Today I took my 2008 F250 5.4 to the stealership for the 15k maintenance. Now I always change my own oil, and do 95% of my own work on a vehicle, but I wanted to jump through the hoops so Ford can't deny me warranty coverage if something goes bad. Besides, they owed me a freebie (oil change) from when I first bought the truck, so what the heck.

So I'm sitting in the showroom waiting for the service guys to do the deed when the service writer comes out and says I need to have the fuel filters replaced - he actually says I should have had them done at 7500 miles, but they are usually O.K. to 10k. Right away I knew something was wrong, as I know what needs service and when. So I am kinda of annoyed, and I ask him how come I've never heard this until now - I had the truck in at 7500 miles and no one said a word.

He says someone dropped the ball, and he is all apologetic. I ask him how much they want for the job and he tells me 150.00 bucks I tell him there's no way I'm shelling out that kind of money to swap out a couple of filters, and that I'll get the parts and do it myself. Right away I get the song and dance about how bad aftermarket filters are, and how Ford won't warranty injectors if you use something other than Genuine Ford Parts. I say "yeah, I, know", but at this point I will go buy the parts from another dealership to avoid giving them my cash.

So, after I give him the brushoff, I go to the parts counter and ask the guy there how much the filter(s) are. He does a lookup and tells me there is only one filter, and it costs 23 bucks. When I tell him what the service writer said, he goes "he must think you have a diesel" All of a sudden the light bulb goes on..... I knew there was no way I needed to change out my fuel filter yet!

So I go find this guy and let him know he was mistaken. He tells me that he was just in the process of looking through my service records and had not gotten to the part where the system tells him what kind of engine I have - even though when I made the appointment he had asked what kind of motor it had....

It makes me really wonder what kind of "service" people can actually expect from their authorized Ford dealer, especially since Ford relies on these people to do warranty work. I've read enough horror stories about this kind of ineptitude, and it scares the crap out of me. Anyway, I just wanted to rant.

 

I take none of my vehicles anywhere for anything ever. If I can't do it no one can.

 

Sheesh, i think the bigger misnomer is the fact that you have to change out the friggin fuel filter every 7500 miles on a diesel!

Glad you caught their mistake though. IT's never pleasant to deal with some of those folks.

-rockstate

 

You think Ford dealers are bad, try going to an Audi dealer and telling them you need a front crank seal for a '04 Audi allroad (my wife's ultra rare car). They give you the glossed over, blank stare for a minute and then figure out what they need to do.

Morons.

 

Ford should disallow the dealer network to do this type of upselling and fear mongering just to make a friggin buck.

When I bought my last new one last summer, the person that was trying to sell me the car care products and th e extended warranty and all that crap said I should change my oil at the dealer every 3k miles. So I look in the owner's manual and it says 7500. I called her on it and asked her why she would lie to me.

She got pissed and left. I went back at 3k miles for the first freebee oil change. The service writer tried to make another appointment for the next 3k change. I told him that unless there is an actual warranty claim, he'll never see this car again.

 

I got taken by the stealership on the car care. I bought a used truck and have to have my oil changed at the dealership for the lifetime warranty on the motor. So i got the car care oil change tire rotation for 500 bucks, but I didn't read where it was for 3y OR 35k miles. So basically I paid 500 bucks for 7 oil changes. The first time i brought it in I asked as I was leaving if they rotated the tires and the manager said oops. I said doesn't that have to be done for the warranty, he said don't worry I will fix your paperwork.

 

it all depends on the dealer one dealer wanted 300 for a new belt and tensioner other dealer said they did 3 tests tensioner was fine....all depends but I now know which one to go to

 

Walnut Creek, CA dealer took my truck for 90 seconds recall job and dropped filter clamp inside the turbo. Since I didn't discover that on short drive home -they deny any responsibility. Ford hot-line did a squat to help me. They send the claim to "regional representative" and it died there.