The story of a head gasket and shitty Ford service

"Wagon Guy drives a Boostang" (gimmeboost) 08/15/2019 at 02:23 • Filed to: ecoboost mustang, ecoboost is too a real mustang, ford Mustang

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I haven’t been around much this summer. I blame a change in my work schedule earlier this year for part of that. I went from working only 15 days a month to an average 20 days.

Here’s a thing that happened in June/July...

Back in mid June I noticed that the coolant reservoir was showing a little low in my Boostang. I didn’t think much of it since the car is nearing it’s 3rd anniversary until I began seeing some white smoke and smelling coolant on cold starts. Checking the oil shows no mixing there, and the coolant it had was the proper color with no apparent oil in it. The temp gauge on the dash has never gotten anywhere near hot, and I monitor oil temp regularly and it never got above 215. At autocross in June I noticed that the coolant reservoir was nearly empty, so I topped it off with water and kept going. A week later, I opened the hood to check, and once again the reservoir was nearly empty, so I drove it straight in to the dealer that has done every oil change and more on the car since I got it. I have spent a bunch of money with them, though they didn’t sell me the car. They’re just the closest dealer to me. At no point did the car leave coolant on the ground, and I could see no points where it was leaking. The car ran strong, and there was no outward sign of any issue other than the coolant loss.

Mac Haik Ford Lincoln in Georgetown Texas.

I told them about the coolant issue. I informed them that I had topped it off, but it was low again after a week. I didn’t hide the fact that the car is modified, nor have I hidden that fact any time it’s been in. I even told them I was willing to pay for diagnosis. They took my car, told me it would be several days before their tech could get to it and gave me a new base model Escape as a loaner.

That was June 28th.

On July 3rd they called me and told me that since it’s modified their service manager told the tech to stop work on it and that they wouldn’t touch it. “Come get your car, no charge.”

They plugged in a code reader, saw that the only code was for the missing grille shutters and put some dye into the coolant. They didn’t pressure test the cooling system. They didn’t pull the plugs and scope the head to look for leaks. They admitted that all they would be doing was throwing parts at it.

I picked it up. They gave me no paperwork on anything they either did or didn’t do, nor did I sign off on their lack of work.

I drove from their lot straight to another Ford dealer. I sat in their service lane for 10 minutes without having anyone greet me. I was unable to find anyone to talk to, so I called the dealer and asked for an advisor to meet me in their line. I spoke with a service advisor who looked at the car and said that they would be happy to look at it, but their performance diagnostic guy was backed up 7-10 days. They also couldn’t get me a loaner until the end of July. I thanked him and went to yet a 3rd Ford dealer.

At the 3rd dealer, I was immediately greeted by a service advisor who was knowledgeable about the Mustang platform. He knew that he couldn’t help me on the quick lane side and walked me over to a main line service advisor. They only have a 1-2 day backlog on diagnostics, and since they were closed on the 4th it made no sense to leave the car. They set me up for a rental car and an appointment first thing Monday morning.

At every dealer, I refused to try and hide the fact that the car was modified. I expressed that I was willing to pay for diagnostics before I decide what to do from there. With only 34k on the odometer there was a chance of still getting things covered by warranty, but Mac Haik Ford Lincoln in Georgetown Texas was completely unwilling to even look at it.

——

I didn’t think of it right away, but I’ve been running a dash cam in my car for a while, it just took me some time to pull down the video and look.

The tech plugged in his scan tool, got whatever it was going to give him, though he had to ask someone else to help him interpret it. The video didn’t show much overall, but the best part is that it showed when he was backing it out of his bay to park it back in the lot, and he stopped when someone asked him what was up with the car. “Blown head gasket, I think. Yeah, it’s got coolant in number two or three.” They then talked about how modified it was and that their tool was showing 3000 miles clear. I know it’s been longer than that since I changed anything or re-flashed, but apparently the mileage was part of the key they were looking for.

Of course the fact that he thought it has coolant in #2 or #3 is more information than they gave me at the service counter. If they had told me that at the time and said that because of the mods they couldn’t cover the repair, I would have gone ahead with it anyway, but now I know I can’t trust them.

“Quality means doing it right. Even when no one is looking.” Henry Ford.

I took the car in to the dealer nearest my office as I had arranged and got a new Escape as a rental car. They then had the car for two and a half weeks.

——

The dealer technician took things apart and diagnosed a head gasket failure, but because of the modifications under the hood the dealer was unwilling to cover things under warranty. (oh, and he unplugged the dash cam.)

On July 22nd I got a text message from the service advisor telling me that they’re done and I can come pick it up. I went in, turned in the rental (at full cost) and went to talk to the advisor. He got the paperwork together, got me over to the cashier (at full cost), then went and pulled the car around. Fine.

The first thing he said when he got out of the car was, “I assume the check engine light is on because of the modifications.” No. It wasn’t on when I gave it to you, it shouldn’t be on now. I plugged in my Cobb Access Port and pulled the codes:
P008A - Low Pressure Fuel System Pressure - Too Low
P2282 - Air leak between throttle body and intake valve

Neither of these codes was on when I dropped it off. I have photos of the codes that were there for the misfire, which hey that’s all better now. Now the idle was surging slightly, the exhaust note was off from normal, and there’s a damn check engine light!

He pulled it back in, took it to a different tech who plugged in and tested the fuel injectors and didn’t find a problem (shocking). He gave me back the rental (same car, on their dime this time) and said they’d pull the intake and figure this out. I told him it likely needed a low pressure fuel sensor, though I didn’t have the revised part number on me, and that there wasn’t an intake leak before, despite the throttle spacer.

I got the call around noon on July 24 that it was once again, done and ready for pickup.

I went down to get it and they couldn’t get the oil cap breather to seat in place. When I looked at it, the tech had taken the clamp off of it, so the breather element would just spin. There was no way to get it to seat like that. Once they put a clamp back on it for me it went back in place and things were good.

No check engine lights. The only soft code was for the missing grille shutters. Everything seemed to be running properly. There was no charge for the low pressure fuel sensor, and the fix for the intake leak was that the tech had left one of the PCV lines loose.

I left the dealer and things felt pretty good. The car was generating boost up to 24 lbs and it was acting like it should. Until...

My drive home from this dealer is roughly 15 miles and I have to get on the highway. I went to merge and gave it some gas to hear “POP” and immediately lose all boost. All Eco, no Boost. I turned it around and took it back to the dealer.

It took them another 20 minutes to fix it. I have no tools in the car at the moment. If I’d had my kit with me I would have done it myself... (OK, maybe not.)

So here’s a breakdown of what was replaced with this repair session: Pressure Test Coolant system found coolant going into #2 cylinder. Remove head and clean engine block and head check for flatness all good replace head gasket add coolant change oil and filter road test verify repair.

Crankshaft oil seal

Intake manifold gaskets

Valve seals (only 2)

Oil Filter

Cylinder head gasket

10 head bolts

Vacuum pump gasket

thermostat seal

Fuel Injector Pressure Sensor (free)

Oil, Antifreeze, and random nuts and bolts

Parts: $558.58
Labor: $2688

They did give me a 24 month warranty on this repair, so if I pop another head gasket they get to do it all for free...

——

After getting the car back, I had to return again because I found footprints on the inside of the hood that they failed to clean up, and I’m a picky asshole about my car.

Because I autocross and occasionally track my car, I’m really anal about what’s happening under the the hood. I routinely check things that I know most people never even think about unless a dummy light shows up on their dashboard, and change oil and other vital fluids on a much more frequent schedule than the factory service manual indicates.

The ultimate result of all of this repair drama is that I will no longer be taking my car to Ford for anything. Their local dealer service network is crap, and won’t cover much under warranty unless they have no other choice. I have a couple of performance oriented repair shops near me that are happy to do work on my car, so they’ll be getting more of my business from now on.

NKato > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 03:05

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And this is why I'm losing patience with Ford. They're hiring all the wrong people. 

JMKarstetter > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 03:12

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What do you have done to your Mustang? I had some issues with my SHO and I took it to the dealership and they tried to charge me because it was tuned and I had an aftermarket intake. But they weren’t able to prove either of those caused the issue I had (It was a fuel pump relay, which is under a recall too) , so it was covered under warranty.

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > JMKarstetter 08/15/2019 at 03:22

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Mishimoto Intake
Mishimoto Charge pipes
CPE Intercooler
Turbosmart Wastegate actuator
GoFastBits DV+ recirculation valve
Steeda throttle body spacer
3" High flow catted downpipe
Gibson catback exhaust
custom tune from adamtuned.com

Plus some suspension tweaks and cosmetic stuff.

It would take something that my other mechanic couldn’t handle for me to take it to a Ford service department again.

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > NKato 08/15/2019 at 03:24

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Yes, they are. In general I feel like all cars are pretty much created equal. Every manufacturer will have absolute gems and absolute piles of crap come off of the same assembly line. In the end the dealer and how you’re treated by those service personnel that form most people’s opinions about the brand.

gettingoldercarguy > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 03:59

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It’s not that they’re really hiring the wrong people. Dealerships and manufacturers are paying the wrong amount to get the right people.

I was curious what happened to you. I was looking forward to your autocross videos because I still suck and don’t autocross. Didn’t see them, got a bit worried ( as much as one does here about that stuff).

Sucks about the dealers, but I kinda understand them not wanting to touch warranty stuff on a modded car. Best to find a competent mechanic and go with that.

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > gettingoldercarguy 08/15/2019 at 04:02

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I have a slew of autocross videos to share, I just need to do it.

gettingoldercarguy > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 04:15

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Glad to hear it, love to see them when it happens.  However, as I’m paying nothing, take your time.

Wacko > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 05:46

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Looks like you got the Ford experience.

jimz > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 06:29

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After seeing that list of mods, I think Mac Haik was the smartest dealer in this whole story. Ford dealer service depts. aren’t speed shops, they’re trained to service cars and trucks as built by the factory. I’m pretty sure if I was a dealer tech or service manager, I’d have taken one look at your car and said “sorry, you’re on your own here.”

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > jimz 08/15/2019 at 06:38

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Except that a head gasket is a head gasket is a head gasket.

I had acknowledged to them that I was aware that they might not cover it under warranty, but they should have still been able to diagnose it. If you watch the video, you’ll hear where the tech actually had some information, even though the service adviser didn’t give me anything. It’s also highly unusual for a head gasket to go on an engine with under 36,000 miles running on a 93 octane tune, custom or not. I’m not running 30+ pounds of boost.

My ot her point for them is that they ARE speed shops. They have to be in order to sell and service the Shelby and Rousch Mustangs that roll through their shops all the time. T heir only defense is that they didn’t do the modifications, so they aren’t sure what they are or how things should act. Of course they also didn’t do any of the things to those cars, though they would be more than willing to submit repairs to them for warranty.

jimz > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 06:50

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It doesn’t matter. You’ve pushed the engine to power levels (and cylinder pressures) significantly above design intent using aftermarket mods. You also admittedly track the car with those mods in place. Saying “but, but it’s a 93 octane tune!” doesn’t mean anything. Your experience with the other two dealers is very likely why Mac Haik wouldn’t touch your car. They don’t want to deal with the hassle of some guy coming back in a few months complaining that the head gasket failed again, or something else related to the mods went wrong and expecting them to cover it out of pocket. Chances  are they’ve been burned in the past and want nothing to do with it anymore.

As far as dealers being “speed shops” because Shelby, no.  Those cars still come with their own warranty coverage along with factory workshop manuals and training. Your car has a long list of unknowns on it.

jimz > NKato 08/15/2019 at 06:52

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Ford dealers are not Ford Motor Co.

Ford has zero say in who dealers hire.  And if you’re bitching about the head gasket failure, take a look at his list of mods and get back to me.

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > jimz 08/15/2019 at 07:02

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It’s all about what the dealer is willing to do. I have had friends get long block replacements, under warranty, who were modified more than I am.

jimz > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 07:21

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that happens up until the point they get a claim rejected and get charged back for a multi-thousand dollar job. After that it’s “sorry, pal.”

I used to do warranty parts triage for a supplier. Parts replaced under warranty do go back to Ford, and someone does inspect and test them. If the part that comes back isn’t failed, or failed due to a non-warrantable condition, that’s a chargeback and the entire repair comes out of the dealer’s pocket.

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > jimz 08/15/2019 at 07:33

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That echoes what their Service Manager told me. I had already planned on having to pay for it because of mods, I wasn’t going to argue that point, though I was willing to take it if they did it for free.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > jimz 08/15/2019 at 08:08

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I agree with you, FWIW. Not that I would ever  have the dough nor the compunction to do any of this, if I did, I’d be starting out with a car two or three years old and out of warranty. I would not expect a Ford dealership of any sort to get anywhere near a new car with all these mods. Still, I think this fellow has a point that the original Ford dealership could have shown some transparency and told him what they’d uncovered, but due to the list of unknowns that you mention, they really couldn’t take it on.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 08:14

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Seems reasonable on your part. If they’d come to you and said, “Our (reliable) tech found this and this, but we don’t want to take this job because #mods, at least they’d have been transparent and provided you with some helpful information.

When it comes to repairs and maintenance, I’m in a coffin corner. I drive older cars that are well understood and unmodified and thus simpler to maintain. It sounds like you have a much larger budget for automotive pursuits than I do.

I think a call to the original dealership’s service manager might be in order. IMO, their decision not to service your vehicle was reasonable, but they communicated poorly with you, which throws a bit of shade on them.

Good luck!

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 08/15/2019 at 08:41

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I didn’t put it in this writeup, but I did call that first dealer’s service manager and talk to him at length about my disappointment. Yes, if they had come to me and said, “this is what we found, but we won’t take the repair because of # mods” I would have been willing to pay the diagnostic fee and take it elsewhere. My true issue came down to the “come take it, we won’t even give a diagnosis” that they did. Even worse when I managed to pull the diagnosis from the dash cam...

Tripper > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 08:45

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Bummer. I keep a posse of inde mechanics on speed dial for the M3 and the 1502. I dread the infrequent occasion that I have to go to the dealer for something. The last time I actually had service done at a dealer was for the Takata recall. I watched a kid whip my car what had to be 80mph down a back road then waited 30 minutes to buy two quarts of oil!  

I just bought a new VW Alltrack as my d ad car and I thought I was going to leave it alone but I can’ t...

When I was telling o ne of my BMW indes about the car, he turned me on to a localish VW dealer that also tunes...Totally new concept to me. Conservative tunes are even tied into the factory warranty! I called and spoke to the service manage to verify all of that. He went on to say that any bolt-on performance parts com that I buy from them also fall under my factory warranty. They draw the warranty line at a down pipe (stage 2 tune, bigger turbo, etc). S o I couldn’t go as deep as you have and keep the warranty. I t doesn’t seem like that is what you were looking for. Just a proper diagnosis and the best course of action.

Anyway, maybe something like this exists for Fords? Even if I did go out of warranty, I’d be much more comfortable working with them. Most dealers won’t touch a modded car. I had a set of wheels and a BoV on my WRX (I know...disgrace) and a dealer would not do so much as an oil change on it!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 08:47

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Yeah. Threw shade on themselves, they did.

Urambo Tauro > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 09:09

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You might find this interesting :

This bulletin is intended to be used by technicians when servicing vehicles that have suspected aftermarket modifications. If an aftermarket modification can be associated with the need for a repair, that repair may not be warrantable...

https://static.oemdtc.com/GSB/G0000128.pdf

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > jimz 08/15/2019 at 10:05

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They’re all bolt- ons. Did they contribute to head gasket failure? Possibly. Does it make the car harder to work on our increase your liability when working on it? I would say if you’re capable of replacing a head gasket, then no. I would work on it. Most guys in my shop would work on it. We're a dealer. We absolutely would not turn him away.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > jimz 08/15/2019 at 10:10

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Then the  dealer should have a competent tech work on the car and charge appropriately. Have open communication with the client to figure out what you might need to figure out. And do an appropriate amount of quality control. The guys who actually worked on his car were just lazy.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > jimz 08/15/2019 at 10:11

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I'm offering arguments for some of your points. But I largely agree with you. Especially on this one. My main takeaway here is that the people OP was dealing with were either lazy or incompetent.

jimz > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 08/15/2019 at 10:12

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I understand what you’re saying and acknowledge OP was prepared to pay out of pocket. I’m just offering the possibility that they may have had a bad experience with customers bringing in modded cars in the past.  e.g. repeated failure, accusations of breaking other stuff. etc.

agree that they did a piss poor way of handling it, though.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 10:29

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It sounds like everyone you dealt with was some combination of lazy and/or incompetent. They should’ve done multiple road tests, totalling over at least 50 miles.

Part of the problem is bigger than Ford. It’s the industry as a whole. Inflation is doing its thing, but technician wages aren’t increasing to keep up. Warranty labor times are dropping. Requirements to get paid under warranty are increasing. OEM’s are trying to move dealers away from flat rate. Dealers are resisting, because that’s 50+ years of “culture” they don’t want to change, and they see paying techs salary or hourly as losing money. OEM’s cut warranty in an attempt to push the change (and also because they’re cheap) , but in reality all it does is cost techs money.

Finding good technicians is extremely difficult these days. Most are more than qualified to work in other industries and get paid more with better benefits elsewhere. Most dealers don’t care. They just see techs as bodies, as dumb grease monkeys.

There’s a tech in my shop who worked for Ford previously. He would do engine replacements and head gaskets and diagnostics and all that for them. He’s worked for me for two years now. We’re only just now letting him get to the point where he’s doing those things, but still with a decent amount of help and lots of QC after he’s done.

Point is, most shops (dealers or not) don’t put the effort in to train people up or QC their big jobs. They don’t pay enough to get the best and the brightest. O r if they have the best and the brightest, they don’t pay enough for those guys to care.

All t his is what leads to what you experienced. I sincerely wish I could fix all of these problems.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > jimz 08/15/2019 at 10:34

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It’s pretty likely I think. And I think Mac Haik is justified in not wanting to work on it. But yeah, piss poor handling of the situation.

Grindintosecond > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 10:39

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Only gets worse as Ford slowly a dopts the Apple and Tesla repair models, as in, you touch it yourself, it’s not covered and if you used anyone else, not covered. You didn’t get your manual scheduled maintenance at a Ford dealer on time ? Your not covered for anything else at all. They're going there. Apple is there. Tesla too. Can't wait till you can't order any part from anywhere but a dealer and if it's out of warranty there's no parts available. Can't wait. 

jimz > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 08/15/2019 at 10:39

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I’m betting it was a service manager or other higher-up at the dealer who walked by and said “hey, yous guys best ‘nope’ right out of that job.”

NKato > jimz 08/15/2019 at 10:53

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I’m not surprised. Regardless, Ford has some oversight on how dealerships are run. Their websites all run off the same retarded backend and online communications are just as stupid. 

Chariotoflove > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 08/15/2019 at 14:04

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Nice to see you again.

Your story reminds me of what I think every time I watch a factory tech work on a car these days. They plug in to the computer, read the codes, and just do what they manual says to do for that code. It’s like if a doctor took your lab results, read in the book what that means, and then just did what the manual prescribes. No one seems to be trained to be a real mechanic on their cars these days, and actually understand the physiology of the cars they treat.  It’s concerning when a problem is a little more complicated.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > jimz 08/15/2019 at 14:24

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Definitely possible. It may even just be shop policy.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > Wagon Guy drives a Boostang 09/03/2019 at 20:01

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And I thought I had a struggle when mine went... My fix was a cakewalk in comparison.