I noticed this today while I was powerwashing the underside of my truck, looks like its part #AL3Z-5D008. Which is what my Ford mechandic buddy said it was, a damper. My question is how could this have happened? Ive never messed with it, and if you look at it you can see where the 1/2 in ratched hole is rounded out a bit where someone cranked on it and probably broke and bent it like it is now. Just not sure when or why they would have been messing with it. My Ford mechanic buddy says they usually only mess with that, which is the body mount above it, when they lift the cab off the frame. My only thought is they did it when I was trying to get Ford to fix my tailgate alignment issue (which ended up being a miswelded bed side, the passenger side, which is the same size this damper is on), Ford had my dealership loosen, tighnten and tweek tons of bolts, including taking all the bed bolts out, it wouldnt suprise me if they were told to take those out as well. What do you guys think. I think im going to have a heck of a fight to get them to fix it. My truck only has 16k miles on it and its obviously not from a collision or anything.

 

having that rounded a bit wont hurt the damper

 

I'm not worried to much about that, the whole thing is bent and if you look higher up it's cracked.

 

Just a follow up, my dealer denied touching it when they were attempting to realign my bed, so they wont fix it. I've never touched it, so not sure how else it could have happened. Another failed warranty claim with ford i guess, you would think a truck with only 17k miles would be treated better under warranty.

 

Shouldn't be to expensive to fix it out of pocket, but don't give up so easily. I remember back in 2011 I took my F150 in for some minor body work on the driver's front fender. I bought the truck new and when I got it out of the body shop it had white overspray all over the passenger side flat black panels between the windows.

Just as in your case they denied the overspray.

In your case go see the general manager.

In the end, I got my oversprayed panels replaced at no charge.

 

Bet you're correct on your assumption concerning the dealer being responsible for the damaged fastener.

Of course they are gonna deny being the culprit (wouldn't you?).

Sounds like you had the problem with your bed alignment well documented, so getting in touch with the FoMoCo customer relations and sending them those pics w/explanation would probably be a good move.

Probably a good idea to look the whole unit over carefully on the underside after finding that bit of damage.

If the truck was delivered by a 'car carrier/hauler', I suppose that damage could have been done during delivery, too.

It's surprising how many units are damaged by those companies, repaired, and then sold as new units.