Subject: quality is NOT job one
Date:    05/06/2008 6:11 AM

   Having just recently been a Ford Technician at a local dealership I must
say the one most enjoyable thing about working on Fords was the job security.
Never a lack of work for bull**** that a lot of other manufactures seems to
have conquered ages ago.

   Let's take a look at some of the things that had to be taken care of
before the car could even be put on the line for a test drive: '08 F250s and
350s seatback welds having the potential for breaking.  Ford's solution is to
put a muffler clamp on the welds. Great, now the welds can still break and
you have nothing but a muffler clamp keeping you from hitting the back of
cab. '08 Mustangs and Focuses: pre-delivery recall on the Powertrain Control
Module. They have to be re-programmed by the dealer and these cars aren't
even 5 miles old yet. '08 Focuses (again). For some reason never explained to
us properly is a wad of foam rubber stuffed into the defroster ducts.
Something about to break in the heater system and this is to keep it from
flying out and hitting the driver in the face?

   We saw a lot of emissions problems at this local dealership. Windstar
owners beware: if your van is powered by the 3.8L you're going to be stuck
with a large bill when the check engine light comes on for lean oxygen
sensors. The following list of parts will need to be replaced: front valve
cover, intake manifold gaskets and bolts, and a good cleaning to get all the
oil out of the intake manifold. Seems the breather/baffle system on the
original is allowing excessive oil pull out into the intake manifold, blowing
the intake gaskets, allowing oil, and additional air to enter the air intake
system.

   Balljoints are an excessive problem with Ford. Tauruses, Windstars, the
entire truck line. Balljoints that won't last long enough to get it off
warranty. (Anyone here with an abnormal tire wear complaint?)

   Transmissions anyone? The entire line is weak. I've had to replace seals
in transmissions with as little as 6000 miles. Usually it's the front pump
seal going bad on the F-series trucks. Under warranty you're fine, out of
warranty here's the parts list you're going to be looking at: torque convertor,
convertor seals, and front pump seal. Plus the eight hours labor.

   Very bad design on the front hubs for the 4x4 system on anything lighter
than the F350. You'll find out when you need your four wheel drive that you
don't have it.

   Exhaust manifolds on entire truck line, every gas engine. I've had to
replace every stud, all the gaskets, and both manifolds on V10s, usually just
one side or the other on the 5.4L and 4.6L. Studs are breaking due to
excessive corrosion, some of these trucks with as little as 30,000 miles. Most
studs have to be drilled out to be replaced, adding labor time.

   And the biggest design flaw of them all: the elongated pressed/screwed in
spark plugs on the 5.4 and 4.6 three valve engines. These spark plugs are
prone to breakage because of the elongated design, requiring special tools to
get them out. Ford advertises 100,000 miles on the plugs. It's sure breakage
to wait that long, requiring you to take it the dealership (the aftermarket
has just now released their own version of the Rotunda [Ford] tool to remove
broken spark plugs) and spending close to $1000 to have a tune up.

   I'm sorry, I misspoke about the biggest design flaw of the all in the last
paragraph. The desiel trucks are the biggest design flaw. The new PowerChoke
twin turbo diesels are the mother of design flaws of all of Ford's idiotic
engineering. Because of the idiot idea to continue on with International V8
desiels the new trucks have to have the cab pulled completely off the truck
in order to work on the turbos. And because, eventually, the International
engine will have to be pulled to be worked on just add the extra labor time
of having to pull the truck almost completely apart to the already expensive
fix of having to work on the mountain of crap that International/Ford builds.

  Of course, you also have Ford's idea of sending out factory reps to the
dealerships. Even as Ford is advertising total Quality Care from all
certified dealerships, the ability to take care of ALL your service needs
under one roof, such as tires, alignments, etc, the dealership I work for
never had a Ford rep come out and actually look at the state of the shop.
This is a dealership that advertises themselves as being "state of the art."
Yet we had technicians working with floor jacks and jack stands because the
owner was too cheap to buy lifts for all his techs. And while Ford is
advertising ALL your service needs under one roof from all certified
dealerships (of which this is one) we didn't have an alignment rack. Ford's
lack of care about their techs, their shops, and about their customers is
allowing the owner and his son of this dealership to hustle their customers
into believing something being advertised that just isn't true. Ford is also
allowing this owner to put his technicians in a potential life threatening
situation by having to work under a car supported by jackstands, instead of
on a lift. At least if a car is on a lift and begins to teeter or fall a
person is on their feet and can run for safety (not likely given the safeties
built into a lift) but if a person is on a creeper under a car and something
begins to fall you can't move that fast. State of the art? Hardly, yet, Ford
doesn't care enough to actually look close at their dealerships.

Sara C.