“Charging System Service Now” - stranded on road

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi YH,

Does your vehicle have a front skid plate? Was wondering if that would help with mud splash into the engine compartment. Ford does test 4x4s in mud on our Romeo Michigan Test Track on a specially designed 4x4 course and am surprised they did not find this problem during testing. There are some real serious water and mud areas on the course. Will have to pop the hood and see if I can understand more clearly what might have gone wrong. I would elevate this to Ford Customer Care for reconsideration.... I am puzzled by your unfortunate event... You should be able to go off road with confidence. Is you vehicle lifted with bigger tires? Not sure if lifting would change things that much. Sorry for the questions...I am trying to understand why it happened to you.

Got to go wake up my Tortoise and give him a soaking bath and then some fresh yummy Kale for his breakfast....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Hi YH,

Okay...popped the hood....Was quite dismayed at the gaps in the skid shield to frame and the inner fenders and the frame. No wonder your alternator is mud soaked. My take is that you might be better to try to eliminate the gaps between the inner fender, the frame and the skid plate. Keep that left tire from slinging junk into the engine compartment. The video shows a mud covered engine, and frankly I have seen this many times before, but not to the point of clogging the low mounted alternator. I have to say I am puzzled by this as when we were at Ford, this sort of mud slinging would have been accepted, only if the componentry would have still been functional and the engine compartment cleanable... In my opinion, Ford should pay for your alternator and the installation time. Three hours? Maybe, as I have not slung a wrench to make a living in some 50 years, before I became a Train Driver...

Again, Sad for your experience....

BTW....Tortoise, soaked and cleaned up and fed...two large plates of Kale...hungry tortoise after 4 months of hibernation...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

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[VegasP11]

Hi YH,

Okay...popped the hood....Was quite dismayed at the gaps in the skid shield to frame and the inner fenders and the frame. No wonder your alternator is mud soaked. My take is that you might be better to try to eliminate the gaps between the inner fender, the frame and the skid plate. Keep that left tire from slinging junk into the engine compartment. The video shows a mud covered engine, and frankly I have seen this many times before, but not to the point of clogging the low mounted alternator. I have to say I am puzzled by this as when we were at Ford, this sort of mud slinging would have been accepted, only if the componentry would have still been functional and the engine compartment cleanable... In my opinion, Ford should pay for your alternator and the installation time. Three hours? Maybe, as I have not slung a wrench to make a living in some 50 years, before I became a Train Driver...

Again, Sad for your experience....

BTW....Tortoise, soaked and cleaned up and fed...two large plates of Kale...hungry tortoise after 4 months of hibernation...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Sorry to go off topic Phil, but are you a locomotive engineer?

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Sorry to go off topic Phil, but are you a locomotive engineer?

Hi Ian,

Slang for Mechanical Engineer...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering

 

[VegasP11]

Hi Ian,

Slang for Mechanical Engineer...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering

Thanks Phil. I was a Locomotive Engineer for the Union Pacific until I started working for my Union full time. I know in some places they call us "Train Drivers" so I thought you might be a fellow hog head.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Thanks Phil. I was a Locomotive Engineer for the Union Pacific until I started working for my Union full time. I know in some places they call us "Train Drivers" so I thought you might be a fellow hog head.

HI Ian,

Call me a Rail Fan..... Love Trains. My Grandfather was a Engineer, Fireman, Brakeman and conductor for Missouri Pacific. He would take me to the rail yard and up into the cab of idling engines and in some cases, a ride in the the cab of a switch engine. I was fascinated with the Y which turned the engine around. I loved this and to this day, on occasion, breakout my train set and play with the trains. I especially like my Marklin train set that I bought in Germany in the late 50s. Been to the Grand Canyon many times, but my favorite was to park in Williams and ride the train to the canyon. We did the dome Vista Cruiser car.... check the box on an item of my Bucket List!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[Yamahauler]

Unhappy update... Stil waiting on the alternator. I had to push my truck back to access my shed today and immediately noticed oil on the ground under the engine.

poked around and found the culprit above the skid Under the front diff area:

anyone have an idea what I am looking at here? Front diff leaking? Is there an oil cooler on this truck?Ford service said the tech had to pull several hoses to get to the alternator... possible he missed something? I have not driven this truck since I visited the dealership and ordered my alternator. It sat for 3 days prior to that with no noticeable leak whatsoever.

 

[Ranger_Rocks]

BTW....Tortoise, soaked and cleaned up and fed...two large plates of Kale...hungry tortoise after 4 months of hibernation...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Awesome! Squeaky clean tortoise eating Kale photos please....

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Unhappy update... Stil waiting on the alternator. I had to push my truck back to access my shed today and immediately noticed oil on the ground under the engine.

poked around and found the culprit above the skid Under the front diff area:

anyone have an idea what I am looking at here? Front diff leaking? Is there an oil cooler on this truck?Ford service said the tech had to pull several hoses to get to the alternator... possible he missed something? I have not driven this truck since I visited the dealership and ordered my alternator. It sat for 3 days prior to that with no noticeable leak whatsoever.

Hi YH,

Good Grief.... Sorry to see this unfortunate hickup.... Got to be a poorly secured hose of some sort. Back to the dealer IMO....Sad situation!

I crawled under my Ranger and there two possibilities. There is a brake line clipped to the top alternator attachment bolt and there is a coolant hose that runs by the alternator. So we need a nose test...smell like oil? Brake fluid or if tasted...sweet on the tongue which is coolant?

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[Yamahauler]

Definitely gear oil IMO.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Definitely gear oil IMO.

Hi YH,

Front diff breather tube, maybe...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Awesome! Squeaky clean tortoise eating Kale photos please....

Hi RR,

This will have to do until he wakes up today sometime in the late afternoon.....

Tito is 12 years old...weighs about 2lbs. Mom, Annabelle is 30 year older and about three time the size of Tito.... Annabelle is owned by the licensed breeder of the Sonoran Desert Tortoise.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[Mustang2Ranger]

Very unfortunate situation

Oil leak sounds like a dealer problem. If they were inspecting and had to pull hoses then they probably didn't secure them. Where you see it drip is probably the low point, trace it back up to the source. I would be calling the service manager too

Edit: Wow you must have hit hard

 

[Yamahauler]

Took the truck into the dealer and got some really bad news. There is a portion of the frame that hangs just below the skid plate on the driver side. I hit this pretty hard when the suspension bottomed out on a large pothole a while back and dinged it, but everything looked fine and I thought nothing of it.

Turns out this tweaked the frame, causing it to make contact with the oil pan. I don't know if it cracked the pan straight away and I never noticed it until the truck sat for 2 weeks, or if it took a long time to crack, but it cracked.

So now I am getting estimates from Ford service and their body shop, and filing a claim with insurance.

I'm bummed of course, but it is a silver lining that I learned about this via the dead alternator, because otherwise it could have gone on much longer without learning about it and could have done some serious damage to the engine.

 

[Yamahauler]

the whole picture is slowly coming to light.....

you trash your truck hard. not surprised now that you got mud in your alternator.

gotta pay to play.

Think what you want but if you were there you would be. Not like I was mudding or playing Baja racer here.

 

[Yamahauler]

I can tell you, I have never seen, or hit a pothole big enough to bottom out a truck with 8.9" of ground clearance.....think what you want, but I think there's more to the story here.

You never been to Massachusetts then LOL. Look I'm not trying to say it's not my fault that I hit the pot hole and bent the frame... I filed a claim for an at-fault accident. I'm just not hooning this truck off-road like a mad man.

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