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Door Lock Malfunction (and terrible dealer response)

LakersCentral

Well-Known Member
Joined
November 11, 2013
Messages
232
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City, State
Southern California
Year, Model & Trim Level
2014 Explorer Sport
Recently I've had trouble with the door lock (on the drivers side) not fully coming up / unlocking (when pressing unlock on the key FOB). This happened a couple times, and each time it was particularly cold outside (disclaimer: for southern california, "cold" is 50 degrees ;)). The door will open, but only by pulling the handle from the inside. It's quite annoying to need to crawl through the passenger side just to get in my car. It's even more annoying that I'm having these issues on a car that's barely a year old.

But by far the *most* annoying thing is that when I took my car into the dealership (Simi Valley Ford) about this (a month or so ago now), they basically dismissed it. They said that they could not replicate the issue, so they didn't even look at the inside of the door. As if I was making it up. It happened again a week after I had it in.

Since Ford does not provide loaner cars (not even for warranty issues)(something I really appreciated about Inifiniti)... it becomes a real pain in the a$$ to figure out how to be without a vehicle while its being serviced (for something that wasn't your fault).

So I was forced to take matters into my own hands and pop open the door and have a look myself. I didn't notice anything in particular (besides that it is very difficult to pop open the door, and almost impossible to not break a couple of the plastic fasteners). That was a month ago, however, and I haven't had the issue since. Maybe it got fixed just by opening it up and something falling into alignment. Would have been nice for *FORD* to have done this. :mad:

I searched these forums and nothing has yet been posted on this issue. Wondering if anyone has had the same experience.
 



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Ford doesn't provide loaner cars - your dealer may. Mine does.

And unfortunately, if the dealer can't reproduce a problem, they can't fix it. It happens. Best thing to do is to take a video of the issue occurring. That will give them something to go on, especially since they have to get Ford to pay them for warranty work.
 






Most dealers are going to want to replicate the issue first since taking door panels off isn't as easy as it used to be. See if you can leave it for them overnight when its going to be cooler or, like whats already been said, see if you can get a video.

I would also ask them for a loaner. It really shouldn't be a big issue. While my Ford ESP covers a rental car my dealer will just have me snag a used car from the lot.
 






Ford doesn't provide loaner cars - your dealer may. Mine does.

The ONLY dealer that provides loaner cars near me [45 miles away] is Mullinax Ford..The closer Ford dealers near me can not promise me a vehicle.

I recently told a local Ford dealer if he puts it in the contract I get a loaner car I will buy a Ex from him..His answer was he can work on that..I said if you can not do that I will not buy a vehicle from you.

When I lived in New Jersey Town Motors Lincoln always provided me a loaner..At least at that time.
 






I appreciate the advice on taking video. But at the same time, I don't like the idea of having to prove that I'm not lying to them.

Whether these decisions are made on Ford's end or the dealership's, it hurts the brand. To me, the customer, there is no difference. And I don't care what other company doesn't provide these services either.

All I'm saying is that it was very nice (when dealing with Infiniti) to have a loaner car when the car needed to be serviced (even if not for warranty work), and to just tell them the issue and have them go figure out the problem. That is simply good customer service.
 






Did you have the same issue when using the other unlock features? I don't recall this problem being discussed before. BTW, it is supposed to be -13 F here tonight.

Peter
 






I appreciate the advice on taking video. But at the same time, I don't like the idea of having to prove that I'm not lying to them.

It's not about proving you are not lying. It's about being able to duplicate the problem so they know what is defective and needs replacing. They are not going to guess and/or just start throwing parts at it and hope it will fix the problem. Then guess what, they throw a part at it, give it back to you and that doesn't fix the problem. Now it's trip #2 for you and you are even more mad.

Manufacturers only pay (not just Ford) for defective parts and the labor to replace them.

Rentals are on the dealers, not the manufacturers. The luxury brands provide loaners usually.. Ford is not a luxury brand. BWM, Infinity, Audi, Lexus..

When I had a Lexus, I got another Lexus (luxury brand) for a rental but Toyota (non luxury) does not provide them.

It's a perk, yes and is quite nice but believe me, it's all built into the price of those expensive vehicles.
 






All I wanted is for them to look at it. They should have at least done that. Then they could tell me there was nothing apparently broken. Instead, they brushed it off. Any way you look at it, its bad customer service... luxury brand or not. Its not that difficult to open the door panel. They also ignored 2 other complaints, and had the car for 2 days. The dealership is well known for poor customer service.
[MENTION=1335]Peter[/MENTION]9k I'm not sure what you mean by other unlock features. It only happened on the drivers side (though I rarely have passengers to test out the other doors). It popped up a little when pressing the FOB, but not enough to unlock it. relocking and repeating had the same results.
 






It sounds like a power door lock actuator is going bad. Odd for a 2014 id say. Mine does the same thing but its a 2000. When its cold it seems to work better though.
 






my 2nd gen had the same issue, was the door handle had lost some teeth, sounds like same issue tome considering you gotta get in from passenger side. tell them to pop the panel and check the handle. granted you have the extended warranty and such
 






All I wanted is for them to look at it. They should have at least done that. Then they could tell me there was nothing apparently broken. Instead, they brushed it off. Any way you look at it, its bad customer service... luxury brand or not. Its not that difficult to open the door panel. They also ignored 2 other complaints, and had the car for 2 days. The dealership is well known for poor customer service.
[MENTION=1335]Peter[/MENTION]9k I'm not sure what you mean by other unlock features. It only happened on the drivers side (though I rarely have passengers to test out the other doors). It popped up a little when pressing the FOB, but not enough to unlock it. relocking and repeating had the same results.

If they can't replicate it....then what is it that you want them to look at??? Opening up a door panel to look at something that is working fine for them at the time isn't going to resolve anything. Unfortunately these things happen from time to time and I agree that it can be annoying, we've all been through it....but you're a little over the top here with your expectations and your rant. Perhaps going back to a vehicle from Infiniti is your best option...
 






LakersCentral, I guess I should have explained in more detail what I meant by other unlock features. I was referring to the interior unlock button on the door panel, the Securicode key pad and the Keyless entry (door handle) which I believe the Sport has. I got to thinking after I posted that they would all likely trigger the unlock mechanism in the same way so the results would likely be the same. Now that you have it working again after removing the door panel, it almost seems that perhaps something was binding.

Peter
 






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