Factory Tow Hook

HuntingPudel

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I found and bought a Ford tow hook. Being that I already knew that the hole in the MME front bumper is not threaded, I figured that I would have to find a mating female fastener. Well, today was the first time I actually removed the cover over the frunk jump leads from my GT-PE’s front bumper cover. Imagine my surprise to find out that the hole in the front bumper does not line up with the hole in the bumper cover! At least for the US-spec GT, we will need to make a different hole in the front bumper and find a special thread female fastener (M16x3.0 Left Hand). I’m not going to bust my butt to find that fastener since the hole doesn’t line up with the port in the bumper cover. 🤪🤷‍♂️🐩
Ford Mustang Mach-E Factory Tow Hook D9B8C39A-4F9E-4B3B-91AA-8D32B9AA9F40
Ford Mustang Mach-E Factory Tow Hook D8EF38BA-83D9-4864-B705-4DA1B688A33F
 
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mkhuffman

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I found and bought a Ford tow hook. Being that I already knew that the hole in the MME front bumper is not threaded, I figured that I would have to find a mating female fastener. Well, today was the first time I actually removed the cover over the frunk jump leads from my GT-PE’s front bumper cover. Imagine my surprise to find out that the hole in the front bumper does not line up with the hole in the bumper cover! At least for the US-spec GT, we will need to make a different hole in the front bumper and find a special thread female fastener (M16x3.0 Left Hand). I’m not going to bust my butt to find that fastener since the hole doesn’t line up with the port in the bumper cover. 🤪🤷‍♂️🐩
Arrg!! I hate it when that happens. I am not going to make a new hole in my bumper for the tow hook, so I guess we are SOL on this one. Such a bummer.
 

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Yup, Europe has a different bumper cover with a slightly different location for the access cover.
 

Gullwingdmc

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scoopman

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Yup, Europe has a different bumper cover with a slightly different location for the access cover.
This was such a strange decision by Ford, I wonder how they got to this place?

That's really unnecessary fragmentation and cost and it makes it more difficult for US owners with a problem to do a basic thing of towing their car.

Doesn't Ford have someone that knows about towing access points best practices? This can't be the first time that they figured out what's the right way to get a car towed... It's like this was the first car they ever made like a startup.

I'll stop now.

This Polestar 2 I'm tooling around in has a tow hook and threaded access points in front and rear bumpers. Just saying.
 


scoopman

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Mach-Lee

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Yup, Europe has a different bumper cover with a slightly different location for the access cover.
This was such a strange decision by Ford, I wonder how they got to this place?

That's really unnecessary fragmentation and cost and it makes it more difficult for US owners with a problem to do a basic thing of towing their car.

Doesn't Ford have someone that knows about towing access points best practices? This can't be the first time that they figured out what's the right way to get a car towed... It's like this was the first car they ever made like a startup.

I'll stop now.

This Polestar 2 I'm tooling around in has a tow hook and threaded access points in front and rear bumpers. Just saying.
Actually I might have it backwards, maybe the cover is the same but the bumper structure underneath is different? That would make more sense for different crash standards. I can't remember.
 

Gullwingdmc

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Yes but this is problematic, so our resident fabricator was investigating putting in a bumper tow access with a hook like they have on European Mach Es.
My biggest concern is if you damage the car by towing it via an unsupported method the damage wouldn’t be covered by the tow company or dealership.
 

scoopman

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My biggest concern is if you damage the car by towing it via an unsupported method the damage wouldn’t be covered by the tow company or dealership.
Indeed -- real quandry because you probably have more chance of a tow operator damaging it with the poor tow access points the car has without modification.
 

Gullwingdmc

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Indeed -- real quandry because you probably have more chance of a tow operator damaging it with the poor tow access points the car has without modification.
Yeah but if they damage it using the official tow points that’s their fault and I would sue them. If it’s because of a mod I made, then I am … on the hook, for the damage. 😄
 

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Yeah but if they damage it using the official tow points that’s their fault and I would sue them. If it’s because of a mod I made, then I am … on the hook, for the damage. 😄
Yup, it just depends on which hassle you want to have. I can tell you from experience that towing the Mach-E is very suboptimal right now.
 

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Yup, it just depends on which hassle you want to have. I can tell you from experience that towing the Mach-E is very suboptimal right now.
I note a dolly tow is never mentioned in the towing guide. I assume that is a super safe towing method since you don’t risk the tow point errors or damage getting on the flat bed. Wrong assumption?
 

scoopman

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I note a dolly tow is never mentioned in the towing guide. I assume that is a super safe towing method since you don’t risk the tow point errors or damage getting on the flat bed. Wrong assumption?
I would think that would work. Ford Roadside seems to only be trained to send flatbed tow trucks though, so I don't think you're getting someone who will do this if you call them.
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