Help needed!! getting ripped off by a dealer

[bardz2001]

ok last week my O/D off light started blinking and so i bring it to the ford place to have them check it out so we drop it off and we call them the next day and they tell us that the entire transmission needs to be redone and it will cost a couple thousand dollars and i think ok well it just had a new transmission put in 20000 miles ago so it should be under warrentee...well thats not the case they tell me the warrentee was only for 24000 miles or 2 years and it was under on the miles but it had been a couple months over 2 years since the last one got put in so im screwed...anyways the next day i call them again to talk this over and now they tell me i also need a new head gasket and that everything would cost me over $4000 and now im really screwed i put every cent i had into this truck and im still trying to pay off a $2000 loan that i have left on it.....well since the truck is prob only worth like $6000 with a good transmission is it worth it even putting another 4000 into this to get fixed or should i just take up the ford places offer to buy it from me for 2000 and walk away from this situation with no debt but no truck either and then have to start all over buying another car or truck????? im just real upset cause i sunk my life savings of $3500 (im only 17) into this truck upfront when i bought it and now its all been wasted

 

[Jason_25]

I say take your truck from them immediately and go to a reputable independent shop. Have it towed if necessary. How could your head gasket go out? Has it ever overheated? How many miles are on it?

 

[bardz2001]

its a 95 explorer sport with 90500 miles on it never had a single problem with it since i bought it

 

[SWLathrop]

You need a new tranny because the OD light is blinking? They must be drinking some of their blinking fluid. If they tranny still works properly, it could just be a simple sensor (speed, shift or what ever). And what did they do to determine that you need a new head gasket? Did they test for it? If you only took it in for the tranny issue, you should not pay for any diagnostic time except for the tranny. I would definately take it to a independent (quality) tranny shop.

 

[Bashman]

Definately get it to an independant shop ASAP! You would definately know if your head gasket was gone either through excessive coolant loss, white smoke or milky engine oil. It sounds to me like they are trying to take advantage of a young teen. The first question that pops into my head is, why are they willing to take it off your hands for $2000?? Take it to another shop and get a second opinion. Let us know what happens.

 

[bardz2001]

thanx for the help will take it back from the place early tomorrow morning....ill tell you what the independant shop says after i take it there

 

[02expsport]

Take it somewhere else

Please take an ADULT with you - no offense.

I have a 22 year old and I would NEVER let him go alone to a shop to have work done...NEVER.

Like someone else said, have it towed if need be but just get it out of there.

Good Luck - JR

 

[bardz2001]

ok me and my dad went and picked it up they gave us a bit of a hassle letting us take it but finally handed over the keys it drove home fine and now its gonna sit in the driveway until i take it to an independant shop today or tomorrow hopefully it wont cost the 4 g's the ford place want to fix it or im screwed

 

[drwambo]

My 96 EB did the same thing once. I reset the computer and all was well. Also, it seems to me that someone here on the board had the same type of problem and resolved it, but I don't remember exactly how. Might check the archives. As far as the head gasket, I don't believe it for a second. Take it to an independent mechanic!!!

 

[DarkFox1]

I KNOW the feeling, but not entirley.. I am on my 2nd transmission.. I have 66k miles, my new tranny is at about 20k miles on it and its having problems, no lights no codes.. it just shifts REALLY rough, gets horrible mileag and takes 15 sec. to get to 60. The dealership refuses to work on mine.. I suspect it is because I am still under warranty. my tranny is about a year old. Any way.. I take the car to them with these symptoms and they say "its just picky, you can't fix it" and literally refuses to take a closer look than that.

The dealership is exploiting you and me with their horrible engineering and lazy employees, quantity, not quality, thats all they care about, now I should take my own advice here.. but if I were you, I would rip that thing out from under them tell them not to even LOOK at it, and take it to a 3rd party TRUSTWORTHY mechanic.. I know thats hard to find, but its obvious the dealerships rape those of us who keep bringing our aging vehicles to them in an effort to frustrate us into buying new cars.

Good luck, I'm sorry to hear you're having problems, I must admit, I am not exactly a diehard ford fan.. at least.. not anymore.

oh btw, let us know what you find out

 

[bardz2001]

ok now i knew the dealer might be charging more than they should but im completely shocked now.......i took it to an independant shop and not only did he tell me it didnt look like they opened up my transmission to do tests but he says there is absolutly nothing wrong with my car!!!! this would mean the dealer tried to rip me off $4000 bucks!!!! i seriously would like to kill the dealer right now $4000 bucks would of messed up my life bad trying to pay for all that !!!!!can u even believe this!!!!!!

 

[DarkFox1]

unfortunatley yes I could cos I've about been there. As soon as I get the money I'm doing the same as you.

btw, if I were you I'd try 1 more shop for a diagnostic just to be safe. it wouldn't hurt too bad I suppose.

 

[jonny 5]

DArkfox1 and bardz2001, e-mail Ford HQ and tell them your problems and maybe something good might come out of it.

 

[DarkFox1]

it'd juts cos me money I dont have right now and take time involving my vehicle incapacitated.. which I also cannot afford ATM.

The only people that can really get such a thing taken care of are ones that have secondary drivers and/or lots of money I'm afraid

perhaps as soon as I can get a job I can throw a month or two's paychecks into getting tihs taken care of.

 

[SWLathrop]

DarkFox1, I'd go to a different dealer on your issue. Tell them the hassle your getting at the other dealership. Let them know that if they fix your issue, then they will have all of your future automotive business needs. And you'll pay the work to your fellow FORD pals.

bardz2001, the same goes for you. Give another dealership a try. There are honest dealerships out there.

If either one of you were close to Arcade, NY we'd fix you up in a heart beat... We get so many people coming from the city (Buffalo) to get their vehicles fixed because after the dealership got their money, they screw them on all "After Sale" service.

Look for a small out-of-the-way dealership that will welcome you and your patronage.

 

[DarkFox1]

well I've considered that, but we had a hard time finding a dealership period that wasnt all "so what does it take for you to drive this vehicle home?" if they say that to me EVER, I'm never going there again. I cannot STAND high pressure dealers. The place I go to now is the place I bought the truck from, as you can imagine they are a mercury lincoln dealer. The parts people are very friendly and my dad knows the head service guy on a 1st name basis. The technicians seem to be the problem. that and the crappy service rep they transfered from some crappy import dealer. when I say "and check the MAS" I mean WRITE CHECK THE MAS ON THE WORK ORDER dont nod and then dont write anything...

All the dealerships here are HUGE, we have the "motor mile" on a road here, its like a literal mile of nothing but car dealerships on both sides of the road. I would imagine finding a small dealer would be quite hard.

 

[bardz]

hmm ok well my dad called the dealership back to tell them how we thought they were full of **** and how we were gonna call the better business bureau to complain about how much they were trying to rip us off (4000 bucks) and the place told us to come back and they would show us the problems they were talking about......my dad now wants to go back and have them show him but honestly since i got my truck back from the independant shop i brought it to its been running great not a single problem...and i dont really want this ford place opening up my truck again.....they told my dad its an exterior leak on the head gasket but from what the indy shop told us i would see white smoke coming out of it and i see nothing of the sort.......my question is can it do any harm for us to bring my truck back to the dealer to show us whats wrong? or should i follow the other shops advice that there is nothing wrong??????? btw my dad doesnt know much about cars and honestly i dont know enough either that if they showed us somethin and were like there you go thats where the problem is i wouldnt be able to tell the difference most likely

 

[Bashman]

If you or your dad are still a little uneasy, I would try a different dealership. Don't tell them what the other shops said, treat it like it just happened. I get the feeling the first place wants to cover their butt.

 

[bardz2001]

ok so me and my dad wind up going back to the dealer to listen to their explanation and we get their and they put my truck up on the lift and they tell me the leak on the head gasket is external and they try to say that you could tell its leaking because the part where the head gasket connects to somethin else is stained a different color and thats how u kno but they were like i dunno if you can see that from here but it is...first of all i didnt see that it was a dif color but they gave no other reasons for them saying it was leaking..... if their was an external leak wouldnt i see white gas and stuff like that comming out of my truck cause i dont see anything like that at all ever

 

[DarkFox1]

same feeling I would get, if I took my car (that was so slow today I just about felt like running into a DITCH I had it almost to the floor climbing a hill and it was only pulling 2k rpm and dropping mph like crazy AAAH) to a shop and it was fixed, I would NEVER want to come within 20 feet of the dealership again, because I would associate the dealership with the problems.

If you have a leak, the extent of the leak would determine the smoke thing, the only way you'd have smoke is if you have a rather large leak thats dripping out, if its just the gasket is giving away slowly, it will just stain and it could be a few more miles (hundred.. thousand... something like that maybe) before the thing really gave in. And even after that, you'd probablly just have a thick greasy mass on your engine block, i doubt it would stop your vehicle from running.

btw, did the 3rd party shop charge you anything? I want to do what you're doing but most shops say $50 just to bring it in and put it on the rack.