So I found out that Ford Odometers fail after about 150,000 miles or so because Ford's been using worm gears of a cheap quality plastic that they then lubricate with petroleum, and the petroleum seeps into the cheap plastic and basically turns them into wax, and then they just crumble and the odometer completely stops working. You can read all about it here:
The only thing to then do is completely dismantle half the dashboard just to get at the instrument panel, and then you completely dismantle the instrument panel to get at the odometer, which then has to be ever-so-gingerly dismantled, all to get at the plastic worm gear and then maybe also its perpendicular plastic gear, so that whatever has crumbled apart can be replaced with a superior-quality aftermarket gear, probably from Dorman, which costs around $28.
And then the whole thing has to be put back together again, AND the speedometer needle may have to be carefully messed with so that it reads true to actual speed again.
All because the super-tall frat boys in the executive suites at Ford can't be bothered to use quality odometer worm gears to begin with because it means less spare cash for their higher-priority interests.
I hope this helps!
I don't think that the odometer worm gear material would be an executive level decision. I'm thinking that would be more of a lead designer type responsibility.
But thanks for the heads up.
Since you've already done all the research, maybe you could enlighten our readers which vehicle years and models are affected.
Everything is going digital now so does it even matter?
This is news to me, my '99 Ranger's odometer has been ticking away across 278,000 miles. It's run through weeks of 90+ degree days in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, where it was originally sold. Perhaps I got a good one.
Ford's been using worm gears of a cheap quality plastic that they then lubricate with petroleum, and the petroleum seeps into the cheap plastic and basically turns them into wax, and then they just crumble
That's just Ford quality, a similar thing happens to the fuel filler door latch on Volvos built during the Ford era.
All because the super-tall frat boys in the executive suites at Ford can't be bothered to use quality odometer worm gears to begin with because it means less spare cash for their higher-priority interests
Huh, I'm sure that it has nothing to do with """"super-tall frat boys in the executive suites"""", I don't see how 20 cents worth of worm gears and lube would relate to the executives.
