bdbaldwin Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I have a customer who works as a electrician and bought a new E350 in 06, comes in for all his service on schedule. Well, everything was fine until 80k miles and the trans goes out. Van gets towed in and I look at it and decide the trans is toast and give him a price to rebuild vs reman. He uses this truck for work and no truck means no pay so he decides to go with the reman so he can get it back quicker. So in goes a ford reman trans and it whines like a sob in 1st gear only. He needed the van so he took it while I check with ford about getting another trans. Well, they want that new reman trans tore down and a est worked up. When I try to explain that he ordered a reman so his truck would not be down, they didn't care. So now, I have a pissed off cust who payed for a ford trans who will be without his truck while I pull it, tear it down and rebuild a trans for ford. If he would have wanted to have his trans rebuilt, he would have picked that option. If I had the time to rebuild his trans, I would have pushed that option. So instead, I have to find the time to rebuild and fix fords f*$%ups!!! I will never try to sell a ford reman again! I'll either rebuild it or it's a jasper (better warr and if it's crap, 1 phone call and a new one is here in the morning!!!) This is getting so old, don't know how much more I can take. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Blake... once things like transmissions get into the retail world, smart money is on FQRs (even though they are what we might call "suspect"). If I install an FQR (Ford quality repaint), my only "in" is that all the bolts are tight... The FQR warranty is (IIRC) longer than service part warranty so this is getting a bit more attractive... They have $10/hour boat people building these things - let them suck up the bad stuff... FWIW, I have a 4R75 apart.... it was an FQR last Novemeber. I have found too many separate concerns all wrapped into one assembly and I worry that I might miss something else.... Is it taking too long? Yep.... But I can pass the blame along (call me an asshole... I are one).... From what I have seen, there are few shops that have adequate trans rebuilding facilities.... my own bench is in a bad location - suffers from airborne contaminants - has me spending more time "housekeeping" than it should - invites other techs to shuffle stuff around so they can "steal" a corner or the vice for even just a few minutes.... But I have no where else to put it... I don't have a dedicated solvent tank.... which means I stand as much chance of washing bad shit INTO the trans as I do OUT OF the trans.... The added bonus.... FQR warranty is "dealer inclusive".... the trans I installed here... will have warranty in any Ford store in Canada. I can appreciate where you are coming from... but, in reality, all of the concerns I have found inside of this 4R75 could have been caused by anyone of us having an inattentive moment... Shit happens... it is what we do after the event that separates the men from the boys.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I had a bullshit reply all typed up about the FQR engine in my shop that has made noise and missed from the first second it was started. As I read my statement I started to feel like just another monkey trying to fuck the same old football as the rest of the monkeys ...but sometimes I digress. Regardless of whom is responsible for a failure, we must examine the part, component, system or whatever "it" is that has broken and make a determination as to what went wrong and why. THEN and only then we can determine who's responsibility the repair is, be it the customer's, Ford's, or God forbid, our own. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/surprise.gif I believe Ford is pulling a lot of crap right now but this process is not new to us. It would be too easy for us to assume the engine is defective as in my example, but I would be horrified to send the engine back only to be charged back because somebody left a rag in the intake, forgot to clean out the intake... or... or... ...never changed the OTA cooler, or didn't flush the OTO cooler and lines or flow tested the cooing system... or... or... I hope you see where I am going with this. I would bet my mortgage that more often than not repeat failures have historically been created at the "hands of the technicians" rather than by the manufacturers. Like Jim stated, shit happens, sometimes we have to suck it up. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/puke.gif I doubt it makes it feel any better Blake but we have all been there and I feel your pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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