BMWBig6-

The dealership you take your L to is 90% of the problem. I have noticed that dealers are taking in SVT vehicles for service and/or repair WITHOUT having SVT certified technicians on staff. Not only that, some dealers have good, conciencious technicians, and others have a buncha scrubs that couldn't cut it anywhere else and will work cheap. After this repair, try taking it to another dealer (even if it's a tad more inconvienent). It makes a WORLD of difference. Especially if the dealership is SVT certified and specialized in the care and feeding of these special vehicles and their equally special owners. I would drive the extra half-hour if my vehicle was well taken care of and the dealership was timely, fair, and gave good loaner vehicles. Good dealers will give you a loaner truck, or a top end fleet car like a town car. Poor service dealership shops (LIKE BERGE FORD IN MESA, AZ) wait 8 days into the repair and then throw you a stripper Focus when you threaten to bring in a regional SVT service engineer/advisor.

I feel your pain, brother- a change of dealer helps alot.

 

WrongdayJ, I think your assertions are correct. While the dealer I am using is "SVT certified" it may be time to bring the L somewhere else. Brian K gave a few good recommendations so I am going to check those out next week when I return from out of town.

ricekicker, I hope you're joking. I treat my L with great care and respect. I have never abused her.

 

every lightning i've ever listened to makes a ticking noise. The injectors make a noice. The modular motors as a rule make a similar noise. The 4 liter sohc in my explorer made a simmilar noise. I wonder how much a BMW dealer whould charge for fixing a similar problem if it wasn't under warrenty. Probably enough to buy some new mods!!!

 

I had the same problem...loud ticking noise...it came and went , and then one day while cruising through some backroads, it got progressivly worse then 0 oil pressure and the truck dies out. I have done no mods. Sounded as if I blew a rod....Ended up getting a new long block, Ford even told the dealership not to worry/waste the time on figuring out the problem, just replace the motor.

 

same thing happened to me...loud ticking...then boom...oil prssure light came on....smoke everywhere....and a little fire under the truck

 

QUICK UPDATE:

Bad things just got worse... I was coming home from Myrtle Beach (nice bikes BTW) and stopped for gas off of Interstate 295 (bypass outside Richmond) at 12:30 AM. Stretched my legs for a few minutes, then I got back on the road. While merging from the on-ramp, I give her a little gas at 45 MPH (nothing dramatic as there is no traffic this time of night anyway). I hear a loud POP and immediately lose a lot of power. Oil pressure is fine, but the ticking sounds like a cap gun now and I pull off the highway and call AAA. 3 hours later the flatbed arrives and I get towed 150 miles home. 5:30 AM... fall asleep...

I bet some of you guys have seen this before:





The POP sound was so loud I was sure there would be a huge dent in my hood. This is on the 2nd cylinder from the front on the driver's side - EXACTLY where the ticking sound was coming from (remember they already replaced the 2 injectors in this region and *said* they checked plug tightness several times). It's hard to see in the picture, but the plastic cover is broken from it's mounting points, and is wedged at a precarious angle. It's a good thing the dealer already ordered a new head for that bank... UGH!!! I need to stop taking the dealer's word on everything and start checking stuff myself!

 

If you're not going to do the buy-back deal with this dealer, I really, really its about time you start going to a different dealer.

This one obviously dosn't know what they are doing.

Daniel

 

Ford suspended the buy-back program, so unless they can give me a good deal on my trade-in out of the goodness of their hearts, I'll be keeping this L and will definitely be getting it serviced elsewhere. I only gave this dealer a shot because 1) they sold it to me, 2) the tech owns a 2001 L himself, and 3) they are already familiar with the problems it's been having. I did approach other dealers for 2nd opinions and while they were happy to take a look, they said they don't like "cleaning up other people's messes" either. I'll post an update once the "official" diagnosis is in. I'm hoping the new head will cure all my woes... as long as it's installed properly!