SS: My 1998 V6 braking issues & what Ford is doing about it

[Hiro]

So, this is a relatively lengthy post. But I needed a place to rant. Read on if you care enough.

So I bought my 1998 V6 Mustang used about three years ago. I've loved this car. I honestly wanted to continue driving Mustangs the rest of my life. Until I had a brake problem on my left rear wheel. Let me explain why I won't be buying Ford again.

So my brake issues started about two years ago now (22 months ago roughly). I had an independent mechanic I trusted and I had brought it to him. What was happening was that the brake pads on the left rear were being eaten up fast and the caliper was tearing into the rotor. So he fixed it. Unfortunately, this was only a temporary fix. So I brought it back to him, and he was nice enough to not charge me for the second visit (or the third). On the second visit, he replaced the pads and gave me a new rotor. On the new rotor, he cut striations in it to allow the pads to breath better. He also re-surfaced the right rear rotor.

However, again, the pad got torn up. The caliper just didn't want to disengage. So I brought it back to my mechanic a third time. He actually told me he doesn't know what it was (I was kind of confused that he didn't have any more ideas, but I really just think he didn't want to keep giving away free service under repair warranties). So he told me to take it to a Ford dealership, and gave me $300 towards the cost that Ford would charge me.

So I took it to a Ford dealership. They charged me $630 to replace the left rear rotor, caliper and pads as well as re-surface the right rotor again. Even though I had told them that this was what my previous mechanic did, they assured me it was fixed. I also requested Ford certified parts.

I thought, "Ok, they know what they are doing" and was comforted by a 12-month/12,000 mile warranty from Ford.

Well, 6 months and coincidentally, 6,000 miles later, the brake started making the wonderful scratching noise that signifies that it will be going out again. So I brought it to a different Ford dealership (it was under warranty, however I had moved and was no longer in an acceptable driving range of the previous dealership). The new dealership (dealership b for this conversation) assured me that the brake was fine, and if I heard any scratching, it is just because after market parts were used by the previous repair. This got me somewhat upset, since like I said previously, I requested Ford parts (Motorcraft), not after market. But again, I thought, "Ok, they know what they are doing" and was comforted by the fact that they said it was normal.

About two months later (2,000 miles), the noise started getting worse. So I brought it back to dealership b, and again, they gave me the same answer. "This is normal for after market parts. Don't worry." I was a little bit leary at this point, but I said, "Ok, they know what they are doing."

Well now, here we are, 13 months after the initial repair (and 15,000 miles later), the brakes are back to having torn through the brake pad and the caliper has now carved a notch into the rotor that is about 1/4 inch deep and circles around the entire back side of the left rear rotor.

I bring it back to them, and they now refuse to fix anything. They are telling me I must pay them $715 for repair work (new caliper, rotor and pads on the left rear, new pads on the right rear and a re-surface on the right rear, and new brake hoses on all four wheels.) They are also telling me that this is only a 50% chance that it will fix it, and if it doesn't work, it will be another $175 + labor for another piece. And I had them take off the wheels so I could inspect also, apparently what dealership b told me was not correct. The original dealership (dealership a) did use Motorcraft parts.

Neither dealerships will honor the warranty (having brought it in twice while under warranty and told it was normal and not to worry apparently means nothing) and Ford Motor Company seems to tell me that I am sh*t out of luck.

Am I wrong in thinking that I was mis-treated here? Should Ford be covering this since I was in there twice about the issue while I was still under warranty?

Thank you for taking the time to read.

[ufcrusher]

Corsec -

I am pretty sure I have detailed the HELL I went though with Ford previously, a simple search should come up with them. I am not sure if I ever detailed the whole situation, so I will recount it quickly, the very short abridge version.

In 1996 I bought a brand new Probe GT from the local dealership in Gainesville, Fl. From day one, the car was nothing but a problem. Within a 1000 miles of buying the car, the clutch went out. Ford refused to replace the clutch claiming that "I" must have caused the damage. I had been driving sticks my entire life and NEVER gone through a single clutch. I ended up paying a few grand to get a new clutch, new flywheel, and a few other parts replaced. Within that first year, my electrical system had to be replaced 4 times, the windows/motors had to be replaced, and a tons of other problems. I was without my car for nearly 3 months as a result of the different repairs. I attempted to Lemon Law the car, but in Florida they are pro-manufacturer and even with all the evidence against them, require that they get 1 final repair attempt. If the car is fine for 30 days, then they consider it NOT to be a lemon on that try and you have to go through the entire process again.

In 1998, I moved out to California for law school and had my car shipped out here. I started feeling like the car was acting weird and brought it into Ford 2 times, each time they claimed there was nothing wrong with it. A few months later while I was driving at night on I-5 going downtown, there was a huge explosion. tons of smoke and the car suddenly lost all power. The car was towed to Ford, where they determined that it had thrown 2 rods which had destroyed the entire engine and even gone through the oil pan. (Which is why there was all the smoke) The technicians all told me that the failure was due to structural failure in the metal of the engine. It was only 2.5 years old, but I had hit 52,000 miles so they refused to do anything about it. In fact, they claimed that had I bought it in California, they would have covered it, but because I bought it in Florida, I was SOL. Ford told me that I could buy a new engine for $8000 or just throw it out. Ford headquater was completely useless, saying it was up to the dealership. They knew the history of problems with the car, but still refused to help me out. They offered me $2000 customer incentive money as they felt bad, which I refused so I could take action against them in the future.

There was no way I was going to pay $8000 on a new engine when the car was basically new. I ended up putting it up on blocks for a few years while I was continuing to pay Ford for a useless car. My insurance refused to cover anything since it was a structural problem. I had no legs to stand on to sue them (or so I thought at the time.) Finally, in 2001 a friend of mine located a couple of totalled Probe GT's. He was told that they were all 96's as my engine was only used in 96/97 when the Probe was killed off. As I was told that it would be a simple engine swap and only cost me a few grand including installation. The first engine that came in was from a different year and wouldnt work. The second one that came in was from a MX6, which when I complained I was told would be exactly the same. (Not true, wiring is all different and caused a nightmare). Furing the swap, they discovered that my cats were completely clogged and that would have caused the engine to blow like it did. They told me that I would have noticed a decrease in power bbefore any problem developed. (I didnt remember that I had that problem at the time.)

After getting the new engine installed and somewhat working, I got Ford to reoffer me the $2000 incentive. They did, but told me I had to trade in my Probe to Ford so that it would be removed from the market. As required by law, I disclosed all the information and made a deal to get rid of the thorn in my side and ended up with another damn ford. F150xlt that time.

A few months later, when I was going through all my paperwork, I happened across one of 2 service slips detailing the loss of power and the fact that Ford found nothing wrong. Unfortunately, I had already gotten rid of the car and would not have been able to sue since I took the money.

Due to the fact that we get employee prices, I have unfortunately had to buy 2 more Fords since that first F150. (I needed to get a car and the price was right.) 96 Probe GT-->01 F150 XLT--->03 Mustang GT-->04 F150 XLT

I had no issues with the first truck or Mustang, byt my current F150 is having issues with brake noise and my rims getting damaged by brake dust. The Ford mechanics even told me that everyone with the current F150 and Expedition are having these same issues with the chrome rims pitting, but Ford wont do anything about it.

Fords headquarters doesnt take care of the customers. Ford Dealers refuse to take care of the customers. They just dont care. I keep saying I wont buy another Ford and then get sucked in by the low low price and the fact that they are giving me the best money on my trades. I have tried repeatedly to get something else, but no other dealership will take a damn ford off my hands.

Hope you get this problem fixed.

[thekidrocks]

Dang, that's about as bad as a Intrepid with a 2.7 engine. I feel sorry for the victims who bought those junk piles on wheels.

[TofuNinja]

my only advice is find out who owns the dealership, write a nasty letter and call them. I did that to my Nissan Dealership and the part owner called me up and took time to talk to me. The situation had nothing to do with my car (I had seen something at the dealership and how a manager handled something and said some things that were not good).

Sometimes the GMs or owners will listen and fix it, the floor peeps are mainly crap and only out for themselves. In my first job I got a first hand look at how service writers would sometimes over charge and undercharge people based on how you treated them or what not.

Maybe writing the owner/GM won't help.... but if you have all the documents to support your claim against them they should (key word) act and do something about it. But they most likely won't.

[Mommypooh]

That is just wrong. Do they not realize that by screwing one person over that, that person will tell his friends and family and that most likely those friends and family will not buy ford either. Well they just shot themselves in the foot.

That totally sucks for you. I am sorry they did that to you.

[DarkFury]

Another satisfied FURD customer... :heh:

Join the club... I'll be forwarding the membership paperwork to you shortly... and please be kind and remit your annual dues as soon as possible. Ok..thanks, buh-bye!!! :wavey: :D

:heh:

[Jeffbx]

Add me to the list of people that'll never buy Ford again - my one & only experience was a Taurus lease, and they bent me over on turn in charges, I suspect because I wasn't replacing it with another Ford. What is considered normal wear & tear on a GM lease cost me $600 to Ford.

Bit of advice for your prolem - write a letter including all of those details, make copies of all of the paperwork you got from the dealers on what was done, and mail copies to everyone you can find on Ford's exec board. I did this once for a relatively minor (but very annoying) issue with GMAC, and I had one of the VPs refund my money & send me some nice gifts as an apology.

[Hiro]

So, in the long run I got a new car. 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier.

http://www.corsec.org/gallery/albums/Car/car_2.jpg

[ski]

Good ole' Foxridge :)

Where'd you get it -- Shelor?

I've seen a lot of the locals pimp out these newer Cavaliers. If you want to beat 'em, first things first: roof scoop. You heard it here first.

[AlpineJay]

I too have a 1998 Ford that for the life of me I can't get to work right. The CEL is on and after around 1,000 bucks in repairs that have gone futile I cannot get it to work so it's been garaged (in light of high gas prices - it's an Explorer) waiting for me to have the money to get it fixed again. Also collecting dust is a stereo system I put in there during my stint as a Circuit City employee - back when the discounts were nice.

I too will not buy Ford again. I will probably buy a Ford subsidiary product - Volvo - many times in my life, but never Ford. The Blue Oval can kiss my ass.

[DarkFury]

Fords headquarters doesnt take care of the customers. Ford Dealers refuse to take care of the customers. They just dont care. I keep saying I wont buy another Ford and then get sucked in by the low low price and the fact that they are giving me the best money on my trades. I have tried repeatedly to get something else, but no other dealership will take a damn ford off my hands.

Hope you get this problem fixed.
Yup.... I too had to wean myself of the "Corporate FURD tit" as well.

I have a friend in Florida who owns a FURD dealership and pretty much I can get FURDs at a really great price... However, after owning a 89 Ford Probe GL (4 cyl) and a 96 T-Bird (8 cyl) I can thouroughly say that I am DONE with them.

On top of all this... through my connection with the dealer, I was actually able to find a good FURD dealership in my area here in Indy, however to get to them I had to pass at least 2 or 3 other dealerships that were closer and it was just a dayuum hassle to go WAY over there to get decent service. Pretty much when the extended warranty on the Bird ran out... then so did my time of getting "Genuine FURD service".

I made the mistake of one time taking my Bird to one of the closer dealers for a repair and I never got over the regret of that choice. Pretty much the work that they did had to be redone by the aforementioned "good dealer" and it did cause a mighty problem within the corporate bureacracy within FURD... You'd think that you could deal with ANY dealer to resolve issues, but they are so dayuum territorial and standoffish when it comes to claims about faulty repairs that they don't even wanna touch the warranty work of another dealership.

More or less... I see "gloom and doom" for FURD. They've made it clear to me that they absolutely don't care about their customers and they play heavily off the "sentimental peceptions" of some of their brands thinking that those are enough to keep their customers. Yeah... you can sell a BUNCH of vehicles (probably mostly to rental companies) and claim that you are the #1 selling vehicle in certain categories... but honestly, I spent enough time in their service bays with both my Probe and my Bird to know that "something was ROTTEN in the State of Denmark".

I've washed my hands of them... and I'll be dayuumed if I EVER buy another FURD (or Lincoln/Mercury) in my lifetime (Hopefully I can steer DFJ away from them as well...).

[JesseeezMom]

My first car was a 1980 Mustang(21 years ago) the biggest piece of crap ever made. After MANY dealer repairs, the last straw was on the 31st day after a 30 day guarantee, over the phone they refused to repair with any discount even though it was the same problem that it had 31 days before. So we thought we would show them and drive it down there, the joke was on me it died on the way. We took it to another (non-dealer) mechanic who told us we'd be better off selling it for parts, which we did. I swore NEVER buy Ford again. Fast forward to 2003 wanted an SUV, the expeditions were cheaper than the Navigator and Escalade, they had the reclining back seats that my husband wanted. So we were pennywise and pound foolish. Ford had the Cruise Control recalled on the Expeditions because they spontaniously combust while parked-exploding gas tanks and everything. I had no idea until my brother told me and I did internet research to confirm. People have lost their homes because of this flaw and Ford has declined claims saying that it was out of warranty, that they never heard of this happening. They even told people who's homes were damaged to report it on their homeowners insurance even though Ford is completely aware that it is a design flaw-Deny-Deny Deny. Now I have a truck with no cruise control that no one will want to buy because these Expeditions are just as much a piece of crap as my first mustang. I hope I have it paid off before it dies. Note to self: :stupid: "I will NEVER buy a Ford again!!!"

[ufcrusher]

Yup.... I too had to wean myself of the "Corporate FURD tit" as well.

/

Its pretty hard to do when you have a car with a swapped engine where you had to agree to turn it in to Ford as part of the deal to get anywhere near the value the car should be if it wasnt faulty. (I ended up still being a few grand short of the KBB value of the car, but the walking-dead car was gone.)

That agreement forced me into my F150, which I leased for 2 years so I could get away from Ford fast and I had a lowered residual.

Fast forward to that lease ending, I went to sell it and everyone tried to go THOUSANDS less than KBB wholesale as a result of Fords deep discounts. Ford was the only one who would give me full value for it. Add onto that the Supplier discounts/loyalty discounts/incentives and I was put in an untenable situation. Either loose any equity I had /turn it in even though the entire value of the Probe had gone into that truck (~$2-3000 more than residual was the KBB), buy it out (when the new body style was coming out in a year), or buy another Ford. On the last week of the lease, after months of looking at other cars and never making a deal, I ended up buying a new '03 Mustang GT. 2 months later, my ankle started having the issues and I could no longer drive a stick. Thus, I have a car that I can hardly drive, that is brand new and worth just about what we paid for it, due to the discounts. Thus, no one would buy it as they could get a brand new one from Ford for nearly the same price with the rebates/incentives they were offering then. This was about the time, where they started to not be able to move the old Mustang as everyone was holding off for the new version, even though it was over 1.5 years away. The dealership told me to sell it on my own, but nobody would touch it. The offered me wholesale for it, but would not go any higher and told me I should be able to get PPV minimum for a model equipped like mine.

All the dealerships were offering me $4-5000 below wholesale for it, citing the Ford discounts and the fact that they didnt think they could sell it easily. A few months later, I gave up selling it myself and went back to Ford. This time, they screwed me, but I needed a car I could drive. Thus, my new F150.

We plan on never buying another Ford again. Hopefully, no more issues will develop with it.

[BrewMaster]

I never had problems, per se, with my 04 F-150, but I must say that the quality of the workmanship and parts inside the cabin was a bit disappointing. it never felt well built. for a $35K truck, that's not acceptable. My Toyota Matrix feels better built and it's half the price.

Good luck Corsec.

[Kevster]

Reading about all your problems just reiterates my strong belief that at Ford, quality is job 1,637,264,782.

Meanwhile, I will continue hugging my '96 Honda Accord. It runs forever and it's paid for. :)