Focus Fanatics Forum banner

Rocker panel snapped after taking delivery of new Focus

6K views 30 replies 13 participants last post by  FordService 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi Guys. Well as some of you are aware, a few weeks ago I joined the forum and began researching and asking questions about the 2013 Focus. I had compared many other makes/models and I paid particular attention to issues that were being discussed concerning the Ford myTouch/Sync system and the DCT transmission. Before buying the car I reached out to Ford Customer Service to get a handle on how these issues were being addressed and after receiving positive reassurance from Ford Customer Service, I bought the Focus. I've owned the car 1 week and 3 days so far.

In that period of time, I logged just about 800 miles on the car. As I may have mentioned in a different thread, I have begun to experience some issues with MFT freezing up or not responding to voice commands. I've also had the transmission lurching/not shifting correctly problem that others have complained about. I knew about these two issues going in to this purchase and I went ahead with it anyway, because I felt the software updates that Ford has released will most likely remedy the problem. Or worst case scenario, Ford would replace the clutch(s) in the DCT so it does shift properly.

Now it would seem that I have another problem which I didn't anticipate or know it might be an issue and that has to do with the driver side (exterior) rocker panel. This is a black ABS plastic piece that is attached to the exterior door sill which runs the length from driver side (left) wheel well to rear passenger (left) wheel well. This piece would be referred to as a rocker panel moulding. Well to get to the point, I'm driving on the freeway yesterday when suddenly I heard a loud pop or bang followed by a steady scraping sound. First thing I thought was tire blow out, so I pulled over to the shoulder of the road. I checked the tires, the rims, under the front spoiler lip and all around the car and found nothing! I thought, maybe I hit something, but then again, I didn't drive over anything. If I had, certainly I would have seen it or felt it, but neither was the case. I was driving along a quiet and uncluttered stretch of freeway then suddenly I find myself having to pull over to investigate the problem. Very bizarre to say the least. So as I'm trying to identify the source of the scraping I look down below the drivers door and there I see the problem. The rocker panel/moulding had dropped down, pulled away from the plastic retention clips and part of it was scraping the ground (split in the middle). To rule out the possibility of it being struck by road debris, I searched around for a point of impact and found nothing.

Needless to say, I went to my neighborhood Ford dealer this morning for service and I described what happened to my Advisor. I also mentioned the transmission and Sync issues. Looking at the car where the damage was, my Advisor told me this seems to be a common problem. He stated that other Focus owners (2012-2013) have had this issue but in his experience Ford doesn't cover it under warranty, because they almost always claim it's not a defect but rather an "external factor". This if course concerns me. If it were an external factor, such as I damaged the piece by driving over something then I would understand Ford not covering it. Still, he's not sure that Ford won't cover it, but he told me not to get my hopes up. It seems to me that if this is a manufactures defect it should be a warrantable item. I will wait to see what the dealer tells me when I pick up the car today at 3PM.

What has been your experience? Have any of you had this issue before? I haven't read any posts that pertain to this specific issue, so I can't judge whether it is commonplace or not. I know the Sync and DCT issues are fairly common, but this issue is unknown to me. Please share your input. I'd like to hear what you guys think about this.

Here's the part # for the piece I'm referring to. PN. CP9Z5810177B
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Wow ... you knew about all this stuff and STILL bought those features?

There are a lot of people here who would have given anything to have that knowledge before they bought.

Good luck and welcome to the Ford service experience. Hope everything works out OK.

REV
 
#3 ·
Believe me, I nearly passed up the Focus in favor of the VW Jetta TDI; however even the Jetta has it's own set of issues and the maintenance cost is much higher than the Focus. All of the cars I reviewed had shortcomings in one area or another, so it came down to a compromise and whether or not I felt the issues with the Focus were something that I could live with. Recognizing that many 2012 and 2013 owners seem to have had their issues resolved, obviously with some notable exceptions, generally I felt that the fixes that Ford was offering would satisfy whatever problem I might encounter.

Obviously all of that remains to be seen, but now that the car is at the dealer, I'll reserve judgement for later. At this point, I have no reason to assume that Ford is unable or unwilling make whatever changes are necessary. This morning I read a thread where a 2013 owner just turned 10k miles and has had zero issues whatsoever.

It would appear there are many happy Focus owners who haven't experienced any of the issues that we read so much about on this forum. I also think it helps to have a bit of perspective. Happy owners generally won't take the time to write about it, whereas unhappy owners generally will. Considering all of the 2012-2013 Focus' that Ford has put on the road, I'd have to say that the number of "problem cases" is a very small sampling given the number of complaints we read about on this board. There hasn't been a recall, so that leads me to believe this isn't an epidemic as it might seem.

Anyway...I do like the car and I'm in this for the long haul. So we'll just have to wait and see where all of this goes from here. Admittedly, I am rather concerned about the Rocker Moulding separating. Hopefully this is something Ford will cover under warranty. We'll just have to wait and see.
 
#4 ·
**UPDATE** Just got off the telephone with the dealer. Looks like they updated Sync. As far as the transmission is concerned they don't want to touch it until I reach 1k miles which at the rate I drive will be sometime next week. They will have their transmission specialist drive the car and diagnose the problem from there. As far the Rocker Moulding is concerned, they want to charge me $249 to replace it which includes about $80 in labor. They will not cover this under warranty! AARGH!! :(

I'd still like to hear from you guys. Any of you had this problem before with your car?
 
#8 ·
If you wind up having to pay for it you can save a little money by going to a body shop to have the part replaced.
They will sell you the part for the same price as the dealer but the body shop will have a lower $ per hour labor rate. Probably at least half the rate of the dealer.
 
#5 ·
If its the lower rocker panel moulding then no this is not a common issue as far as its come up on the forums.

There was at least once incident where the roof rail molding had blown off someone's car at 70 mph, but that's the only case of plastic parts coming off of the car that had come up here.

It seems more likely that something external would cause the lower rocker cover to come loose/ break than it just falling off on its own, so the onus would be to prove that it was not hit by anything else.

That stinks, but it doesn't seem to be common enough to have even been mentioned here before.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for that. That's not what I was expecting to hear, but that's definitely the information I was looking for. So thanks again. This really is a great forum and I'm glad that I came across it during my research. I'll let you know how all of this turns out in the end.
 
#7 ·
I made this thread at the end of July 2011. You can try using the info to take back to your dealer that it may not have been assembled properly.
 
#11 ·
By the way...I checked with Tousley Ford, I believe that is the name of the dealer and they said they would sell me the part for only $84.43 My hometown dealer wants $149.00 for the part alone + $80.00 or so to install it, which as feta_mpg stated, since it clips on I could do myself in probably 20 minutes or less. I asked my dealer if he would match the price and he said they couldn't do it.
 
#17 ·
Yeah. I went to take the Focus through the car wash yesterday and as the attendant was about to take my money he started pointing at the front of my car saying something about the bumper (he couldn't speak English very well). I stepped out to take a look and the bottom black plastic cover on the bumper was half separated and about ready to fall off.

I was able to get it snapped back on enough to get it through the car wash but there's still a bit of a gap. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come, the car is only 9-months old. I guess I'll have to start doing a 30-point inspection every time I want to take a drive to make sure things are still attached.
 
#22 ·
For those who are curious to know the status of my rocker panel issue, here's an update. Unfortunately it does not end well...for me anyway. As promised, Cory from Ford Customer Service did escalate my problem to a Regional Customer Service Manager, named Mark which I was very happy about; this left me feeling a bit optimistic. Sadly, my optimism and my warm and fuzzy feelings ended there. When I finally spoke to Mark today over the telephone he informed me that Ford was unwilling to offer any kind of assistance whatsoever. He was polite and didn't use that exact terminology, but that is the gist of it. I went around and around with him over the telephone inquiring about different possibilities and at each turn I was given what sounded like a well rehearsed script denying me any hope of assistance.

The reason for this as Mark explained is that they rely on the dealers as their "eyes" when making determinations as to whether or not the claim qualifies to be covered under warranty. So in my case, the claim was never submitted to Ford to even be considered for a warranty claim, much less any other type of consideration. It ends and begins with the dealer. Mark further explained that if the dealer had submitted the claim and it was denied, then Ford might be willing to consider other options, referring to "customer financial assistance." Since this wasn't something Ford would cover under warranty, I had hoped that some compromise could be reached where Ford would be willing to split the cost of repair or some percentage thereof, or at the very minimum agree to replace the part at dealer cost. So as I say, it did not end well for me. The only response I got was "No, no, no and no." Needless to say I'm disappointed and I'm rather surprised at the lack of willingness on their part to offer anything. It's not unusal for companies to extend courtesy to their customers in situations like these, even a token or small gesture to show that they appreciate their customer's loyalty. That did not happen, so as I say, it's disappointing, but what else can I do? I'll have to chalk this one up to as loss.

Hopefully when I take the car back in for repairs to address the transmission and FordMytouch issues, things will turn out better for me.
 
#24 ·
If Ford is advising you that the your local Ford service center people are the ones to submit a claim on your behalf, and from your previous post were you mentioned that your service person told you this "As far the Rocker Moulding is concerned, they want to charge me $249 to replace it which includes about $80 in labor. They will not cover this under warranty!" Would it not be worth it to mention your conversation with Ford advising you that it is the service department who should be submitting a claim to Ford before prematurely telling you that Ford will not cover this under warranty. As I understand your conversation with Ford , they told you that your service department never submitted a claim for this, right?
I'm not sure I buy that the dealer would not have submitted photographs to Ford, but everytime I've had issues with service that were submitted to FCSD the dealer has always been the reason why Ford denied the claim, yet they said it was Ford who wouldn't cover things.

The condition where the headlamp and tail lamp were and in the case of the tail lamp still are rubbing into the hood and rear quarter panel Ford said the dealer submitted the claim and also said it looked like the car had been hit from both ends, to deny the warranty claim. Despite the car having never been so much as hit at all at the time. Or how the dealer told me it was normal for the seat to reach only 90-100F at the heater pad because the cloth would catch on fire (paraphrasing what the service advisor had said), but told ford that they claimed via the IDS tool to read a sensor at 125F which just happened to be the exact set point temperature from the service manual so Ford wasn't interested in fixing this either. When its cold its hard to get the seat to warm up beyond 70-80F and although its not ice cold after awhile its still colder than other people say theirs get. I'm not melted in place and I'd expect it to be closer to 125F not 90 as a peak temperature, there isn't that much there as far as the cover to the heater gap.
 
#23 ·
If Ford is advising you that the your local Ford service center people are the ones to submit a claim on your behalf, and from your previous post were you mentioned that your service person told you this "As far the Rocker Moulding is concerned, they want to charge me $249 to replace it which includes about $80 in labor. They will not cover this under warranty!" Would it not be worth it to mention your conversation with Ford advising you that it is the service department who should be submitting a claim to Ford before prematurely telling you that Ford will not cover this under warranty. As I understand your conversation with Ford , they told you that your service department never submitted a claim for this, right?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top