wrbsti
Member
Wanted to share my experience, I had debated for awhile the rebuild vs buying new 3.0, but really wasnt wanting to drop $5k on shocks and they really needed a rebuild, so I had the shocks rebuilt by a local shop (SDHQ) and upgrading to their tie rods, after pulling the truck apart they call and tell me I need to replace upper arms and lower ball joints, as well as 2 shock shafts, and I had to do so to retain their warranty on their work. Turned a $2500 bill into $4k, but I just wanted the truck back to 100% so gave the go ahead.
Got the truck back and noticed a brake grind 10 miles after leaving shop, start poking around and notice the outside edge of the rotor on driver side it starting to get chewed up even though I had personally replaced them 10k miles previously and no issues since. Also notice that IWE lines are hanging free, literally attached to hub and then then hanging limp running into engine bay, zip tie those out of the way so they dont get ripped out and call SDHQ.
They claim the brakes are probably a stuck caliper pin, they said they would look at it when it comes in for 500 mile re torque.
Fast forward a week later and it goes in for the re torque, after "inspecting" the brakes they say its definitely caliper slide pin and nothing related to the work they did when putting the suspension back together.
So I order new pads and rotors and pull the caliper to see if it just needs grease or if new caliper is needed and as soon as I pull that caliper off I see exactly why my brakes are grinding! These trucks use an inner and an outer pad, inner pad has 2 bumps on the top and when you switch inner pad to the outer position it contacts the inside of the caliper and pushes the pad at a weird angle causing excess wear/grinding/binding. Very noticeable issue that people discover pretty immediately.
How I got the truck back, both inner pads were on the drivers caliper, and both outer pads were on passenger side. Also noticed new torque mark paint on the caliper bracket bolts on both driver/passenger. After discussion with SDHQ on this (I was originally told they didnt touch the brakes) they came to the conclusion that it must have come in like that, and it conveniently started eating up the rotor 10 miles after picking it up from them. At this point I was a bit irritated after spending $4k for the suspension work with them, but no biggie, its like $200 in rotors/pads and it would have needed to be done sooner or later.
Fast forward a month later, truck had felt great up until this time but started to get a weird vibration/shudder in the front passenger over certain bumps and the truck really wanted to pull to the right at those times (bumpsteer), reach out to SDHQ to see their thoughts and to get alignment specs to see where caster/toe was set. No response, try again, and again. No response after a week of emails and calls.
Finally gets to a point 6 months and 7k miles later where its clear that the shocks are needing rebuild, or at minimum a nitrogen recharge. Rear is all over the place, truck was iffy on pavement and down right useless in dirt. Reach out again as at this point I'm pretty irritated, the rebuild should get minimally 15k out of it, mostly street with dirt trips occasional weekends. At this point they tell me I'm out of the 90 day shock warranty (first time they ever mentioned 90 days) and that they can check the pressure but would be charging labor and that they can add rear schraders but that the front is "impossible" to add schraders to. We go back and forth and its pretty clear they dont give a ****, said its a 90 day warranty and tough luck. At this point I say screw it, after the half assed work I got from them I really didnt want them touching the truck, much less paying them to do so.
Still debating the switch to 3.0s and rebuild or just buying new 2.5s, make a few calls and get in contact with Jake at Foutz Motorsports. By far the best experience I have had with any shop to date, super knowledgeable (they did a vast amount of the work on the Gen1 & Gen2 trucks Ford ran in Baja).
Decide to have them rebuild and I am pleasantly surprised to hear they do schraders as standard.
They had the truck in within the week and done in 1 day, finally back to the nice ride and will be putting them through the paces on dirt.
Long story short, if you are in AZ or really anywhere in the nation, save yourself the hassle and headache and go with Foutz from the beginning. They can get anything you could need for these trucks and even build some of their own stuff, including their own long travel kit. I even showed up early to get the truck and we talked for a good hour about the Raptor R and plans for future upgrades. Couldn't be happier to finally have a working truck to truly enjoy again!
Got the truck back and noticed a brake grind 10 miles after leaving shop, start poking around and notice the outside edge of the rotor on driver side it starting to get chewed up even though I had personally replaced them 10k miles previously and no issues since. Also notice that IWE lines are hanging free, literally attached to hub and then then hanging limp running into engine bay, zip tie those out of the way so they dont get ripped out and call SDHQ.
They claim the brakes are probably a stuck caliper pin, they said they would look at it when it comes in for 500 mile re torque.
Fast forward a week later and it goes in for the re torque, after "inspecting" the brakes they say its definitely caliper slide pin and nothing related to the work they did when putting the suspension back together.
So I order new pads and rotors and pull the caliper to see if it just needs grease or if new caliper is needed and as soon as I pull that caliper off I see exactly why my brakes are grinding! These trucks use an inner and an outer pad, inner pad has 2 bumps on the top and when you switch inner pad to the outer position it contacts the inside of the caliper and pushes the pad at a weird angle causing excess wear/grinding/binding. Very noticeable issue that people discover pretty immediately.
How I got the truck back, both inner pads were on the drivers caliper, and both outer pads were on passenger side. Also noticed new torque mark paint on the caliper bracket bolts on both driver/passenger. After discussion with SDHQ on this (I was originally told they didnt touch the brakes) they came to the conclusion that it must have come in like that, and it conveniently started eating up the rotor 10 miles after picking it up from them. At this point I was a bit irritated after spending $4k for the suspension work with them, but no biggie, its like $200 in rotors/pads and it would have needed to be done sooner or later.
Fast forward a month later, truck had felt great up until this time but started to get a weird vibration/shudder in the front passenger over certain bumps and the truck really wanted to pull to the right at those times (bumpsteer), reach out to SDHQ to see their thoughts and to get alignment specs to see where caster/toe was set. No response, try again, and again. No response after a week of emails and calls.
Finally gets to a point 6 months and 7k miles later where its clear that the shocks are needing rebuild, or at minimum a nitrogen recharge. Rear is all over the place, truck was iffy on pavement and down right useless in dirt. Reach out again as at this point I'm pretty irritated, the rebuild should get minimally 15k out of it, mostly street with dirt trips occasional weekends. At this point they tell me I'm out of the 90 day shock warranty (first time they ever mentioned 90 days) and that they can check the pressure but would be charging labor and that they can add rear schraders but that the front is "impossible" to add schraders to. We go back and forth and its pretty clear they dont give a ****, said its a 90 day warranty and tough luck. At this point I say screw it, after the half assed work I got from them I really didnt want them touching the truck, much less paying them to do so.
Still debating the switch to 3.0s and rebuild or just buying new 2.5s, make a few calls and get in contact with Jake at Foutz Motorsports. By far the best experience I have had with any shop to date, super knowledgeable (they did a vast amount of the work on the Gen1 & Gen2 trucks Ford ran in Baja).
Decide to have them rebuild and I am pleasantly surprised to hear they do schraders as standard.
They had the truck in within the week and done in 1 day, finally back to the nice ride and will be putting them through the paces on dirt.
Long story short, if you are in AZ or really anywhere in the nation, save yourself the hassle and headache and go with Foutz from the beginning. They can get anything you could need for these trucks and even build some of their own stuff, including their own long travel kit. I even showed up early to get the truck and we talked for a good hour about the Raptor R and plans for future upgrades. Couldn't be happier to finally have a working truck to truly enjoy again!
