Short version:
Get under you truck and inspect them. The front two are behind the front bumper and in front of the wheels. Look for cracks and crumbling. For the last 20 years or so, Ford has made them from a foam rubber material that lasts 4-7 years. If yours are failing, replace them, and enjoy a smoother, quiter ride. Search the internet for Super Duty body mount bushings for more information.

Long version:
I've had my truck for 5 years and 110,000 miles now. While it has probably been a gradual decline in comfort and increase in noise over a year, in the last few months I've really noticed my truck felt loose especially in turns over bumps. The steering is tight, so I figured I needed new shocks (they have 90,000 miles on them). As luck would have it, I picked up a piece of plastic strapping that I had to get under the truck to remove. While under there, I noticed one of the body mount bushings was a showing stress cracks, which prompted me to check the other 7. 2 of them are made of normal rubber and looked ok. The other 6 are made from some sort of foam rubber like material whose condition varied from cracked to crumbling mess.

I did some internet searching, found that this is common on Super Duty trucks for the last 20 years or so, and I ordered a $700 after market kit. When it showed up, my wife asked what it was, I replied it's a silicone body mount kit, and she said it sounded kinky. I installed it this past Saturday in about 3 hours. I had trouble removing 2 of the original bolts, otherwise I would have had it done in less than 2 hours. The internet and paper that came with the kit warned against using electric or pnuematic impact wrenchs, so I used 24" and 18" breaker bars as well as a rachet once the bolts where loose. Unfortunately, two of the bolts required the breaker bar the entire way.

Installing 7 of the new bushings wasn't bad. The bolts get torqued to 76 ft-lbs. 1 of the bolts required using the 24" breaker bar to tighten. Obviously, using a torque wrench to compress the bushing the proper amount wasn't going to work, so I measured the compressed height of the other bushings and tightened the bolt until this particular bushing measured the same height as the others.

I drove to Orlando on and back Saturday and Sunday. I drove me kids back and forth to school and home today on my usual routes. All I can say is Holy Cow! what a difference. The creaking sounds backing out of my driveway are gone. The looseness in the corners is gone. The weird, jiggly vibrations over railroad tracks and speed bumps are gone. It's much closer to the way it was when new than it has been in a long time.

It's on the list of things I need to check now that spring is here. I've got a 2016 with 52K miles on it. I also need shocks, badly. I was going to have the dealer check them while I have them replace my shocks. I had a good thorough checkout this past fall when I changed the front & rear diff fluid along with the T-case. Both coolants and the tranny fluid are planned for this year.

Can you post a couple pics for those of us challenged today? Thx

I had a 2003 Ford Explorer Sport Trac. Couple of years ago, while under the vehicle I noticed the body mounts, rubber bushings, as the OP described, crumbling.

Took it to a good body shop. They said to replace the bushings would run about $2,000. Biggest fear was breaking the body bolts removing them. They would basically have to strip the interior, jack up one side, replace bushings, then do the other side.

Anyone with that year range Ford pickup or SUV should check those mounts. Bad material selection by Ford.

If it's that much of an issue it should be a recall.

Breaking the bolts isn’t the worry when replacing the bushings. The issue is the nuts are held captive by sheet metal and hidden inside the body. You have to pull carpet back and maybe removed seats to get at some of them. The bolts have thread locker on them and should be heated before removing them to loosen the thread locker. The garage gorillas that pulled the cab on my truck when the frame was replaced didn’t do this properly and when they remounted the cab, they also cross threaded the passenger side rear nut.

The stock bushings are keyed to holes in the frame tabs. This keeps the body from shifting around on the frame. Some of the aftermarket kits don’t fit the hole in each frame tab properly and instead rely on friction to keep the body from shifting on the frame. When the bushings are new, the cab is essentially floating on the bushings and no part of the cab metal comes in direct contact with the frame metal. A big part of the system is the compression of the bushings the bolts provide. Once the bushing start to deteriorate, that compression starts to lessen and the cab is not held to the frame with the same firmness as when the bushings were new. The bushings will continue to deteriorate until the metal cups that contain them start bouncing off the frame tabs. I had one that had reached this stage and it explains the noise I was hearing backing out of my driveway.

From my reading, the deterioration isn’t really mileage based but rather time based.

I’ll try to get some pictures of the bushings I removed, but here’s a link to the company whose kit I used and a video from someone else:

Silicone Body Mount Bushings

https://youtu.be/gl0hggIdmko

Yikes. I'm going to move up the inspection. Those S&B bushings seem like a good choice.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
If it's that much of an issue it should be a recall.

Rubber bushings and bearing are wear items on all vehicles, I"ve replaced much of them on my 03 F150, its just something that has to be done on all vehicles

While they were all in some state of deterioration, these were the two worst:



The short one on the left is supposed to look like the short one on the right. They are pairs, one short and one long per location.

My post wasn’t meant to be a complaint or call for a recall. It was really meant to be a hey, if you own a Super Duty, take 3 minutes and check your bushings out. I hope they don’t look like mine did.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
While they were all in some state of deterioration, these were the two worst:



The short one on the left is supposed to look like the short one on the right. They are pairs, one short and one long per location.

My post wasn’t meant to be a complaint or call for a recall. It was really meant to be a hey, if you own a Super Duty, take 3 minutes and check your bushings out. I hope they don’t look like mine did.

Thx for the pics. It really shows what a weak link those are in support and comfort of the vehicle. Time to do some more reading and maybe find some vids that address this issue as well.

I’ve had the exact same issue. Patience is required when removing the ones as is stated above.
There was a huge improvement in the ride when they have been replaced.

Reminds me, need to check and replace the motor and trans mounts.....