Just Another Sad Day In The Life Of A Ford Dealer Technician
 

Well, folks. I'm sure most of you probably don't know me very well, since I rarely post on 6.4L forums. But since this story applies specifically to a 6.4L that's in my bay right now, I thought it appropriate to post here.

Here's the story. One of the service advisors receives a phone call from a customer to arrange having his truck towed to our shop. The complaint goes, "I was driving along and all of a sudden the truck took off as if the gas pedal was held to the floor and a large white cloud of smoke came out the back of the pipe, and flames shot out". So the short version of the story is, the truck ran away on him due to high pressure fuel system leakage into the crankcase and being sucked into the intake through the crankcase vent, causing the unrequested increase in engine speed, and then its failure.

When the truck arrived on my doorstep, on the hook, the truck was in a state that it would not start (nor was I about to put too much effort into getting it to start, given the chain of events that had just occured prior to its arrival). I observed the appearance of the tailpipes had a white ash like colour to them with a little tinge of bluing, unlike the usual black sooty appearance that one usually sees on the inside of a diesel. The wiring harness to all three EGT sensors, along with the DPFP sensor were burnt completely to a crisp. It got so hot there, that the underside of the cab where the DPF is situated now has a nice whitish imprint. Needless to say, this vehicle exhibitted a pretty catastrophic thermal event.

As soon as I managed to get the vehicle into my bay to commence diagnostics, I notice a grocery list of codes that come up (as expected). I drained about 28 litres of fuel/engine oil mixture from both the charge air cooler and the crankcase.The most important code P0219, which is set when the PCM detects an engine speed increase beyond 4000 RPMs for more than three seconds, which only further confirms what the customer told me (if the appearance of the exhaust aftertreatment isn't obvious enough already). Here is where all the BS begins. With an event like this, I am definitely going to be starting a "paper trail" to cover my bases. I check OASIS, obtain maintenance records, every bit of information that I can possibly think of, to submit as needed. After doing ALL tests as instructed by Ford Hot-Line (our "go to" life line), and disassembling the vehicle down to the block (three of eight cylinders are low on compression), now is where the "cat and mouse" circus begins. On any kind of major repair that is warrantable, we are required to submit a request for prior approval (as most of you likely know). In short, I have spent almost this entire week having the request returned in order to provide FoMoCo with further information and pictures requested.

This vehicle is a construction truck (of which the customer has couple other that are identical) used soley for work purposes, NOT a "***** extender" with a tuner and doodads. In the short term of ownership, the customer has maintained it and provided maintenance records per our request. Any previous maintenance done by the previous owner is unknown as the vehicle was purchased used by the current owner. He has brought it to my shop with a very legitimate concern and is now getting screwed by mother Ford. And why? Because the truck now requires the entire exhaust aftertreatment system along with the entire underframe wiring harness replaced, along with a complete new high pressure fuel system as well as a short block AT THE VERY LEAST. After crunching some numbers, it seems most cost effective to replace with a drop-in engine assembly (which INCLUDES everything in the high pressure fuel system as well as reduces labour expenses needed to install).

The point of this post? Those of you out there with tuners intent on bringing your truck in for warranty work will hopefully understand the "hoops" us dealer techs face, when trying to get any type of repair approved. In the meantime, this truck has cost me week's pay, due to tying up my bay with the cab raised, and the engine almost completely gutted short of removal. All this because, mother Ford wants to do everything in its power to play the "I'm not paying" game to the customer. Yet I, the service advisor and the service manager are going to be the poor sorry folks out here, having to explain to the poor customer that Ford doesn't want to pay to repair his truck. As of this writing, the cab has been lowered and secured using four of the eight bolts to secure it to the frame, and will be pushed outside the shop to grow plants under so that the customer can scrap it out with Ford.

Experiences like this are what sometimes make me want to re-evaluate whether or not it is even worth it to continue wrenching on Ford diesels anymore. Now, don't get me wrong. I STILL love wrenching, and STILL love Ford vehicles (as I always will), but the politics, the BS, the cat and mouse circus and all the game playing really wears me down!!!

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT, NEXT TIME YOU BRING YOUR VEHICLE IN NEEDING A MAJOR WARRANTY REPAIR.

Sad.....really sad.......I feel for you, buddy and the owners hope fully Ford will fess up and realize the mistake!

So Ford is not wanting to fix it because why? I didn't quite see where they were denying it as of yet.

I certainly understand the difficulties. I would not want to put someone thru the ringer unjustly.

I will also say...for those that read this posting, that although the issue above may have happened all of the sudden I would always advise checking all of your fluids weekly. You might just catch some creeping oil level.

How many trucks with tuners and DPF/CAT delete's have you worked on? What were the problems that the tuners caused? I would assume, that Ford would secretly be happy for tuners and DPF delete systems. No more DPF replacements or cleaning, no more harsh regens on the motor. Some here have also stated, that their local Ford mechanic said that tuning and removing the DPF is the best thing you can do to these engines?

Sorry for you week man, that just tells me that even if your truck is bone stock that you can still be denied warranty work. So I am glad my truck is gutted and tuned. That's what lawyers are for, and I have a commuter vehicle just in case the ***** ever hits the fan with my truck...

Because of the large amount of money involved to repair this vehicle. You are correct in stating that Ford has NOT denied the claim YET. But if I know Ford, they are going to tell me to put it back together with Band-Aid and Super Glue and ship. Then, when it comes back a week or month later (that's if it even makes it out of the shop) needing to be torn apart, they're going to want ME to fix it again on MY dime. This is the game they are playing. Not going to happen this time around. If they do in fact deny it, I'm not touching ONE more bolt on it. I'm not about to relinquish control of the repair process to someone who's more concerned about the cost than my reputation.

Well, those of you reading this should now understand what you face, God forbid your 6.4L experiences this chain of event. I will say though, overall the 6.4L trucks have relatively few issues compared to the 6.0L (other than requiring changing the radiator with every oil change), but when things inside them break, they break BIG!!!!

Oh yes. We all know how 6.4L engines just love to "grow" engine oil, don't we?

its not that ford does or does not want to fix it.... Its the circle jerk we get ran threw day in and day out.

Being completely honest with you. I have wrenched on NONE that have DPF/CAT delete systems with tuners on them, so I have no problem admitting that I have ZERO experience with them. Perhaps it would be the best thing one can do to one's 6.4L truck in order to rid oneself of the horrible fuel economy and the harsh regens that go along with the having the exhaust aftertreatment systems. HOWEVER, in doing this, what laws are we violating here? What kind of risk do we put ourselves to (if we live in a region where vehicle emissions inspections are a routine)? What is the penalty for being caught operating a motor vehicle with the emission controls tampered with? Understand, I am NOT saying to do it or not. But I do hear you LOUD and CLEAR.

It is sad to imagine that owners of these trucks NEED to have a backup vehicle, should such a catastrophic event like this ever happen.

Sad as it is to say, I can't believe there are some out there who will pay RETAIL to have repairs done even when they're still within their warranty period, only because they can't afford the down time involved with all the game playing.

out here we call those guy's Oil field workers.

Thank you for your honest opinion Sir, and it's coming from one who works on these trucks for a living. As far as being legal or not, well that's the chance we take. If I lived in CA, then maybe I would be concerned but I will never live there so I have nothing to worry about. Yes the EPA mandated the new diesel emissions, but it's a double edged sword. Diesels run much cleaner with the DPF, but use more fuel. So its either contribute to global warming or use more oil? Hmmmmm, that's a hard one to choose!!! Or maybe I will just buy a Nissan Leaf!!!

Now that I think about it, if they were tuned and needed warranty work the owner probably put everything back to stock. So you would have never known if it was tuned or not right?

I had a major repair (EGR Cooler / Oil Cooler / EGR Valve) done recently. Bought the 04 truck used, until the major it ran good. I bought after market warranty not Ford. It also sat in the bay for a week while the warranty company made a decision - required pics etc. A little annoying to be w/o vehicle. I don't have any mods on the truck and i don't think the previous owner had any to my knowledge. Because of the cost of repairs in my case about $4,000, the warranty companies are making real sure they are only going to pay a legit deal. Perhaps too many folks breaking their trucks with bad mods and then wanting to have warranty coverage. With computers involved I suspect there will be an electronic record of abnormalities. Oh yeah the warranty company came good for me but the Ford dealer had a bay tied up for more than a week. Felt bad about that since they always treat me very well there.

While I appreciate your initial post I still think either you are in the wrong career filed or you need to take it up with Ford directly and the way the warranty works.

Either make the owner responsible up front for the work done which may be denied by Ford (this way the owner can sue Ford or whoever represents Ford) and if the work is proven shoddy than either of the 3 parties involved can sue whom they decide is responsible for the problem.

As much as I hate unions this might be a time for the mechanics to unite against Ford or who ever states you do not get paid for work that you did and Ford will not pay.

Maybe they negotiate like the medical insurance companies do between each other?

In the 15 years I worked as a mechanic, I either worked for my dad, an independant shop or a large fleet....never for a dealership. I had several friends that did, including my dad after his shop had to close. What do they all have in common....they all pretty much hated it because of the politics involved.