03 F250 5.4 4x4
The other day I started to hear some indefinable noises coming from the front driver wheel every time I hit any road irregularity & pulled over to check the lug torque/steering components.
Two lug nuts had just disappeared although it hasn't been driven since I last torqued them.
I head to the nearest parts store & buy a pair of 14x1.5mm, they lock before engaging the threads (I had cleaned them with a brass brush prior to trying as well).
Thinking it's autozone chinesium, I head back in for two more, same result. Switched brands three times, no luck then it occured to me try them on the back lugs. They threaded right on so I thought "check the size for an older model."
Turns out the front axle has 14x2.0mm lugs while the rear has 14x1.5mm although the front end appears to be all factory with no yard marks. This size was last used on the 2002 model year but mine was made in August 2002....which also strikes me as weird, didn't think the next model year started until November.
It looks like I just got the last of the previous front diffs & Ford didn't tell anyone. Nothing on the NTHSA site, no tsb's I can find, nothing in the Chilton manual although those are becoming more & more useless.
Anyone else run into this issue, a early switchover where you got half of the old parts/half new & it becomes a safety issue? Sure I could have forced those lugs on & destroyed the threads but how long would that wheel stay on, a mile if I was lucky?
As an aside, when does the new model year "legally" start? Nowhere on my truck does it say 03 but the title does. August seems way too early.
Totally weird. Maybe at some point the lugs were replaced when rotors were changed out.
Could be, they look about as old as the truck (comparing front & rear along with corrosion, etc).
You'd think even el cheapo replacements would have the same thread size unless they wanted atleast one lawsuit after someone just zipped the nuts on.
Typically I get the lowest cost with a lifetime warranty, even the one time I got stuck with "single year" they had the right size.
Is it the same situation on the passenger side, two different thread pitch lug nuts? You probably did this, but I always take the VIN to the parts store to make sure they have the right vehicle to match to.
Yup, all lugs up front are 2.0, all rear 1.5. For some reason around here parts stores refuse to take VINs. It used to pop up with my info in their system on warrantied items but I didn't see it scrolling through this time around.
When I was presented with narrow or wide frame options for brake lines I tried at both pepboys & autozone they said they couldn't do that which sounded odd.
There was another part I needed at advanced where nothing they had looked right & I couldn't compare the two as the original went on vacation without telling me.
When I mentioned check the VIN, this semi-annoyed look appeared on the guys face & he gave a couple excuses from "A what?" to "There's no option for that."