I took my vehicle to the dealer on the 26th for what I thought would be a one day event. I needed an oil change and I wanted two separate noises checked out. One noise was a rattle from underneath the vehicle when idling. The second noise was a slight whine from the engine bay. I got a message from the service advisor that they would need a second day to diagnose the noises. The next day I had to call three times before I was told that my advisor was out and that I spoke to another clueless advisor. Day three resulted in me finally getting some info(after I called in twice). A TSB had been found for the rattling noise, apparently it is the exhaust, so extra brackets and clamps were added under warranty, but the parts would not come until day four. On day four I learn the the exhaust work is complete and that a vacumm hose was loose near the manifold. This is what was causing the whine noise, suppossedly. I have yet to reverify the whine noise, but the rattle seems to be fixed. A low idle was noticed by the technicians so that was also investigated. The throttle body was removed, then cleaned, and an adjusting screw was found to be fully engaged causing the low idle. The vehicle had been this way for 26,000 miles. I brought the attention of low idle at my first oil change. At that time now codes were found, so nothing was done. This time, I didn't bring up the idle(I had given up on it), and a code was found, so it was fixed. I had noticed less than stellar gas mileage, since I bought the vehicle, but I thought that was due to my lead foot driving. Time will tell if the mileage gets better, but I would have rather caught this sooner. It seams that dealers try to find a code to justify work instead of listening to customers concerns as enough justification.
I understand that the dealership has to submit the warranty reasons to Ford, but time and effort could be saved if there is better trouble shooting that isn't based on the premise of getting Ford to ok the work. If there isn't a code or a TSB on your problem then it isn't a problem in their eyes. They had first told me that the noises were not duplicated by them, so I luckily waited to pick up my vehicle an extra day which resulted in the extra effort on their part. I will say that I am not overly mad at the length of time, since I believe some problems did get fixed, and I was given a full tank of gas and a wash(which I requested).
Well I wanted to share this experience so that I could get some advice in dealing with the service dept. in the futre and also present the potential cures to some problems that I have read other people having.
[Opps, I didn't mean to write this much]
[Edited by withers on 12-30-2000 at 03:17 PM]
I understand that the dealership has to submit the warranty reasons to Ford, but time and effort could be saved if there is better trouble shooting that isn't based on the premise of getting Ford to ok the work. If there isn't a code or a TSB on your problem then it isn't a problem in their eyes. They had first told me that the noises were not duplicated by them, so I luckily waited to pick up my vehicle an extra day which resulted in the extra effort on their part. I will say that I am not overly mad at the length of time, since I believe some problems did get fixed, and I was given a full tank of gas and a wash(which I requested).
Well I wanted to share this experience so that I could get some advice in dealing with the service dept. in the futre and also present the potential cures to some problems that I have read other people having.
[Opps, I didn't mean to write this much]
[Edited by withers on 12-30-2000 at 03:17 PM]
