WARNING Wheel Beauty Ring Removal - Bronco

[Razorbak86]

are the bolts torx or torx plus?

Regular Torx 45 (T45)...

Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of misinformation floating around the Internet and on YouTube videos about this issue, but @coadr and @Synyster06Gates are correct.

Ford actually specified regular Torx 45 (T45) for the “decorative beauty ring” bolts — see below — so use a regular T45 bit if you want to minimize the possibility of camming out and stripping the bolt heads.

Although a Torx Plus 40 (TP40) bit will "fit" (sub-optimally) in the T45 recess of the bolt head, using a TP40 bit will likely lead to some stripped bolt heads, because the surface area of the contact points will be less than the larger-sized, specified T45 bit.

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[DD214]

Damn, about to swap out my silvers with black on Friday, now I am worried.

 

[PcDBronco]

Question, do the beauty rings need to be removed for a tire installation?

I would remove them or have the shop do it. Discount tire scratched all 5 rings on mine in one go. They were honest and fixed the problem thankfully.

 

[Dayton1984]

Has anyone else had this issue? I spoke with the dealer and in a few weeks they are going to see what they can do to help me out. Finger crossed.

Very sorry this happened to you. Really makes me wonder with cheap bolts, tie rods, valves, etc that ford has really taken a lot of shortcuts with both materials and assembly. Not only should this not be a possibility on a 60+k vehicle, but also safety comes into question.
I sincerely hope they can resolve this for you and you should not have to buy new rims.

 

[Ground_zero298]

I would remove them or have the shop do it. Discount tire scratched all 5 rings on mine in one go. They were honest and fixed the problem thankfully.

You can take the rings off yourself before you take it in. Safe to drive with the rings off. They are just helper rings.

 

[Zero_chance]

It would be interesting to know where in the Bronco assembly process the beauty ring is attached to the wheel and if it is human assembled or automated.

In high-rate automotive manufacturing, wheels and tires are usually mated up at a supplier using highly automated tire mounting equipment. The tires/wheels are then shipped as a set JIT for assembly on the vehicle. It is a perplexing question how automated the fitting of the beauty ring is. Most wheels are added to the vehicle at an assembly station near the end on the assembly line using assembly tooling that helps locate the tire to the hub then automatically installs and torques the wheel nuts.

It's possible the fastener errors are due to inaccuracies in the automated beauty ring assembly process. Bitching at the MAP line emoyees may not be warranted in this case.

It’s almost a guarantee that they dont have a human spinning all those bolts in at the hourly wage they pay.

 

[PcDBronco]

You can take the rings off yourself before you take it in. Safe to drive with the rings off. They are just helper rings.

This is what i do.Most people probably wouldnt do this since it takes time. Just mention it to shop and inspect each ring when you get it back.

 

[cmcbronco]

I started all mine by hand then impact the rest of way no issues, but this is pretty common. I’ve see a lot of threads saying the bolts were cross threaded, stripped, etc.

 

[Ground_zero298]

This is what i do.Most people probably wouldnt do this since it takes time. Just mention it to shop and inspect each ring when you get it back.

I forget most don’t work on their own vehicles now. I buy them just to work on them. Only way fords touching this truck is for warranty work.

 

[PcDBronco]

I forget most don’t work on their own vehicles now. I buy them just to work on them. Only way fords touching this truck is for warranty work.

Same here and same goes for my f250

 

[Dragline]

Stainless in this application would be better but I looked at a bunch of off the shelf options and all had a head diameter too large. The stock are non standard so it's either go back with the same thing or get some stainless hex socket and find a buddy with a metal lathe.

Most grades of stainless are further from aluminum on the galvanic chart, and would be more reactive. Be careful with this option.

 

[RHeinz]

Stainless bolts and Aluminum female threads will gall even when brand new. The one poster that had patience, lubed and slowly worked the bolt back and forth is the correct response. Antiseize Compound for stainless is an absolute requirement

 

[khatch]

I was going to remove the rings to paint them. I tried two bolts and neither would budge. I was concerned with trying too much force so I left them.

 

[Catmandu]

Spoke with a local club member today that has had his rings off several times as he is experimenting with different wheel/ring color combinations. He said his painter applied a bit of heat to the bolts the first time they were removed and had no bolt failure. His painter did complain about how much time it took to get all of the thread locker out of the threads. He has had no bolt issues at all swapping out the rings several times since that first time.

 

[KosmicKid]

My original rings from my Raptor fit perfect for the Bronco so I had the dealer swap them when it was in for lights: no issues from what I understand.
With that said I had to do the spare tire ring to match and it wasn't easy: few bolts were a PITA to get out but finally no problem. Getting them back in was a bigger chore as the bolts seemed to consistently want to cross thread..
And this is not a new problem for the Bronco: I had similar issues on my 2018 Raptor when I switched out the beauty rings:. I think I might have had a couple cross threaded but they finally went all the way in.

Also if your tire shop has the right equipment and takes care & knows what they are doing the beauty rings don't need to be removed: in fact I was told by my shop they prefer to leave them on because they know about this issue

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