National Backorder for catalytic converter.
 

Is anyone esle experiencing this god awful issue?

I have an 07 Expy which I brought in for a check engine light mid August. My inspection was due Aug 31 and wanted to have it all set for Sept.

They deemed that the CEL was due to a faulty catalytic converter. Since I have 65k miles on the vehicle, fortunately under the Federal Emissions warranty of 8 years or 80,000 miles the part is covered.

Well.. Ford told me it was on National backorder till Sept.14.. .. So I waited..I myself called the dealer...on the 15th of Sept. When I called the dealer they told me told me its been pushed back until Oct. 28th.

This is a business vehicle and I cannot be driving around with an over due inspection. Since I had to drive the vehicle uninspected (over a month), the dealer gave me an invoice print out of the backordered part so that in the event I got pulled over and questions I could show the officer that. WTF?

So I called Ford Customer Relations... because of the special circumstances they told me I would get a equivelent size rental vehicle until the part arrives.

On Oct 5th they tried giving me a Ford Escape....the Ford Customer Relations representative apologized and told me she was incorrect. There are negotiated rates between Ford and the rental company (Enterprise) and the max is $38/day.

That price will NOT cover a full size vehicle. I called personally Enterprise and they did me a favor and gave me a Ford Flex (the closest in size to an expedition) for the $38/day rate.

So basically I negotiated the price as well as found a larger size vehicle, thanks Ford Customer support!

This will be week#5 with my rental vehicle, Ford has not given me a call for an updated status and last I heard the Backorder has again been pushed back till Nov.25th.

Yet Ford Reports Earnings of $997 Million this year...and they can't produce a catalytic convertor?

Take one off a new Expedition and put it on mine....Solve the problem..don't prolong it. By the time the part comes it and if it does on schedule (Nov25th)....Ford will have paid over $1200 just in rental costs...

Both very true statements IMO.

Ford= Fix Or Repair Daily or Fords Only Run Downhill

This will be my LAST Ford product.

Sorry for the rant.. but it needed to be done considering the circumstances :-fire!

Man, what a waste. The converters are not rocket computers. I don't know why they can't find an alternate source. Heck, weld a F150 converter on there.

Look at the good side, you are not putting miles on your SUV.

We went through the process and it took 3 months to get the truck fixed. Feel fortunate you have a rental vehicle that runs well. Our truck broke down in another state and we had to drive the dealer loaner POS with bald tires for three months. Ford customer relations only would give us $28 a day if we chose to drive the loaner 600 miles back for a third time to turn in the POS for an actual rental so consider yourself lucky to get $38. We gave up and bought a new truck since the dealer locally would take it off our hands. Amazingly when we bought the new truck the old truck got fixed. Of course this all happened a week ago..and the truck broke in July.

Wow, I can't even imagine your frustration level..... So i'm curious of the origin of the converter. Is this a U.S. part or made overseas? If we had a WWII scenario we would be screwed these days. Companies are outsourcing everything now. If we can make it, the part will only be available in very limited quantities due to the lack of available equipment to make these parts. Pretty scary when you think about it.

We are a proud Ford family, but this would have sent me into a world of pissed off they would have never seen before. Customers need to come first, especially when you have spent 40 grand on a vehicle. You would think Ford would at least get you a vehicle of equal size and capability. It seems that companies are spending alot of money on advertising and making the sale. But after that, good luck getting quality help and support. Very few Ford dealerships have that mom and pop shop feel. Where the customer actually feels important and is taken care of. I had to switch dealerships because of this. They couldn't give a rip about my SUV. It was all about how quick they could get me in and out. It didn't matter if it was fixed correctly or not, just leave us alone and go away.

I don't mean to go off-topic, but GM is trying to sell HUMMER to China. Many people say good riddance, it was a horrible product, etc, etc. Yes, some of that may or may not be true. People are missing the fact that we are giving China access to U.S. automotive technology. The blueprints, CAD designs, high tech manufacturing machinery and all the ins and outs to creating an SUV. 30 years ago that would have been considered treason. Yes, they will make a quick buck, but its going to bite us in the a** in the long run.

Sorry for another rant on this thread, but I felt this needed to be said as well.

Okay, apparently the truck still has issues. Driving it back from the dealer the truck has a check engine light, transmission fault light, and overdrive light flashing. This of course after my husband drives 6 hours to go pick it up and drop the POS loaner back at the dealer. All we want to do is get it to the dealership we bought the new truck from so we can be done with this nightmare!! Nice to wait over three months, have to drive 6 hours one way and try to get home only to basically limp to the the next dealership to find out another issue, makes me wonder if the cats were the problem in the first place!!! This fiasco has cost us at least $1000 with gas, travel expenses and lost work time, not icluding the 3 months of truck payments, and it's supposedly a warranty issue! Yet we haven't received a dime from Ford to reimburse us for any of this!

if the codes show the left and right fuel rails are running lean..re-check to make sure the fuel pump isn't bad

Update to the situation:

Currently I am STILL driving a Ford Flex as my rental which I have had since Oct.1st and Ford is picking up the tab at the rate of $38 from Enterprise.

(64X$38 = $2432 Current Ford cost)

There are two converters Left and Right....I just called a Ford dealership to see how much they are charging for them according to my VIN #. Not knowing which was one bad on my vehicle I asked for prices on each.

Price is as follows;

Right - $2000
Left - $1000

Note: Labor not included.


The last time I spoke with a Ford Customer Care Representative, she stated the part was scheduled to arrive Nov.25th, I have yet to recieve a phone call with an update on the status. No update from the dealer as well (Fall River Ford, Fall River, MA).


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FYI the OEM tires(Goodyear Assurance) on the Ford Flex AWD are absolutely horrible in the snow. I almost veered of the road on RTE 3 in NH headed toward N.Conway last weekend. I was going 25mph and there was about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. I also got stuck in a parking lot as well(lol), traction control was NO help. I had to shut off traction control and rock it out....

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Once again thank you Ford....I will continue to post my updates.

Anyone know if there is a Ford representative that periodically looks in this forum?

ktprtygal....any update on your situation?

How many miles do you have on this car?

Which the Flex or the Expedition?

The Flex (rental) has approximately 21k miles on it 3566 miles of those I put on it myself.

My Expedition has roughly 64k miles on it.

Ok, I was going to suggest lemon lawing the car but it has too many miles.

Whats going to be funny is when they DO get the converters and put them on, the problem persists and it turns out to be something different.

Hope you get it straightened out.

Thanks berry....I've already thought of that situation. lol

We finally got the convertors in, but by that point we needed a truck and worked a deal with the local dealer on a new truck to take our old truck off our hands. This happened a week before the parts finally arrived. My husband went to pick up the old truck to give to the dealer as a trade, and it still had problems. Husband managed to limp it home, and gave it to the dealer to deal with. We attributed the problem with the fuel pump, so either that failed and caused the convertor to fail, or we just wasted three months of waiting for nothing. Either way, we have a nice shiny new F150 to play with. I must say it is a much nicer truck. We got the old truck paid off plus an extra grand, so we didn't lose money on it in the end. Luckily my husband gets a vehicle allowance each month to offset a new car payment. Whoever got the old truck got a great deal as now it has a new fuel pump, and convertors, and 50k on it. Our nightmare is over..good luck!

Update 2;

Just got off the phone with the Ford Customer Relations rep. (12/03/09 1:15pm)

AGAIN the converters are delayed, they said more will be arriving the week of Dec. 7 (next week) and she does not know how many or even who will get them.

Apparently the situation is that because of the recession and the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, many of the suppliers went belly up. (is this the representative's way of saying, Ford didnt take any bailout money?)

This goes for other parts as well.. she mentioned throttle bodies too.

:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09:-X09

What I fail to understand is why they don't authorize after-market parts. Seems to be a simple solution to their dillema. They come with their own manufacturer's warranty, so they wouldn't be liable for the part if it failed.

It amazes me how Ford has done as well as it has with mistakes like this. So, instead of finding an alternate part, it spends $3-5K on one vehicle when a $99 part could have sufficed.