Hey tritonxlt,
I bought my truck at liberty ford in parma heights, so far they have been very good, I haven't had the vibe problems but I did have the throttle control problems, they took care of it very quick.

 

Thats a very very nice dealer over there! My sister lives right next door (literally) to that dealer! I have never stopped in there, but I pass it up every week! I want to stop in there just to have a look see at what they have!

 

I do not understand dealers not wanting to do warrenty work. I have never run into that problem. When my rear end was whining, I set up an appointment and they checked it out and fixed it. They even went so far as to record the backlash and runout on the ring and pinion gear. This is work that they are guarnteed to get paid for. They may have to discount their rates to Ford, but the get paid and no body complains about the price. I took my previous truck in for an oil change, and tghey discovered that both diffrentials were leaking so the replaced the gaskets on both under warrenty. I guess I just had a good serfvice writer. I have been following my serfvice writer from dealership to dealership for 15 years. Upo until the last truck, I had all my warrenty service done and a dealership that did not sell me the truck.

 

{UPDATE} : I got a call 2 minutes ago from that dealer I have my truck in with. He replaced the clutch packs after havibg to order them overnight. He test drove it after it was done, and the shudder was still there :'( His shift ended about an hour and he told me "it's back to the drawing board" he doesn't know right now whats causing the shudder (he told me he had done 5 04 f150's this past week with the shudder and new clutch packs solved the problem, but mine did not)
Guys, help me out here, what else could be going on that is causing the shudder??? I need as much information as you can give me so maybe I can help pass the word to him of any ideas on what else could be wrong?

 

I had the same thing happen to me. They immediately ordered and replaced everything in the rear end. That corrected the problem.

 

Do these guys have free loaners/rentals if your vehicle has to be there a few days?

 

ok, thanks rebs, i have an appointment on the 16th to have them look at the window, allen seemed very nice on the phone. when is your appointment? i'll post here how things go. they do have loaner cars, but ask in advance.

 

Don't go to Century ford in Mt Airy either, the wrenches there are all Young boys, and the service mgr will offer you a free extended warranty
rick

 

There is another TSB about the drive shaft. They can grease it with special lub, but that didn't work. The next step is to replace the drive shaft with a new one. There is something defective with it and the only way to stop the shutter is to replace it. Hope this helps!

 

I've always had the best success with taking a written message from me to the technician when I have a strange problem. The service writer has always stapled my sometimes rather long explanation of the problem to the work order. I often wonder if these technicians even have a clue what they are trying to address in terms of the vague and not always re-occurring problems.

Spell it out - literally on paper. Ask that it be given to the technician and leave your phone number on it. You might be surprised how effective this is. And, don't be surprised if the technician actually calls you to ask further questions.

 

Getting cars/tks repaired under warranty is the same as getting any appliance, etc repaired by the manufacture. Have you tried to get a camcorder, TV, washer/dryer repaired under warranty?? I have and it isn't any better, if no worse.

I ran service for 25 years, yes all Ford/Lincoln, Mercury. I only ran very large shops [75+ employees in parts, service & body shop]with high volumne of daily repairs. I've had my own independent shop for the last 9 years. [four techs]

You're right the dealership does get paid from Ford for the repairs. At a reduced cost. They labor hours are much lower then the normal allowable times.

Also, many times there isn't a fix for the problem that you're having and Ford's answer is, "were working on it, try this or that it MIGHT help".

The dealership is stuck trying to fix a problem that the manufacture couldn't fix on the assembly line or in engineering before the vehicle was delivered. Now it is up to the dealership to fix the problem and keep their customer happy.

Then when there is a known problem and the dealership is repairing it, sometimes it is not an authorized repair by Ford [like machining rotors vs replacing them with new warped ones]. That use to be a none reimbusable repair, might of changed now.

Several years ago Ford cut all the warranty reimbursment times for no real apparent reason, except to save money. When the Ford Dealer Council asked...WHY?? They were told, that's the way it is.
Also, the frequency of the repairs is gauged against the volumne of the dealership and makes the dealership up for a warranty audit. They can charge back to the dealer repairs they don't deem as need or excessive. Dotting the "I's" and crossing the "T's" comes in here too.

Lastly you have the tech's, they don't want to chase their tails on a job that doesn't pay them squat.
Also, there is such a shortage of quality techs [20% shortage nationally] that anyone and everybody is working. This shortage is not getting any better. No one wants their kids to be automobile techs. They want them to be computer people, attorneys, etc.

Dealerships treat their techs like second class people too. Now, not all stores, but way too many.

I've run on here a little. I'm not making excuses for the dealerships, just giving you some everyday things they have to deal with.

Take care