Roof Rack Mounting point broken

[wyobronco]

I wouldn’t cut the spot welds…I’d use a hole saw to just remove the “dome” area. Unscrew the bolt, thread in new bolt from behind, weld dome back in place. Everything stays in factory position.

Yup, would do the same thing. Not messing with the multiple spot welds, no nasty slot cuts. would be easy enough to weld dome back in and be done with it.

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[CriticalB]

After reading this, I was super careful when installing my new light bar. I was pretty surprised to see how small the studs are and I’m a lot less confident they could support any kind of load if I ever used them for a roof rack.

Anyway, the instructions said to torque the nuts to 7.7 ft lbs. sure enough, at about 6 ft lbs one of the nuts started getting easier to turn. I backed it off and the threads were stripped clean. I guess I can get it rethreaded but hopefully Ford will acknowledge these studs are practically made of silly putty and come up with a fix.

 

[JurassicFJ]

Hearing more of these stories sadly.

Ford warrantied the issue! It's going to a body shop to get repaired luckily. Will let you guys know how that goes, hopefully won't require to much work... But who knows.

 

[JurassicFJ]

For anyone looking for a update. Ford approved the Warranty, sent parts immediately and it went to the body shop. Body shop took about a day to repair. No damage to my vinyl or the screen protection I had on the windshield from the tack welds.

The plate requires 4 tack welds to be put back in place.

Results:

 

[wyobronco]

I wonder if a stud that was threaded inside and out would help, as you would have full contact to thread it down, and it double the size of the outside threads. Could have a wrench point down on the bottom.

 

[barracuda]

kinda looks like you could turn the hole into a slot/channel by coming at it from the side with a dremel then you could slide the stud out and replace

 

[BroncoU812]

<---Officially a member of the broken studs club

 

[Rkgzx9leftcoast]

Looks like they used some kind of epoxy panel bond on it as well??

 

[Julz670]

Damn. This same exact thing just happened to me while installing my new rack... im so bummed! Glad to see OP got it fixed under warranty, i guess i'll be dealing with warranty and a body shop soon

 

[Julz670]

Over three weeks later and Superior Ford in Plymouth MN still has not received approval for my warranty claim. I even sent them info a week ago for the additional premium warranty I purchased. Any thoughts on whether @Ford Motor Company is holding up my warranty claim, or if the dealership is dropping the ball? I've called them multiple times and every time they say that they are having trouble finding someone to approve the claim.

Any advice OP for getting the claim approved?

 

[JT58Bronc]

Repair looks good. I might have just cut/ground the broken stud off, then welded a new stud on- at the base. It might take a very good welder to make a nice precision all around butt weld, or grind a chamfer on the replacement stud and go with a fillet weld.

 

[Erock]

A good welder can extend the stud… I’ve done it numerous times

 

[JurassicFJ]

@Rkgzx9leftcoast I believe there is some kind of epoxy added. Tried to get more details but didn't find out much.

@BroncoU812 Hope u got it fixed!

@Julz670 I just had the dealer take pics and send off to warranty for Fords engineers to decide if it was a valid issue for a fix. Which they did almost immediately. Not sure what to suggest for speeding things up. Hopefully it was fixed!

 

[Julz670]

@Julz670 I just had the dealer take pics and send off to warranty for Fords engineers to decide if it was a valid issue for a fix. Which they did almost immediately. Not sure what to suggest for speeding things up. Hopefully it was fixed!

Still no dice so far. Idk if Superior Ford has even tried to get the claim approved because I haven't received a yes or no from them and everytime I call to check on the status they just tell me that its tough because it is something I broke, not something that gave out on its own. Seems like if the answer was no, I should know that by now since its been about a month. I also chatted with Granger a couple weeks ago, and they were going to see if they can get it approved through Ford warranty or the additional warranty I purchased from them, but still no answer.

 

[Julz670]

Anyone know how I can figure out the part number for this stud? With absolutely zero help from dealerships, I'm taking matters into my own hands.

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