Ford Stinks, My Dealer Rocks!
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Joined: Mar 2001
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From: In the shop cutting something up
Ford Stinks, My Dealer Rocks!
+ + + L O N G S T O R Y + + + :-D
On May 12th I dropped my ‘01 L off at Raisor Ford (where I bought the truck) to have them address the smoke-on-startup issue I posted on April 20th https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...=smoke+startup.
They had looked at it a couple of weeks after I bought it, but could not reproduce the problem. At that time, it was a small puff and I only asked about it because I was having some other factory 36/bumper-to-bumper warranty work done (The only reason I bought the ESP was because of lack of spark plug threads.). The puff continued to grow, until I was able to capture it on film and sent it to Chad, the service writer at Raisor to save them the trouble of reproducing (and saving me from driving two hours). They agreed to check it out.
On Wednesday, May 12th I took in my truck, and was given the customary rental. I didn’t think they would even get to it until the following Monday. I suddenly had the day off because the babysitter had a funeral to go to and I thought I’d take advantage of the day off and drop my truck off. I expected them to find bad valve seals or something in the head.
On Friday, May 14th, Chad called. He had done a compression test, and found two low. One came back up when wet. He needed to get my authorization to tear down the motor. I’m now on the Ford ESP service plan due to my mileage. He had to get my authorization because he didn’t know what the problem was yet, and because of that, Ford couldn’t/didn’t authorize the tear down.
When they did the tear down, they determined it had bad rings.
Now the fun begins . . .
Ford sent out the independent inspector. He had a large checklist of things to check. Everything was fine, until they came to the computer. The previous owner had a chip in it. The contacts, of course, had been cleaned, so Ford said they weren’t going to cover it and my warranty was now void. But Chad said not to panic yet, that they would talk to them and try to get them to cover it.
When the motor was torn down, there was no damage to the cylinder walls, the pistons, etc. You could still see the factory crosshatch marks on the cylinder walls. But Ford still blamed the chip, saying it could have been run lean, and that’s what caused the rings to fail. I went up on Memorial Day weekend to the S.V.T. Challenge at US 41 Dragstrip and stopped in to visit my ailing truck (the sick friend I mentioned in a post). To me, it just
looked like a motor with 41,000 miles on it.
I called a few times to get a status report. It seemed like they were always waiting on Ford to get back with them.
Fast forward to Thursday the 17th of June (yes, June!). Chad had asked me to be nice and be calm. I was, the whole time, but I don’t know how. This explains my silence about the whole situation on the boards until now (and the little brown Taurus sitting in the row of L’s from the pics I posted). Phil, the service manager?, called at about 1:30 to say that Ford was definitely not going to cover the motor. He said Ford did agree to refund the cost of the ESP. I asked him to get Ford to put in writing the reason they had voided the warranty. I also shared this quote with him:
“The mere installation of accessories or performance
products on a Ford is not, by itself, grounds for voiding a
warranty.”
Paul Berry
Manager of Warranty Programs
Ford Motor Company.
Source:
“Do performance products void OEM new
vehicle warranties” by Peter A. Hubbard
Accessory Business, March/April 2002 pg. 21
(There are several nice quotes in this article regarding Ford’s stance on performance parts. I can send it to you if you want it. BTW, K&N supplies the filters for Ford - they’re just dyed blue instead of red.)
When talking to Jeff, I said, “So I bet you want your rental car back.” He said, “Yeah” and said it would be okay to bring it in Saturday. He suggested that I come in and talk to Scott Bond, the manager of the dealership. I called back and asked to talk to Mr. Bond so we could arrange a meeting. He was busy, but the receptionist who took my information told me he would be there Saturday. I didn’t hear from him, but at about 5:45 the same day, I got a call from Phil. He said the dealership was going to take care of me. They were either going to get a short block, or rebuild my motor (either one is fine with me, there’s nothing else wrong with my block). They would make that decision on Friday. They are also going to replace the computer and offer me their own warranty. I told them to find a Raisor sticker and slap it on my truck!
I also asked about swapping out the rods during the reconstruction. I was going to buy Manley rods from Raisor and have them put them in (they’ll at least get some money from me!).
I called Chad back the next day. I had planned to take a trip to Lafayette on Saturday to take pics of my disassembled motor to document the lack of damage. Since I was also going to drive up on Sunday, I asked Chad if he could photograph my motor. After I get my truck back, I would like to present this information to
Ford on behalf of the dealer and other Ford owners.
I went to the car show on Sunday, June 20th. Saw a lot of nice cars - including a Triumph with a V-8 and three L’s.
Chad called on June 22nd to tell me that they would be dropping in a long block. They dismantled my block on Friday and sent it to the machine shop. The shop called and said the cylinders were egg-shaped - so I get a whole new engine. Hopefully, with the more spark-plug-thread head! :-) I won’t be doing the upgraded rods after all. When I sarcastically said, “Yeah, I bet a chip caused that!” Chad replied that it could have been that way from the factory.
Today, June 25th, at 11:14 (caller ID - I’m not that neurotic [ . . . my precious . . . ]) Chad left a voice mail asking me to call him. When I called, he said, “Want your truck back?” Well, let’s see . . . I left work at 12:30! Picked up the truck. Runs great. I couldn’t get the dealer’s extended warranty because the factory warranty had run out, but I did get a 3/36 warranty on the block.
Even though it seemed to take forever (especially when (1) I met a Lamborghini four hours later as I was driving the peppy Taurus (2) my neighbors and coworkers asked if I traded in my truck (3) the morning of my son’s birthday I went out for ice and met six of the members of the local Viper club driving thru town (4) I needed to quickly evade various idiots on cell phones), I never felt like I was getting the run-around (at least, not from Raisor).
In the beginning, I went to Raisor to buy my truck based on recommendations from other L owners. The purchasing process was great - their calculators didn’t go by the 1+1=3 math that some central Indiana dealers use. The service each time I had warranty work done was great. I didn’t have to educate them about the S.V.T. rental policy. When I took my truck in this last time, I was afraid my luck had run out. But Chad and everyone
else fought for me from day one. Chad, Scott, Phil, and the mechanic who stayed late (Dave? Dan? Sorry!) - I owe you lunch (and more, but I have to make my truck payment).
I will continue to drive the hour (one way) to see Raisor Ford for warranty or other work, and hopefully purchases - got to buy my son a truck in 15 years! (end of shameless endorsement)
FORD * FORD * FORD - Since you read this message board, my egg-shaped cylinders were NOT caused by a chip! ARE YOU GOING TO REIMBURSE MY DEALER??? FORD * FORD * FORD
On May 12th I dropped my ‘01 L off at Raisor Ford (where I bought the truck) to have them address the smoke-on-startup issue I posted on April 20th https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...=smoke+startup.
They had looked at it a couple of weeks after I bought it, but could not reproduce the problem. At that time, it was a small puff and I only asked about it because I was having some other factory 36/bumper-to-bumper warranty work done (The only reason I bought the ESP was because of lack of spark plug threads.). The puff continued to grow, until I was able to capture it on film and sent it to Chad, the service writer at Raisor to save them the trouble of reproducing (and saving me from driving two hours). They agreed to check it out.
On Wednesday, May 12th I took in my truck, and was given the customary rental. I didn’t think they would even get to it until the following Monday. I suddenly had the day off because the babysitter had a funeral to go to and I thought I’d take advantage of the day off and drop my truck off. I expected them to find bad valve seals or something in the head.
On Friday, May 14th, Chad called. He had done a compression test, and found two low. One came back up when wet. He needed to get my authorization to tear down the motor. I’m now on the Ford ESP service plan due to my mileage. He had to get my authorization because he didn’t know what the problem was yet, and because of that, Ford couldn’t/didn’t authorize the tear down.
When they did the tear down, they determined it had bad rings.
Now the fun begins . . .
Ford sent out the independent inspector. He had a large checklist of things to check. Everything was fine, until they came to the computer. The previous owner had a chip in it. The contacts, of course, had been cleaned, so Ford said they weren’t going to cover it and my warranty was now void. But Chad said not to panic yet, that they would talk to them and try to get them to cover it.
When the motor was torn down, there was no damage to the cylinder walls, the pistons, etc. You could still see the factory crosshatch marks on the cylinder walls. But Ford still blamed the chip, saying it could have been run lean, and that’s what caused the rings to fail. I went up on Memorial Day weekend to the S.V.T. Challenge at US 41 Dragstrip and stopped in to visit my ailing truck (the sick friend I mentioned in a post). To me, it just
looked like a motor with 41,000 miles on it.
I called a few times to get a status report. It seemed like they were always waiting on Ford to get back with them.
Fast forward to Thursday the 17th of June (yes, June!). Chad had asked me to be nice and be calm. I was, the whole time, but I don’t know how. This explains my silence about the whole situation on the boards until now (and the little brown Taurus sitting in the row of L’s from the pics I posted). Phil, the service manager?, called at about 1:30 to say that Ford was definitely not going to cover the motor. He said Ford did agree to refund the cost of the ESP. I asked him to get Ford to put in writing the reason they had voided the warranty. I also shared this quote with him:
“The mere installation of accessories or performance
products on a Ford is not, by itself, grounds for voiding a
warranty.”
Paul Berry
Manager of Warranty Programs
Ford Motor Company.
Source:
“Do performance products void OEM new
vehicle warranties” by Peter A. Hubbard
Accessory Business, March/April 2002 pg. 21
(There are several nice quotes in this article regarding Ford’s stance on performance parts. I can send it to you if you want it. BTW, K&N supplies the filters for Ford - they’re just dyed blue instead of red.)
When talking to Jeff, I said, “So I bet you want your rental car back.” He said, “Yeah” and said it would be okay to bring it in Saturday. He suggested that I come in and talk to Scott Bond, the manager of the dealership. I called back and asked to talk to Mr. Bond so we could arrange a meeting. He was busy, but the receptionist who took my information told me he would be there Saturday. I didn’t hear from him, but at about 5:45 the same day, I got a call from Phil. He said the dealership was going to take care of me. They were either going to get a short block, or rebuild my motor (either one is fine with me, there’s nothing else wrong with my block). They would make that decision on Friday. They are also going to replace the computer and offer me their own warranty. I told them to find a Raisor sticker and slap it on my truck!
I also asked about swapping out the rods during the reconstruction. I was going to buy Manley rods from Raisor and have them put them in (they’ll at least get some money from me!).
I called Chad back the next day. I had planned to take a trip to Lafayette on Saturday to take pics of my disassembled motor to document the lack of damage. Since I was also going to drive up on Sunday, I asked Chad if he could photograph my motor. After I get my truck back, I would like to present this information to
Ford on behalf of the dealer and other Ford owners.
I went to the car show on Sunday, June 20th. Saw a lot of nice cars - including a Triumph with a V-8 and three L’s.
Chad called on June 22nd to tell me that they would be dropping in a long block. They dismantled my block on Friday and sent it to the machine shop. The shop called and said the cylinders were egg-shaped - so I get a whole new engine. Hopefully, with the more spark-plug-thread head! :-) I won’t be doing the upgraded rods after all. When I sarcastically said, “Yeah, I bet a chip caused that!” Chad replied that it could have been that way from the factory.
Today, June 25th, at 11:14 (caller ID - I’m not that neurotic [ . . . my precious . . . ]) Chad left a voice mail asking me to call him. When I called, he said, “Want your truck back?” Well, let’s see . . . I left work at 12:30! Picked up the truck. Runs great. I couldn’t get the dealer’s extended warranty because the factory warranty had run out, but I did get a 3/36 warranty on the block.
Even though it seemed to take forever (especially when (1) I met a Lamborghini four hours later as I was driving the peppy Taurus (2) my neighbors and coworkers asked if I traded in my truck (3) the morning of my son’s birthday I went out for ice and met six of the members of the local Viper club driving thru town (4) I needed to quickly evade various idiots on cell phones), I never felt like I was getting the run-around (at least, not from Raisor).
In the beginning, I went to Raisor to buy my truck based on recommendations from other L owners. The purchasing process was great - their calculators didn’t go by the 1+1=3 math that some central Indiana dealers use. The service each time I had warranty work done was great. I didn’t have to educate them about the S.V.T. rental policy. When I took my truck in this last time, I was afraid my luck had run out. But Chad and everyone
else fought for me from day one. Chad, Scott, Phil, and the mechanic who stayed late (Dave? Dan? Sorry!) - I owe you lunch (and more, but I have to make my truck payment).
I will continue to drive the hour (one way) to see Raisor Ford for warranty or other work, and hopefully purchases - got to buy my son a truck in 15 years! (end of shameless endorsement)
FORD * FORD * FORD - Since you read this message board, my egg-shaped cylinders were NOT caused by a chip! ARE YOU GOING TO REIMBURSE MY DEALER??? FORD * FORD * FORD
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 11,153
Likes: 0
From: Selden NY
Ya man,
Great Ending CONGRATS
(IMO, they didn't end up eating that new Motor, but either way,
they did the right thing "WAY TO GO Raisor Ford"
)
It seems this ring issue is turning out to be VERY COMMON
I've read many post where the prob's were ring related now......
Great Ending CONGRATS
(IMO, they didn't end up eating that new Motor, but either way,
they did the right thing "WAY TO GO Raisor Ford"
)It seems this ring issue is turning out to be VERY COMMON
I've read many post where the prob's were ring related now......
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 653
Likes: 0
From: wyoming MI.
Nice to hear that we do have GOOD,ok EXCELLENT people working for some Dealers.
I have been fortunate not having any problems, which is good cause my Dealer has changed staff & additude at upper management level towards SVT related stuff
I have been fortunate not having any problems, which is good cause my Dealer has changed staff & additude at upper management level towards SVT related stuff
Senior Member
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 1,444
Likes: 0
From: Indiana
Mike,
Glad the "guys" came through for ya. Their service dept. has always been pretty fair to me. Too bad I am looking at trading
Good luck and be easy on the new motor (for awhile at least
)
Glad the "guys" came through for ya. Their service dept. has always been pretty fair to me. Too bad I am looking at trading
Good luck and be easy on the new motor (for awhile at least
)
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Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 689
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From: Warwick R.I.
glad you got a good dealer in your area
i have been to two dealers and so far i am not pleased with either
(one left my truck a mess after a service, the other i had stuff stolen out of the truck on their lot and they are giving me **** about it , 2 months now!!!)
one more dealer to try in the area
i have been to two dealers and so far i am not pleased with either
(one left my truck a mess after a service, the other i had stuff stolen out of the truck on their lot and they are giving me **** about it , 2 months now!!!)
one more dealer to try in the area
Member
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: South Florida
Well stated story...I can only hope that I have the same ending as you....seems like the same story only I had less miles....and no performance parts.....I did have the smoke and a coolent leak though....glad you are all set in your ways....
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2001
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From: In the shop cutting something up
Look Ma, No Smoke!
I put about a 100 miles on it, and so far, only one problem. Gas mileage sucks compared to rental car! 
Oh, well.
Doh! BTW, Raisor Ford is in Lafayette, IN.
www.raisor.com
Oh, well.Doh! BTW, Raisor Ford is in Lafayette, IN.
www.raisor.com
