Had my 2013 FX4 in to the dealer today about my a/c woes. It's performance is pretty lacking and then the stench it makes of a sickly warm bandaid is enough to give you a headache. It's actually worse that way on heat in the winter as it just reeks... Driving this truck honestly gives me a mild headache and I always feel tired. My other 2013 F150 does not do either.

Well the dealer was good and pleasant but i am questioning the deodorizing. Not as much the dealer performing deodorizing but should I be paying for this while still under warranty?Pretty sure I have seen multiple threads now on this and deodorizing while still still covered under bumper to bumper ( which i am btw) isn't charged to the customer. They didn't make me pay today as I have to return in 2 weeks again for them to change some parts ( not the evap core like i want... just a temperature transducer) and repair my horn which has never worked properly. So I am mostly happy they are at least trying. The truck stunk from day one as I bought this thing new 11 months ago and at that time assumed it was just the " new " smell. Had it in a few times but this is the first deodorizing I have had. I just have never heard of a person paying out of pocket for it while under the bumper to bumper warranty. I only have 14000 miles on the truck and it's 11 months old.

 

Bio-Fresh cd

 

This stuff works wonders!

 

I believe that is usually something that is covered under the adjustment phase of the warranty, which is 12 months or 12000 miles. Whichever comes first. But, if you have had it in other times with the same complaint, they should do everything in their power to correct it. This will fall under their customer satisfaction index. And, when you get the survey, make sure you let them know exactly how you feel.

 

Nope. No warranty. Cost me $90 to get my keys back after their "deodorizing" I did not authorize nor ask for. I contacted the Ford reps on a different forum...... the Canadian rep just forwarded me to a case manager so to speak. I asked him if it was the norm to charge the customer for this process when the truck is less than a year old and under factory warranty. He said no it was not and proceeded to tell me he would contact the servicing dealer and then follow up with me the day before the next appointment. Well that day came and went and I heard nothing. The day of the appointment I asked the dealer if this rep contacted them...... and no he did not. I gave the service rep at the dealer the case managers phone number and she called him. He did not answer but when he did call back I was close enough by to hear the whole conversation...... couldn't hear his voice but could hear hers. Suddenly he denies to her that I should have warranty coverage on the deodorizing and that them charging me is acceptable. He didn't ask her any story on it, simply she said "The customer believes you think this should be a warranty item". Then her next reply is "Oh, you didn't say that and it is acceptable to charge him". Gee...... thanks Fordservice. You could easily take the role of TwoFace from the Batman series......


Now the funny part is this case manager calls me about 5 minutes after he gets off the phone with the dealer girl and talks to me like I am elsewhere and have no knowledge of his conversation. He tells me that he is going to bat for me....... and instructed them to not deodorize and find the root of the problem. My reply wasn't anything incriminating but I did say " Well I am sitting here at the dealer and I heard your conversation with _____ about my truck." His tune changed...... like I deflated a balloon. He told me to keep him updated and quickly got off the phone. I called him back about an hour later to see what he had to say and have had no response since..... nor ever will I surmise.


Now....... on a more positive note the dealership local to me is a lot more helpful, accommodating and friendly than the selling dealer of my truck I travel 350 miles to see. They worked on my other F150 ( that I also did not buy from them as they were grossly overpriced sales wise...... like I mean $10000 higher overpriced) and impressed me. Not so much the service, but they took the truck in immediately which was 7 pm that evening ( service is open from 730 am to 330 am Monday to Thursday). Worked on it overnight..... said my battery problem was my cell phone booster. I retorted that the second time the battery had died the booster wasn't even plugged in. They regrouped and swapped the trucks battery out. They drove me home which is a 15 minute ride from town and even offered to come pick me up. Now that is customer service!


Needless to say I am going to call them soon about this a/c smell.

 

I'm here to do all I can to help, Badass69. Do you happen to have the case number from the initial dealer? Please send it to me privately, along with your full name, VIN, and best daytime contact number. I'll help assess the best next steps, and with your O.K., will also document dealer feedback regarding your experience.

Additionally, I encourage you to visit the second dealer you mention, the one that's closer to you. It sounds like you've had a lovely experience with them, and I'm interested to see how they diagnose this. Please keep us posted moving forward.

Brittany

 

Hit dealer 3 and 4 two nights apart. Dealer 3 dumped more crap down my vents, told me I was nuts and sent me home. So I got to smell some chemical foam crap and the bandaids. Next night I drop the truck at dealer 4 and tell them my whole frustrating story.... it was odd too as I actually got the feeling the woman I was talking to cared. Well low and behold.... they call me the next day and say they found a blatant ( her words) refrigerant leak in the truck in the cab. It was a valve of some kind and it was visibly bubbling... so hopefully this story ends here.

I told the young tech that drove me home I wanted this one thing repaired and I will never bring the truck for warranty again. I have ported heads, cams, headers, traction bars, locker, axles all sitting waiting on getting this fixed. Well they did actually troubleshoot and found something. I will run it to make sure it's good and if it does come back I am sure they will step up and continue on.

The selling dealer called me about 5 minutes after I was told by this dealer what was wrong... just to do a follow up by chance. I told her that someone else actually trouble shot and found a blatant refrigerant leak in the cab... she didn't know what to say. I already told them I will never go there again and maintain that.

 

Lol... well the saga will continue. This last dealer found a leak alright.... but not in the cab. The low pressure test port was damaged supposedly and my entire system had depressured out it.... Well that's not the issue at hand but likely the 2nd last dealer wrecking it while testing the truck out. Sigh......

 

A co worker had the band aid smell appear in 11 F250. Dealer said they couldn't find anything. A month or so later the a/c died. Turns out it was the evaporator coil (the one that lives in the HVAC box behind the dash). Out of warrenty so $2400 later and all was good for about 3 months. Band aid smell returned and the same dealer wanted to charge him $1400 to pull the dash and see if that was the problem again. He ended trading the truck a few day later.

 

Well I don't really want to do that. The truck is a loaded 6.2 fx4 which you can't easily replace and I like it. I think it's fixable.

 

You need an evaporator core. They are very common.

They leak (slowly) inside the HVAC plenum. This causes an incredibly musty smell on AC discharge - common customer complaint is that AC function causes the truck to smell like a barn.

The dash comes out, the plenum comes out, the evap core gets a re and re. Have a lovely day : )

 

Yes to what VT said. My truck has been through this a/c problem. If you get a mechanic that actually gives a damn you will get your truck back with no noise, no damage, no rattles, no smell and a cold a/c system.

 

Common with who, what dealership and where? How about I pay you if you truly are a Ford tech to call some of these monkey's and tell them what to do. Sure it's a common issue easily found on these forums......Problem is with Ford....... they will not admit it's an issue via TSB, engineering tech line or whatever. Every single dealer I have even called has never, ever heard of doing an exap core in an F150. I mean there are piles of these dealers in this province and Alberta likely sells more F150's than anywhere else in Canada..... but nothing. So maybe as common as it is, either no one in this province fixes it or they just don't get noticed.

The dealer that worked on it last said if it smells again to bring it back and they will swap the evap core. At this point I will pay to have it changed because I can't put up with it anymore and I really don't care to fight anymore.

Ford's warranty is useless at everything except raising my bloodpressure. I am glad that the two F150's I own are my first and last Fords. Not a knock against the trucks as I honestly love them..... but I can't buy what I would want anymore and their dealer network is pathetic. When I bought my second truck I actually asked the selling dealer which I would never return to for another discount. In return they could write void on my warranty paperwork and shove it up their @ss. I wish they would have taken me up on it.



Well the last dealer I was at fixed another dealers screw up where they damaged the Schrader valve in the low pressure line and let the system bleed out. They seem to care and like I said above.... said they will swap it. But when they say that I don't think they mean they will do it under warranty..... they will swap it if I want to pay them for it.

 

You may gladly pay me to do it, but I will not tell another tech how to do his job. I'm simply pointing out that the problem you describe hits direct symptoms of a known issue.

I'm in northern Alberta - at a midsized dealership approx two hours from Grande Prairie. Under warranty the evaporator core pays 4.9 hrs + whatever I can sneak out for diag, op codes 19700A15 (re and re plenum) and 19700A15XN (re and re center console). Retail I charge 7.0 + 1.0 for me to tell you what's wrong with it. Our shop rate is $155/hour.

I highly doubt that the issue is widespread enough to warrant a TSB or SSM. I have done ~7 or 8 for this exact concern since I started wrenching with Ford in the Yukon circa 2010. Not many trucks have this issue, but ones which do commonly have a faulty evap core as a root cause. For reference, problems with the temperature blend door actuators are far more frequent and are located in the same area of the truck, but they do not even have a technical bulletin either.

Ford warranty is incredibly simple. The evaporator core is covered under the base 3 year/60 000 km warranty and by certain customer-purchased extended coverages. Either it falls under coverage or it doesn't. Otherwise, powertrain is 5 years/100 000 km and some emissions components are covered even longer than that.

I sincerely wish you good luck with your repair(s). There are some very, very competent techs out there and some equally poor ones. The next time you're in at a Ford store and you're happy with the workmanship make note of the tech number on the invoice. If the tech number is not easily discernable then ask an advisor, and then ask for that tech again by number at your next visit.

 

Well if I phone your 2 hours away from Grande Prairie dealer how many thousands say I am going to hear the same "We have never heard of this issue" dance as everyone else. Seems to be Fords common theme... because why do warranty work when you can deny, deny, deny and charge twice as much out of it to the customer than Ford will pay. This will be the only thing this truck ever goes back to Ford for in its life... and they still can't fix it. It's getting in the way of me doing heads, cams, headers, traction bars and a Detroit locker with stronger rear axle shafts.... because I don't give a damn about the warranty on the rest of the truck.... hell... i already redid the rear diff on it myself once after I snapped an axle on those really sticky stock Pirellis because I didn't want a fight... and want to install better parts anyway. But unfortunately. ... driving 2 hours further from GP from here to get it done for free (a real big potentially at that) will cost me more than paying someone to do it here.

If i do pay a shop to do the work anyway.... it won't be a Ford dealer because there is not one yet I have visited worth anywhere close to over 150 bucks an hour.... The only reason they even get to look at the truck is because I was forced to pay for Fords warranty in the purchase of the truck..... Hand me even a 1500 dollar cheque and you can write void all over that joke factory warranty paperwork and it will never return to the dealer in my lifetime with it.

And as far as you not telling them how to do their job... well maybe someone should....because the problem can't be troubleshot by hooking up ids and staring at the laptop for an hour to then dump some crap down the vents.... I love blank stares from service managers when I ask if they have dye in the system and tried looking at the evap drain for evidence of a leak or not.... guess since there is no tsb with a complete step by step it's voodoo huh. But no... don't actually do that or anything... I mean we wouldn't want to put out any effort because Fords warranty pay isn't worth it anyway. I will give the last dealer credit they at least opened the hood and found physical damage left from another Ford store that had no clue what they were doing. I get paid to troubleshoot a lot more complicated stuff than these trucks that doesn't have a step by step procedure written somewhere... or an engineering hot line to call.... I guess it jades me a bit.