My Battle with Ford Service Continues Monday!
 

I have a few posts trying to get information on my battle with Ford so I thought I'd start a new thread to consolidate things. Going to try to summarize things briefly below.

Back in late February I took truck into Gary Smith Ford because my truck was spitting out a P0016 code indicating timing chain needed replacing. They went ahead and replaced the timing chain.

After that I drove the truck for almost 2 months thinking the truck just didn't have the same get up and go. Mileage dropped bad from between 14-15 mpg to 10-11 mpg and when I really noticed the power loss was when I went to pull my boat in early May. I went from getting about 400 miles on a tank of gas to getting 250 miles on a tank.

Since May my truck has been in and out of Gary Smith Ford a few times, one time they said they fixed the Turbos, something about a loose connection. Truck seemed a bit quicker but mileage and power pulling my boat was still down. Despite that they told me the "computer" said nothing was wrong so there couldn't be anything wrong with it.

After talking to a couple of Master Mechanics in town and describing my symptoms and what Ford had done they both came to the conclusion my camshaft timing in relation to the crankshaft must be off. The only way to check it is to take the timing cover off and physically inspect it, an 8-10 hour job. Gary Smith Ford said they wouldn't do that unless I agreed to pay for it if timing wasn't the issue. Regardless, there is still be a problem with my truck they need to fix it. They tried to blame my Air Raid filter for the power loss and bad gas mileage and sent me away saying nothing was wrong with my truck. I have since put the stock air box and a new filter back on the truck, no improvement what so ever.

Today I took the truck to a performance shop in town and had them Dyno it. Stock 2011 Ecoboosts have been getting 315-320 hp and 350 lb-ft of Torque. With 3 runs the best my truck did was 279 hp and 335 lb-ft of Torque. The guy said it really started running rich right after 4000 rpm's where he thinks the variable valve timing kicks in. With other info I've gathered online, here and from the Dyno I think I can make a pretty good case with Ford there is still something wrong with my truck engine but I'm not taking it back to Gary Smith Ford.

With Crystal's help I escalated this issue to a Regional Service Advisor for Ford. They have me setup with an appointment Monday with another Ford Dealer, I will update when I find out how that goes.

Good luck, dont get overly excited about the escalation, they cant tell or make a dealer to do anything. They will also quickly side with the dealers.

Hope you get it sorted!

Good luck

Ok, dropped my truck off at Hub City Ford in Crestview, FL this morning and had a very good conversation with their service manager, Kris Thompson. Unlike the other service manager who stated since the computer said nothing was wrong there is no way my truck could have a timing issue Kris Thompson of Hub City Ford told me there is a chance it could be off by 1 tooth and the computer wouldn't be able to see it but it would affect performance. He told me to bring it in today because his best technician with over 30 years experience would be back from vacation and that is who he was going to assign to my truck.

My confidence that my truck might actually get fixed this time is definitely up. Talking to Kris Thompson was nothing like talking to that other service manager. The other service manager treated me like an idiot trying to blame my bad gas mileage on an Air Raid filter, Kris said there was no way that would affect mileage that much. He also told me if his best technician can't figure it out he'd call in a Ford Engineer who specializes on the Ecoboost engine. Instead of telling me in a round about way the mileage and power loss was due to my driving habits he understood there was a problem that needed to be fixed and his team was going to do what was necessary to fix it.

If they figure this out and get my truck running the way it's supposed to they will have earned themselves a new customer because I will never buy from Gary Smith Ford again. The 35 minute drive to get to Hub City Ford and experience the kind of customer service I had today is well worth it and when it comes time to buy a new car for my wife or a new truck for myself they'll have earned my business.

I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. I'm in Pensacola and have used World Ford here with no real issues so far, but you never really know how things will go when you have a problem that isn't an easy one to solve. Good luck, I hope the guys at Hub City get you taken care of.

I don't have an ecoboost, however, I have a few friends with them.


I hope all gets resolved and interested in hearing the what the problem was.
















MPD165

The good thing about Ford Service is they always give you a print out of what the problem was and what was done to fix it. When I do get it me and the owner of Gary Smith Ford will be having a talk and I will show him the report and explain to him why he'll no longer have me as a customer. The treatment I got from his service manager was down right disrespectful and rude.

Update?

You need to leave reviews of your experience every where you can, edmunds, cars.com, google, etc. I doubt it will make a difference but you never know.

Well just spoke with the Service Manager at Hub City Ford where my truck is now and has been for 3 going on 4 days and he says they checked the timing and it's in time. It's not looking good to getting this issue resolved, I thought for sure that was going to be it.

I will say this much, they haven't given up, they made a call to a Ford Engineer yesterday that hopefully can help out. The Dyno showed the Fuel to Air ratio was running rich, that to me would cause the issues with mileage but not sure if that would cause the dip in overall performance too. The Service Manager said that is one of the things he wanted the Ford Engineer to look at so we'll see, he said he give me a call by the end of today with an update.