Broke my Ranger yesterday

[A_Jake_Life]

I had to have an outer halfshaft replaced for a cv joint. Took a week and a half for it to get in. Hope your time is shorter!

Sponsored

 

[DavidR]

I remember seeing some warnings about rocking the vehicle in the owners manual, so I looked back and saw this:

"
If Your Vehicle Gets Stuck In Mud
or Snow
Note: Do not rock your vehicle if the engine
is not at normal operating temperature or
damage to the transmission may occur."

Granted, yours is apparently the differential and not the transmission, but this seems like a pretty significant limitation on rocking the vehicle since it's not uncommon to get stuck before the vehicle is up to full operating temperature. I looked in the owner's manuals for some other vehicles we have and don't see such a limitation, only warnings about not doing it for too long.

 

[FX4Greg]

New truck, new parts. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that there is a design issue or a warranty related problem. Lot's of folks are sitting waiting on body parts too... doubt that is an indication of any design issues.

They have been building this version of the Ranger in other countries since 2011. So it's not a new truck and new parts. If it was a manufacturing defect that would effect a lot of the trucks I think Ford would have caught and fixed it by now. It was probably just a one off defective part like happens occasional with anything mass produced.

 

[VAMike]

They have been building this version of the Ranger in other countries since 2011. So it's not a new truck and new parts. If it was a manufacturing defect that would effect a lot of the trucks I think Ford would have caught and fixed it by now. It was probably just a one off defective part like happens occasional with anything mass produced.

Most of the drivetrain is different. I don't know if that applies to the front diff or not.

 

[JimJa]

Ford's on-line system is normally very fast if the part is available. They don't like to leave their customers without transport. Their system will also tell the inquiring dealer if other dealer has the part you are looking for or if it's in a warehouse. The dealer saying it's not available might mean a dealer or warehouse doe not have one in stock. What your dealer may be telling you is that the part(s) have to be ordered from Ford, the company, instead of a near-by dealer or the warehouse. The wait might not be as long as his saying it's not available would have you believe. Good luck.

 

[Gerder]

…
I've been driving 4 wheel drive trucks since 1984 & this is the 1st time I ever got stuck. I've also never had traction control before. It did not help at all & seemed to interfere with what I was trying to do.
Al

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. T/C on or not, front diff shouldn't break.

Let‘s face it: That new truck is more a wanna be solid piece of car... We all get completly ripped later when the electronic hell comes over after warranty expired...

I gonna keep my 2006 and restore it

 

[doug910]

Let‘s face it: That new truck is more a wanna be solid piece of car... We all get completly ripped later when the electronic hell comes over after warranty expired...

I gonna keep my 2006 and restore it

Uhhh you do realize a 2006 vehicle is going to have heaping amounts of electronics too...? I will assure you that OEM's do not purposely engineer their cars so that their electronics only last 4 years. I'm all for restoring old cars and people can choose to drive what they want, but you're gonna have a hard time finding cars you want to drive in 20 years time if you keep up with that mindset.

 

[DavidR]

Uhhh you do realize a 2006 vehicle is going to have heaping amounts of electronics too...? I will assure you that OEM's do not purposely engineer their cars so that their electronics only last 4 years. I'm all for restoring old cars and people can choose to drive what they want, but you're gonna have a hard time finding cars you want to drive in 20 years time if you keep up with that mindset.

While I think @Gerder 's statement is a bit too strong, I do think the tech/electronics issue is real. We have a '93 Ranger with 260,000 miles. The transmission needed to be overhauled at 220,000 miles, but the two things that failed far earlier were the only real "tech" that it had - the sound system and the cruise control. Back then, sound systems were all drop-in replacements into an industry-standard-size hole, and the cruise control ended up being a fairly simple-to-replace module, but I kinda fear that in these newer vehicles, there is so much more tech to break and it is buried far deeper and will be considerably more expensive to repair than popping in a new sound system in the old days.

Will it make sense to keep these vehicles for 260,000 miles? It's impossible to tell yet. They may last it out, or there may end up being a "tech apocalypse" that makes keeping them a long time a lot more expensive than in the old days even if the mechanics hold out. Or people may end up keeping them that long but with a lot of non or partially functioning tech.

Regarding @Gerder 's comment about the basic truck itself being a poor design mechanically, I don't think you can draw that conclusion from these handful of cases. You need the full statistics of how many are having problems like this, which you can't get from just reading forum posts. Any really bad things might eventually become widely known, like if front differentials start failing by the thousands, but probably not until the truck has been out a few years.

 

[Gerder]

Uhhh you do realize a 2006 vehicle is going to have heaping amounts of electronics too...? I will assure you that OEM's do not purposely engineer their cars so that their electronics only last 4 years. I'm all for restoring old cars and people can choose to drive what they want, but you're gonna have a hard time finding cars you want to drive in 20 years time if you keep up with that mindset.

Ure right. It‘s gonna be a hard time. Like lemmy said.
But the 2006 world ranger is a very simple piece compared to the 2019...

 

[Gerder]

While I think @Gerder 's statement is a bit too strong, …
Regarding @Gerder 's comment about the basic truck itself being a poor design mechanically, I don't think you can draw that conclusion from these handful of cases. You need the full statistics of how many are having problems like this, which you can't get from just reading forum posts. Any really bad things might eventually become widely known, like if front differentials start failing by the thousands, but probably not until the truck has been out a few years.

WORD! The point of no return comes quick if more than one module dies. At the end the gearbox and the engine are still fine but this modules are to expensive to replace them. This parts broke because of their age, not because of using them...
My Wildtrak is just a vew thousand miles old but i think the older cars feel more solid if u get behind the curtain. If u know what i mean. Sry, my english is a bit weak at the moment

 

[Hounddog409]

Like Doug says, the diff should not have broken. I did try to turn off T/C. It never illuminated showing it was off.
Al

Gotta hold button until display says off.

 

[lobsta11]

Gotta hold button until display says off.

Thanks, I was not aware of that. I guess I should " RTFM"

 

[Hounddog409]

Thanks, I was not aware of that. I guess I should " RTFM"

Just know from trying to turn that off and turn on rear locker.

I dont read no stinkin manual....

 

[DavidR]

WORD! The point of no return comes quick if more than one module dies. At the end the gearbox and the engine are still fine but this modules are to expensive to replace them. This parts broke because of their age, not because of using them...
My Wildtrak is just a vew thousand miles old but i think the older cars feel more solid if u get behind the curtain. If u know what i mean. Sry, my english is a bit weak at the moment

Your English is fine, it's much farther along than my own second language. A lot will depend on the design process. One thought I had is that the ECU is also a complex electronic module. While they must sometimes fail, I don't often hear about ECU's failing nearly as often as sound systems, cruise control, and things like that.

One possibility is that because the ECU is related to safety, emissions, and the vehicle's basic ability to move, it might go through a much more robust design, testing, and manufacturing process. It's possible that electronic modules that aren't as critical to basic function, like sound systems for example, don't go through as much of a robust process due to cost reasons. I don't really know. I hope that as the the tech becomes closer to being part of the basic functioning of the truck, the manufacturers will pay more attention to this so that we don't end up having lots of very expensive tech failing long before the mechanical systems.

 

[Oregon Comrade]

Based on this from ARB:

https://www.arb.com.au/assets/air-lockers/2-RD219.pdf

The front R&P of the global Ranger is 190mm, which is the same size as the US spec front diff.

Sponsored