One Year Later - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[flyboyike]

Originally Posted by mattr6

Yes it would be nice to know if there was closure on this issue.

Whenever I hear the word "closure", I think of Robert DeNiro in "Analyze This".

[Some Guy From NY]

I'm the OP and would like closure on this issue too!

Basically my car is doing 3 things;

1) pulls to the left quite often

2) sometimes if the car is drifting left or right, i have to turn the wheel LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT many times to get the car to go straight. It is like there is no "center" position for the car/steering.

3) Sometimes I feel the electric motor of the steering rack wanting to move the steering wheel for NO reason.

On Feb 27th I brought it back and test drove it with the tech. Of course none of my problems could be duplicated. However while we test drove on the highway, at times it did pull to the left, but the roads have such a large crown effect to them, it was hard to tell if it was the car being dumb or because of road crowning, which the tech admitted that it was hard to tell because of the road.

I drove the car that day up until Sunday to and around Pennsylvania. I put on 400+ miles. At times it does drive straight, but at least 85% of the time, it slowly drifts to the left way faster than any car should.

I am awaiting to talk to the dealer today to see what Corporate is going to say about changing out the steering rack again. I am not holding my breath.

I had a long conversation with the service manager at the dealer and it was just going in circles, like it has been every time I spoke to the Regional Rep. They keep telling me "it is a small car so it will move around a lot and follow grooves/bumps in the road". I then tell them IT DID NOT DO THIS BEFORE THE RACK WAS CHANGED. IT WAS THE SAME "SMALL CAR" BEFORE THE RACK WAS CHANGED AND IT DID NOT DRIVE THIS WAY. This usually leaves them in silence, because what can they honestly say to that.

I will keep you all updated, hopefully later today.

[hurtinfocus]

at this point, the car is in the realm of the lemon law....you've had it back to the dealer 3+ times for the same issue and it is still unresolved. If they won't swap out your steering rack again, then I'd start the lemon-law process to have ford buy the car back from you and move on.

[Some Guy From NY]

Originally Posted by hurtinfocus

at this point, the car is in the realm of the lemon law....you've had it back to the dealer 3+ times for the same issue and it is still unresolved. If they won't swap out your steering rack again, then I'd start the lemon-law process to have ford buy the car back from you and move on.

I don't know if it will be that easy. The steering seems very subjective, well according to the ford techs anyway.

It is not something easily duplicated. It is only living with the car, driving it day in and day out that you realize it does not drive normally.

When going for a short test drive, the problems I feel can be brushed off as road conditions. But like I said, living with the car, and paying close attention to how many small corrections you have to make nearly constantly, and looking at other cars on the road really show that something is not right with my car.

[Some Guy From NY]

This may be the final update...

I just spoke to the service manager at Dana Ford and it is "out of his hands". Ford Corporate won't approve replacing the steering rack because the ford dealer cannot duplicate the problems.

The Ford service manager at Dana Ford offered to do one more alignment on the car, but I would have to leave the car there the entire day. He said he did a "fine tune alignment" on my car last time, which he NEVER has done on any car.

He told me to "keep going after Ford Corporate" and tell them all my trouble happened when the rack was replaced.

This is what I have done NUMEROUS times already. And what is Ford Corporate's response? "The dealer has to tell us the problem"



The circle jerk continues.

As of now I don't know what to do. I have paperwork from the BBB which I have not filed yet, hoping for a resolution from Ford. It looks like I will be filing this paperwork.

I can't believe it is coming down to this. Ford has just lost a fan and customer.

[hurtinfocus]

I would file the paperwork, and at least attempt to go through the lemon law process....if nothing else, the combination of putting both of those things into motion should shake things up with ford and make them realize it's time for them to stop jerking you around.....

I wonder if they would let you drive a lot car/loaner of the exact same make/model as yours for a week to note the differences in the two....

I wonder if there's an app for your phone kinda like the sleep-cycle app....the sleep cycle app monitors your movement in your sleep....all you do is set it on your bed.

if you could somehow show that you're required to adjust steering MORE in your car than another identical car on the same commute over a couple of days to show averages....you'd have RAW DATA to prove there's something wrong.

[dbsimms63]

But either way, it's not the fault of the dealerships. It's the fault of Ford corporation for binding their hands as much as they can. Claims get denied for *every* reason under the sun, which means the dealerships can't do anything about it.

You are speaking the Gospel here. I've been down this road with Ford more than once, damn surprised I still buy them, must be losing my mind in my old age. I have been told that transmission failures were "MY" fault due to my driving, even though the exact same problem had been mentioned in countless automobile publications and forums, just so Ford could deny the claim and get out of paying for my issue. This, by the way, was the T-45 on my 96 SVT Cobra Mustang. I had a friend, exact same car, and had his T-45 fail, 3rd-4th shifter fork broke just like mine, and had his tranny replaced under warranty, but they denied mine, citing customer abuse. I asked them to show me the so called "abuse", like a scored flywheel or burnt clutch disc which would mean I was being hard on the poor little so-called performance car, but they couldn't because none existed. They could however, because they can, just say no we won't fix it and then cancel the remaining portion of your powertrain warranty which they did. And all of this on their top of the line performance car, at the time, the SVT Cobra. So you see Ford has been doing this sort of crap for a long time, and I'm sure they will continue to do so as long as we, the consumer, continue to allow it. My advice, if your state has a Lemon Law, file a claim and use it. I did it on my 96 Cobra and won. I made Ford buy it back from me. Maybe you can get them to do that for you, or at least have them take this car back, and give you another Focus at no additional cost. I made them do that on my 03' Terminator Cobra, it had electrical gremlins that caused it to quit running, and made them replace it with an 04' Terminator which I still have and drive on occasion when I feel the need for speed. Good luck to you and don't give up!

[Uptcv1]

waist time no more!
seriously consider approach per my prior post... you might be pleasantly surprised.. this is a tried-true approach..
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/s...0&postcount=19
and also something to consider with lemon law claims... if you pursue legal representation then this card is gone... your layers only represent you and the auto manufacturer (Ford) will not talk to you at all since you have assigned councel -but- your lwyer will just build a case/file (time/paperwork) so they can then ask Ford for comp for their time (X billable hours for the so many months you will be waiting for layers to build file...) plus comp for you- result is usually some kind of split between lawyers/you (probably nothing $substantial) but after a very long time waiting..
call the CEO!

[dbsimms63]

Originally Posted by hurtinfocus

I would file the paperwork, and at least attempt to go through the lemon law process....if nothing else, the combination of putting both of those things into motion should shake things up with ford and make them realize it's time for them to stop jerking you around.....

I wonder if they would let you drive a lot car/loaner of the exact same make/model as yours for a week to note the differences in the two....

I wonder if there's an app for your phone kinda like the sleep-cycle app....the sleep cycle app monitors your movement in your sleep....all you do is set it on your bed.

if you could somehow show that you're required to adjust steering MORE in your car than another identical car on the same commute over a couple of days to show averages....you'd have RAW DATA to prove there's something wrong.

Here's an idea, if you have a video camera, or at least a smartphone, record yourself driving and you can demonstrate how bad the car's steering tracks. You can point it in a straight line, remove your hands from the wheel and show how it veers right or left, as long as it is safe and there are no other vehicles around. Try to get your speedo in frame so they can see the speed the car is traveling at when the condition occurs and when it doesn't, I did this with a high speed problem I had with my Cobra that the dealer couldn't dublicate because they wouldn't drive the car fast enough so that the problem would rear its ugly head. And then go show the service manager and make sure they have a Ford area service rep there too so he can validate it.

[Strix]

Originally Posted by Some Guy From NY

IT DID NOT DO THIS BEFORE THE RACK WAS CHANGED. IT WAS THE SAME "SMALL CAR" BEFORE THE RACK WAS CHANGED AND IT DID NOT DRIVE THIS WAY. This usually leaves them in silence, because what can they honestly say to that.

This has been my experience as well. Pointing out that a problem did not exist until something was changed should make trouble-shooting it a no-brainer. Change it back or do the job again. Simple.

One of the first things I ask people whose computer problems I am tasked with fixing is "Has anything changed recently? Any new hardware or software?"

The reason I ask that question is because when a problem starts after a particular change, there's a very high likelihood that the problem is related to the change. It's not always the case, but the correlation is extremely high.

But what the hell do I know?... I only fix 98% of the problems I see and at my last position, I had a meager 4.9 of 5 customer satisfaction rating. I clearly shouldn't be talking about how to fix problems and make customers happy! LOL