superhawk996 Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 Just venting/sharing. Probably useless info for anyone other than Iceprick who also has a 7.3 powered Excursion. Shit, no, it actually applies to any Ford from the era that had this recall, and there were a shit ton. The Excursion had two recalls and I stupidly decided to let the dealer do them. One was the cam position sensor. I'd already installed the latest version so it didn't need it and shouldn't have been done, but the 'technician' replaced it anyway. Ok, free new sensor. The second recall was for the cruise control cancel switch on the master cylinder. It's a secondary safety to cancel the cruise when you hit the brakes, it's there in case the brake light switch has failed. The danger is that if the switch starts leaking the brake fluid and/or wires can catch on fire and burn your shit down. The recall procedure is that if the switch is already leaking it gets replaced, and a fused harness is installed between it and the factory harness. If the switch isn't leaking it just gets the fused harness. Mine wasn't leaking, but the repair order showed that he replaced it anyway. Cool, I'd rather have the new one. I get home and pop the hood to inspect his work and nothing had been done. I call the dealer and they ask me to bring it back to show the manager. Then they bring the 'technician' out to show us what he did. After he fiddle farted around under my hood stalling what was to come, I outed him. He finally admitted to not having done the repair. They sent the truck back to get it done. I was about to head off on a 400+ mile drive to meat Cal to deliver his 'new' bass boat and had a lot to do, and forgot to do an inspection. Along the way I had a few 'hiccups' where the engine would briefly cut out when I hit big bumps. Then outa nowhere the engine shut off. I figured out that the ECU wasn't powering up, but didn't know why. After a fair bit of probing found that one of the ECU fuses was burnt so I replaced it, pop. I fiddled with wires and connectors, put in another fuse, pop. Then I remembered that someone had worked on my truck so I cut his zip tie and found the burnt wires. I cut them off, installed another fuse and was back on the road. The technician asshole who needs his house burnt down zip tied the wires to the hydraulic line running to the brake booster and either the wire insulation broke, or he fucked it up on purpose. So while performing a repair to prevent a possible short circuit that hadn't happened in 20+ years, he fixed it by creating a short circuit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furbird Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 Similar situation happened on the state vehicle when I reviewed the camera footage. They claimed they did the seat recall on the passenger seat but they never even touched it. All they did was claim it on the paperwork. I literally have it on tape. They had to fix the roof racks though because they were falling off (known issue). One of my guys still in the industry says the problem is most "techs" aren't approved to do warranty work, so they just have a bunch of monkeys doing the easy shit that don't actually know what they are doing while the only tech who is trained gets flagged for the hours (on paper) and may not ever actually see or touch the vehicle. This leaves all the actual hard shit up to the trained tech to deal with, which means when they are working they are WORKING while everybody else is riding the gravy train. One dealer near here got caught flagging a master tech's employee number who had quit over a year prior because they didn't have anybody warranty approved and were fined nearly a half million dollars. So to hear you had a "ain't my car, ship-it" is no shocker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhawkxx Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 So the story is more about a bad employee than a bad vehicle, right? I hear stories all the time about competed work that was never done. On a different note, many years ago I got a recall on a fan blade. I removed it at home and carried it in. They yammered a little and then gave me the new one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 2 hours ago, blackhawkxx said: So the story is more about a bad employee than a bad vehicle, right? Yup, and Ford service centers in general. The Excursion has been great, especially for a vehicle with 447k miles. I've dealt with a few Ford service departments and have been let down every time. I had a few warrantee repairs on my '95 Mustang Cobra and they fucked up every time. I talked with someone high up in Ford at that time, after making a big stink, and asked him to suggest a good dealership, he didn't have an answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 10 hours ago, Furbird said: One of my guys still in the industry says the problem is most "techs" aren't approved to do warranty work, so they just have a bunch of monkeys doing the easy shit that don't actually know what they are doing while the only tech who is trained gets flagged for the hours The guilty employee's number was on the work order so it would appear that everyone there is 'approved', tho I guess it's possible that warrantee approval is different than recall approval. He was fairly new and apparently wasn't doing well before this incident, and has supposedly been fired because of it. Pretty sure he was canned over the lie, I think he was gone before they found out about the fuckup that left me stranded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Krypt Keeper Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 Just got a recall notice this morning on my new F250 for the left rear axle shaft having the potential to fracture from improper heat treatment. Wish they would bring the Excursion back, always loved them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 22 minutes ago, The Krypt Keeper said: Just got a recall notice this morning on my new F250 for the left rear axle shaft having the potential to fracture from improper heat treatment. I heard something about that. I didn't want an Excursion when I bought it, I was just shopping for the engine to tow my boat and this was the cheapest 7.3 on CL. When I saw the ad my first thought was "I can't tow 13k lbs. with a car, I need a truck...then I started investigating. I sometimes wish it was a pickup and that it had 4WD, but this is better for the vast majority of what I want to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwampNut Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 And these fuckers want us to trust them with a 480v battery. This shit is why I tell my friends that the Lightning is pretty much off the table, Rivian or Tesla only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXitanium Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 I was looking at 3.0L diesel F150s 2 years ago when they stopped production. I could have ordered one the day before they closed orders. Those things haven't lost a dollar value since they left the lot. 45,000 to 100,000 mi and they're still in the mid $40,000. Piss me off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furbird Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 9 hours ago, superhawk996 said: The guilty employee's number was on the work order so it would appear that everyone there is 'approved', tho I guess it's possible that warrantee approval is different than recall approval. He was fairly new and apparently wasn't doing well before this incident, and has supposedly been fired because of it. Pretty sure he was canned over the lie, I think he was gone before they found out about the fuckup that left me stranded. I don't know how Ford is set up, but Nissan has levels. For instance, you have to be certified to be able to do a PDI (pre-delivery inspection) so if you haven't been factory trained on it, you can't be flagged under your employee number as the tech who did the work, which is what I meant by that. That doesn't mean you weren't the one who actually did it, or got paid for it, just it can't be on the actual repair order submitted to Nissan or they won't pay the ticket. Same thing with a warranty ticket, recall, etc. So if you haven't had the classes for whatever it is, you can't flag that. I'm sure other manufacturers work the same way. What they would do is flag two techs and do a split ticket, one who was certified and one who wasn't, that way there was no issues. I mean it was so ridiculous you couldn't even warranty out a fucking battery if you hadn't taken the class. Granted this was a decade ago so I hope it's not like that now, but then again... That's why every shop has to have a Master Tech. We had two. But even that isn't enough, because even Masters may not be manufacturer approved for everything. Like we only had one who was GTR, Leaf, and hybrid certified. So, again, all tickets had to be flagged to him. And you have to have a Master on staff certified in all that, plus a salesman certified in all that, and all the specific equipment, or you can't even sell the damn car! That's why we didn't have the commercial trucks, because we didn't have all that. Now that part I know is still valid because I still talk to the one who didn't go get the GTR certs and he still won't because he doesn't want to deal with those PITAs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 To make it up to me they're giving me a free alignment, which would be spendy because it needs parts and extra labor to make it right. I got to talk with the alignment guy and feel pretty good about him. And they're assigning a master tech to repair the burnt wires. The foreman acknowledged that they have no room for mistakes with this repair, hopefully this will be the end of it and I'll have a happy vehicle again. It's needed an alignment since I bought it. I did a driveway alignment and made it a bit better, but it needs the camber and castor tweaked which is harder to DIY without buying more fucking tools. I've two shops take stabs at it, both made it worse. The dealer guy seemed to know exactly what it needs and how to do it, and warned me that to make it right would not be their standard $149 alignment, but closer to $500. I had him do the $149 job on his promise that it would be much better, and it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhawkxx Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 Back to the OP, one thing I have found is if you can relay that you are mechanical, know what's going on they seem less likely to try to take advantage of you. So even if it is just a inspection or new tires I try to talk to them a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 (edited) 3 hours ago, blackhawkxx said: Back to the OP, one thing I have found is if you can relay that you are mechanical, know what's going on they seem less likely to try to take advantage of you. So even if it is just a inspection or new tires I try to talk to them a little. I've walked in in my uniform and told them that the only reason I'm not doing it myself is that I paid for a warrantee, didn't help. In a small shop it might, in a dealership you're disconnected from the mechanics. If you speak directly with the mechanic it'll probably reduce thievery and lying, but it won't fix ignorance/incompetence which is most of what I've had happen to me. My customers have been victim of that plus the thievery that comes with the assumed ignorance of the customer. I've had to walk into the dealer's shop and tell the 'tech' what the specs are, how to test/verify what needs to be done, and what to replace. This was on my Cobra's limited slip diff while under warrantee. When the ignition module started acting up, after being out of warrantee, that was an even stupider shit show. They ate a lot of parts and labor chasing that gremlin down, even tho I told them that the first few things they wanted to replace were clearly not the issue. Edited November 1, 2023 by superhawk996 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Krypt Keeper Posted November 2, 2023 Share Posted November 2, 2023 On 10/31/2023 at 11:12 AM, superhawk996 said: I heard something about that. I didn't want an Excursion when I bought it, I was just shopping for the engine to tow my boat and this was the cheapest 7.3 on CL. When I saw the ad my first thought was "I can't tow 13k lbs. with a car, I need a truck...then I started investigating. I sometimes wish it was a pickup and that it had 4WD, but this is better for the vast majority of what I want to do. 1/2 a day repair for the rear axle to be replaced, will have to set up an appointment and see if they even have the part available first. Probably shouldn't put it off as the truck tips the scales at over 9k lbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 Hopefully your recall repair goes better than mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhawkxx Posted November 2, 2023 Share Posted November 2, 2023 8 hours ago, superhawk996 said: Hopefully your recall repair goes better than mine. I think his is a company truck so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwampNut Posted November 2, 2023 Share Posted November 2, 2023 There was a huge thread on r/justrolledintotheshop about mechanics who immediately disable the dash cam because they don't want their "work" recorded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Krypt Keeper Posted November 2, 2023 Share Posted November 2, 2023 2 hours ago, blackhawkxx said: I think his is a company truck so... Yes and even then the amount of crap I have dealt with over the years is amazing. Ford 4WD not engaging, they had the truck for two weeks. Say its fixed, (from the techs mouth "they put it into 4WD and icon illuminated on dash") I did an awesome 4Lo burnout in parking lot to show them the front hubs were not engaging. Drove it to another dealership, repaired in 2 days with new parts. Ford F150 Driver/passenger door not latching recall, solution was to replace the door latch connecting rods. Problem is not the rods but the plastic coated door latch itself, failed again the next morning. Ford said they would replace the rods again though. Solved it myself and my coworkers, even helped a lady stranded at a gas station who had the same issue earlier this year. Little bit of PB blaster and a flat head screw driver. Dodge Charger spindle nut backed off (no cotter pin used where there should have been one) trashed bearing. I actually get a call from the tech as the young lady working the shop desk had no clue what a castle nut, spindle, hub assembly or cotter pin was. He got failed bearing on the work order, Took 20 seconds on the phone with the tech to get "no problem I gotcha, probably have one on the shelf and will be ready in a few hours) Charger serviced, oil filter gasket blew out 100 or so miles later leaving work, towed to shop (yes, the same shop) They heard a ticking noise and wanted $1500 to tear down the engine to inspect it. $150 to power wash engine bay for oil spray. I am thinking WTF?, coworker asked me was it ticking when it lost oil pressure, nope pulled over and shut it off due to the warning lights and beeping. If it wasn't ticking then, its not ticking now. Go pick it up, there is a ticking noise. Just happens to be the ticking noise they hear is from the FI solenoids doing their job not from the engine. Damn I miss that car, just fun to drive and comfy. Fucking Hyundai, so bad I would take pictures of it each time a rollback took it away. Had sales people answering the phone for the shop, a dozen calls for a TPMS faulty in one wheel taking 6 months to fix, lug nuts tightened so bad that I had to break them. Calling to ask if you want your car serviced while its in the shop waiting for parts to fix it yet again. The awesome time the shop called me as the roll back driver and shop manager got into a fight over dropping off the car. Would never ever own another, aside from this it was also during the time I had MPG issues, Hyundai was caught cheating on their inflated MPG and had to issue a recall on their engines as they were imploding themselves due to poor casting methods. Those are some of the bad, had some good ones along the way as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALCXX Posted November 9, 2023 Share Posted November 9, 2023 (edited) Oscar, kudos for you. To find the problem backtracking others recent work is commendable. Tie wrapping cable to a heat source is bad. BTW, my Son (the designated driver our night) said the 443K mile land yacht drove well and he is a CDL truck driver. My weak Suburban was ok getting the boat home. Edited November 9, 2023 by CALCXX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superhawk996 Posted November 9, 2023 Author Share Posted November 9, 2023 445, now about to hit 446, but who's counting 😆 It drives even better now that the alignment is right. But even at it's worst, I've always enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. When I sold the big boat, the only reason I bought the Excursion, I thought I'd sell it also since the need went away. Now I'm thinking it'll never go away. It's a ridiculous vehicle, and so damn useful. The engine noise is sometimes annoying, and I love it. Being able to rip past cars while pulling a trailer up a hill is nice too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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