After my last Dealership experience, I haven't let anyone touch my Expy since July/August of 2009. But the transmission and other issues have gotten so bad lately that I had to take her in. Dropped her off at Cutter Ford at 7:00 A.M.

I wasn't there but maybe 10 minutes and I'm already getting spooked. The Service Writer totalled up $425 in fees that I'm liable for if they can't reproduce the complaint. WTF? WHEN DID FORD/DEALERSHIPS START THIS STUFF? Used to be that you brought in your vehicle when it had a problem. They fixed it under Warranty and you drove off.Then the girl dropped another bomb on me. Told me I needed to pay the diagnostic fees up front. Then we progressed to the approximate time for repairs. Since my main complaints revolve around the transmission, I figured a 2-3 day downtime. She is telling me more likely 1 week. Nevermind that I scheduled this last week and they knew I was bringing it in with trans issues. Apparently I'm "in line".What we are getting looked at. Mostly transmission concerns:I know I shouldn't have let these issues accumulate, but after what happened in 2009 when Honolulu Ford lost the Expy for 3 weeks and put about 180 miles on her...well, you can say I'm a bit gunshy. Sorry for the rant. This smells like a huge ordeal in the making. I hope I'm just being paranoid. If anything happens like last time, I swear I will explode on someone.

 

I would take it to a different dealer. But are you on an island with one dealer?

And you are right on all accounts. You don't pay a dime during bumper to bumper or powertrain-no diagnostic fees, nothing.

 

Yeah, I was going to tell you to take it to another dealer. But is there more than one dealer on Oahu? I would give Ford a call and let them know the Ford dealer is giving you the run around. My experience with transmission issues is they don't always act up. You could be on the hook for $425 for an intermittent issue. That is rediculous. Those fees must be that dealer's policy. The two Ford dealers I take my vehicles to don't have any of these fees.

 

Just got a call from the Dealership. Of course the trans isn't acting up at all. Strange though, because it has done this every single time I've driven it since I got back in July.

They are hoping to diagnose more tomorrow. No codes are being thrown, so I guess I'm a liar. I informed her of the TSB's that exist and address this exact issue. She kinda blew me off, but mentioned a TSB they had found regarding the Valve body.

BTW, they still haven't fixed any of the other complaints.


Oahu does have 3 Dealerships. 1 is on the other side of the Island, Honolulu Ford (where I bought it) will never see it again, and then Cutter Ford. Between a rock and a hard place...and they know it

 

Theres no harm in a second opinion. I have had great luck with one of the dealerships here. I had $4000 in work done on my F150 and they covered every penny of it, including a rental truck for me to drive. For 2 months.

My F150 needed new catalytic converters, which were about 1500 each. My service guy got it covered under the fuel injector recall because a stuck injector 'could' have caused them to go bad. But the cats were back ordered for a long time.

Eventually he got fed up with waiting for the ones he ordered for my truck to get made. So he called every dealership on the west coast. He found two cats that escaped the inventory system. One was on a shelf in Los Angeles, and the other was up in NorCal, and it had just been ordered and the customer canceled the repairs. So he got them shipped to my dealer and they were in my truck three days later.

 

After my experience in 2009 with the Dealership and my Expedition, I will be that dealerships worst headache ever if they mess with me.

I have a feeling I will be forced to do a comparison test. My F-250 shifts softer at full throttle than my Expy does under slight acceleration. If the trans tech can't feel the problem, I have no issue escalating things....and making them look like idiots at the same time.

Luckily there is a ton of documentation for this issue. BTW, thanks Berry for the TSB's you've posted up numerous times. I've got plenty of ammo to have some fun if needed

 

Tylus wasn't there a website, concerning a dealership that shall go unnamed, in the far reaches of history?

 

I also demand-nicely-that I ride with a tech to duplicate the problem.

 

And the Saga continues. They got the trans to do the hard shift 1 time today. Trans tech doesn't know why it's doing this and the soft/lazy shifts (that they haven't felt yet btw).

For some reason, they have kicked this up to the Regional Ford Techs/Engineers. I guess the lack of codes means the Trans Tech is out of his league and they're calling in the experts. I'm predicting that the Engineer is going to tell them to perform the TSB...you know, the one I've been telling them about since Monday
yeah, but part of the agreement required that I take it down and never put it back up again

I'm already considering methods to maximize screwing up their entire year if a happy solution isn't made. I figure a News story with a title somthing like this would be pretty effective...and I'm not against paying for a 1 page ad in the newspaper eithertried that. was told that I had to wait until they exhaust all of their resources first. They have a process and I'm the very last step in that. Told them that I'll take the Tech for a drive and point out the shift errors...and then we can go for a WOT drive in my truck. Just to point out the differences

 

btw, I know to many outsiders it seems that I am being a nervous ninny right now. Let me add a little info, then you might see where I'm coming from

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...a-problem.html

 

I feel for you man. I have dealt with people like this too. Just keep at it, keep your head up. At some point it will be behind you.

 

Once we finally got it back from the Dealership in 2009, the Expy has been a wonderful vehicle. We have a tad bit over 22,250 miles on her and wife/I love it. Plenty of power and seating for the whole family + visitors.

Other than other idiots who keep door dinging us, and the wife running over a guys trailer, she looks pretty darn good for being 3yrs old and all the paint issues that happened.

At the end of the day, I am still a Ford guy and will remain so. But crap like this is why people jump brands and don't come back. Keeping my fingers crossed for a good outcome

 

1 positive of this whole deal. The service writer is calling me 3 times a day. At 9 am, 1 PM and again at 3-4 PM. This latest call shows some promise.

The trans is repeating the problems more for the tech now. They spent the afternoon on the phone with Ford Engineers somewhere in the East coast. Supposedly the Techs will be working early in the morning so they can maximize time with the Ford Engineers. there is a 5-6 hour time difference from here to there.

We are making progress. I don't know where to, but it's going somewhere

 

good luck with this! hope they get it figured out and make you happy. fingers crossed for you.

 

Good to hear that the problem is getting the attention of the experienced.
Not good that it has to get the attention of the experienced.

We have techs in the dealership here that use their laptop computers to video conference with the manufacturers engineers.
They are able to show the problem when it is helpful.