july 3 abs light came on ....stopped in Circle C truck stop in south Carolina...was told it was the abs module and that it was safe to drive to florida....one hundred miles away hub breaks off and bounces into a Georgia swamp....left stranded 800 miles from home with my 8 year old grandson....if it were not for the defensive driving class that I took my truck would have flipped...got it repaired ...well guess what happened today on the way to work....the other wheel/hub falls off...im so mad that I could bite a two penny nail in half....how many accidents or deaths will it take..

This is a copy of my E mails to AM Ford n Trail, BC.My front hub started making a noise but I thought it was the brakes since the ABS light did come on.My waranty ran out before I could get it into the dealership.

Mark,

It has been a month since my service and from your phone call.

You were to state my case to your warranty rep and see it you could get the front hub covered.

Has any progress or decision been made on this?

Subject: Last Service

Mark,

You were in a meeting so I’ll write you instead.

I called your customer service as Bud had advised which was just a waste of time because they cannot reverse a decision so that a great way to blow off a customer concern.

I was down in the US last week when the front hub starting making a noise. Since you had recently service my front brakes, I again thought it was a brake problem and the ABS brake light came on. I naturally wanted to bring it back to “my service center”.

Since I got back late Friday June 1st.(end of warranty) I could not get it in till Monday June 4th.

Warranty is a numbers game with any dealership and car company so it’s easy to reject a request and make your bottom line look good. Unfortunately you will lose a Ford customer, this being number 14 for me but definitely the last. Again, no big deal when you have thousands of Customers for your location and Ford has millions across Canada.

I just feel my dealership in Ontario where I purchased Fords since 1975 would have done more for me and made a greater effort.

With this being past, I would like you to remove your AM Ford advertising which you put on my truck without asking permission. I found this to be extremely nervy but just let it slide.

Please advise as to when this can be done. If you can also relay to Denis(sales) that I won’t be needing the buyout price on the F150.

Here is a copy of my letter sent to Ford:

I am the owner of a 2006 Ford Ranger 4x4, 4.0 Liter XLT club-cab. This truck has 57,000 miles on it, and will be 4 years old in May. As you already know, and as I have found out, the hub/wheel-bearing bearings fail at about 50,000 miles due to design flaws. After reading about the catastrophic accounts of failures from many other owners, I am astounded that there has not been a safety recall. Additionally the current design has been problematic for sometime, and Ford has admitted thee parts Mexican and Chinese origins (where counterfeit parts abound). I was lucky that I did not have an accident as the wheel bearing started to "crab" or catch at wet highway speeds.

I carefully (and slowly) took the truck to my repair shop, where it was discovered the left wheel was extremely loose (falling off??) and the right wheel was loose, but not as extreme. As you are well aware the cost for replacing both is $800. The repair shop mechanic said that they see a lot of these (i.e., Ford Rangers); some less than 50,000 miles, and that mine is not an unusual case for the Ford Ranger, and I will probably be bringing it back in about 40-50,000 miles to get those replaced. It is sad that mechanics are normalizing such a design deficiency as typical and expected performance. I asked the mechanic if he has seen many Tacoma's in here, with a response of "no".

Previously, I had owned a 1996 Ford Ranger 4x4 and had it for 150,000 miles and never had a problem with wheel bearing or my front tire nearly falling off and was quite happy with it. I also had a 1985 Toyota 4x4 and never had a problem with wheel bearing or my front tire nearly falling off. I have also had 9 family cars over the years (not 4x4). Not one with this type of failure.

Due to the poor response to other Ford Ranger (and Explorer's too) owners (2000-2006) and lack of Ford's willingness to resolve the problem, I will most likely return to Toyota and purchase the Tacoma 4x4, 4.0 Liter, 4-door crew cab. Additionally, Toyota has the right attitude in wanting to resolve customer problems to regain their trust and win them back as evident by recent issues. Ford however has no such aspirations, which is clear by reading the many carcomplaints.com accounts of this problem and Ford's responses to their customers.

This letter is also being forwarded to the NTSB for investigation for recall, and posting it on carcomplaints.com (Autobeef) with the many other accounts like it. PS: Why did Ford change the design (besides money, e.g., $1 saved x 1million units + $1,000,000)? The pulse vacuum hub lock system gives marginal improvements in mileage; at least the $800 repair bill will dwarf the mileage savings, and will prove to be an increasing safety liability as more units are aging and failing.