Why the shifter bezel cracks

What the part is called

Ford calls it the selector cover, or the automatic transmission shift cover plate. Owners call it the shifter bezel, the shifter dust cover, the gear selector cover, or just the trim around the gear selector. All of these are the same thing: the sliding plate that travels with the shifter through the gate.

How it fails

It is thin rigid plastic doing a moving job. Every gear change drags it through the shift gate, and it lives in a cabin that bakes. Heat and UV embrittle the plastic, and once it is brittle the stress concentrates beside the gate where the section is thinnest. It splits there, then the split opens into a hole.

After that the console is open. Coins, dust and whatever else is on the seat go straight down into the shifter mechanism, which is how a cosmetic failure turns into a mechanical one.

Do you need the whole assembly?

Usually not. The bezel is the wear part. The mechanism underneath is normally fine. Dealers quote the assembly for two reasons: several of the standalone numbers are discontinued, and on 2009 F-150 builds Ford never sold the cover separately at all.

That is a stocking problem, not a diagnosis. If the shifter itself moves correctly through the gate, replacing the cover is the whole repair.

What it costs

Ford MSRP runs from $125.67 to $176.67 depending on which of the seven numbers applies to your year, and dealers usually sell below that. Two numbers are discontinued entirely. Every number is listed on the cross-reference index.

The RL-1001 is $25 shipped free, and it is flexible TPU rather than rigid plastic, so the failure mode that took out the first one does not apply to it.