Headliner pulling away after 1 week of ownership

[pr0t0c0l_dr01d]

Took possession of the car 5 days ago, and today I notice that the headliner on the driver's side A pillar is already coming loose. If i tuck it in, it comes back out. Has this happened to anyone else? Do I need to rush this into the dealer, or does the 3 yr warranty cover all issues like this? Many thanks. I looked for other threads on this, didn't see any, and have been fortunate not to have glitches like this on the other new cars that I've purchased in the past.

I just had my dealer attempt to fix the same issue. They did a reasonable job. Agree this is silly for Ford to have these problems. Interior fit and finish should be a layup at this point, especially since this is what everyone holds against Tesla.

 

[Scooby24]

My problem is worse, the headliner is fraying and even if you press it in, it'll come back out in a few minutes. Dealer is backlogged, said I can bring my car in next week....

Mine looked worse than yours... the fraying is just what it looks like at the edge if you push and deform the foam long enough. This was probably pushed by the seal for well over a month from build to delivery so it needs some time to lay back flat again.

After I pushed on it enough and let it sit overnight it's now reformed back to where it should be and no longer an issue.

 

[Reign of Ravens]

... except that the public posts are always "message us privately as we'd like to see what we can do" and then what they do is "let's have you contact your local dealer" with an unspoken "thanks for moving your concerns out of public discussion."

Let me be clear, though -- I'm only referring to the account called Ford Motor Company. And that account's most likely not even staffed by Ford employees. They are probably a contracted social media firm with a very narrow scope of how they can interact with the public.

There are quite a few actual Ford employees who are actively reading and sometimes responding on the forum. They come from many different roles within Ford (Ford Credit, engineering, technical management, factory, quality analysis, FordPass, etc) who are on the forum. Just not in official capacities. But they've been enormously helpful and incredibly generous with their time.

Someone behind the Ford account contacted me about a concern I raised. We had a few exchanges and then they handed it off to email-based communication, where someone with a ford.com email address conversed with me, and is reaching out to the dealer about scheduling and coordinating a rental vehicle. So I'd say that so far my experience with them has been favorable, even though the posts we see here feel very cut-and-paste.

 

[generaltso]

Wow, I am truly impressed that someone at Ford is perusing this website and actually responding. I am taken aback a bit about this.

Pleasantly surpised.

Don‘t get too excited. I get impressed when they sometimes remember to change Bronco to Mach-E in their cut and paste posts.

 

[sidr]

Update: Dealer says a whole new headliner is needed. Car will be in the shop for almost a week it seems, though I am glad it's not merely a band-aid that will leave me fighting about the same problem coming back a year from now.

 

[sidr]

Update: Dealer says a whole new headliner is needed. Car will be in the shop for almost a week it seems, though I am glad it's not merely a band-aid that will leave me fighting about the same problem coming back a year from now.

Well, after a week of being in the shop, I picked up the car today. But it looks like the dealer may have tried to pry out the old headliner from the plastic piece on the A-pillar. And now that plastic piece is kind of loose, deformed, nicked, and doesn't line up with the replacement headliner. Photo attached. Why is this so hard?? While I'm at it, why is my car covered in dirty water spray (even the side view mirrors are filthy, and I need to clean the rear-view-camera lens too)? Why is there goo on the inside of my windshield? And why did the dealer take the car on a 2.5 mile trip this morning? sigh.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

The A Pillar trim pieces are a bear to work with. Get them to order new trim piece(s) and replace it or them as the case may be.

 

[phil]

And now that plastic piece is kind of loose, deformed, nicked, and doesn't line up with the replacement headliner. Photo attached. Why is this so hard?? While I'm at it, why is my car covered in dirty water spray (even the side view mirrors are filthy, and I need to clean the rear-view-camera lens too)? Why is there goo on the inside of my windshield? And why did the dealer take the car on a 2.5 mile trip this morning? sigh.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Honeymoon didn't last long, did it?

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Your pillar trim cover isn’t seated correctly. There are tabs that fit into plastic receptacle notches on the underside. These rexpetacles are subsequently slotted into openings on the sheet metal of the pillar. Almost a Russian Nesting Doll configuration. Anyone not familiar with it will try to get the trim to fit into the plastic receptacle and it won’t go, resulting in it looking loose and potentially broken.
If you, or the dealer, pry the receptacle out of the sheet metal and attach it to the tab on the trim first… THEN put the whole unit back in, slotting the receptacle into the sheet metal; it will fit fine.
This was discussed over on one of the dash cam install threads. When my dealer did my roof recall they sent my car home with this “loose trim”. I took it back to them to have them fix it, kinda to prove a point. They couldn’t get it to fit so they ordered new trim pieces because they figured they broke it somehow. Told me they would call me back when the new trim piece showed. I went home and fixed it myself in about 5 minutes.

 

[MikeBeeman]

I just had my dealer attempt to fix the same issue. They did a reasonable job. Agree this is silly for Ford to have these problems. Interior fit and finish should be a layup at this point, especially since this is what everyone holds against Tesla.

I'm having the same problem (2023 approx 4K miles) I tuck it in

I just had my dealer attempt to fix the same issue. They did a reasonable job. Agree this is silly for Ford to have these problems. Interior fit and finish should be a layup at this point, especially since this is what everyone holds against Tesla.

Took possession of the car 5 days ago, and today I notice that the headliner on the driver's side A pillar is already coming loose. If i tuck it in, it comes back out. Has this happened to anyone else? Do I need to rush this into the dealer, or does the 3 yr warranty cover all issues like this? Many thanks. I looked for other threads on this, didn't see any, and have been fortunate not to have glitches like this on the other new cars that I've purchased in the past.

I'm having the same problem, it looks exactly like yours. 2023 Mach e 4K miles. I tuck it in one day, and it comes undone a few days later. Guess I'll need to bring it in sometime soon. ugh

 

[MikeBeeman]

OK, I brought the car in on Monday 08/21/2023. They said it would "take a couple of days" to replace the headliner. We'll see. Remember, this is a new car? I thought, if anything, I might have issues with the battery/powertrain/electrical systems, not the interior. C'mon Ford, you've been building car interiors for 100+ years

 

[MikeBeeman]

This is what it looked like when I brought it in. They did replace the headliner. It took a week. It’s slowly starting to come undone already. Oh boy

 

[smd95]

Hi All, 3 weeks into my new MME and I seem to be having a somewhat similar issue, noticed 2 weeks ago. While my headliner is falling out, my cushioning is not. However, it seems the entire pillar is also not set in properly. Perhaps this is what @Murse-In-Airy is referring to above. You can see by the pics that when I squeeze the pillar, the headliner would be fixed (I didn't do that but it would hold if the pillar was connected properly. You can see the difference when I'm not holding the pillar up how far away from the frame it falls. The passenger side is seated properly and is tight to the frame.

I have an appointment at my dealership this Thursday and I'll mention the tab/notch issue that Murse-In-Airy mentioned above and perhaps it's as easy as that! I sure hope I'm not out for more than an hour... I don't feel comfortable trying to pry the pillar away by myself and mess it up more, then it'll be my dime and not a warranty fix. Hopefully the mechanic will be open to my participation.

Photo: #1 shows the headliner fabric falling out.
Photo #2 shows the pillar when I squeeze it to the frame, when it's properly seated (which is what my passenger side looks like)
Photo #3 shows the pillar when not squeezed and not properly seated.

This is not my first Ford and sadly I'm used to some poor craftsmanship...however, this is my third Mustang and I'm NOT used to poor work on those. Mustang has always meant higher level of design and fabrication in my mind...

 

[MikeBeeman]

did they fix this?

 

[MikeBeeman]

mine is pulling away again, 6 months after having the headliner replaced, and then the door seal replaced. ugh

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