my 94 frame isnt bad at all i took a quick wire wheel to it when i had the bed off and painted it but there wasnt much loss stuff to knock off and my truck has almost 300,000 miles on it

 

I got rust spots on my 05, only reason I notice it is cause I don't live in the rust belt...

 

It is not lack of maintenance, it is poor manufacturing. Plain and simple. Is ford liable? that's a question for the courts to decide, but people should be complaining so it at least gets there.
I bought my truck used through a small dealer, as-is. 1999 4x4 170K. I heard about rust issues so I looked under the truck. I heard spring shackles were first to go, so I looked at them and they looked good, so I didn't look further. I didn't know, they were already replaced.
So after a few month, I notice my spare tire is missing! The bell shape piece that hold it up rusted and collapsed. For all I know the tire could have fallen out on the highway and hit someone. This is what I found. My bumper was weeks away from falling off on it's own. As-is, my problem, so I fixed it with about $70 worth of cut-off scrap metal.




It should be noted that the rear half of the frame was that bad, and the front half is perfect. The frames are made in two pieces and riveted behind the cab.
Oddly enough just yesterday my brother in-law told be he saw a ford ranger lose it's tire in front of him on the highway, luckily it bounced a little to the side and missed any cars. I could have easily went thru his windshield how it was bouncing.

Like I said, it's up to the man to determine legal responsibility, but this is not a maintenance issue, this is a manufacturing issue. People should be lodging complaints.

 

its all that **** there spraying on the roads now. all the chemicals but no more aggregates. just straight salt and other chemicals. eating away at our frames. my truck has been perfect, but lately im finding holes left and right. not happy about it. im waiting for the day my gas tank falls out and blows up on me. not literally but its takeing sometime to get the replacement cross member. Im just saying serious risk for rotting frames.

 

x2. my 99 had 0 rust on it and every bolt on it came off easily, even when replacing my tbars (no heat was needed). apparently washing the body of the truck keeps your frame in good shape

 

fine since i cant blame it on new england, then ill just blame it on ford and the previous owner. cuz ill be dammed if it was all my fault haha.

 

lol...whenever i wash my truck i spray off the frame too

 

i did that all the time. always washed the frame specially after taking it through some trails, which i didn't really do much. mud tires in general fling so much stuff everywhere.

 

i do the same with salt...i powerwash it at work

 

I never pressure wash my truck frame.
I make the wife do it.
She gets the cutest face on her when the water sprays back into it.
Then I run.

 

hahahahahah wow. lol

 

x3. My 98 didn't have much rust on it. Just some parts of the bed from the parts I didn't really spray. Now its pretty rusty with the current owner.

 

My frame is full of surface rust and I'm ok with that. It's going to get painted in spring anyways. Now my doors and tailgate on the other hand, they were on their way out when I bought the truck. Not much I can do now but try to slow the process down.

 

Hey there I used to work at a dealership and we sold 4 pre owned 2002 and 2003 Toyota /Tacomas through there, Because we were the last dealership to move the trucks from the auction we were responsible for handling the recall at the tinme mainly notifying the customers and staging those particular vehicles to be sent out for the work to b done. The vehicles (back in 2008) were so realitively new and it also turned out the frames were actually too thin as well so that was a factor in the recall, that it was unlawful to not re call them for there age, I mean at the time the oldest truck was a 2002 that was only 6 years old I mean anything under 10 years you gotta figure itt should last but 5 years 6 years from what you pay for a Toyota?? come on! Any way those toyotas were actually so extreme that you could put your hands flat through all the drain holes in about a 4 foot section between the cab rail and bed rail!

 

I use Ziebars spray on since new!

 

Hey bb1 ... Great post by the way thanks for the info too mabe for the future it would be good to know! Its always great to see people doing there research on these things!

 

Mine looks like this...





It's spent 5 years driving through salted winters in Tennessee and another 2 in Texas. I doubt it'll see many, if any northern winters ever again. I haven't had any problems with the rust, atleast not yet. It's a damn shame for someone with a 15-20 year old truck trying to hold Ford accountable for a rusted frame.

 

Rangers were built (assembled) in two different plants. I'm not sure if the frames came from each plant as well.
I'd be interested to see if there is a correlation between rust and which plant they came from. As proud as you all are with how much you wash the underside of your truck, the reality is most other trucks go with never having the bottom side washed, and they don't rust out like this. I personally don't think Ford is at all legally liable, until it becomes a safety issue. But this does not mean ford did a horrible job making these frames.

Check the 11th charactor of you VIN. If it is a "T" then your ranger was built in Edison NJ, if it is a "P" it was built in St Paul, MN. If people could check and then post back with Year, cab style, mileage, location, amount of rust, and assembly plant.

1999 Regular Cab 4x4, 170K, CT, severe frame rust out, Made in Edison NJ

 

2004 Regular Cab 2.3L, 139,000, TX (via TN), light rust, mostly surface rust. Bumper & Spare Tire are fine, Made in St. Paul, MN.

 

Found this-
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m.../ai_110953782/

All Ford Ranger frames are made by Tower Automotive, Inc.

 

So... This is strictly a Ford/Toyota thing ?

 

my 10th was X the 11th was a T

no rust and its been it was in MA its whole life.




....its your own fault for not looking further and checking for soft spots with a screwdriver specially on a northern truck just shy of 200k miles

 

^this...and good upkeep of the frame

 

Never said it wasn't my fault, it was, and I fixed it. Only saying that the frames were built like garbage. The rear half of the frame was built too thin or with sub-standard steel or both.
Certainly washing the underside regularly may prevent it. But not washing underneath regularly should not cause complete rust thru within 10 years.

 

Well, I learned that my truck was built in St. Paul haha. It has light surface rust on the insides of the frame rails, but that's it. I honestly think that it wouldn't even have that if I owned it from day one.