Today, I finally had enough of my truck:

1. Not starting occasionally.
2. When it finally fires up after not wanting to start, it black smokes for about 1 minute.
3. Knocks & pings at all engine speeds and engine loads
4. Gas mileage went to crap
5. Significantly down on power

For those not familiar with my situation, I purchased my truck thru the Overseas Military Sales Program when deployed to the festering bung hole of the world, AKA the middle east. It was delivered to a commercial fleet Ford dealer. There are 4 Ford dealers convienient to my house and not a single one wants to work on my truck since I didn't buy it from them, meaning they didn't make any money from me so they don't give a crap. Apparently the fact that it has the blue oval on it is not enough for the as$ clown dealers in the CPRofNJ.

Anyway, I finally had enough so I called a lawyer and went to the local dealer. For a small fee ($40), the lawyer said he would fix their their attitude problem post haste. The service manager gave my the same run around: "You should have bought it here, then we could take better care of you. It's not throwing a fault code so what do you want us to do???". BULL SH$T!!!, I picked up my cell, called the lawyer & handed the phone to the service manager. 5 Minutes later, my truck is in the bay hooked up to the machine. First thing the nimrod says when he opens the hood & see's the AF1 staring at him is it that he's going to void my powertrain warranty. BULL SH$T!!! Back on the phone to the lawyer I go & I also happend to print out the Magnussen/Moss Warranty Act to bring it with me. With his tail between his legs, he goes back to work. Turns out it had two faulty injectors. They replaced them and reflashed my PCM. I also had them do the 30K service. I have a Troyer XCal II so I (lucky I did) returned it to stock for the trip to the dealer. A quick phone call to Troyer this afternoon reveals that I can't use my XCal II again until I get it reprogrammed to suit the new PCM reflash. The as$ clown at the dealer flat out refused to give me the new PCM code & it's nowhere on the service sheet that I can find. He said I have no reason to need it. When I kinda sorta hinted that I have a flash tool of some type, he said that he can & will void my warranty I they can detect that it's been used. Back on the phone to the lawyer I go and he says that they got me on that one. During my call to Troyer, I can use the XCal to pull some kind of code from the computer that they can use to decifer what my new PCM code is. After I was all wrapped up at the dealer, I asked to see either the general manager and/or the owner. I spoke to him for almost 1 hour. In a nut shell, I let him know that it's this kind of service and ridiculous nonsense I have to put up with that has pretty much signed, sealed & delivered the fact that this will most likely be the 1st & LAST Ford I ever own. Not a single brand of vehicle I have ever owned has given this much grief, not because of the vehicle itself, but the dealers. I've owned MUCH, MUCH worse vehicles than my truck. In fact, I really like my truck. In my opinion, the exterior looks the best of the current crop of trucks. The interior is far and away the best of any truck and better than most cars. If this is the quality of service I can expect, needing a lawyer to force these idiots to do their job, I don't think anyone can really fault me for not purchasing another Ford. I now know why Ford has to rely on incentives & rebates to sell their vehicles.

KC-10 FE out...

 

Ford Customer Assistance Center - 1-800-392-3673

 

My dealership has done everything for me. Bent over backwards. No problems at all.

 

It sucks when any one has issues with a truck and a dealer that goes out of it's way to compound the problem, My expierance's from 02 to 04 on F-150 trucks and dealer lack of service have been posted to death here on F-150 online.

Stay with the fight, and keep us posted on your success.

 

^^^^^
Thank You...

NOt going to lie, I'm waiting patiently to see the new Silverado this fall. The new Tundra is butt ugly as are the Rams, Titans & current Silverado.

KC-10 FE out...

 

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I have never had to deal with anything like that and I never have gone to the dealer for service where I bought the truck from. I just always go in for a oil change and they enter me into their computer. From then on I guess they assume I bought the truck there due to me and the the truck being in their system. Hope things get better for ya.

 

If your screen name means what I think it means, then it's freaking cool...

KC-10 FE out...

 

The funny thing is, from a survey and dollar standpoint, it doesn't mean jack to the service department where the frickin' truck was purchased at. Some get pissed off because the way they're thinking, some other dealership made the money off the sale, and now they're having to deal with a warranty problem child of another dealer.

And, in my area at least, given the lack of work available, I don't really care if Osama Bin Laden sold you the truck, I literally can't afford to be picky right now just 'cause you didn't buy the truck from my dealership. Work is work, I don't really like doing warranty, but I like sitting around doing nothing less. And the potential to have that customer who's vehicle they're working on under warranty today return further on down the road for non-warranty services and repairs just goes out the window when the customer is treated like dirt.

 

I figured you would probably get it being military, I did 6 yrs active..

 

Forgot to add in the first post:

Since it now has two new injectors & they cleaned the others, plus the reflash, plus a transmission service, my truck feels 100% better. It starts better, runs better, shifts better, etc... I will have a good update after next week. I'm going back to western NC & eastern TN for a week. I can't use my Xcal II so I have to tow a 3000lb trailer with nothing other than the AF1 & a Gibson SI/SO 3" exhaust. Update will be posted sometime around the 19th.

KC-10 FE out...

 

WOW! Sorry to hear about your troubles.

I had a similar problem with my previous truck. I had a 2002 Harley with a nasty knock or tick type of sound. First time I brought it in they blamed it on my intake, so I re-installed the stock and went back.

They had my truck for 8 days, put close to 200 miles on it and damaged it. They repaired the damage (from what I knew it was a scratch on one of the doors). When I went to pick it up, I smelled smoke and found.....a roach in the cup holder.

I flipped out and dragged the service manager out to the truck and they denied, denied, denied it would be ANY of his guys. I said....so, my truck mysteriously gains 200 miles, gets scratched and I find someone smoked weed in it....

I have a buddy who works for Ford and I got a Corporate number and filed a complaint with them. Never went anywhere, but I felt better.

I am very leery when it comes to dealers now.

 

Not trying to hijack this thread, but Quinton, the problem you speak of is unheard of up where I am. There is enough work at our dealer to keep a dealer 3x our size busy. I have been booking a month ahead since last summer some time. Anyway if you are ever intertested in moving let me know.

Anyway, back on track. It is disgusting how that dealer treated you KC-10 FE. At least you set them straight.

 

And list all the SOB's names.

It's good to hear that they fixed your truck, it sucks monkey nuts that it took that much to get them to do it.

So far I have not had a problem getting any of my trucks worked on. The first one was bought out of town before I moved back here. The dealership that I went to asked where I had bought it but only because he thought that he had seen me before. Other than that they did not care.

Joe

Edit, that's strange about not giving the new PCM code. I remember the new PCM code being printed on my reciept from when my truck was flashed.

 

Ok question....Dose Ford aduit it's dealers to see how repairs and service are being performed? I'm not talking abought paper pushing with C. Survey's, Last time I had a issue and went to Regional Rep in Edmonton, It went no where ( 02 F-150 ) and would Kentwood Ford know how well it is competing with a Ford dealer across town with sales and service?

I bet 3/4 of my issues with the 04 could have been adressed with a good Ford Service department.

 

Amen brotha well said, If we treated our customers like KC-10FE's dealer I flat wouldn't have any! We do not treat our customers that way and are a very mod friendly dealer, we install lift kits on our stock units, and have modded several cobras before they were ever sold, hell even installed a twin turbo on a 2001 a couple months ago. QUINTIN sorry to hear you're slow down there! If it's any consolation we are slow here as well! hang tough man, it'll get better!