I have a 1997 Ford F150 4x4 with a 4.6 engine. I had purchased the ESP it is warranted to 75K miles and/or 2002. I now have just over 50K on my truck. The engine locked up about a montgh ago. I called my dealer, to ask if I still had warranty on my truck. I was told 75K and 2002. I had them to toe my truck into their shop and after about 2weeks I was told that the ESP could not cover the damages. Reason: I changed the oil and filter myself, I buy my oil and filters by the case since I have a Town Car and a Bronco II that uses the same oil and filters. I did not have the oil changed at me dealership, therefore they could not repair my truck. I called the factory Reps and they told me that the claim had been denied because I didn't have the receipts where I had purchased the oil and filters for each oil change. I told the Reps that I had never kept any receipts for those items. I asked them to show me in my warranty where it states that I must have receipts for the oil and filters. Their answer was, "It is common sense". Does anyone out there keep their recepts for oil and filters, each time they change the oil?

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Hey Aligar. I've got the extended warrenty on my truck 60,000 or 5 years which ever comes first. And you mean to tell me if I don't have the oil changed at a Ford Dealership my warrenty as good as dead? What is up with that SH*T! I have my oil changed at Texaco Express Lube, I never keep my reciepts.... Call The FORD'S Main office. and see if you can get results and if you can't... All I can say is GET A LAWYER! A GOOD ONE

99 Ford F150 XL Sport
v-6 3.55 manual

 

It seems to me that I read an article in Amsoils news letter regarding attempts made by automobile manufactures to inform customers that their warranty is void when using products other than those provided by the auto manufacturer.

The article also stated that there was a law passed (name of law I cannot remember at this time) that prohibites auto dealerships and manufactures from doing that very thing.

The Federal legislation was passed and designed to keep auto manufactures from creating a monopoly on their own products thereby eliminating competition of simular products.

Amsoils slant to this issue was that some potential customers are concerned switching to sythetics and also extended drain intervals while on warranty. Of course Amsoil markets thier own oil filters too.

Several potential customers were calling their dealerships and asking if their warranty would be void by using synthetic oil and other name brand filters.

The CEO of Amsoil, Al Amatuzio stated that this was a violation of that law and that customer should immediately ask the dealership if they are aware of such law. If not, to persue the matter leagally.

You can attempt to find out what the name of that legislation is by possibly accessing Amsoils web site.

Hope this helps and I too agree---get a lawyer and name the price.

Regards,

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Rick Medina
Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Your Dealer's position on this is BS. My wife has a 97 Taurus with an ESP warranty and I have always changed the oil in this car. I suppose Ford's stand on this would be the same if the engine failure occurred during the 3/36 factory warranty. I guarantee you a good lawyer will get your problem resolved. The threat of a lawsuit would probably even suffice. Good luck.

 

Yep, the name of it is Magnuson-Moss.

That is complete BS! If that is the only reason they can give you for denial, you definately have a legal case against them.


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2000 F150 XL 4.2 Auto Red&Silver/Grey
98 SVT Contour #4055 Silver/Blue
88 Mustang coupe 7.79 @ 88mph 1/8 mile

 

When I do service myself I staple any receipts to a piece of paper and note the date,mileage and service that was done.

However, I still feel the dealer is wrong because a dealer could say I was not qualified (ASE certified) to perform the service so they could deny a warranty claim.

Hit em in the eye with a hot stick.



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97 F-150, 2WD, Reg Cab,Flareside,Dk Toreador Red, Windsor 4.6, Magnecor 8.5mm wires, Bosch Plat +4s, 3.55 LS, EGR Bug Deflector, ******* Bed Cover, Bed Liner, XL Full Length Running Boards, Air Aid Kit, Gibson Single Out Cat Back, Superchips, TransGo Shift Kit, Hellwig Rear Sway Bar, Hellwig 2500# Overload Springs,Energy Suspension Polyurethane Front Sway Bar Bushings, 265 70 16 tires, Rancho RS9000 shocks

 

you can find out more about the Magnuson-Moss
Act in the computer chips forum. Do a Search there, alot of threads on this subject.

Hobbit

 

It's a load of CR@P!!! Nowhere in the service contract or manual does it say you need to provide proof of service to make a claim... a good lawyer will take care of it I'm sure. How can they determine that it was never serviced at a Ford dealership? If you took it to a different dealership every time, all FORD dealerships, would that void your warranty??? I mean, how could your dealer guarantee the work was actually done by another dealer??? What BS!!! And besides that, how can they say with any amount of conclusive proof that it was the oil that caused the problem?!?!? What exactly are they saying... you NEVER changed your oil and THAT's why the engine failed???

Beyond that, what exactly happened to the engine that caused it to seize? Low oil?

-Joe-


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98 Explorer (Lemon Law Case in Progress)
Deposit on '00 F-150, X-cab, 4x4, Lariat, Off-road, Trailer Tow, Sunroof, currently missing the fuel filler door, but they're working on that..

 

GIJOECam;

What really happened? I was driving along and my truck just quit running. There was plenty of oil in it. It had been chaged recently. Ford Rep said that the oil pump failed because of neglect. He said that there was sludge inside of the engine. They only removed the right valve cover, oil pan, and a couple of rod ends. The right did have gunk in it, but the left side was clean as it could be. It appeared thay Ford people tried to get all the oil out, but I found some still in one of the heads. I am going to send that oil to be inspected.
The funny thing is, yesterday, I received a letter from Ford ESP saying that if the repairs to my engine wasn't done by a Ford repair shop then the warranty would not be in effect for the engine. WOW, the way I see it, the warranty wasn't in effect in the first place.
Here's another interesting thing, before I could get my truck back from the dealership so I could work on it myself, I had to pay them $707 because of the things they did to the engine. Of course $98 of that was for towing. They charged $42 an hour, so that means that it took them 14.5 hours to remove one valve cover, oil pan, a couple of rod ends and removed engine from truck. 14.5 hours, it should have only taken, maybe, 6 hours, considering they have air tools.

 

I am appauled that your dealer did not back you up on this issue let alone Ford. My Brother had a Cummings Engine fail (Dodge PU)because a defective filter put on at a lube shop. No qustions at all motor replaced and Dodge/Cummings agreed to fight it out with the lube shop and filter manufacturer.

With all the poor PR I hear about Ford warrenties I think this will be my last.

Push the issue, and let everyone know what is going on.

Good Luck.

 

This is from my 1999 - Model Warranty Guide.


I read the above to mean that you should have saved all your oil and filter receipts and should have checked off the appropriate places in your Scheduled Maintenance Guide.

I think it's perfectly reasonable for Ford to deny a warranty claim if a vehicle owner can't prove that the required maintenance was done on the vehicle. Do you think Ford should repair a blown engine of an owner who never once changed his/her oil and filter? I didn't think so.

My guess is the ESP has similar wording somewhere.

I don't think the Cummins situation in the previous message applies here. In that case, maintenance was provided by lube shop. Dodge had somebody other than the owner to blame. Dodge will recover the cost of repair/replacement from that lube shop. I bet the dealer had already contacted the lube shop for payment even before they told the truck owner they would fix it.

In aligar's case, there's no proof other than his word that he peformed the scheduled maintenance.

Sorry to disagree with the rest of you, but in this case, I am on Ford's side.

 

Well I started keeping all my reciepts for every little thing when I bought the 2000 Model, but C'mon, Things get lost, I think as long as they can't prove it was through neglect ( IE Low or Dirty Oil) they should pay up. And if you do neglect your truck you should admit it and move on. Me personally I'm the type that would toss a service rep through those really pretty plate glass windows if they accuse me of neglecting
my truck. Mine has been in the shop now for TWO WEEKS because of a fuel system problem.
Supposedly the holdup is that they had to order new fuel injectors and they have been taking a long time. I Told them to do what they had to do, I'd rather it take 2 weeks and be fixed then be rushed out and not 100%

They have been exceptionally nice (I did not even buy the truck there) and even after my "rental car" warranty ran out they provided my with a ford ranger to drive ( I need a truck for my Bikes) Jim Bass in San angelo is there name , Service is great so far ( I'll let you know when /if I ever get my truck back)

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Y2K F150 4x4 XL Med Torredor Red
4.2 5 speed,AIRAID, SuperCHIP,
3.55 LS, Leer camper shell, bedrug,
Ranchhand Rover Brushguard 2X Off road lights
Tint/alarm/ aftermarket keyless entry/locks
2m radio, CB, 3 Scanners
regulator@f150driver.com



[This message has been edited by REGULATOR (edited 10-02-2000).]

 

You have to learn to look at things from the business owners' point of view too.

Ford specifically states that the vehicle owner is responsible for maintaining the vehicle. If the dealer doesn't do the work, it's up to you to prove that the work was done according to Ford's specifications and schedule.

I don't see where the argument is. Performing scheduled maintenance is our responsibility. If we want the vehicle covered under the warranty, we are responsible for following the rules that Ford gave us. If we don't follow Ford's schedule, we risk voiding the warranty. It says so in the documentation that comes with every vehicle. I have yet to own a vehicle that didn't say this and I've owned vehicles built in the US, Japan, and Germany since 1970.

The documentation that Ford requires is very simple. Save the receipts. Staple them into the Scheduled Maintenance Guide so you don't lose them and check off the bubble in the guide. If you don't do that, how will Ford know that you performed the maintenance regularly? Oh, they could send the oil out for analysis, but how would they know that you decided to change the oil last week for the first time in 2.5 years?

In this case, according to the documentation, you are totally responsible for proving to Ford that you followed their schedule. If you can't prove it, they don't have to cover you under the warranty.

Magnuson-Moss doesn't apply here. We're not talking about an aftermarket product like a performance enhancing chip, shock absorber, oil cooler, etc. We're talking about a basic customer responsibility maintenance item.

 

Regarding reading the manual -- here's one that you might enjoy. As a member of our service group, I had the opportunity to speak as a guest lecturer at the University of Wisconsin in one of their courses titled Managing for Customer Satisfaction. One of my favorites regarding service manuals includes the following, which is a direct quote (scan&OCR) from a manual for a product called Easy Flow (a flow-charting program) that I actually used at the time:



EasyFlow Page 0-13



Don’t Lose the Manual


That’s right: don’t lose this manuaL Especially don’t lose it before
you have read this page. Why are we telling you this? Isn’t it
obvious that you shouldn’t lose the manual?

That’s what we thought. Then we started getting all these calls
from people saying “HI! I’m Joe Blow and you’ve never heard of me,
but I bought a copy of EasyFlow from FlyByNite Software and now I
can’t find the manual ... will you send me a new one free?”.

At first we were nice guys and went along with this. Then we
started getting a bit more hard nosed about it; after all it is trivial
to copy the disk but the manual involves somewhat more work. Now
we had to agonize over each request and try to distinguish between
the genuine unfortunate (“the dog chewed it up”) and the merely
unscrupulous looking for free software.

So what does everybody else do? We phoned the local Chevy dealer
and told them we had misplaced the engine out of our new Camaro;
that call didn’t get us much useful information. Well ... cars aren’t
software. We called Borland and gave them a song and dance about
losing our Turbo Pascal manual; they said to mail a letter to their
“Lost Manual Review Committee”. Wow! What a good idea, So we
immediately rushed out and set up our own Lost Manual Review
Committee.

The Committee meets once a month. They don’t send out many
replacement manuals, but they seem to do a lot of howling, rolling
around on the floor and saying things like “oh wow — listen to this
one

Don’t lose the manual.

Replacement manuals are available without going through the
Committee for US$278.00 each.


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Y2K™ Jim

Toreador Red, Keyless XLT SC SB 5.4L E4x4 4wDisc/ABS, 3.73LS, Skid, HD 7700# Towing, LT-245's on Chrome, Tube-Steps, Captain's, 6CD, Tonneau, named: "Nick"

 

To Dennis:

You must work for Ford by your remarks. You implied that I never ever changed the oil or filter in my truck. What gives your the right to make that statement? I changed the oil and filter every 3500 to 4000 miles. In the maintenance guide for my truck (1997 Ford F1500 states that the oil should be changed every 5000 miles. I changed it more often then what was recommended. As far as the Warranty Guide that you quoted from, you might be right for a 1999 truck, go back and look at the guide for a 1997 truck. There is nothing about keeping receipts. Besides I purchase oil by the cases, what difference would it make if I had the receipts.