Check your Door Check

[treimche]

Looks like my driver's door check is already checking itself out. There's a very definite crack in the plastic that Ford is going to have to replace. Why the hell would they use plastic on this part? I'm not one who lets my door go flying open or anything like that either. I know some people with F150s have replaced theirs with an aftermarket unit that gives an additional "stop" along the path of opening the door.

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[Stangman570]

Thanks man, I'll definitely check mine in the a.m. Keep us posted on what Ford says. I agree, didn't like these when I noticed Ford went this route. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Ford man through and through for years, but sometimes I just scratch my head and ask.... Why??

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Thanks man, I'll definitely check mine in the a.m. Keep us posted on what Ford says. I agree, didn't like these when I noticed Ford went this route. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Ford man through and through for years, but sometimes I just scratch my head and ask.... Why??

Hi Folks,

I will quote one of my Ranger Engineers, now departed this earth sadly, Jimmy W. "There are only two kinds of plastic. Broken and About to be broken"

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

 

[treimche]

Hi Folks,

I will quote one of my Ranger Engineers, now departed this earth sadly, Jimmy W. "There are only two kinds of plastic. Broken and About to be broken"

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

That's not a good thing to hear regarding a small issue like this. Once the weather turns cold up here, these things are probably going to shatter. If that plastic can't hold up to temps of 50-100, theres no way in hell it will hold up to temps down to -20.

 

[Mellow]

That's not a good thing to hear regarding a small issue like this. Once the weather turns cold up here, these things are probably going to shatter. If that plastic can't hold up to temps of 50-100, theres no way in hell it will hold up to temps down to -20.

We've already been in some 100 degree days here, quite a few and even more in the 95 range and mine look perfect. I'm sure there will be an aftermarket steel or aluminum version out at some point.

 

[Kataphrakt]

At work i'm actually working on the conversion of a part from steel to plastic. Switching this part will save about 30 grams of weight (which is actually about 25% the weight of the entire related assembly), and since any vehicle it'll be on will have two, it's 60 grams total. This is pretty negligible for something like even a 1500 kg car, but as the old saying goes:

Take care of the ounces and the pounds will take care of themselves

I actually wanted to see how much of an impact this would have on a vehicle over a 5-year lifespan. The short of it is that on a single vehicle dropping that 60 grams of weight saves the equivalent amount of energy that it would take to accelerate the entire vehicle up to 55mph from a stop. Repeat this process for many other parts and then consider a fleet of vehicles and you're talking about pretty significant energy savings across the fleet.

well, lets also not forget that it'll save $0.30 per part...

 

[VAMike]

At work i'm actually working on the conversion of a part from steel to plastic. Switching this part will save about 30 grams of weight (which is actually about 25% the weight of the entire related assembly), and since any vehicle it'll be on will have two, it's 60 grams total. This is pretty negligible for something like even a 1500 kg car, but as the old saying goes:



I actually wanted to see how much of an impact this would have on a vehicle over a 5-year lifespan. The short of it is that on a single vehicle dropping that 60 grams of weight saves the equivalent amount of energy that it would take to accelerate the entire vehicle up to 55mph from a stop. Repeat this process for many other parts and then consider a fleet of vehicles and you're talking about pretty significant energy savings across the fleet.

well, lets also not forget that it'll save $0.30 per part...

of course, the cost of replacing a single broken thing will almost certainly exceed the total savings across a large number of vehicles...

 

[Kataphrakt]

of course, the cost of replacing a single broken thing will almost certainly exceed the total savings across a large number of vehicles...

Probably not, if that part there costs $0.20 to make and the steel version costs $0.50 then Ford saves $1.20 per vehicle they switch over. If Ford sells 600,000 vehicles then they just saved $720,000 in manufacturing costs. If this part is standardized across vehicles then the cost savings go up even further. As long as they dont ship a ton of bad parts it works out pretty well.

It's also not just that they're taking the same geometry part making it plastic, then throwing it onto the vehicle. They're designing a part properly to make use of the plastic material. The parts then go through extensive testing to make sure the failure rates are low enough that it's not a problem.

the secret here is that making a part out of steel means over-engineering it because making a steel part of optimal strength often makes it unreasonably thin or difficult to work with, or would require you to say cast a part, then machine off excess material which only adds costs. Thus you have incredibly robust parts which also weigh several dozen times what they need to. imagine what you'd need to make interior hard-trim pieces out of steel. The steel would need only to be the tiniest thickness to meet most of the strength requirements; however, it would still deform very easily. to get around this you'd need to then do something like stamp a pattern into it for rigidity, or increase the thickness of it. If you stamp the pattern it'll still dent easily, and if you increase the thickness it'll be some hefty stuff capable of stopping some bullets.

 

[VAMike]

Probably not, if that part there costs $0.20 to make and the steel version costs $0.50 then Ford saves $1.20 per vehicle they switch over. If Ford sells 600,000 vehicles then they just saved $720,000 in manufacturing costs. If this part is standardized across vehicles then the cost savings go up even further. As long as they dont ship a ton of bad parts it works out pretty well.

The last sentence is the key. Just as the savings multiply rapidly, so do the labor costs for repairs. As with anything, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

 

[AzScorpion]

Looks like my driver's door check is already checking itself out. There's a very definite crack in the plastic that Ford is going to have to replace. Why the hell would they use plastic on this part? I'm not one who lets my door go flying open or anything like that either. I know some people with F150s have replaced theirs with an aftermarket unit that gives an additional "stop" along the path of opening the door.

Thanks for posting this. I just checked all of mine and the drivers door is doing the same as yours and the others are good for now. Like you I never swing my door open fast,heck I only have 1,100 miles on it so maybe it was like this from delivery. Really a piss poor design using plastic!

 

[t4thfavor]

My wife has those on her 160K mile Edge, they are all fine. The plastic is meant to be a weak link so that if the door over extends, it breaks before something more expensive. Probably a defect, or someone torqued the door open a bit too far (like the wind, etc).

 

[HenryMac]

Looks like my driver's door check is already checking itself out. ....

Thanks for starting this thread.... well done!

 

[Kataphrakt]

I'm at 2000 miles on my ranger, and been throwing the door open fairly hard but have no issues with my door check. I suspect this is a defect/assembly issue.

 

[Noseoil]

Anyone know of an after-market part which is better? I would prefer something a bit more solid than this mickey mouse part on my driver's side door.

 

[IdahoRanger]

Just picked up my truck yesterday and noticed the driver door opened too far so after reading this I checked and sure enough it is broken. It was a dealer loaner car and has a little over 2K miles

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