Subject: 
1999 Ford F150


Mon, 26 Sep 2005 14:51:34 -0700
Date:    





1.  At about 27,000 miles the cruise control and horn stopped working.  
Took it to the local dealership (Razarri Ford in Merced, CA) to get it 
checked out.  The technician showed me the indicator  on the instrument 
cluster that showed that the airbag had deployed.  The service manager 
accused me of deploying the bag and stuffing it back into the steering 
wheel.  The truck looked new, no scratches, no new paint, no repairs, 
and I had not hit anything and had not deployed the bag.  They 
threatened me with a big bill if they found any evidence of airbag 
deployment.  The took the steering wheel apart and found a defective 
contact that had come loose and disabled the horn and cruise control and 
caused the "airbag deployed" indicator to come on.

2.  At about 37,000 miles an oil leak was discovered from the right side 
of the engine.  Razarri Ford did the flourescent dye test and determined 
that the leak was from the head gasket.  Warranty expired at 36,000 
miles (how coincidental).  Razarri Ford did not mention anything about a 
service bulletin for this defect.  Later on from another repair shop did 
I discover this service bulletin for oil leaks from right side head 
gasket due to metal chip debris lodged between the head gasket and 
block.  I notified Ford customer support of this problem (apparently 
just a call center full of people to listen to you vent and type stuff 
into a computer).  They said that a technician would get back to me 
about this problem but never did.  I'm now starting to find out that 
"quality is not #1" with Ford.  And they don't ever really fix problems 
they just want you to think that they are listening.

3.  At about 75,000 miles the electronic LED odometer becomes 
intermittent, flashing on and off at will.  This goes on for months.  
Again I notify Ford customer care about this but nothing happens.  I 
write a letter to the CEO of Ford (somebody Ford).  Nothing back from 
him, he's too busy taking delivery of Ford's first production car of 
their new, expensive, sports car.  I end up taking a weekend and remove 
all of the trim panels and the instrument cluster.  I take apart the 
instrument cluster (there are about four layers and in the middle is the 
main printed circuit board).  There is a ribbon cable connecting the 
main printed circuit board to the stand-alone odometer printed circuit 
board.  I inspect the connections of the ribbon cable and the Molex-type 
connectors on both ends.  I notice terrible solder joints on those 
connectors where they are soldered to the printed circuit boards.  I get 
my Weller soldering iron and reflow the bad solder joints on the Molex 
connectors.  I assemble the instrument cluster and reassemble everything 
and the odometer has worked fine since.  Too bad that Ford has no idea 
of what quality is, including what constitues a good solder joint.

Conclusion:  I'll never buy another piece of junk Ford vehicle again!!!! 
 Have purchased two Hondas since then.

Darrell S