Robert
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- October 26, 1999
- Messages
- 3,948
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- CA
- City, State
- Kelseyville, CA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '13 Ram 1500 Longhorn
Actually my experience is with one Ford dealer in Toledo, OH (Mathew's Ford), one dealer in Tempe, AZ (Earnhardt Ford), one dealer in Phoenix, AZ (Five Star Ford), and two dealer's in Mesa, AZ (Berge Ford and Fiesta Lincoln Mercury). My only experience with Mathew's Ford service department was when I had to take my Explorer back 6 months after I bought it new from them to get my sticking throttle body replaced. I didn't run into any problems with them and they fixed my sticking throttle without complaining. My only experience with Five Star was when I stopped by to have them check a strange noise on my Explorer to determine if it was caused by failing camshaft guides. The Service Manager went for a quick test drive and told me that the noise definately wasn't my guides. He thought the noise might be related to the way the air gets sucked into my engine. I had my stock air-box on at the time so my entire intake was stock. The noise hasn't always been there and has gotten louder over the last two years. He said it probably isn't anything to worry about. I hope not. The other three dealers are the ones I have had major problems with. I started with Earnhardt. They did a totally bonehead thing when they replaced my throttle body (another thread if interested) that caused me to have to bring my Explorer back 7 times during the next 6 months for various attempts to fix their created problem. After giving up on them every fixing my Explorer, I found the problem they caused and fixed it myself. I drove to the Service department to show them what I found. The Technical Service Manager admitted to being embarassed that his Technician would do such a thing. That was the last time I was at Earnhardt. I tried Berge Ford next. Several things built up with them until the final straw. That was when I brought my Explorer in to get a few nagging things fixed. One thing I wanted fixed was my bent seat tilt lever. I brought in the TSB showing that Ford had revised the bracket so that it wouldn't be as easily bent. Berge had replaced my broken lever 14 months earlier. Since it was bent nearly vertical and seeing how Ford has since revised the part recognizing the original flawed design, I felt that they should have covered it under warranty. Not only did they refuse to cover it under warranty since 14 months had passed since they replaced it last, they also tried charging me 1/2 hour labor ($36) to diagnose that my lever was bent. I asked the Service Advisor if he felt justified in charging me $36 to open up my door to say "Yup, it's bent" after I already told him it was bent. He agreed to take that charge off my bill. That was the last time I was at Berge. The last Ford dealer I have been to was Fiesta Lincoln Mercury. Unfortunately, I didn't find out until they started jerking me around that they were owned by the same people that owned Berge Ford. The last straw for them was when they forced me into agreeing to let them do a radiator flush on my Explorer before they would even begin to trouble shoot an over-heating problem (another story for another thread). Basically I had performed a flush 4 months earlier and they had replaced my water pump 2 months earlier. At which time they mixed their new anti-freeze with my anti-freeze I used 2 months earlier. They were now trying to tell me the fluids were incompatible and until I authorized them to do a complete flush, they wouldn't work on it. I was stuck since I couldn't drive my vehicle with it over-heating so I told them to go ahead. They performed the flush which didn't fix the problem. When they finally gotten around to looking at it, they determined that my thermostat was sticking closed. This was something they could have found without having to do the flush. When I went to pick up my Explorer, there was a charge for their $120 power flush. Since the Service Advisor was unwilling to remove the charge, I spoke to the Service Manager. He agreed to remove the charge since it was not necessary and did nothing for finding my actual problem. That was the last time I was at a Ford dealer.
