Subject:  Another Lack of Focus
Date:     7/3/2004

As I run this story through my head considering how best to tell it, 
it occurs to me that it is way too long.

This is about my 2002 Focus and its as yet unexplained wiper 
problems.  I will make it as brief as possible.

One fine rainy morning I flip the switch and nothing, no operation 
at all. After checking the fuse I decide this is serious, I cancel 
one or two appointments and head for the nearest Ford dealer, in this 
case Fox Lake Ford in Fox Lake, IL.  An hour after signing up for the 
$80.00 diagnostic fee I am told that they must replace the central 
junction box and that then the next step would be the switch.  They 
explain that they would supply me a rental car free of charge as part 
of a special program that they had running.  Now, I began to wonder 
how this wiper thing was getting so involved, but I figured that only 
so much could be wrong, my sales calls were stacking up and I had to 
get going.

So they kick in a discounted day’s rate for the rental, I think.  I’m 
sure I’ll pay for it somehow but I have to get out of here.  An 
important part here is that they showed me in the book these 
procedures, which I assumed were diagnostic, and they would not keep 
swapping the parts along what certainly seemed to be a backward 
methodology, they would test and move on.  I was wrong about Fox Lake 
Ford and I did pay for it.

Four days and many calls later I returned the rental, which they paid, 
and was presented a bill for $750.00 for a central junction box and a 
switch, along with additional labor for finding an “open wire” which 
had apparently caused the defect.  I demanded and received the replaced 
parts and paid the bill, what could I do?  I figured that the wire had 
cost me $750.00 and that I needed to find out if these parts were good. 

Two weeks later it rains and, guess what, no wipers.  I call the 
official Ford Customer Go Away number.  I tell ‘em my troubles and they 
say take it up with the dealer.  I say that the dealer has ripped me 
off already for $750.00, isn’t there any option besides begging them to 
do it some more? Can’t you give me an alternative dealer and pay for 
another diagnostic so we can get me safely home in your Ford Focus?  
Well, I’ve sold cars before and I should have seen this coming.  

They explain in so many words that it is my dealer, not theirs.  Where 
have I heard something like that before?

The rain stopped, and the next morning the wipers worked fine.  Clearly 
Fox Lake Ford had fixed nothing, but stupidly had thought they had.  
The car had simply dried out on them and they gave me the bill for 
replacing perfectly good and expensive components.

I go to another dealer, Elkhorn Ford in Elkhorn, WI. To their credit, 
they say they will look into it for no fee.  Two days go by and I call 
them.  They can find nothing wrong.  I ask them if maybe they had 
soaked the windshield and tried, as this seemed to be a moisture thing, 
being windshield wipers and all!  They said they would give that a whirl.  
Jeez!  Two more days pass (no phone calls for freebies, I guess) and I 
call again from my own damn rental car.  Still can’t find anything wrong.  
I go get the car, take it home, put on the intermittents, put a hose on 
the windshield and, guess what, two more swipes and then nothing.  
Unbelievable!

Now we’re having our rainiest May in years and I’m driving 70 mph down 
US 12 on RainX and talking to Ford again.  I get nowhere and try a 
letter.  Ford has no change in their position.  Now I’m mad and I find 
my way into Ford’s secure site, looking for anything related to this 
problem.  Turns out there is a special service bulletin saying that the 
intermittent relays in 2002 Focuses may fail without warning.  Nice.  
Why wouldn’t they quietly change the relay then?  Why did neither dealer 
mention this relay thing?  Why would the relay, in an interior location, 
fail during rains?  I ask Ford this.  No comment.

Running out of options, or at least inexpensive ones, I go back to Fox 
Lake Ford, knowing what is to come.  Yep, I need a new motor, which they 
are willing, God bless them, to replace for something like cost.  No 
mention of another rental, however.  I offer to bring my brother-in-law 
in to install my replaced parts into another Focus and bet them double 
or nothing on the $750.00 that they would work.  “Can’t do that,” they 
say.  I tell ‘em put it back together and I‘ll see you later.

Well, they didn’t spit in the returned plate too badly, at least as far 
as I can tell.  Now the wipers (when it’s dry) try to go down under the 
hood instead of up so I have to keep the relay out.  Also, as a bonus I 
have discovered that my signals fail to cancel.  With any luck the air 
bag won’t deploy and the steering wheel will stay attached, assuming that 
I don’t first run into something in the rain before I find a decent 
mechanic (as soon as I can afford another rental car again).

That’s the story, and this is what I make of it.

Firstly, there is definite and systematic difference in syntax used in 
the directions for diagnoses written in the master repair manuals as 
compared to that used in the more private messages on Ford’s internal 
site.  This provides a tool of explanation to customers, leading them 
to believe that “replacements” such as I had incurred were in all cases 
permanent and billed.  In fact I believe that statistics would reveal a 
duality of approach, one system of testing with a “known good part” for 
warranty customers and another of replace and move on for cash customers.  
I would be interested to know how many people of each class have been 
shown these passages.

Additionally, there is the actual failure.  Consider that Ford already 
had to replace millions of motors from 2000 and 2001 models, which were 
prone to ignite.  Consider that this refit had to done swiftly and 
cheaply.  Consider that millions of GMC small trucks were recalled with 
failures identical to mine.  Consider that this failure could well hang 
the relay, and in fact I had told both dealers that I had once heard the 
distinctive sound of a relay buzzing (looked at me like I was crazy, they 
did).  Consider the mostly ignored service bulletin on the relay.  
Consider that no parts person I have found remembers any of these relays 
being recalled.  

“All the diagnostics lead to the motor,” said Fox Lake Ford, though 
obviously down a rather convoluted path.  I agree.  I also believe that 
I can’t be the first, that the relay bulletin is a cover up and a sign 
that Ford is well aware that defects similar to those in the GM modules 
exist.  If that is true it is also likely that Ford is stonewalling even 
its own, excuse me, I mean those independent dealers who happen to sell 
Fords as to the nature of this problem. 

I will not go back to Fox Lake Ford to replace the motor, God knows what 
will happen after if I do.  I suppose I will have to pay full boat for 
its replacement, I can’t keep relying on RainX to keep me alive, though 
they certainly are doing a better job than the Ford Motor Company!

I would guess the tab will approach $1,500.00 for this by the time I get 
done with the motor and total the rental car bills. Gotta be some kind 
of record for windshield wipers.