'08 Cascadia hood hinge warning

truckblue · Apr 15, 2011

I am driving an '08 Cascadia. The hood hinge on these trucks is prone to seizing and breaking. This happened to me last week , and the hood almost fell off truck as I was opening it.
There is a service bulletin SB 88-38. "The tilt bushings are urethane and pivot within an aluminum housing. Trucks produced after 2/17/08 - 7/1/08 should have this pivot lubricated to prevent possible seizing and damage to the hood assembly". But, they don't say how to lubricate this item since it was designed without any way to do so.
So, my truck is in the shop getting these hood hinge parts replaced. Cost..1200.00.
We are in contact with dealer who sold us truck a few months ago, and also sent a complaint to Freightliner.
Anyone else have this happen to them?

greg334 · Apr 15, 2011

I don't see why you can't hit the hinge with some lube of some sort, even PBlaster. It moves so there should be some little gap there.

davekc · Apr 15, 2011

If a bulletin was issued I would at least get it covered under a warranty repair.

ATeam · Apr 16, 2011

truckblue said:
So, my truck is in the shop getting these hood hinge parts replaced. Cost..1200.00.

$1,200 for hood hinges? Are they made of gold?

truckblue · Apr 16, 2011

1200 is parts and labor. This isn't your ordinary "hinge". It is several pieces, and some are bonded to hood with some kind of epoxy. The whole hinge is behind bumper and not easily accessible.
I just want to make folks aware of problem. Not sure how many are using Cascadia as Straight truck, but maybe some "E" units are out there.

greg334 · Apr 16, 2011

I saw them replace one of these hinges a while ago, it was rodent damaged and it is a lot of work.

BUT as I am typing about maintenance things today, maybe to put on your list of things to do is to hit the hinges with some sort of spray lube

truckblue · Apr 16, 2011

I talked to body tech at dealership and he knida shook his head when I asked how and what do I lube this thing with.
I guess I'm a little perturbed that Freightliner, Inc. doesn't have an answere after 4 yrs and will continue to let us poor saps deal with problems like this and hope we just pay the repair and go away. Well. I'm not the type to go away.