My 2021 Bronco drivetrain failures so far

[AZshot]

I've had my Big Bend 2.3 manual for almost 2 years, it has 24,000 miles. I've enjoyed it on many camping and overlanding travel trips.

I only had 1-2 major problems in these 2 years, until recently. The main one there was after buying tires at 10,000 miles at the dealer. I drove away, everything was fine for about 2 miles. Then I got a brake warning light, and lost 80% of my braking power. I did a U-turn and went back to the dealership. They quickly diagnosed a brake computer module problem, ordered it and I was back on the road the next day or two. The bronco had no problems for the next 8-9 months.

But the past 3 weeks has been a series of major problems. When I say major, I mean you would be stranded wherever you are. The scary thing for me is I do a lot of very remote off road.

It started with a dealer oil change. When the service asso came out she said the oil had been changed, but the tech found a minor transmission leak he wanted to troubleshoot. Fine, I said keep the Bronco. They gave me a loaner. About 2 days later they called, said they had to remove the transmission (of course) to fix the "shaft seal". Fine I said.
BUT - during this repair they said they'd had a clutch problem. Indeed, on a trip a week previously to northern New Mexico, I had noticed the clutch felt funny when cold (it was in the 40s). The pedal would slightly stick down, then "pop" up under your foot. When warmed up, it felt fine. I was worried, but made it home. I was in very remote areas, like Chaco Canyon. So the dealer also noticed a problem, and said they had to replace the Master Cylinder. Then they had trouble bleeding it, and at some point also replaced the Slave cylinder. Both! The Bronco was with them for about 5 days.

Weird coincidences right? All covered by the warrantee. Then a week after getting it back, this Saturday, I was driving in town and started losing power. The revs were not keeping up with my throttle. I pulled to the side of the road, it died. No lights. I tried a restart and it cranked about 10 seconds, fired a little, stuttered, died. Second attempt it started after 10 seconds, but ran ok. I drove to the dealer. They couldn't diagnose it on the weekend. Since it was running again, I drove it home, planning to take it in on Monday. But Sunday it died again driving to the store. Twice I got it to run but only a 1/4 mile, before it would studder and die. I rolled into a parking lot and waited about 1 hr for roadside assistance to send out a tow truck. Since the dealer is closed on Sundays, had to have it towed to my home, where it sits dead in the driveway right now. Another tow to the dealership is happeing this morning. Probably a fuel pump issue.

I have not been a negative nelly on this forum. I actually spend very little time here, because of all the negative worries about Broncos. I ignored all that for 2 years. But I must relay I have little confidence in the truck right now. What if these strandings had happened up at 11,000 feet on the Alpine Loop last year? Or at Chaco Canyon a month ago? Or up the class V old mining road 3 miles from the Mexican border last weekend? I've owned Fords since the 1970s. My first being an old Fairlane 500 in high school. Falcons, Galaxies, Taurus SHO, F-150....other Fords. This Bronco has stranded me more times than all my others in all my life....combined! And most of my first 3-4 cost less than $1,000 back then. Very used, old school, but reliable anywhere I went.
UPDATE Dec 23: Ford has made it right with adding a free ESP. See last post.

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[HotdogThud]

Sounds like your got a dealer with sub-par techs that arent very good at diagnosing problems

 

[AZshot]

That's not my analysis for the first leak. They found a tiny dot of oil on the diff or transmission, when doing a normal oil change. They immediately told me and said they need to investigate it. They found it's cause, ordered the part, replaced the shaft seal. What more could you expect? If they'd ignored it or not told me, it would be a problem.

Then, when putting it all back together, they tested and found the clutch cylinder problems. Again, told me, ordered parts, fixed it. I have no problem with them replacing both cylinders, maybe both needed a rebuild/replace.

I do have problems with seals going bad (Shaft seal, Clutch Master, Clutch Slave I'm assuming) in 24K miles. That's an engineering problem. And if no engineering changed or the seal materials changed....the new ones will fail after the same period. THAT is a risky thing to be waiting on. And a VERY expensive repair if not on Warantee. They showed me their cost - over $3,000 for the first seal fix.

I'm a former Navy technician and then systems engineer. I'm happy with the dealership so far. Not with the engineering that is letting things fail in the first 2 years.

 

[tock13]

That's not my analysis for the first leak. They found a tiny dot of oil on the diff or transmission, when doing a normal oil change. They immediately told me and said they need to investigate it. They found it's cause, ordered the part, replaced the shaft seal. What more could you expect? If they'd ignored it or not told me, it would be a problem.

Then, when putting it all back together, they tested and found the clutch cylinder problems. Again, told me, ordered parts, fixed it. I have no problem with them replacing both cylinders, maybe both needed a rebuild/replace.

I do have problems with seals going bad (Shaft seal, Clutch Master, Clutch Slave I'm assuming) in 24K miles. That's an engineering problem. And if no engineering changed or the seal materials changed....the new ones will fail after the same period. THAT is a risky thing to be waiting on. And a VERY expensive repair if not on Warantee. They showed me their cost - over $3,000 for the first seal fix.

I'm a former Navy technician and then systems engineer. I'm happy with the dealership so far. Not with the engineering that is letting things fail in the first 2 years.

Man, I’m sorry to hear you have all this going on with your Bronco.

I know exactly how you feel as far as trusting the truck now. Many, many here have had zero issues and life is roses and it’s some other fault besides Fords crap quality control.

I am in the process of working with Ford to buy my Bronco back because of issues, it has 371 miles on it. Once you experience this kind of stuff you really start to second guess reliability and trust worthiness of these things. It’s such a hit or miss thing when it comes to getting a good one vs getting one with issues. Like I said, most here have very few issues, so there is hope I guess.

Even when I get my new one I doubt I’ll ever feel very confident when I’m 50 miles up a dirt road.

It’s the same thing as when your home gets broken into….you never get past that feeling that it won’t happen again.

Hope it all turns out good for you.

 

[BigHoof]

That's not my analysis for the first leak. They found a tiny dot of oil on the diff or transmission, when doing a normal oil change. They immediately told me and said they need to investigate it. They found it's cause, ordered the part, replaced the shaft seal. What more could you expect? If they'd ignored it or not told me, it would be a problem.

Then, when putting it all back together, they tested and found the clutch cylinder problems. Again, told me, ordered parts, fixed it. I have no problem with them replacing both cylinders, maybe both needed a rebuild/replace.

I do have problems with seals going bad (Shaft seal, Clutch Master, Clutch Slave I'm assuming) in 24K miles. That's an engineering problem. And if no engineering changed or the seal materials changed....the new ones will fail after the same period. THAT is a risky thing to be waiting on. And a VERY expensive repair if not on Warantee. They showed me their cost - over $3,000 for the first seal fix.

I'm a former Navy technician and then systems engineer. I'm happy with the dealership so far. Not with the engineering that is letting things fail in the first 2 years.

I agree with @HotdogThud, it is more a tech problem. When they pulled the tranny, must of messed things up. Couldn't figure out how to properly bleed the clutch so throw parts at it. Not the first time this has happened when the clutch was disconnected.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I've had my Big Bend 2.3 manual for almost 2 years, it has 24,000 miles. I've enjoyed it on many camping and overlanding travel trips.

I only had 1-2 major problems in these 2 years, until recently. The main one there was after buying tires at 10,000 miles at the dealer. I drove away, everything was fine for about 2 miles. Then I got a brake warning light, and lost 80% of my braking power. I did a U-turn and went back to the dealership. They quickly diagnosed a brake computer module problem, ordered it and I was back on the road the next day or two. The bronco had no problems for the next 8-9 months.

But the past 3 weeks has been a series of major problems. When I say major, I mean you would be stranded wherever you are. The scary thing for me is I do a lot of very remote off road.

It started with a dealer oil change. When the service asso came out she said the oil had been changed, but the tech found a minor transmission leak he wanted to troubleshoot. Fine, I said keep the Bronco. They gave me a loaner. About 2 days later they called, said they had to remove the transmission (of course) to fix the "shaft seal". Fine I said.
BUT - during this repair they said they'd had a clutch problem. Indeed, on a trip a week previously to northern New Mexico, I had noticed the clutch felt funny when cold (it was in the 40s). The pedal would slightly stick down, then "pop" up under your foot. When warmed up, it felt fine. I was worried, but made it home. I was in very remote areas, like Chaco Canyon. So the dealer also noticed a problem, and said they had to replace the Master Cylinder. Then they had trouble bleeding it, and at some point also replaced the Slave cylinder. Both! The Bronco was with them for about 5 days.

Weird coincidences right? All covered by the warrantee. Then a week after getting it back, this Saturday, I was driving in town and started losing power. The revs were not keeping up with my throttle. I pulled to the side of the road, it died. No lights. I tried a restart and it cranked about 10 seconds, fired a little, stuttered, died. Second attempt it started after 10 seconds, but ran ok. I drove to the dealer. They couldn't diagnose it on the weekend. Since it was running again, I drove it home, planning to take it in on Monday. But Sunday it died again driving to the store. Twice I got it to run but only a 1/4 mile, before it would studder and die. I rolled into a parking lot and waited about 1 hr for roadside assistance to send out a tow truck. Since the dealer is closed on Sundays, had to have it towed to my home, where it sits dead in the driveway right now. Another tow to the dealership is happeing this morning. Probably a fuel pump issue.

I have not been a negative nelly on this forum. I actually spend very little time here, because of all the negative worries about Broncos. I ignored all that for 2 years. But I must relay I have little confidence in the truck right now. What if these strandings had happened up at 11,000 feet on the Alpine Loop last year? Or at Chaco Canyon a month ago? Or up the class V old mining road 3 miles from the Mexican border last weekend? I've owned Fords since the 1970s. My first being an old Fairlane 500 in high school. Falcons, Galaxies, Taurus SHO, F-150....other Fords. This Bronco has stranded me more times than all my others in all my life....combined! And most of my first 3-4 cost less than $1,000 back then. Very used, old school, but reliable anywhere I went. Warning.

Hi there! Would you send us a private message with your VIN and dealership name and location? I’d like to look into this concern on my end.  

 

[AZshot]

I'm happy to report Ford has been very engaged with me. They have coordinated with the dealership, been in touch several times. The Bronco is running fine again, as it was before. And to soothe any worry, they are giving me a 3 year ESP, starting now. That's very nice too.

 

[ontheheel]

Man, I’m sorry to hear you have all this going on with your Bronco.

I know exactly how you feel as far as trusting the truck now. Many, many here have had zero issues and life is roses and it’s some other fault besides Fords crap quality control.

I am in the process of working with Ford to buy my Bronco back because of issues, it has 371 miles on it. Once you experience this kind of stuff you really start to second guess reliability and trust worthiness of these things. It’s such a hit or miss thing when it comes to getting a good one vs getting one with issues. Like I said, most here have very few issues, so there is hope I guess.

Even when I get my new one I doubt I’ll ever feel very confident when I’m 50 miles up a dirt road.

It’s the same thing as when your home gets broken into….you never get past that feeling that it won’t happen again.

Hope it all turns out good for you.

I’m not quite there yet, but what is the process for getting Ford to buy it back from you and how is it going so far? Dealer’s had mine for over a month now and can’t figure it out. Don’t know how I can trust this thing to go far afield anymore.

 

[tock13]

It’s definitely hit or miss with things, really sad for such a cool vehicle.

My dealer has been fantastic through this all…I asked my service writer what I need to do to start the buy back process and she had the service manager call me and we talked about the process. He initiated the process with Ford and it went from there. My case manager at Ford was fantastic, she took time to explain everything and always got back to my with any questions I had. She’s awesome and made it all a lot easier to deal with.

My buy out $$ number was based on WA lemon law so I got back everything but the 2 months of auto insurance I paid and they prorated the 254 miles I had on the truck so that was about $100.

Basically I got back exactly what I paid including tax and licensing. I got a check for my part from the dealer when I turned over the Bronco and Ford is sending a check to my credit union to pay them off.

I only had 254 miles, so in my case it worked out ok, not sure how it would go if I had a few thousand or more on the clock.

I already have a production date of 1/5 for my replacement Bronco I ordered…yes, I do wonder if getting another is a dumb move but I want to believe many of the issues posted on B6G are the exception and not the rule.

I need to give a shout out to Russ & Will in sales at Bickford Ford Snohomish Wa. I would recommend them to anyone looking to buy a ford.

 

[Big L 65]

It’s definitely hit or miss with things, really sad for such a cool vehicle.

My dealer has been fantastic through this all…I asked my service writer what I need to do to start the buy back process and she had the service manager call me and we talked about the process. He initiated the process with Ford and it went from there. My case manager at Ford was fantastic, she took time to explain everything and always got back to my with any questions I had. She’s awesome and made it all a lot easier to deal with.

My buy out $$ number was based on WA lemon law so I got back everything but the 2 months of auto insurance I paid and they prorated the 254 miles I had on the truck so that was about $100.

Basically I got back exactly what I paid including tax and licensing. I got a check for my part from the dealer when I turned over the Bronco and Ford is sending a check to my credit union to pay them off.

I only had 254 miles, so in my case it worked out ok, not sure how it would go if I had a few thousand or more on the clock.

I already have a production date of 1/5 for my replacement Bronco I ordered…yes, I do wonder if getting another is a dumb move but I want to believe many of the issues posted on B6G are the exception and not the rule.

I need to give a shout out to Russ & Will in sales at Bickford Ford Snohomish Wa. I would recommend them to anyone looking to buy a ford.

Good luck with the new Bronco . i heard ford is back to building high quality vehicles again after ths UAW strike. They focused on over taking Toyota in terms of quality

 

[AZshot]

Getting your vehicle returned in a lemon law buy back only works if it has not passed the years/milage rules of the law. Mine had, I have 25,000 miles now. If it's not a lemon (repeat problems happening when the vehicle is practically new) your only option is to keep having Ford fix it, and hopefully under warrantee.
After 2 years of trouble-free use, I still love my Bronco. I think the problems I reported were a little bit growing pains, and a little bit bad luck. But when Ford called and offered to give me 3 more year's warantee, I'm happy with that offer. And I really don't expect it to break any more. I'm using the Bronco and taking it all the same rugged, remote Arizona places I did the first 2 years.

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