Bed Plate Leak

[EMrider]

Originally Posted by Carl

While it is less than ideal having any leak in any amount, it is also a risk having someone take out your engine. Seems like the ideal thing is to document the issue at the dealer, and if slight, do nothing. Does the extended warranty cover this bed plate leak, if in fact that's the problem?

That is how I have thought about the issue.

For such a minor repair, the amount of work involved is nuts. Everything has to come off the front of the van and he motor is completely removed. After watching the process on youtube, I decided to not stress unless the leak worsened....which it hasn't in more than 5 years.
R

[IheartDieselVans]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

I don't think minor seepage (no drips on the ground) is much to worry about, but if your van in under warranty, I would take it in and document your concerns, in case it becomes a problem in the future. Document the problem now, and a possible future warranty claim might be easier to justify.


Herb

I took Herb's advice, and drove my van in to the dealer 200 miles before the next oil change to ask that dye be put in the oil to diagnose the source of my leak. I purposefully avoided the service adviser that I had used previously (the one that told me I didn't have a leak). The first person I found told me to go buy some dye in the parts department and I could pay a tech to put it in. Yeah, full warranty I said. So he lead me to a different service advisor who was super nice and quickly produced a couple bottles of dye and poured them in. I left after making an appointment for an oil change the following week.

I come back and they change my oil, and he comes back and says "yep, it's the bed plate. When do you want us to fix it?" We schedule a time, and after reminding him it's being fixed under the bumper to bumper warranty and not the diesel warranty, he even agrees to provide me a rental car at their expense. When I ask him how many weeks it will take, he says only a few days. Evidently they have a tech who can perform the repair without removing the engine, basically unbolting it and lifting it up a few inches, the lower portion down a few inches. I don't know how he could have not noticed the 4wd conversion, but he never mentioned it.

So, I just dropped it off today and I'll report back when it's done. I'm happy they're providing me with a rental car, since it will perhaps give them an incentive to finish it quickly.

[Skywagon]

When I had my bed plate leak "fixed", they insisted that the only way to do it was take the engine out. Which, of course, meant taking off the Aluminess front bumper, the winch and virtually the entire front clip. They did it in 5 days and it has been OK, but recently has started drooling again.
I have the fancy warranty from Towne Ford so will eventually get it checked. I'm figuring that for now if I ignore the problem, it'll go away..... (Insert here picture of smiley wit head buried in sand.
Bill

[IheartDieselVans]

So, Ford called me about 26 hours after I dropped my van off and said it was done. My service adviser had the day off so the secretary called me...and she had no information about what was or wasn't done. I showed up and nobody could come up with any paperwork, but they were clearly eager to have me take my van and be on my way. I pestered them enough, asking exactly what had been done, and eventually someone was able to access the parts that were used, and these included a crank shaft seal and some other seals. I had already turned in their rental car, so I left.

After getting home, it is clear that the engine was not removed. It does appear that the transmission was disconnected from the block, and all the oil was cleaned up. It was also evident that they had removed the doghouse and disconnected the electrical ground since my radio presets were gone.

Since I've had it back I've driven about 100 miles and so far no sign of continued leak. I plan to visit the dealer tomorrow to get my paperwork and see exactly what they did. In an effort to figure it out, I did find this thread discussing the fixing of a bed plate leak without removing the engine, which is basically what the service adviser described to me:

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/10193 ... ost9684562

I'll post back in a few weeks if it's re-leaking.

[BIGVANS]

I’ve never seen it done but I hear you can jack up the engine with the transmission and remove the motor mounts and do the repair from the underside. IMHO not the best way to do it but I guess they can beat flat rate that way.

[Fulthrotl]

Originally Posted by BIGVANS

I’ve never seen it done but I hear you can jack up the engine with the transmission and remove the motor mounts and do the repair from the underside. IMHO not the best way to do it but I guess they can beat flat rate that way.

i was just browsing thru this thread... there's a UTube
video on doing the bedplate, and the poster of the video
sums it up this way:

"If your bedplate seals are leaking, I would definately get
it replaced before your warranty runs out. There are some
technicians that do this in the chassis but I dont recommend
that. To insure a quality repair, the engine should be removed.
If doing this repair in the chassis, you would be trying to
reassemble with oil still dripping down onto the new seal and?
it will leak again. Thanks for sharing my videos!"

my nickels worth of opinion is that it isn't a leak till it hits
the ground under the vehicle.

a rule of thumb in most things is to stop at the 90th percentile.
trying to make anything perfect just screws it up beyond belief.
90% is usually great, and 100% means you screw it up and have
to do it three times to get it to work.

when i had my engine out for most everything, the rebuilder
and i looked at the bedplate, and it had a bit of weepage...
now the engines on a rotisserie, and we could do it right then,
and his reason for not doing it, is that splitting the bedplate
off, you are doing the same thing as pulling the main bearing
caps off an engine, and if you don't have to disturb plain babbett
bearings, you don't touch them.

and i have to agree with him. we did the rear main oil seal,
and left the bedplate alone. pick your battles, as they say.

if it's leaking badly, and you have to fix it, that's one thing, but if
you have a smidge of seepage, and it's not puking on the ground,
smile, count your blessings, and move on.

if you want to know what is leaking, and where, nobody is going
to pay as close attention to your toy as you are, so, quit posting,
go get some tracing dye and a light, and get to it.

http://tracer.drupalgardens.com/

if you don't have firsthand knowledge of the exact nature of your
problem, then anybody can tell you anything, and you are powerless
to do anything about other than feel like a victim.