DarkFury

Well... 3 days ago, I had to put the Nas-T Bird in the shop for repairs. I was driving down Interstate 70 when all of a sudden the "low coolant" light popped on. Eh... no big deal, I would just stop somewhere and pick up a gallon of Prestone. A few miles later, the CEL popped on. Now usually this is no big deal as it could've been a sensor out of whack... however the car began to shimmy and vibrate like it wanted to shut off or something.

Yes... the "OH SH@T feeling kicked in at that point as I limped the car to Auto Zone to buy some coolant.

Upon advice from mechmike0034, I was able to find a local shop with good references. What they reported was that my plug wires had gotten burned and stripped down to the bare wire... which most likely caused the CEL. However on top of that, they told me that the plastic intake manifold had developed a crack in it that was leaking coolant.

Now honest to goodness... I don't know why FURD would make front end of the intake manifold out of plastic. Older cars have aluminum or some other cast metal for that part... but OH NO... not on MY car.

So in tallying up the cost of the repairs, it comes out to around $1300 of which about $1000 is attributable to the intake manifold. And since my car is out of warranty... guess who gets to eat that.

But get this... back in 1999, Ford released a Dealer Memo alerting them to faulty intake manifolds but they didn't make any type of announcement to any of the owners. This memo stated that the manifold would be covered for 7 years and unlimited miles from the start of the vehicle service date.

Searching the web, I found a copy of the memo...







Pretty much... they KNEW about this, yet it is their position that this was only an "extension" of the basic warranty and that since my failure occurred outside of the time frame stated (which I didn't even know about prior to today) that I was SOL in getting them to cover anything about it.

What a crock of sh@t... If they KNEW that there was a defective part that could potentially ruin the rest of the engine, then they should've alerted us and fixed it when there was time. Now they are hiding behind their time limit.

Any lawyers in the house wanna advise on this? I looked out on the web and saw that there were several disgruntled folks out there with the same problem I am having with the intake manifold... and some of them sued and won.

Pretty much, this is the end of the road for me and Ford... I will NEVER buy another of their products for myself. I've had 2 of them and honestly, except for a few exceptions... their SERVICE ABSOLUTELY SUCKS!!! You'd think after the Firestone/Explorer debacle...they'd be better about announcing recalled/faulty parts and want to get them fixed without causing much hassle. Guess not huh...

Thanks mechmike0034 for gettin' me up to speed on this.

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bachviet

Fix Or Repair Daily products

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p3rsian

not a bimmer

Houdini

No, b/c with a bimmer when this stuff happens, they deny the existence of these service bullitins. Then they mock you for having learned about the TSB from the internet. Then, after getting a couple of beeper pages, they become really curious about your occupation. Then they start brewing you coffee, asking you to drive their latest M3/M5. Then they fix the problem. Next time, if the same people are there, you might get special "Hey doc!" treatment. Bastards.

Anyway, DF, it does sound like they should have let you know about this known issue/recall. I'm not a lawyer, but perhaps ones services would help a lot in this situation.

H

LegendKiller

Audi does something similar. Banker I know bought a fully loaded S4, out of 296 days she owned it it has been in the shop for 251. They denied everything and gave her a 2001 nissan maxima for a loaner.

German auto manufacturers suck these days.

LPMiller

Every car company does this. They also have programs called secret recalls, where if you bring you car in for one thing, they secretly fix the recalled item as well. GM did this with the trannies on GMC Jimmy's and Suburbans for many many years, as the transmissions would crap out all the time. So if you brought in your car for a tune up, they would secretly replace the transmission with a rebuilt one.

Isuzu did the same thing with the hinges on early Troopers.

Honda did it/is doing it with the front end struts on the 01-03 Civics.

You cannot put faith in a car company.

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Jeffbx

Ah yes - the 'silent recall'. Dealers are notified about defects that they are authorized to fix, but no announcement is ever made to the car owners.

There was a HUGE slient recall back in the mid-late 80s on peeling paint on practically every small & mid-sized Chevy & Pontiac car. If you complain loudly, they would re-paint your car for free - they paint they originally used was defective & would begin to peel about once the car was about 3-5 years old. Maybe you've seen an older Grand Prix or Cavalier with horrible peeling paint - that's what happened.

However, if you never complain to the dealer, or if you weren't persistent enough, too bad. You get stuck with a crappy car with peeling paint.

Every manufacturer does this (silent recalls). If you notice a problem & take your car into the shop, ask them if there are any recalls on it. If you're lucky, they'll look it up while you're standing right there.

RIVERWIDOW

If this car was brand new when purched, in the state of Calif, it would have fallen under the lemon law. they could have received full reinburshment.

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LegendKiller

No, CT, although she did hire a lawyer and they took the car back.

DarkFury

Holy Crap... you're back eh?

Yeah.. but your bimmer ain't got a HEMI in it.

Showtime

That sucks. Pretty sad what companies do to get over on their customers.

-j

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Realrammstein

[Knock on wood]
I have had my ford for 12 years, now. It has been the absolutely most reliable car I've ever had (over previous BMW, Pontiac, Chevy, and Nissan). I am not happy about the serivce i got from the dealer (post sale). But I have never been happy with dealer treatment. I am either going back to Ford or GM this year.

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DarkFury

Thing is... this was Ford Corporate speaking here. Not the dealer.

I knew that they wouldn't do anything about it... however coming from Corporate... well, I'm just very disappointed in their level of customer commitment.

Needless to say... there may be a very good chance that I'll take every FURD badge off of my Bird... Dayuum blue oval.

IceDaJuevos

ford has not been doing well for the past...oh...40 years?

INeedAVacation

I've had a 1998 Ford Ranger since ohhhh 1998 when I bought it new. It has about 90k miles on it and has never had any major problems. The front brake pads just recently wore out and were a cinch to replace. I also replaced the alternator (which I may have not had to do if I would have replaced the original battery sooner). The dome light would come on because a sensor would apparently sense the door was ajar (when it was not) but that was easily fixed when I took out the dome light bulb . (Anyone know where the door sensors actually are exactly?-do not say "on the door"). Other than those minor issues, my vehicle has performed awesomely!-Just routine maintennence which I do myself. It has been and is my favorite vehicle I have ever owned.-The cheapest with the least issues. My next vehicle will definately be another Ford. Seen the '05 Mustang?-Sweet

As far as issues with recall info., etc. I don't think Ford is really any different than the other major auto manufacturers.

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Airencracken

Really because when there was a possible problem with the battery pack in my Prius, Toyota notified me immediatley and they even gave me a rental for the day it took to inspect/fix the possible problem.

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InfiniteNothing

With a few safety issues they must notify you by law. It only makes economic sence to notify car owners of the bare minimum. Otherwise we'd pay much more for cars. That's why it's good to always keep up with the TSBs.

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INeedAVacation

Exactly, companies are required by law to notify the public of recall items or possible recall items if the items fail a specific safety requirement. If they realize one of the speakers to your radio may stop working without notice, they will not notify you because it would not meet that safety threshold. If your battery may become unstable and possibly blow you up, they would probably need to let you know.

DarkFury

Unfortunately, this notification only went out to dealers... and any "casual search" for it turns up nothing.

I went to SEVERAL sites and looked up the recall status on my Bird.. and most said "none found"...

The images posted above sure don't look like "none found". Besides... most folks don't go lookin' for trouble.. however if this problem was known and they even went as far as removing the defective part from their catalog and replacing it... then they have a RESPONSIBILITY to notify owners of this.

What woulda happened had my engine blown up on me.... it could have happened and I thank my lucky stars that it happened the day before I was about to go out of town and I was gonna drive my Bird. I woulda REALLY been SOL if I had left town with it.

I'll be talking to legal counsel on Monday about this... so we'll see where this goes.

I would say that a defective intake manifold which could cause an extreme loss of coolant which could consequently cause a major engine failure... falls into this category...

Hence my being upset with them and their lack of notification.

InfiniteNothing

That's what fire walls are for

DarkFury

Yeah... I'll tell that to my "next of kin".

OremuS

While I am in the boat of I will never buy another Ford or GM car, I did have great luck with my 86' Mustang Gt. Only major things I had to do was replace a radiator, clutch and brakes over the 215,000 that the car had on it. The Grand Prix I had however turned out to be a piece of chit...at least as far as the motor is concerned. SPun a bearing at 100k miles and after doing significant research I found out that it was a pretty common thing for the type of motor that was in my car.

bbrian

Sorry to hear about your tbird problems. I actually knew about that recall from my 96 tbird. Fortunately mine went out in the 7 year period.. found that out when I took it into the shop. I'm just glad I had taken it to a dealer or it would have cost me $$..

The tbird problem and a problem I had with a chrysler is why I won't buy domestic cars anymore. Both had major 'known' issues that neither mfg was notifying people about. Goes to show that it doesn't matter how well you treat a car, if it contains poor quality parts and known defects it isn't going to last.

I have an 03 accord now, and they actually notified me a while back about a transmission overheating problem and they installed an additional cooler and extended my warranty after inspecting the transmission to make sure there was no damage. The feds weren't forcing them to do this either.. they did it on their own. Many recalls from Ford, GM, and Dodge/Chrysler wouldn't ever see the light of day if it wasn't for the feds urging them to do so.

Unfortunately, Good customer service is hard to find.

sizemic1

Can you get an aftermarket manifold? Like an Edelbrock performer or something?

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DarkFury

nah.. I just ended up with a NAPA OEM replacement...

Total cost for everything (including new plug wires and a tune up)... $1332.58


Owwww.... my achin' wallet.

styleee

My parent's 89 chevy beauville van had horrible paint. the dealer actually repainted the silver (it was 2 tone) but not the burgundy... i guess the silver started peeling first. the van looked like crap for years. whenever i would see the same van it always had paint that looked like it was a 30 year old car that was never washed.

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mechmike0034

What year is your 'Bird again? I can't recall...

Reason being - I just saw this: http://www.fordmanifoldsettlement.com/faq.html

If you have a '97, you might be in luck. If it is a '96, you're SOL...

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DarkFury

Mine is a 96... guess I'm SOL.

SONOFABEEEYATCH!!!! Why on earth did they exclude the '96 model year!!!!

This is bullsh.......



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bbrian

Send in an objection that your model should be included. Include a printout of the information that you posted from Ford earlier about the part being obsolete. You never know, they could have just gotten the dates wrong. The website contained instructions on how/where to send the objection. You have a chance at getting reimbursed.. even if it is a slim chance.