Jim Warman

My personal favourite... one I live by.... "Cheer up - things are never so bad that they can't get worse....".

They don't even paint the freakin' things, anymore.... well - if they can't get the aluminum parts clean, they paint them with aluminum paint... I forgot the 4R75 I have apart.... Another FQR.... valve body wasn't assembled right, reverse servo cover retainer ate the case, pump bolts weren't tight, forward clutch seals leak, and there's a couple more problems that I haven't listed.... I'm sure this was a "long weekend Friday afternoon trans"....

From TSB 08-09-09 "NOTE: NOTICE BRANCH TUBE ADAPTER TO BRANCH TUBE HOLE MISALIGNMENT IN MOST CASES THERE IS ENOUGH CLEARANCE IN THE BRANCH TUBE ASSEMBLY AND HIGH-PRESSURE OIL PUMP ASSEMBLY FOR PROPER HOLE ALIGNMENT. IF UNABLE TO ALIGN HOLES THE BRANCH TUBE ASSEMBLY WILL HAVE TO BE REPLACED. (FIGURE 11)" The only leaking branch tubes I ever encountered weren't bent (not as I could notice, anyway)... I have encountered some that have rubbed into the back cover.... and bent them back.... with no after-effects.... (Insert sound of rolling dice here).

FQR could be the key ingredient.... we just went through one that didn't get past the road test before a cam phaser shit the bed....

Keith... you have said it about as plainly and succinctly as anyone possibly can.... The turn around times at our store can be borderline ridiculous... but, on top of trying to the best, most complete job we possibly can, we are also fixing the "legacy" that others seem to leave in their wake.... Broken stators.... we see them broken at the bottom because a back up wrench wasn't used on the stand-offs.... or we see them broken at the top because either the shroud wasn't removed when the intake was - or the part with the top (nutless) stud wasn't removed (which would either be the intake elbow or the EGRTP flange)... someone causing grief because they are trying to be fast before they thought of being good... Stripped out and/or missing VC gaskets.... that's what happens when you use an impact or an air ratchet to assemble stuff...... especially aluminum stuff. In my addled old brain, some of this stuff is coming back around that wonderful viscious circle.... Flat rate was born of a need to quantify a labour operation.... standardize it, if you will.... Good guys could beat the flat rate time... and they could do it while ensuring that the task was done properly (remembering that 30 years ago we didn't place as much importance on our torque wrenches as we do now - and we could get away with it because most everythoing was heftier and more than was needed). Not so good guys wanted a piece of this "gain time" too.. and shoddy work was born ( yeah, OK, there are thieves waiting around every corner.... but they didn't used to work in the same shop as you). Times get a little tight and a lot of the "smart" guys head for greener pastures - outside of this industry... At the same time, gain time isn't a "bonus" any more.... Techs begin to "expect" it... much like a waiter or waitress expects a tip.... "Well, ain't this a rip.... all I can do is break even on this job...". Remembering that a lot of the good guys have left openings that get filled with a lot of "not so good" guys.... I would hope that everyone can see where this is going... Long story made short.... we are all painted with the same brush... (a saying for the good sayings thread)..... unfortunately, there are bad apples in this barrel (another saying for the sayings thread).... If there's one bad apple in the barrel... they're probably all bad.... Ford is simply doing what the public has been doing for many years.... doubting us.... given that we have allowed this shit to happen in OUR TRADE, there's every chance we may deserve it.

Another rant... if you are faint of heart you might be better off looking at youtube... As a "working foreman", it is often that I don't get involved in some things until it is almost too late.... An 06 F150 from a body shop (this should be enough to make anyone shudder all by itself). There was a concern with the memory feature.... pedals - seat - mirrors..... I can't recall the circuit number - it was a five amp fused ckt and the "up front" problem was fouind to be a broken wire in the left door sill.... After that... I still shake my head..... after that, we spent over four hours trying to get the truck to do stuff it was never designed to do.... Unlike other models, the F150 does not use the key to identify driver one or driver two for the memory functions.... It does use the key fob - unlock the door with the fob and the seat and pedals (and I am still not sure about the mirrors) assume the position associated with that fob.... I've said it before and I'll say it again.... If we don't know how it works, how the fuck are we gonna fix it? I spend a lot of time "cruising" my shop... looking for waste and/or neglect.... I find more than I like to admit and I probably miss more than I'd like.... Your job is from 8AM till 5PM.... your career is forever....

Brad... this is what has become "business as usual".... It is a tough sell to those higher on the food chain than I, but I see myself as "quality control" these days.... And here comes one of the rants I promised.... Not long ago, we overhauled a front diff on a half ton (original concern is noise in front).... I got involved about "mid stream"..... Ring and pinion were replaced as well as all bearings.... I inspected the bearings and the side bearings were spalting.... I didn't understand the ring and pinion but what the fuck do I know? After everything was reassembled and road tested... it came back in the shop.... I am getting confused at this point and the job was passed to me.... That was up until I drove it a half block and heard the wheel bearing that was in self destruct mode.... How... In God's name..... can we overlook a wheel bearing and hear bad side bearings????? And here comes the surprise I didn't see.... we can do this by not verifying the concern.... This tech never did take this fucking truck for a drive.... his Mexican drivers licence expired a year before he emigrated..... And all of the customers that know and trust me have a chance to take a second look.... The truly sad part is that there isn't a lot of difference between a shoddy tech and a great tech.... A shoddy tech cares about what happens ON payday... a great one worries about what happens between them.... As you have seen - it is the little things that separate the two halves. Going for a ride with a customer can be a revealing thing.... Here is your chance to ask all the questions you wish the SA had asked.... If the customer wants to "chit chat", pretend to be engrossed in thought if chit chat isn't in your repertoire... The previous tech should be spoken to.... how did he arrive at a diagnosis that embarasses your whole shop? Is it something he never learned or something he disregarded? I can be extremely short with "stupid" but I try my best to use it as a teaching tool... It is becoming more and more important for us to be personally involved in our customers concerns.... It is rare for an SA to gather the basic info we need to even recreate the customers concern.... Perhaps the guy in the next bay isn't capable of a lot of his job requirements.... If he is bad, there is a very real chance that we will be painted with the same brush that paints him. Here's your chance to get "in peoples faces"....

Mike... the "W" does indeed stand for "winter"... Something we shouldf all have a grasp of is some of the stuff that API has on labels ... not to mention NLGI and anything else I'm currentlyu overlooking.... "EP" has a meaning.... viscosity ratings.... we should hgave at least a passing familiarity with some of this stuff.... if for no other reason than to remind us that there are times we are better off saying "I'll find out for you...". Dwayne.... here's the deal.... From where I sit, the thinner oil helped in the fall (I recall that this was about the time we made the switch from 15W 40 in our store (caution - memory thing)). I remember "morning romps". All of these things "helped" a bit.... but nothing was a permanent cure. What I'd like to see is an effort from Ford to try pilot injection with what we all accept as current common knowledge... Look at it this way.... we might all be surprised or I might be an embarassed old fool....

Not knowing what the other tech has done is the biggest part of the problem.... I am often given something that has defied any and all repair efforts.... I have two choices... I can pick up where everyone else has left of (bad move) - or I can do the right thing and start from square ONE.... You desparately need the concern to happen for you... with stuff hooked up.... maybe a VDR? How about a better description of what it will take to recreate the concern? Involve the customer a little more? Have him drive it until he feels the concern will happen and then come straight to your store? Nobody is "out of ideas" because there weren't any ideas to be had.... We need to decide on the appropriate diagnostic routine and then embark upon that routine.... If we are on the wrong track, we need to realize that when our test results are screaming it... My bad.... have we looked for a chip?

Dwayne..... the roughest arse I have when it comes to notebooks is my loving bride.... this woman can destroy a USB port from 50 feet.. I do admit that I have some stability issues with the Toughbook... If the guys let them hibernate (I'm talking a "lid up", forced power-down hibernate) with an open session, they seem to lock up - refuse to see the VCM or have other connectivity issues (thirty years ago "connectivity" wasn't a word).. Rebooting the machine seems to be the only cure. I like the touch screen... I like being able to turn it into a tablet... and I love turning the display upside down and walking away....

Dwayne... a little food for thought.... we had problems with engines when they were cold.... we lost pilot injection.... we had problems with engines when they were cold and we switched to 10W 30 (does anyone know what the "W" means? Trick question)... and then we had problems with the engines when they were clod and did some marathon oil changes to try and prove that owners were more negligant than we already assumed.... and we still had cold engine problems and went to the post cycle buzz and then finally to the inductive heating strategy (and now we have to be sure we remove the FICM relay when reflashing).... What are the chances, now that we have this much of the learning curve out of the way, that we could run thicker oil AND have the return of pilot injection.... Forgive me if I'm mistaken.... but I recall pilot injection trucks as neck snappers from the git-go.... when we lost pilot injection, we lost that "lifting" power....

Bruno... I finally did one of these yesterday (Saturday)... I don't know what all the whimpering is about.... Yes, dammit, the truck was up to temp.... My hands are not the size of hams but neither are they small and, at their age, they no longer bend quite the same as they did many years ago.... MAC has a push pin tool about 18 or so inches long... red handle.... do not leave home without this tool... For a lube, try glass cleaner... clings to the rubber better, evaporates 100%. I have no idea how long mine took - I got called away a half dozen times.... I do remember thinking "HoHum... what is the fuss about?". It would have been nicer if they had left the time alone....

Mike... in the interests of being "politically correct" (something that we need to have at least the "appearance" of, on occasion) this is why I mentioned "customer follow up".... If you want the guy as a customer.... treat him as if you want him for a customer... For my own part, I wouldn't hesitate to ask if someones last visit was satisfactory and if all concerns were addressed. Our customer sees someone that cares... and Ford sees a shop doing the customer follow up that Ford says we should do... Can you get any more fundamentally correct than that?

No good deed goes unpunished... It is far easier to get forgiveness than permission....

Mike... you are in a gnarly spot.... But, let's try and break this down into smaller chunks.... First... you have a customer with a truck nearly five years old..... five years.... I imagine he was surprised when he found out he still had a "smell" of warranty left.... None-the-less - what happens next might very well pave the road this mans future buying habits will follow. "The inexperienced tech"... We all started out as this guy.... Every last one of us.... But some donkey on the service desk hasn't yet realized that a "tech" is much more than a pair of coveralls and a toolbox.... much more than some pretty "wallpaper" .... (you can almost smell a couple of new rants coming on)... And this donkey on the service desk will start something that someone else is going to have to fix.... "Green coolant".... all I will say is add dye to gold coolant.... the brand of dye may be pertinent.... I'll have to check on what we currently have - but we have seen dye turn gold into green (or apparently so).... This is a hazy subject IMHE and the less said without some solid background...... I can't recall when the EGR cooler hose was updated.... I do recall replacing EGR coolers and oil coolers and such and getting an orange hose in the gasket set.... I have also seen techs claim for doing stuff that wasn't done.... You are still in a gnarly spot.... What can you do? Check the date of the repairs.... If they are circa the hose update..... what can I say? Now... forget that the guy just bought the truck.... He buys old trucks - from independants.... this isn't the stuff that keeps your store afloat.... He's a guy with a truck and it has a bit of warranty left.... Is he a "preferred customer"? Are you going to go above and beyond the call of duty for this guy????? Why???? Since there was a previous concern of white smoke and seeing as SAs are supposed to be familiar with their customers and seeing as we are trying to keep these customers as our own.... did the fucking wiener on the service desk look at customer history anywhere in the process? You did... and look what you found.... With the info you now have.... what would it take for someone to contact the customer and ask if this other concern has been either resolved or addressed.... In the strictest sense, it isn't "upsell"... it IS "after sales service".... it is, in fact, customer follow up - something that Ford recommends. About a week after a visit to the store, our SAs are instructed to call the customer to determine if the experience with the dealer was satisafactory... if the car was repaired as promised or if there are any concerns that need to be addressed.... OH MY FUCKING GOD We are supposed to show the customer we care about him/her.... we are supposed to show that we are concerned with their satisfaction.... I could keep going, Mike.... these subjects are never as easy as most think they are.... This is a complex dynamic.... One thing you can be sure of.... You are in the middle..... At any one time, you are about to step on someones toes.... If you are lucky, you get to pick whose toes it is.... Suck it up, Princess... we are trying to be politically correct in a world that isn't politically correct....

I agree that the CF-18 is the way to go.... Panasonic designed these things to take a free fall drop from 4 feet and survive.... What Dwayne and some others forget is that they are using either their own laptop or one that they can covet as their own.... Some of us have to work with people that are either clumsy, gormless or otherwise inclined to prove that some people should be prohibited from bre eeding. The Toughbook does a pretty fair job of surviving those indignities my unruly mob can be guilty of.... FWIW, my personal laptops have always been Toshibas.... my next one will be a CF-18 (unless something better comes along). Another FWIW, the Toughbook is used in military actions and other severe service arenas.... 'Nuff said.

Go to the online WSM for the 07 F350.... Section 206-10 works good..... Click on the Symptom Chart and scroll to the bottom of it..... The word "DUH" comes to mind..... Admittedly, I can see where they are going with this symptom.... But all I can see is the this "DUH" will have an echo because we wont do what we say we did.... and I'm about to stick my foot in my mouth in another thread.... On another venue, I am hated because I had the utter chutzpah to suggest that a wiener (Ford finds this term derogatory) that had access to free training (but didn't get paid to take it) was a wiener for not taking the free training when he had the chance.... Cutting you nose off to spite your face is a pretty low rent manoeuver.... "I didn't want to improve my knowledge base and skill set because I don't get paid to make myself more valuable".... "DUH"... What C&W singer said "Here's your sign..."?

We have at least two in our area that have had broken standpipes (that I know of) that have left plastic in the system from the tabs on the bypass valve... They are still on the road with no apparent ill effects..... yet. Both of these were serviced in aftermarket shops - in both it was us that found the damage.

I haven't had to use mode 6 very much... most of the time it has been simply looking for misfire trends.... However, it is my understanding that anything that is keeping a comprehensive monitor from completing will be highlighted....

Greg. the OBD test mode you are looking for would be Mode 6 data..... for a gas pot, anyway.... This is the one you say isn't available?

A variation on one of Shleps..... "I may not know music, but I know shit when I hear it."

"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean I'm not being followed". "If the solution appears simple, it is obvious you don't understand the problem". One of my personal internet faves.... how many trips to the hospital begin with "Hey, guys.... watch this...".

Wow... we are getting into fact or fiction on this one now.... (This was the first "flame thrower" video I saw... the only one if I recall)... We can definitely hear the the engine is hurting.... My understanding was that this was not a staged event and it occurred at a dealership in a stet soemwhere arouind the Great Lakes (I recall Indianapolis but have no proof). Now.... this video is out there for the world to see.... for the world to see that not one of these "technicians" is smart enough to reach in and turn off the key.

.... Does Fugnutz work?

The recurring P1000 has me intrigued.... If your man had a tuner, I'd expect something like a P0603 in the mix.... But a P1000? Have you tried hotline or OASIS QuickStart? We haven't seen much in the way of 6.4 troubles (other than fuel mileage) in our store. Post a movie or two and we might be able to offer some insight.... All too often we are given thjose circiumstances that require symptom driven diagnostics rather than code assisted diagnostics.