NHTSA Complaint #11527447 — 2021 FORD F-150 HYBRID

Planned one week, 1,400 miles roadtrip along pacific coast during memorial day weekend. Before starting our trip I went to rotate the tires and upon removing the rear passenger side wheel a bolt and metal gasket fell out. Issue: Center bolt that locks the brake assembly to the rear axle shaft was sheared off with remaining half stuck in the axle shaft. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk?: The truck would have been loaded for our week long roadtrip up North. On the way back we were going to tow our 5000lbs trailer. This bolt would have impacted the braking ability, cause damage to the rear axle assembly possibly resulting in an accident. If I didn't rotate the tires before leaving who knows what could have happened especially if I was towing. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? Yes. Vehicle is currently at a Ford dealer for axle shaft replacement. The service manager had a broken bolt from another vehicle and asked me is this what happened? There are hundreds of F150 owners complaining about the same thing on various forums. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? Not yet. I'm glad it didn't get to that point. But from all users that had this problem and got replacement axle for what seems like defective bolts I would hope Ford would voluntarily inspect and issue a recall. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? No fault lights but I did hear faint grinding sound when the windows are rolled down. I guess the bolt was spinning around in the wheel.