot of trans problems right out of the gate, and discovered that one bellhousing bolt was literally impossible to access once the unit was in the car. The trans tech was bitching to our field service engineer, who had already been hearing about it from multiple other dealers. He'd asked one of the powertrain engineers about it and was told that they thought these would be so good that we'd never have to pull the trans! We had these damn things leaking trans fluid on the lot!

 

[SSuperDave]

Maybe like this? Note where the front pin of the fixture is...

 

[steveo1960]

I'd bet that they are like this so the car can sit on a fixture as it goes down the assembly line, I can see no other reason for it. The only other possibility is for air to flow thru this area to dry it out, which in an ideal world, might work. Anyone live in an ideal world? I sure don't...
Years ago, some GM cars had small holes in the front of the rockers, the idea was for water to run down the inside of the fender and thru the rocker to flush out dirt, and even advertised it as a feature. Well, the first couple of leaves that went down there blocked it and the rockers rusted out. I don't mean to offend any engineers that may be monitoring the thread, but at least automotive engineers are constrained by budgetary consideration, and design things they'll never have to touch, and so are out of touch with the field.
When we got the new design Ford Explorer in 2020, we had a lot of trans problems right out of the gate, and discovered that one bellhousing bolt was literally impossible to access once the unit was in the car. The trans tech was bitching to our field service engineer, who had already been hearing about it from multiple other dealers. He'd asked one of the powertrain engineers about it and was told that they thought these would be so good that we'd never have to pull the trans! We had these damn things leaking trans fluid on the lot!

As an EE, that's what we call "it will never break so you won't have to replace it" answer. What could possibly go wrong? Haha.... Other reasons are for automated assembly. That's why Torx bolts are used a lot. I agree that fitting on an assembly jig, or some assembly line process is more than likely the reason...

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