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711 Posts
Not sure if this is the right place for this but here goes...
So a month and a half ago I'm driving to town and I hear a slight squeeling in the passengers side of the engine bay,then a few miles later my radio turns itself off, then the dash lights start dimming and flickering, followed by relays clicking in the dash until I turned off the rear defrost?!?! Get about 1/2 mile doing this till the headlights shut off and I lose all power, come to find the alt is fried and even has electrical charring all inside it (smelled horrible too).
Order a new alt from local parts store, comes in and the pulley is all wrong, my 04 has some weird one-way clutch bearing pulley on it, search the net and find a local dealer selling the right alt for only $145, sweet, cheaper than the one from the parts store!
Then I wait 1 MONTH for it to show up.
Put it in and car starts up PERFECT! Drive to the parts store (1/4m away) to get a rubber grommet that I lost off one of the parts I moved to change the alt and before I get to their parking-lot the car makes a loud thud followed by a whizzing noise like a gear free-spinning very fast and the car completely shuts off but still has electrical (ie radio works, windows, ect).
I roll into the parts store parking lot, cursing the auto Gods.
Parts guys come out and tell me its the Starter?!?! WTF?? That makes my car die while its running? OK, order me one!
Call the tow-truck, he gets there hours later and has me try to crank it, he says "They told you it was the starter? Thats why they SELL parts and dont work in the repair shop, its 100% your timing belt" So I tow it to my house and the next day check whats covered under the Powertrain Warranty, sweet it says Timing belt and I have coverage till 02/14/09! Roadside assistance tows it to the dealership (across the street from the parts store hehe).
They call me a few hours later asking if I race my car, over-rev it, or do anything like that, and also why the computer has been cleared. I tell them about how we changed the alt so the battery was out for a month while we waited for them to get the part in, and unless driving 35-40 MPH to work everyday is considered racing then no I dont ever abuse the car. They reluctantly say ok.
No call for a day, so I call them to see whats going on. They say we need to take the head off to see whats going on, do you want to pay $600 for us to do it? I say, no its still under warranty, service guys says no it isnt, 3yr/36k mile warranty on powertrain. I call BS on him so he looks it up, and WOW I'm right! 5yr/100k on powertrain so I have till 02/14/09! (I hate dealerships!)
They dont call for a day so I call again, waiting for them to tell me its my fault somehow and that I owe them alot of money for them to tell me its toasted (by the way its an 2004 with 23k miles). They say yup, it was the timing, somehow it got off, bent all the exhauste valves and dented the pistons and basically tore up the insides of your engine. Super....
The service guy says he just got confromation and they are going to not only fix the engine for the $100 deductible but put in an entirely new engine (remanufactured of course from Ford) in there and that it will be here in a few days, and it should be back to me next week all good to go! I can barely talk to the guy I am so friggin happy.
He tells me before I hang up, so you pay us $100 and Ford is picking up the rest of the bill, all $10,961 of it, HOLY CR*P! Thank goodness for 1 month of warranty left!
So a month and a half ago I'm driving to town and I hear a slight squeeling in the passengers side of the engine bay,then a few miles later my radio turns itself off, then the dash lights start dimming and flickering, followed by relays clicking in the dash until I turned off the rear defrost?!?! Get about 1/2 mile doing this till the headlights shut off and I lose all power, come to find the alt is fried and even has electrical charring all inside it (smelled horrible too).
Order a new alt from local parts store, comes in and the pulley is all wrong, my 04 has some weird one-way clutch bearing pulley on it, search the net and find a local dealer selling the right alt for only $145, sweet, cheaper than the one from the parts store!
Then I wait 1 MONTH for it to show up.
Put it in and car starts up PERFECT! Drive to the parts store (1/4m away) to get a rubber grommet that I lost off one of the parts I moved to change the alt and before I get to their parking-lot the car makes a loud thud followed by a whizzing noise like a gear free-spinning very fast and the car completely shuts off but still has electrical (ie radio works, windows, ect).
I roll into the parts store parking lot, cursing the auto Gods.
Parts guys come out and tell me its the Starter?!?! WTF?? That makes my car die while its running? OK, order me one!
Call the tow-truck, he gets there hours later and has me try to crank it, he says "They told you it was the starter? Thats why they SELL parts and dont work in the repair shop, its 100% your timing belt" So I tow it to my house and the next day check whats covered under the Powertrain Warranty, sweet it says Timing belt and I have coverage till 02/14/09! Roadside assistance tows it to the dealership (across the street from the parts store hehe).
They call me a few hours later asking if I race my car, over-rev it, or do anything like that, and also why the computer has been cleared. I tell them about how we changed the alt so the battery was out for a month while we waited for them to get the part in, and unless driving 35-40 MPH to work everyday is considered racing then no I dont ever abuse the car. They reluctantly say ok.
No call for a day, so I call them to see whats going on. They say we need to take the head off to see whats going on, do you want to pay $600 for us to do it? I say, no its still under warranty, service guys says no it isnt, 3yr/36k mile warranty on powertrain. I call BS on him so he looks it up, and WOW I'm right! 5yr/100k on powertrain so I have till 02/14/09! (I hate dealerships!)
They dont call for a day so I call again, waiting for them to tell me its my fault somehow and that I owe them alot of money for them to tell me its toasted (by the way its an 2004 with 23k miles). They say yup, it was the timing, somehow it got off, bent all the exhauste valves and dented the pistons and basically tore up the insides of your engine. Super....
The service guy says he just got confromation and they are going to not only fix the engine for the $100 deductible but put in an entirely new engine (remanufactured of course from Ford) in there and that it will be here in a few days, and it should be back to me next week all good to go! I can barely talk to the guy I am so friggin happy.
He tells me before I hang up, so you pay us $100 and Ford is picking up the rest of the bill, all $10,961 of it, HOLY CR*P! Thank goodness for 1 month of warranty left!
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