Beware of Bilstein reservoirs on 2025 Badlands

[dkittel]

Greetings fellow Badlands owners.

Just a quick note to share with you that we had a reservoir fall off a rear Bilstein shock on our 2025 Badlands. No wild driving or impacts - just taking a drive down a a simple dirt road in Baja a few weeks ago to have dinner with friends. Vehicle was essentially new at the time and had a measly 5000 miles on it at the time. Given the location and circumstances of the failure we had to go through a lot of trouble and pay out of pocket to replace all shocks on the vehicle. I won’t go into all the communications we’ve had with Ford to date except to say that in the end they have declined to provide assistance.

Anyway, if you have a newer Badlands, consider doing something to protect/mitigate the reservoirs falling off. Perhaps we just ended up with a bad/defective shock on our vehicle (but wouldn’t that be the perfect opportunity for Ford to stand behind their product?).

Still love the Bronco and for what it’s worth, it rides significantly better with the new B8 5100 Bilsteins we had to put one it.

Cheers!

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[Tonka Bronka]

My guess is Ford told him to drive it to a dealer or have it towed to a dealer for evaluation and repair. OP maybe didn't like those two options and had a close by shop install new shocks. Just a guess, I'm curious also.

 

[dkittel]

No extenuating circumstances, no impacts, pretty mild driving on pretty mild dirt roads. Repair had to be done in Baja, out of pocket, with no assistance from Ford (we tried every avenue available within our time and geographic location constraints). I'm pretty disappointed in the lack of assistance for sure.

My guess is Ford told him to drive it to a dealer or have it towed to a dealer for evaluation and repair. OP maybe didn't like those two options and had a close by shop install new shocks. Just a guess, I'm curious also.

No extenuating circumstances, no impacts, pretty mild driving on pretty mild dirt roads. Repair had to be done in Baja, out of pocket, with no assistance from Ford (we tried every avenue available within our time and geographic location constraints). I'm pretty disappointed in the lack of assistance for sure.

Roadside assistance in US told us to drive to the border. Roadside assistance in Mexico told us that the damage would need to be verified and then they would decide where to tow to.

We were mid way down the Baja Penisula, 10-12 hour drive from the border/Tijuana and 6+ hours drive from La Paz where the only Ford dealer is - and their response after quoting us the part number for recall shocks was 'the part number for the newer shock was not in their system - you'll have to order from the US'.

We tried to do things the way they wanted

 

[Neps]

Guessing yours's was not part of the recall for this?

Lots of information posted here regarding rear shocks, rust, and revisors falling off.

 

[dkittel]

Guessing yours's was not part of the recall for this?

Lots of information posted here regarding rear shocks, rust, and revisors falling off.

Blend date according to my window sticker was October 2025 - only recall notice for this vehicle was the entertainment screen which was recently cleared via OTA update. I've seen countless posts re: issues with '21-'24 and early '25. That actually pushed me to buy a 2025 instead of remaining 2024s because dealers could not sell them without first resolving the recall.

 

[F-Spot]

Throw the failed shocks back at home and take it to the dealer. It won't recover what you already spent, but at least you can get a new factory coilover and sell it.

 

[dkittel]

Throw the failed shocks back at home and take it to the dealer. It won't recover what you already spent, but at least you can get a new factory coilover and sell it.

I had no space to haul back shocks on my return cross country trip. I left the shocks with my mechanic in Baja in the event that someone else has an issue and they could be used.

 

[Tonka Bronka]

No extenuating circumstances, no impacts, pretty mild driving on pretty mild dirt roads. Repair had to be done in Baja, out of pocket, with no assistance from Ford (we tried every avenue available within our time and geographic location constraints). I'm pretty disappointed in the lack of assistance for sure.


No extenuating circumstances, no impacts, pretty mild driving on pretty mild dirt roads. Repair had to be done in Baja, out of pocket, with no assistance from Ford (we tried every avenue available within our time and geographic location constraints). I'm pretty disappointed in the lack of assistance for sure.

Roadside assistance in US told us to drive to the border. Roadside assistance in Mexico told us that the damage would need to be verified and then they would decide where to tow to.

We were mid way down the Baja Penisula, 10-12 hour drive from the border/Tijuana and 6+ hours drive from La Paz where the only Ford dealer is - and their response after quoting us the part number for recall shocks was 'the part number for the newer shock was not in their system - you'll have to order from the US'.

We tried to do things the way they wanted

I figured they gave you some hoops to jump through.

 

[Aknobronco]

Greetings fellow Badlands owners.

Just a quick note to share with you that we had a reservoir fall off a rear Bilstein shock on our 2025 Badlands. No wild driving or impacts - just taking a drive down a a simple dirt road in Baja a few weeks ago to have dinner with friends. Vehicle was essentially new at the time and had a measly 5000 miles on it at the time. Given the location and circumstances of the failure we had to go through a lot of trouble and pay out of pocket to replace all shocks on the vehicle. I won’t go into all the communications we’ve had with Ford to date except to say that in the end they have declined to provide assistance.

Anyway, if you have a newer Badlands, consider doing something to protect/mitigate the reservoirs falling off. Perhaps we just ended up with a bad/defective shock on our vehicle (but wouldn’t that be the perfect opportunity for Ford to stand behind their product?).

Still love the Bronco and for what it’s worth, it rides significantly better with the new B8 5100 Bilsteins we had to put one it.

Cheers!

Don't just depend on one stealership to get warranty support. One can do another cannot do.

Original stealership I brought my truck from could not get Ford to warranty the paint faded on the wheels.

However stealership closer to me did get Ford to warranty those faded wheels!

 

[Felix808]

Makes me think of this. Is this still a thing?

 

[wjtinfwb]

Don't just depend on one stealership to get warranty support. One can do another cannot do.

Original stealership I brought my truck from could not get Ford to warranty the paint faded on the wheels.

However stealership closer to me did get Ford to warranty those faded wheels!

Interesting the difference in dealeshops. I had a '23 Cadillac XTS that came with black wheels. The coating started shipping off, the selling dealer told me normal wear and tear, nothing we can do. It'd kept getting worse. I'd relocated and was getting the car serviced at a smaller Cadillac dealer in my new town. I mentioned it to the service advisor who said he's look intomit. I figured it was over at that point but a week later got a call asking me to bring the caar by for further inspection. They looked over the wheels and with me present, we looked at all the wheels Cadillac made available on the '13 XTS, none matched mine. The dealer, correctly I believe, determined they were factory wheels that the original dealer had coated. But the prep was poor causing the black urethane loke coating to flake off. Regardless, he said it was unacceptable for a Cadillac and that GM would fix it. They let me select whatever factory wheel I wanted, ordered them, mounted and balanced by tires and sent me on my way with 4 new wheels at zero cost. Outstanding service by this dealer and I'd have no issues buying a new Cadillac or GMC from them if I was in the market. Unfortunately my local Ford dealer is like your and of zero help whatsoever on any service related issues.

 

[Montana Bronco]

OP: while I understand your side of this, if you only had one shock fail, why did you replace all 4 shocks ? Without knowing Ford’s side of his story, if you are seeking reimbursement for all 4 shocks I can understand why Ford would deny that.

 

[dkittel]

OP: while I understand your side of this, if you only had one shock fail, why did you replace all 4 shocks ? Without knowing Ford’s side of his story, if you are seeking reimbursement for all 4 shocks I can understand why Ford would deny that.

So... first off, one shock failed yes, but there was no way to source a replacement in Baja California Sur. The only 'nearby' Ford dealership was a 6+ hour drive to La Paz. We communicated with that dealership for the better part of a day (without any Ford support) and the part numbers they were quoting were for the same shocks subject to recall in previous years. It was not at all clear they could even obtain those, but that was all they had in their system. I spoke with my dealerships parts department back in the US to obtain the correct part number for the newer, non-recall shock. Ford in La Paz stated that it was not even in their system and we'd have to order from the US for them to install. We had a return trip to the US and cross country again to the East Coast looming. We did not have time to deal with trying to get parts ordered in the US, imported into Mexico and shipped to us 12 hours south of the border and then getting the vehicle to the Ford dealer another 6 hours south of us. Obtaining new shocks was the most expedient path. That said, it was not an easy path. We identified a number of off-road shops in Baja, but most dealt with Fox and other similar shocks which were both more expensive and more capable than our needs. We found a shop in Tijuana that was able to source B8 5100 Bilsteins (a reasonalbe and capable 'lower' cost option) and drop ship them to us in a somewhat timely manner. We had to do all the leg work to find these, find a mechanic and find a shop that could align afterwards.

Second off, we never asked Ford to pay for everything. We first asked for support in trying to identify where we could get the work done and tried to utilize Roadside services to no avail. We had to do all the legwork in trying to work with Ford La Paz before Roadside services would even entertain towing the vehicle. When back in the US, our dealership said they were unable to do anything on our behalf and recommended we contact Ford Customer relations. Which I did. We did not ask for them to pay for everything. My message to them was 1) you may still have a problem with these shocks and you should know about it, and 2) is there anything you can do to assist with our out of pocket costs since we were not in a position to make a warranty claim through normal paths in the US.

Not sure how many folks here have spent time in Baja Sur, but access to dealerships, specific parts, mechanic services and the like is not quite as easy as in the US. Folks there are extremely capable and will find ways to make things work, but the bottom line is Ford's ecosystem there was not able to help us, so we helped ourselves.

My biggest beef here is not the cost - though I'd rather have not had to pay - but rather a vehicle that is purported to be an extremely capable off-roading vehicle had such a failure, at 5000 miles driving on a dirt road. Should not happen and Ford should acknowledge that.

Our expectations in contacting Ford were low - especially seeing how so many owners of '21-'24 model year Broncos with facing Bilsteins were treated. They met that bar.

Not much else to say. Their side of the story is "I do regret that at this time we currently do not have any available programs to assist with the reimbursement of the repair cost. We are unable to process a reimbursement for a repair performed in Mexico." That does not tell me you stand behind your product, it tells me you hide behind your processes. If the failure had occurred north of the border, would it have been handled under warranty? I can't say for certain, but where the failure occurred should not indemnify the company from some responsibility to its customers.

Any way, as I tried to impart in my original message, if you have a 2025 Badlands, keep an eye on your shocks and consider if there is anything you want to do to mitigate the reservoir falling off. We maybe had a dud and no one else will have the problem. And I said before, still love the Bronco - aside from the shock failure, traveling in it was great both ways cross country and we expect it will be in the future as well.

Cheers.

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