| Car Question
Posted: 6/13/2008 4:33:55 PM | to let you know hard candy i am ase certified in light duty diesel and gasoline, my experience owning 9 fords since the age of 16 ive found crap parts right out the box, the gm cs alternators are junk no matter new reman or junkyard same goes for starters and batteries on gm vehicles.
i realize that you have mechanical experience as well but can say ford does make good on warranty when the parts stores say no return or hassle you on where the part was purchased 6 months later
are you refering to bill heard in sanderson/orlando florida? yeah the #1 chevy dealer in america outside their 20 acre car lot and surprisingly see 1-2 shoppers there everytime im down that way.
you are correct on the stabilizer bar if its not warped or bent and it bolt back in its still good. | |
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| Car Question
Posted: 6/13/2008 11:52:23 PM | The guy at part source today said not to believe ford when they told me to replace the bar, I now need to get a THIRD opinion. I'd like to believe all of you people, but you obviously can't see the car, and it's hard for me to say a dealer is wrong - even when I told him I wouldn't be getting the work done there just the springs and diagnostic which were free.
We'll see, but as far as I can tell all I need to really replace soonish is the link kits. | |
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| Car Question
Posted: 6/14/2008 12:42:07 AM |
MSG#1 ~OP~ wrote:He quoted me $930. Thats intirely too much. I would call a local car salvage and buy loaded struts with the spring,head plate,and strut. I don't know about your area but 50 bucks for a pair around here is the going price. Since the springs are already on the used struts and simply pull the other stuts/spring/head plate. This shouldn't take more than an hour tops. Then you will need to have the car aligned after installing the used struts.
$930.00 is insain
Brand new struts including alignment labor an all with out calling for price just tossing a price out there on the table I'd say about 300-350. Gish you best think about getting something besides a ford to drive. | |
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| Car Question
Posted: 6/14/2008 9:40:11 PM | | Good to see you are getting the car fixed. Its true that most times you dont need to change the sway bar but if the holes where the links bolt up to are out of tolerance then Ford has to recommend a replacement. Just wanted to mention that so you can question them on it... | |
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| Car Question
Posted: 6/15/2008 6:34:50 AM | i realize that you have mechanical experience as well but can say ford does make good on warranty when the parts stores say no return or hassle you on where the part was purchased 6 months later
are you refering to bill heard in sanderson/orlando florida? yeah the #1 chevy dealer in america outside their 20 acre car lot and surprisingly see 1-2 shoppers there everytime im down that way.
Ford usually has to make good on a warranty given the fact that so many of their crap parts fall under the "recall" guidelines. Which does no good when the damn car caught fire and burnt your house down. That is of course, if you're alive unlike Al Gavegan Sr. who died in his house fire caused by his 1994 Mercury Marquis.
http://flamingfords.info/
http://www.safetyforum.com/fordfires/buf.html
http://www.switchfires.com/news.htm
I don't know why you're getting hassled for returning a part at a part store if you bought it with a warranty, but if you live in Florida, then it makes a little sense. When I lived in Orlando, the place was full of a$$holes. It was like they came out of the wood work just to make life all the more miserable. The only thing that made that place tolerable was the fact that I ran into a bunch of Brazilians on vacation, people from out of state and that I was leaving eventually.
Regarding Bill Heard: We have two here near Houston and it's the only car dealer where they incorporate a security guard checkpoint. It was put into place to keep out the protesters of their illegal business practices. According to the reports, Bill Heard was slapped with 30 compliance orders and $400,000 in fines by Florida for deceptive trade practices. Bill Heard got smacked by the Phoenix D.A. for $225,000.
http://www.azag.gov/press_releases/june/2008/heard%20settlement%20release.pdf
In Tennessee: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1v_Mjtdx3BA
Sugar Land is outside of Houston:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QU8edSsYhVw&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5LItBCG58xE&feature=related
Oh and another reason to avoid buying new parts from the dealer besides the "showroom shine" markup, is the customary 15% restocking fee. Every dealer I've ever been to employs this bogus "fee" for any and every return. I'm not talking about reman parts vs. new dealer parts. I'm talking about new dealer parts vs. the same new parts available via parts stores. One guy that runs a two person part store that I use for my German electronic parts nearly saves me 30-50% over dealer priced parts. Why? No showroom or car lot. These are the same parts that the dealer gets and this small retailer offers the same low prices to everyone with no secret handshakes/nods. I'd rather keep the small guy in business rather than some corporate dealer. | |
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| Car Question
Posted: 7/2/2008 1:59:11 PM | So my stupid car is messing up again!
At first I thought I had a clogged fuel filter, when my car would decelerate and bog out...
so I changed it, and car ran fine for a couple weeks. And then yesterday I had to drive home from the airport going 40km. hr in a jerking motion the entire time. The most frustrating part, is that since my sensors haven't detected a problem, ford can't do anything (my car has ran fine ever since two nights ago) so basically I have to wait until my car is TOAST, before they can figure out what the problem is - how stupid is that. .. . I'm so angry.
My bf thinks it could be the torque converter -- or the tranny, hopefully not.. | |
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| Car Question
Posted: 7/2/2008 3:32:53 PM | | This may have been mentioned, if so, sorry for repeating. I only skimmed the posts. About your swaybar. Unless you've somehow bent it, it doesn't need replaced. It's a bar. You may have bad bushings causing the car to not corner as well as it should, or make a little noise, but there's no need to replace the bar itself. I would recommend replacing both L and R swaybar links. Not always, but in most cases it's best to replace anything that works as a pair/ shocks, brakes, wheel cylinders, etc... in pairs. And, it may seem to cost more but You might be better off having things diagnosed at the dealer. The backyard mechanic will probably just throw parts at the problem until he finds the right one and you end up paying for parts you probably didn't need. In the long run, going to the dealer will probably be cheaper. | |
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| Car Question
Posted: 7/2/2008 9:39:05 PM | MSG#32,Q Wrote:In the long run, going to the dealer will probably be cheaper. thats about a joke.Maybe where your from but not in this county. | |
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