Took my 2018 f250 to dealer for wheel bearing which they said would be covered under extended warranty and a check engine light that i had shut off with my own scan tool. it was a misfire cylinder 4. they asked if i wanted them to diagnose so i said yes. They called me and said tech said it needs spark plugs and it would cost over 800 dollars. So i did some research and people online saying plugs breaking off in engine and pulling threads out was a common problem. So i decided to let them do it. They called me a few days later saying they did wheel bearing and plugs but tech took for test ride and truck was running rough and engine light came on. Truck was running fine when i dropped it off. now they tell me tech wants to take valve cover off and need my ok to go ahead because warranty won`t cove valve cover if it breaks when removing because bolts are rusty? So at this point I figure i have to let them proceed. Now I hear nothing from them for 3 days so I call 5 times service guy not answering his phone. finally get someone and they say tech assigned to my truck has attendance problem and nobody has touched my truck all week. I don`t get mad easy but I am getting mad. The service guy is very nice and apologetic but geeze this is crazy. Now he tells me another tech has been given my truck and they are putting valve cover back on and going to start diag from start instead of going by previous techs notes. sounds to me like previous tech did something wrong to my truck and never came back to work. Can`t believe all this bs and hoping warranty will cover anything they find. last year at this same time a different dealer had truck for 2 months replacing intake manifold. Anyone else have similar issues or am i just lucky?

 

It’s probally a good sign that they have t touched it in a while….indicates they don’t believe it will be coveted by warranty and it moves slow since there is low confidence you will pay for it.


you want it to move fast …tell them money is no object.


i had a truck sit for 10 days with no action and it had a diagnostic appt. Took it home and did the work myself.


12 weeks on a mustang waiting for the “convertible top expert”, it moved pretty quick once they realized they hit the lemon law threshold.

 

Some dealers are better than others. Sucks when your local one is terrible. We don't go to our local dealer because it sucks and all the good techs went to the dealer 20 minutes up the road. That's where we get our work done now.

The issue of plugs stripping out in the head was more of a problem with the 5.4, not your 6.2, presuming you've got a gasser. $800 seems steep for that but from a dealership not unheard of.

Sounds like you didn't get a FORD extended warranty, but rather a 3rd party extended warranty, which isn't worth the paper it's printed on, usually, specifically because they don't cover things like fasteners. And they likely know that the warranty company is probably going to deny the claim, which means it'll all be on you. Those 3rd party warranty companies are GOOD at getting out of paying. Had one, won't get another 3rd party one...if it isn't backed by the OEM I don't want it.

Sadly your options at this point are to let them try to figure it out, or have them stop work, put it back together in whatever shape it's in, and drive/tow it to a different, hopefully better, dealership, OR a highly-recommended independent shop.

 

thanks for the reply. bought warranty at dealership when i got the truck. ford platinum warranty. didn`t realize its not actually thru ford but foresight warranty. they have covered a lot over the years but like you said they don`t cover hardware and look for ways not to pay. last year when dealer replaced intake they covered everything but the bolts that hold it on. total bill was well over 2 grand and i had to pay a few hundred so i guess i shouldn't complain.

 

Yeah a Ford-backed extended warranty should have covered everything less possibly a deductible. I'm not sure how all levels of their extended warranties work, but that's how the last one I had through Ford worked.

I definitely shy away from any third-party ones.

 

If it's not a factory warranty, the Dealer doesn't touch my stuff. Tires, Oil changes is about as far as a dealer touches it. Last night I parked my Flex where I normally park my truck, so the truck sits outside. Why? Because its getting chain slap and am waiting on parts. I will do it all myself and know it is done correctly with all new parts too. If a Dealer did it, they would just do the chain, if I want the water pump and oil pump replaced they would charge book time on both, which would be COSTLY. Putting a Melling oil pump on, high volume. Dealer would put OEM on, NOT high volume.

 

update to my dealer problem. new tech put new valve cover on and diagnosed truck again and said bad coils causing misfires. service manager told me they would pay for the valve cover because the new tech said it shouldn`t have been removed. said they were checking with warranty company to see if coil packs were covered repair. said it was an $1800.00 repair. i told him if its not covered i would come get the truck and do it myself. just called me back and said its covered. i gotta give service manager some credit for being honest about why previous tech removed valve cover. wondering if it was probably coil packs the whole time. oh well so they got me for 800 bu ks for the plugs but they covered wheel bearing and coil packs. i hope this fixes it. extended warranty ends in october so i will be doing my own maintenance like i always have before i got this truck. this 2018 f250 is the nicest newest truck i have ever owned in my 67 years but has had the most issues of any truck I've had. 40 k on it and had to replace intake manifold, wheel bearing, plugs and coil packs and a lock out on one wheel. never had an extended warranty before but I'm glad i got it for this truck because its paid for itself at least twice what it cost.

 

I must drive too much...in the last 8 years I've put over 160k on vehicles combined (one of my DD's had 110k on it by itself). So seeing ONE truck with 1/4 of that mileage is just surprising to me.

Also sounds like you got a tech that wanted to go the most expensive route first - ANY misfire diagnosis should include coils/wires/plugs from the get-go, as they are USUALLY the problem.