Based on my experience and what I see here the front cover was never removed to replace the water pump. Everything about this "repair" is very suspicious but the only way to truly verify it is to open up the front cover and remove the water pump. As for the $2,500 rear main seal leak, well that obviously was misdiagnosed big time. Let me know your thoughts based on the evidence shown here in this video!
Ford strikes again. Literally had the same problem with my neighbor. He's the same, takes care of his vehicle like his baby - power mirror didn't work and small oil leak from his 2012 F250 King Ranch he wanted fixed. Ford dealership told him it was the rear main that was leaking.... I replaced the oil cooler and gaskets, $250 later, no more leak. Same thing for the automatic tow mirror. They wanted $700 + labor to replace a mirror because it stopped folding - turns out, one of the gears that folds the mirrors is plastic. $135 later, new brass gears and motors, fully functioning mirror.
Thanks for the content! Just curious...what would the price be to change the valve cover gasket at the dealer? Would be interesting to see the price difference between that and the main seal. Thanks!
@@JimLambier - Yes...I too would love to hear how this story ends! I hope they refund the water pump replacement cost at the very minimum. Just goes to show how valuable an honest mechanic is these days.
The fact that a technician could do this without anyone else in the shop noticing is insane. (No one wondered how he did a massive job in 20 min?) And the fact that a supervisor or shop foreman probably DID know about this and the technician still has his job is just unbelievable. I work as a technician for an independent shop and I would lose my job in a heart beat if I did this. I mean... HOW does this happen?? Shops like that are giving all of us a bad name and they need to be held accountable.
Too many dealerships (of various brands) are simply not trustworthy. Recently, my neighbor (a female senior citizen) had brought her spotless 2006 Toyota Camery to the local Toyota dealership dealer for an oil change and a complaint of a braking issue. After the oil change, she was presented with a list of over $8,000.00 in "necessary repairs". They recommended she accept a trade in offer and purchase of a new car. Thankfully, she told them she would like to go home and think it over. She showed me the list which included among other things, major oil leaks (head gasket, rear main seal), all new front end parts, etc. (I crawled under her car and found no signs of any fluid leaks). They did note that there were no issues with her brakes (her only complaint) but that she would need the brake fluid flushed at her next oil change. I had her take her car to my mechanic for a complete inspection of her vehicle. The result? NONE of the items noted by the dealer were valid. The car needed front brakes and clean brake fluid. It cost her around $200.00 as opposed to over $8,000.00. Needless to say, she now is a regular customer of my mechanic.
Garrett Lindgren >>> This why they call the "dealership" aka *stealership* they cheat & con punters off the street. Robbing the hard earned money from hard working class folks ! Get know ex-employee/s that worked in the dealerships that works in a other non dealership garage & wait for the bill to shrink more than 50% than the stealership.... for more work - cash.....
Dealerships have a lot full of cars they want to sell to make a profit. They have no incentive to fix your out of warranty car. They have an incentive to scare you into a new car on their lot. They have an incentive to not fix you car or, as was my case once upon a time, break your car WORSE while fixing it to nickel and dime you into a new car on their lot. Find a GOOD mechanic that isn't associated with a dealer, and hang onto them. Dealer is only worth a damn when you have a warranty, and even then...
@@JohnSmith-bq1sj I believe that she called the service manager and informed him that she would no longer be a customer of their dealership for service or future purchases due to their less than honest practices. I wanted her to file complaints with the BBB, Chamber of Commerce and the manufacturer, but I don't think she followed through on that.
As a former service manager for a Chevrolet dealership actually more than one dealership, part of my responsibility was to make sure that my mechanics were being honest. There were times when they weren’t and I had to deal with it. This goes back many many decades. This is an excellent video and you absolutely nailed it.
Dealerships get bought out by investment groups and that's when the good employees leave and the business gets run into the ground for a short term gain.
@SCMongooseT4R I actually never had to fire anyone. Many times in the past I can’t speak for now, service managers had little knowledge regarding the mechanics of cars and trucks. Many times they were just nice people and got along with the customers and the mechanics. It didn’t take them long to figure out that I knew what was going on and if our dealership got embarrassed because of shotty work or work not done at all they would lose their job. I left the automobile business and got into sales selling associated type products for mechanical repairs. It’s the best thing I ever did because I ended up eventually in my own business and I never regretted it.
@@davidparker9676 A lot of times the problem is warranty work. The manufacturer pays a certain amount of money for doing a certain kind of job and in reality it takes longer to do the job then what they say in their book, hence an issue. One of the problems independent shops have is that there are very few schools that you can go to to really get a hands-on in-depth experience and the manufacturers provide such a deal. It’s actually I think now mandatory that the techs actually go to the manufacturer school to learn about transmissions and engines etc. Independent repair shops very seldom have the correct tools for diagnosis and special tools for doing repairs. It isn’t that the tools aren’t available it’s that if you’re an independent you’re working on everything not just a Chevrolet, Ford or Chrysler.
First time viewer here. This video shows excellent Diagnose/ investigation skills. Not surprised he runs his own shop now. I'm a master mechanic for 40 years. Today exactly that's my daily businesses in the automotive prototype and durability testing industrie. Good job, keep them coming. Subscriber!
I thought it was just us women that got subjected to this sort of stuff. I've worked as an engineer in the auto industry for over 30 years and I never cease to be amazed at the amount of baloney dealerships dish out. Of course, I never told them that I was an automotive engineer because that would have ruined all the fun. Over the years, my vehicles have been "diagnosed" with all kinds of "you gotta fix this right away!" issues (none of which were true), but my all time favorite was when the service department at one dealership told me that I needed to have HALF of the engine replaced (standard V6 internal combustion engine). While struggling to keep a serious look on my face I asked: "Which half?" Answer: "the entire right side and it will cost around $5,000 dollars to replace it". I told them I'll just let it run on the 3 cylinders on the left half until that side breaks as well; then they can replace the entire engine. Lord help us.....
🤣 love it ! I do the same i just let them think im a novice until they make me laugh with the garbage they talk 😂 i had one guy do work for mot a few years back it involved fitting a suspension arm and drop links, when i went to collect my car i had a quick look under, nothing fitted 🤯 when i confronted the so called mechanic he said forgot to fit them 🤣🤣🤣
As a former tech, I don’t know how these guys can live with their dishonesty. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. Not all dealership technicians are dishonest.
They sure aren't. But whiny parts swappers whine and the dealer has gotta scam to keep "certified" parts swappers in order to claim and receive payment for warranty work. A knowledgeable technician can make an honest living.
As an honest wrench turner, this kind of stuff makes my blood boil! I hope he shows this video to his State's Bureau of Automotive Repair, and the Consumer Fraud section of the County District Attorney.
I worked at 2 different GM dealerships after going to Mr Goodwrench School from 84-86. I never had a service manager ok anything like that, but I have met some mechanics that would do something like that and write it up for the full flat rate charge. I definitely trust my own work more than a dealership. I've worked on my own at a couple of small towns , and nearly put the local repair shops out of business by being honest, and not over charging people. Trust me. If word gets around that you're a good mechanic that's honest , you'll be swamped with work in no time.
Agreed 100%. I do my own mechanical work but there is one mechanic I trust if I can't do something and he is ALWAYS full. In good times or bad he never wants for business.
Same situation with body repair,, no , you dont need a whole new door, repairing it was only a very small fraction of the cost, not a1000 dollar scam job.... and in the process I gained a loyal customer ,and the rest of thier family followed ,,,years of work and very happy customers,, I cant stand the dealership bullshit runarounds,, greedy bastards .
You are correct. I live in rural PA. There are plenty of dealerships within 8 miles of me including a Pep Boys. I've been dealing with a local, family owned repair shop here for 30+ years and won't trust anyone else. They, like you treat me right and don't overcharge.
A few years ago when Ford was having a carbon monoxide leak issue with some of their Explorers, my now wife took hers to a dealership to get it checked. The service adviser she spoke to actually told her she would be able to smell it if she had a leak. That dealership is no longer open.
I would have maybe wanted to punch that idiot and I probably would have gone back and made the dealership owner over see that the issue was taken care of, those guys don't like negative publicity and I have a big mouth!!!
@@brayannexon4613 Propane/ butane have no smell either and oil companies add a smell chemical (ethyl mercaptan) to the bottled cooking gas to alert the consumer that there is a leak!
As a retired Ford dealership technician, I suggest your customer contact Ford's national head office CS department with a copy of his warranty repair invoice and a copy of this video. I have personally experienced Ford head office send us a customer to warranty a repair of another dealerships so called repair. It's worth a try with the evidence you have shown.
Mikey, I called the service dept at my local Ford dealer and talked to the service mgr. Asked how much a tune-up would be for my car. He said, "What's a tune up, I've never heard of that." When I told him, he quoted me 2k unless there are problems. 😳
@Josh Strickland I just thought I would give you the opportunity to clarify. For instance, the person in this video is a qualified, quality mechanic. To be more clear, when a vehicle goes in for warranty service, routine or otherwise, a person will never know what will happen, til it does, or does not. One time I actually had a dealer try to hold my car hostage for BS they made up. They were trying to force me to have and pay for a repair I did not need, or they were not going to give me my car back. That did not end well for them. But, it was a PIA for me. However, my attorney had no problem with the situation.
@Josh Strickland Then why are you back? Get an education so you can learn to comprehend simple words. And, stop getting so triggered because you cannot understand. And, cute, like you can Bless me.
As a Ford owner and dealership customer, my biggest gripe about situations like this has been needing to work through the service advisor. I can't count the number of times things have been misdiagnosed because my concerns were ineffectively relayed to the technician. Only after multiple visits and finally getting to talk with the tech directly was I able to get multiple warranty concerns resolved properly. There are too many cooks in the kitchen with dealership service, and this is one of the benefits of going independent - you get to talk directly with the person doing the work, which can help ensure a proper repair as well as friendlier service.
Bang on point about the message getting lost in translation, or rather transmission. It happened to me once at a Honda dealer. I told that imbecile sales guy one thing, he wrote some rubbish and the mechanic understood some other rubbish. After wasting my entire day and my money, they did a poor job, wrong job and annoyed me.
3 Ford dealers I used when I had a Ford were Atrocious! Never changed my oil, forgot to put fish oil in the rear after it was found leaking. Couldn’t “Find” an oil leak. The list goes on. Needless to say I don’t own a Ford anymore.
The example I remember well is a Ford pickup I had purchased new in the late 90s. The steering wheel developed a slight wobble/click when it was rotated. It was a common problem, and I had found the TSB online that spoke to replacing bearings in the column. When I presented it to the service advisor as the "steering wheel would click and wobble when rocked from side to side", I would get that they could not duplicate the concern. I asked to speak to the mechanic at one point, and he proceeded to demonstrate to me how the drive-by-wire accelerator would make a clicking noise when pressed. I asked why he was demonstrating the accelerator when I specifically mentioned a concern with the steering wheel. I ended up buying the TSB kit for the dealer and having them do the labor to replace the bearings under warranty, which of course solved the problem. Not a big concern, but I would have thought the dealer should have been better equipped to find the information that I needed to provide to get the job done.
@@mooch91 funny you mentioned that. When my rear was leaking, and I brought it in and they “Fixed” it. It made a horrible grinding sound when I turned left. I physically had to put the service mechanic in the truck and take him for a ride to show him. Unreal!
@@rayrussell6258 I hate service advisers, their main job is to upsell the customer. I go to a local small garage (car out of warrantee) to get things done. I deal with the owner and buy the tecs (6 guys) coffee if its around 10 am. Believe me they get to know you and your car fast just by having a coffee with them.
I never worked at a ford dealer but I’ve wrenched for a couple other brands. When crap like this happens the fault lies with management. Mechanics come and go, some are better than others. Most aren’t very good frankly. It falls to the service manager and the shop foreman to set and enforce the standard of workmanship and honesty. Clearly those dealers aren’t doing that. I wonder if they billed ford for the water pump repair under warranty? If so it’s not just scummy it is literally criminal fraud!
Hard to imagine if they are shady enough to pass a water pump replacement job being completed to a customer, that they would not also do the same to Ford reimbursement for warranty.
Years ago a local dealer chain got caught doing the warranty fraud game. 2-3 of their stores were doing it, a handful of middle managers went to jail for it and the RV store went under, but the higher ups kept the chain going for many years after that. Just sold this year.
Yup..so true, car makers sell vehicles at quite small profit margins, so they make up in service and parts...always been that way. Matter of fact; the longevity of parts is designed in the whole process
@@MolloRelax Don't kid yourself that they have small profit margins. My coworkers son worked as a lawyer for Ford in Detroit and was able to buy vehicles at the price his son could. It was disgustingly cheap.
Sadly every brand has a dealership like this. My dads tundra had a similar problem thing done to it at our local Toyota dealership. He had a oil leak and they said it was fixed a week later it was leaking g worse. Took it to another Toyota dealer a hour away and they fixed it no charge and they called our local dealer and had them pay for the work. So I have to thank that dealer for doing that job right and taking care of my father
I have an older 2000 Toyota. I was taking it to the dealership as the issues were dealership only repairs. The first time the dealership repaired my car, I had a leak from the reservoir tank. The tank was broken all of a sudden. I repaired it myself. The 2nd time I decided to mark certain parts. I get my car back and look under the hood. I noticed parts were changed out that should have never been touched. The mechanic was using my car as a parts car for his car. He would swap the bad part into my car. I have finally found and repaired all the parts he stole. The mechanic was damaging cars to buy them from the owners to resell. He was making easily fixed problems. He would write on the sheet the "more than the car is worth" issue. The Toyota dealership didn't care and said it wasn't true. The 2 Toyota dealerships near are part of a massive corporation. I know drive an hour away if I need Toyota delaership only repairs.
Kinda sorta similar story. Love this channel by the way as I’m a Ford fan. However, this comment concerns my 2020 Chrysler 300S. Nothing serious but numerous small issues cropping up that should have been warranty items. Dealer fixed nothing and charged me for 2 of 3 items. Independent shop I’ve used for years properly fixed the car free of charge as the dealer paid him, presumably with my money LOL.
My handycapped friend went to the Suburu dealership in Asheville, NC. He has a 2005 LL Bean. Dealer was young & went down a list of what was wrong with the car. & tried to sell him a new one. We went to Suburuls R Us & he said it was not true & only charged him for a simple issue. The car looks & runs well. CAUTION Stay away from the thieves that are abundant out here.
I have a good friend who worked for a Chevy dealership as the service manager, the stories he told me pissed me off and made me never use a dealership again.
Many old people. Many more gay men. Most straight women. The smart ones get 2nd opinions so the don't get too scrooed or 2nd Amendment to let them know not to scroo with YOU!🤠 LolOwell
They try it on anyone they junk isn’t smart enough to understand when the wool is being pulled over them. A Honda dealership in Indianapolis tried me because they didn’t think I was serious about getting a lawyer on a lemon. They ended up replacing a transmission free of charge
I'm getting to the point where I have to check over work that gets done to my car whenever I take it in for service. Example: Just had 4 new snows mounted and balanced a few weeks ago. After a few days of driving, my front rotors started hopping. I loosened and retorqued the lugs, found out the driver's side was torqued correctly and the passenger's side was just blasted on using a gun. I had to use a cheater bar to get 3 lug nuts off, they were so tight. When these shops can't even get techs to do the basics, how can you trust them to do anything major?
lol. i had to stand and bounce on a a SIX FOOT schedule 40 pipe on a breaker bar to take EVERY lug nut off a classic trans am. i had squirted every nut with penetrant for a week. i was shocked that none of the lugs broke. the only thing that saved me is with age i have learned patience and little tricks like soaking stuck bolts and nuts for a week before trying to loosen them.
I had a set of tires mounted on my wife’s new Mini Transit while getting an Out of Province insp done last week. When I went to re-tq the wheels, I found all 20 lug nuts bulged so badly, I had to use a 5lb sledge to get a socket on them. On and off with a gun, tq stick if we were lucky. I brought this to the service manager and he offer to sell me new lugs, but he’d cover the labour…
My daughter has a Chevy Sonic she bought new. They give her free oil changes and almost every time she brings it in they find a new problem. They sold her a couple of tires one time and the only way I found out is when she called me to come get the wheel off. She couldn’t do it with the lug wrench, neither could the sheriff that pulled over to help her. He broke the wrench trying. I had to bring a 1/2 breaker bar and a pull pipe to change the tire. I bought her all new lug nuts (OE have chrome caps on the lug nuts and they are all destroyed from being over torqued during tire installation/rotation. I always check my lug torques when someone works on my vehicles.
A very similar thing happened to me, but with an exhaust leak on my relatively new Ford truck. The exhaust manifolds were a bad casting, and did not fit the heads, but we’re forced on at the factory. The exhaust manifold bolts were breaking due to the pressure, and the bolt ears on the heads were cracking. The dealer just kept torquing down the exhaust bolts until the warranty ended, after which the bolts and heads broke , creating an unreparable exhaust leak. The dealer and Ford accepted no responsibility for the failure. I had to replace both heads, and both exhaust manifolds, but did the work myself because I no longer trusted the dealer, and never returned to the dealer, who has since gone out of business. The only good part of this episode was that I replaced the heads with better castings with larger valves, and had porting done on the intake ports, and I ported the exhaust ports and the exhaust manifolds, all for less cost than the dealer wanted to fix the engine. As one can imagine, the truck ran a lot better after this work, with lots more torque and horsepower to tow; I repeat all for less money than the dealer wanted. Joe
I think if ford catches wind of this they might contact you, ask questions, get a vin, and hopefully go after that dealer with some kind of punishment and take the money back they paid to the dealer for work done, or not done in this case..
@@neallowey7383 You think Ford corporate would waste that much time? The corporate attorney bills at $1,000 per hour. The vehicle owner needs to contact Ford, file a complaint with corporate, then file a small claims court suit to recover this mechanic's work to replace the water pump if Ford does not reimburse him.
@@FordTechMakuloco I worked at 2 Ford dealers in the first 9 years of my career, 1 treated technicians like slaves (which is why I left) and the other had 2 con artists that ended up getting fired after I left. They did shady warranty crap all the time (find another VIN, claim the work there and fix another car, really shady) BUT the advisors and fellow technicians where the BEST people out there! I left due to an opportunity to work in my own city (had a 45 minute each way commute to this job) and now work for a local police service as an in house technician/upfitter at a MUCH higher pay with full pension vs. Ford dealership life. I miss working at the dealers sometimes, but the constant shady practices, and being screwed out of a good wage kind of sealed the fate for me, and a lot of other good techs have done the same that I have worked with sadly. Car manufacturers have no-one but themselves to blame for good technicians leaving.
This is precisely why I've started flying down to my dad's place at least twice a year - I've taken over the maintenance on his F150. The two dealers in his area have pulled fast ones on my dad, convincing him to spend thousands on unneeded repairs or services. The last straw was when the dealer told him he was in dire need of a complete brake job, the brakes were nearly down to metal - they tried to scare him into thinking it needed to be done ASAP due to it being a safety issue. I flew down, inspected the brake system and found that the front pads still had over 70% of the original thickness left, rear ones were at 90%. The brakes were just fine!!
My dealership told me the same exact thing. I have a car that only got highway miles, but I took it to Ford for frequent oil changes. I noticed that Every oil change my brake pads lost one millimeter on their inspection sheet. They told me the brakes were dangerously low and needed to be done ASAP. I pulled the wheels only to find they were basically brand new pads and rotors
I believe it is time for all customers ,to require a video proof of ALL the work performed on their vehicle, specially at the hourly price that dealerships are charging nowadays...here it is $229/hour. Cameras are a dime a dozen these days
I’m a current Ford dealer technician and I very much enjoy doing Explorer 3.5L water pumps. This crap some dealers are doing is despicable! I’m thankful to work at a large, very busy and honest dealership. Management at my shop would fire any tech who tried that fraudulent repair BS.
It's not only Ford. I owned/operated a shop in Rochester, NY and saw so much thievery that I started making copies of receipts and hanging them on the wall in the office. Absolutely unbelievable stuff!! After a family health issue I ended up in Florida where I took a job at Chevy dealer. My plan was to understand the lay of the land and open another shop. Well, I spent 9 months tearing my hair out as all I saw there was a continuous bank robbery of every customers cash!! I received all of the heavy line work because it was actual work that couldn't be scammed. You know there is not much money in that and the toughest work in the house! It seamed that every car that came in needed a ton of stuff that went out of warranty 6 - 12 months after the warranty was up. Then I started seeing comebacks that looked exactly as you showed in this video. UNTOUCHED EVERYTHING!!! I could not wait to get out of there.. By the way, my CSI was on top every month. Hmmmmm,,, I wonder why??
@@jeffh4505 I cannot tell you how often I think of a garbage plate!! Food in Florida sucks. I could eat a different mean at a different restaurant 3 times a day for months in Rochester and they would all be delicious!! Pizza sucks. Even burgers suck here.. No idea where they get the beef. BUT,,, Our local greasy spoon does have Haddock and Zweigles!!! ;)
The “Stealership” should be the last place to take your vehicle for anything. Great breakdown! Takes some serious critical thought coupled with real world knowledge to pin a lie on “supposed” work
Unfortunately there are enough shady shops and techs that make a whole industry untrustworthy. I've worked in several dealers and have seen honest work and hacks, the best thing a customer can do is ask questions and request a visual explanation of repairs. Honest techs will show the quality of their work and the losers will try to hide it.
I blame the service riders, they are the ones that dole out the work. Thier buddies get the gravy jobs and the guys they don't like get the crap jobs. Working off book time is also a problem. If the book says it takes 4 hrs to do a job the tech does it in 2 he gets paid for four. That also works in reverse the crap jobs always take longer than the book says, this leads to short cuts and shoddy work.
@@williamnovotny5776 The reason we can beat the book is because we buy the tools. & have the knowledge to do the work. But you think we don't deserve to be paid enough to pay for our tools, & education , You think we just woke up one day & knew how to do this. I bid a job once told them the price. They asked how I knew how long it would take. I said I look ed it up in the book, I told if it took longer I didn't charge for it. It's a set price. They asked a shade tree how much. He just said he charged by the hr. They let him do it . Later when they picked up the car it was 2X's what I said. They asked me why it took him so long. I said I'm a certified mechanic. I know what I'm doing. That's why we used the book.
How refreshing to see a mechanic describe the scams that go on all the time. I generally do my own mechanic work on my vehicles. Nearly every time I’ve taken my Sierra truck in for oil changes, the techs will point out some issue that will no doubt cause me a disaster. Nothing has yet to break down and it’s just disheartening to know these dealerships have to overcharge or scare customers simply to justify the staff they carry. American dealerships have caused their own demise to off shore manufacturers.
Amen Truth.... i was really Never the "mechanic type" but unfortunately I CAN actually understand the tech all too easily. When I did a little calculating & figured out that if I bought the tools, as time went on I'd spend less & less on (official) mechanics...... & PLUS.... All too often a mechanic DOES try to "Scare" you into service. There is service that _COULD_ Be done to your vehicle. And there is service that _SHOULD_ Be done to your vehicle. I prefer to have a slightly older car / truck, that I care for myself. And when it IS a super heavy or complicated job. I give it to a GOOD "off label" tech. Like a tranny or engine rebuild (I've even hand rubbed my own paint.... _But I will NEVER do that again) (it was painful for me to try to do my own paint) 🙂
When I was in Alaska many years ago I took my Ranger to a local dealer in Fairbanks to replace my transmission. They charged an outrageous price (blamed it on being in Alaska) and sent me on my way. Transmission was still acting weird. I was in the Army and a maintenance Warrant officer at Ft Wainwright crawled under my truck and promptly informed me no work had been done on my vehicle. I took it back to the dealer, demanded my money back and told them I was going to report them to our Provost Marshall and ask they be placed off-limits. They replaced my transmission but charged it under the warranty. The truck wasn’t under warranty. I have never bought or even gone to visit another Ford dealer.
I've mostly owned Ford trucks. My last Ford truck was a 1998 half ton f150. I had that truck since I bought it with 10,000 miles. Some fool hit me and totaled it. 189 k and didn't burn a drop of oil. 2016 I bought a sierra and that's tale for another time. But of late most of what I read of Ford is how they've made their vehicles to be exclusively maintained by by Ford.
@@falcon8553 if you take the time to learn your car they're surprisingly easy to keep going, just have to know the tricks, and they'll last a long ass time if you can maintain them.
As much as it kills me to say this this is the new Normal when taking a car to a dealership, I can't even count on both hands how many times I've had to go back behind techs that did not do the job right
"new Normal" ... ? No insult intended, but you must be young. Congrats! :-p This type of nonsense has been going on forever, and it is the same with way too many, dare I say almost all, independents.
I always took my 2014 to the Ford dealer for oil changes during warranty. No other place, just the Ford dealer. So, after warranty I changed my own oil. The very first time I changed oil my drain plug was stripped out. I had to get a new one at Auto zone. I would expect this from a quickie lube place but not from a Ford dealer service department.
Excellent work on your part investigating this!! Whoever performed this scam is a criminal in my opinion. It was violating a person's trust, lying to them, and sealing their money! Please do a follow up on the Owner's actions, which should include a letter to Jim Farley - the Ford CEO. I hope the Owner gets an attorney involved.
I live in the 'burbs and took my 15 Edge Sport to two different dealerships 4 different times and there's still oil on my driveway. Yep, definitely the Chicago way.
This doesn't surprise me at all. My wife's 2010 Flex had a failed water pump early this year after a few weeks of random "clanging" sounds coming from the engine bay. The engine overheated one day but was shut down right away. Had it towed to a Ford dealer in North Aurora, Illinois (the closest dealer from the break down) and they replaced the water pump. Tried calling FordTechMakuloco's business first but they were too backed up with other jobs. The work was done and the water pump replaced for about $2500 and all was good for about a month. Then I noticed oil was leaking out from the area near the ac compressor and it would drip onto the drive belts. Fast forward another few weeks and my wife came home from work with the battery light on and saying that the steering was hard to turn. I inspected it and found the drive belt partially shredded. Had it towed to a dealer in Indiana and they replaced the water pump, again, for about the same price as the original dealer, $2500. I would have preferred to take it back to have the original work repaired under warranty, but they are over 60 miles away and my wife didn't want anything to do with them after they did such a crappy job. We will never buy another Ford product that has an internal water pump. A simple $200 water pump replacement turns into a $2500 nightmare due to this idiotic design.
Sorry you had these issues. We have a 2010 Edge with same engine, 168K now, and no water pump issues. Who knows if it mattered but we switched to Amsoil products from the first oil change. We also swapped out the Ford coolant with Amsoil coolant at 60K and again at 120K. I hear these Ford 3.5L V6's like clean fresh coolant and that might preserve the water pump seals better.
@@CStockner If you ever hear metallic clanging coming from the engine bay, take it to a shop and get it changed. That should have been a tell tale sign but my wife drives her Flex exclusively. It started doing it intermittently too, so whenever she would ask me to come listen, it didn't do it.
I would have kept the parts and filed a small claims case. I assume the pump was never actually replaced. Sorry that happened to you. I stopped buying Fords 30 years ago, too many costly problems with Transmissions after 50K miles.
Oh man this is some crazy timing! I just got my '14 3.5 F-150 back from a Ford dealer for a Rear Main Seal repair. I've done everything possible to maintain this truck since I bought it. I mean everything. I've never delayed maintenance on any single part of this truck. My truck only has 80k miles on it and everyone keeps telling me that it shouldn't have had that issue so early. Watching this gave me a sinking feeling... oof. Thank you for having the integrity to help that owner out though. I wish I could find someone like this near me.
When dealerships pay by the job instead of hourly rates and on top of that they hire just any tech to do the work either ASE certified or not, that is the result! I admire you a lot for having the cojones to point it out like is never being done before! Being there done that!!! That is why my bosses hated me so much cause I tell it like it is!!! Thank you so much!!!
Living in the sanctuary state of MA - There are very few Americans working as techs at dealers & repair places like Firestone. They fire the Americans & replace them with cheap foreign labor that performs low quality work.
Why i quit wokring in the automotive industry, i worked at ford as a tech and have seen this happen all the time. Getting paid for what you do vs a flat out hourly pay is the reason i say
To clarify, I'm not saying it's right that they do that to customers because clearly it's not. But the dealership breeds this kind of behavior. I've always said the manufacturers need to step in and get their service departments under control. Unfortunately they couldn't care less.
ASE certified doesn't mean a tech is any good, just that he managed to get past those certifications. Means he's the barest minimum of a tech. Same as when a doctor graduates at the bottom of his class, and is the worst. He still gets called 'doctor'.
Dad would get other people's 'work' in his shop. He taught me how to prove/disprove jobs done or not done. His customers were loyal. You, sir, just took me back 55yrs. You are the SAME professional he was.
Send this to a Zone Manager . Make him inspect it in front of the customer . Then explain how BOTH dealers are crooks . Take the local news channel along !
They used to have territories that were managed by a zone manager . They were the factories person who managed issues with the customers and dealers . Some dealers are thieves , overselling service and unneeded repairs . When you buy a product and a manufacturer can't or won't fix it under warranty , that is a problem . These schmucks MUST be held accountable . We are not talking about $ 20 or $ 30 relay . Sometimes it is FELONY theft ! " You need a new transmission " . But it's a $ 200 to $ 300 solenoid that needs replacement on a low mileage vehicle .
@@billsmith2212 Its not all dealership fault, for not doing a warranty repair. My 2016 Nissan Rogue started vibrating ( cvt) at 30,000 miles. After about 4 trips back and a song and dance, each time, they finally said they couldn't replace trans. under warranty without a code showing. This is a common problem which Nissan knows about . They at least extended the warranty 10ys 120,000 miles.
I had a similar bad experience with the two local Toyota dealers. After about 120,000 miles trouble-free, suddenly they were finding leaks at every oil change and wanting big bucks. The last time I went in for an oil change, they reported a leaking gasket on the timing chain cover and they wanted $2600 or $2800 (I forget which). I took it to an independent shop, and they reported that a couple of the bolts on that cover were loose! They tightened them up and that was that. I've been with that independent shop ever since. Oh, and I learned from my neighbor, a former dealership service writer, that those service writers get commission pay based on writing up more repair work.
This is why I do all my own maintenance and repairs…I dread having to take my vehicles into a dealer even for warranty/recall work. Very hard to find a dealer/mechanic who cares these days - my stuff always comes back with another issue: scratches, rattles, etc.
I just bought a new Ranger and it started leaking out of the front diff almost immediately. Dealer is supposed to repair in next week. Almost want to get the part and do it myself...
Seems like a general lack of integrity in the car repair business. I see lots of nightmare reports from all brands of dealerships and I'm sure someone could count up many independent shops that have dealt customers badly too. The common lesson is that the good guys are always cleaning up after the dirty cheats.
Been watching your videos for a while. I am an automotive and heavy equipment tech in Canada. I share your sentiments about shady technicians more so in the dealerships than anywhere else. Its too bad that the industry is designed the way it is, techs like that and the places that allow them to be like that is exactly what places stains in our profession. Keep up the good work of exposing these things! 🇨🇦🇨🇦
Yup! I wound up buying a 2001 Windstar for $600 because the dealership scared the lady into buying a new vehicle. They handed her a just over $5,000 parts estimate before labor costs, which were another few grand. The only thing wrong with it was a $150 sensor. I drove it for 2 years, back and forth from North Alabama to Florida a few times and it was an every day vehicle. I sold it for over triple what I had in it!
Reputation means everything but even that changes. Few years ago I had a Ford with rattling catalytic converters. Service manager diagnosed it and said it was a known defect and would be covered by an extended warranty. To make a long story short it took two months to get in, and by then I was over the mileage by a whole 75 miles. He said it wasn't covered anymore and it would be $2000. The worst thing was I knew this guy since 1988. I had bought several new cars from the dealership and even bought this one from them. I still remember him looking at his shoes and saying "it ain't the same Ford anymore, Bill". So I declined repair and replaced them myself. I didn't give them a hard time. But they'll never get another dime either. I'll never go back.
@@lynxstarautomotive208 thatd what i thought. My mechanic always tells me if you have a problem and we cannot diagnose it because its an in and off problem we will guess to make sure its covered under warranty.
I applaud your honesty for standing by a customer and calling out the Ford dealerships with shady practices. I hope most dealership's service department's are honest folks, but it should be Ford's responsibility to straighten out the dishonest one's, or shut them down. Thanks, John
Chances are that such shady businesses have shady lawyers with lots of experience stonewalling angry customers. Suing crooks is the right thing to do, but getting justice isn't automatic.
You can sue but are not guaranteed to win. Often times it turns into your technician against the other technician. What should be an easy win ends up being a 50-50 possible win or loss. If the judge or jury isn't really fully pursuaded by the evidence (and they need to like you, too), you could end up losing what is a strong case.
You are one of a tiny handful of honest mechanics on the planet. There’s no greater percentage of crooks in the auto business than any other, and I know whereof I speak
The real problem is that the management of those Ford dealerships or for any repair facility is there needs to be enough care about the quality and reputation of their business as well as ethics. Doing audits of repairs made by the shops staff is a good first step. Most shops do not take the time to inspect the work going out the door. I put this into practice in our City bus fleet repair facility. Some mechanics got upset that their work was being checked (union shop). But our rate of come backs dropped to near zero and the over all moral improved because the staff knew everyone was held to a high standard. That first Ford shop should be reported to Fords head office. Especially if they put in a false warranty repair claim.
This makes me think of my Dad, an auto mechanic (as far as I know, they were not called "technicians" in the 1950s) who was fired from his job at a car dealership because he refused to set back the odometers on used car trade-ins.
Still a common practice on second cars from the US here in Europe, they ship them from Dubai mostly accident cars repaired badly there in Dubai and turn them back between 25.000 and 50.000 miles. We checked them by searching auction sites and that's how we found out. There is a place in Newark run by Russians and that's the same problem.
This i believe is where Shoddy Kilmer got started on his career of hack and scam repairs, rolling back odometers. This was a huge problem in Houston back in the day insomuch that there was a investigation done on the Houston Mile Busters by 60 minutes.
PLEASE keep us informed on how this plays out. Does the Stealership back the lack of first repair or do they blow him off. I hate when shops do stuff like this. I hope he uses your video and all the evidence you pointed out and he takes the bums to small claims court if they don't stand behind their work.
This crap happens for a simple reason. Ford has openly said they are out to "Skin the techs whenever they can." They have slashed warranty times, charge back jobs if tou don't use the exact wipes they want, constantly threaten and punish techs for recall mistakes made by other dealers, etc etc. They have created an environment of hostility and apathy, so some guys say screw it. I'm getting screwed so I'm taking shortcuts to make the time up. I'm not saying it's right and I don't do this but I understand. Example, the door latch recalls that require changing all 4 door latches the labor time went from 4 hrs to 1.3 hrs. They screwed up and the techs are paying for it. These vehicles are rushed into production with unproven technology and throwing the techs to the wolves.
Listen! The extremely well payed people working the assembly line all the way to the well payed engineers it seems fit to short change the guy that has to repair their mess! I personally do everything by the book!
I hope people read this reply because this is where the problem starts 46 years as a Ford the last 10 were a night mare thanks to ford and the way they shit on techs with monthly warranty time cuts
@@timcheek5134 Just got done with the Ford asset class and now I am 21 with 1 year to go and I am a senior master tech. Trying to work to service manager as fast as I can so I don't get screwed over by flat rate electrical diag for to long. Only had 1 come back and only cost the company a box of gloves every week about. By the book and wear PPE. Been doing it for 3 years now.
I had a rear driveshaft seal leak on my 2017 F250's transfer case, 1000 miles on the truck, the first Dealer I took it to tried fix the seal with silicone sealant. The second dealer replace the seal 3 times. It kept getting torn up, when it started throwing gray or black colored oil, supposed to be red, I finally convinced them to change the transfer case. It ended up being an improperly installed bearing in the case that was starting to spin causing the output shaft to wobble, tearing up the seal. The black oil was metal from the case being destroyed by the bearing.
Oh my God! We have had a deal replaced 5 times now, the rear diff seal on our 2018 f 150. We have 36,000km on it. I'm taking it to a trusted mechanic for a review. I think there is something else wrong on our f150. We have black oil all over our driveway. 5 repairs in 2 years.
Shame on them , saying that the work has been done but in reality they simply billed Ford and pocketed the money. Karma will get them fudgers . I can see why people will travel thousands of miles to have you repair their vehicles. THANK YOU for being HONEST !
I think the Explorer owner needs to reach out to their State Attorney General irregardless of who paid, it wasn't done and now hes suppose to, "Thank You May I have Another".....
Im a 38 year Auto Mastertech. I owned and operated a repair shop in SC. I worked on whatever came in the door. I can totally respect this tech and what he does. He is very thorough and sniffs out (Barbara Streisand) the way I operated my shop. He lets the clues dictate his conclusions. He includes his customers in his diagnostics, and thoroughly explains their options, using his years of experience. The dealership is full of BS artist, but I found when a REAL tech calls them on it...they tend to fold.
So sad when customers get taken by dishonest techs or dealers. Especially at the rates shops charge now! It especially makes it hard if a person is new to the area and has no idea where to take their vehicle. And how many times has someone thought they paid for a job to be done when it was not? Some may ever know they were taken! Thanks for your video and honesty with your customers!
I live in Ohio and I’ve had my 2015 F 250 at my dealer on a few occasions. They have always treated me well. I use my truck to plow with and I get the oil changed just before winter. While my truck was under warranty the mechanic pointed out that the tie rod ends were showing wear along with the drag link. They asked if I wanted it repaired and that I would have to leave it. I asked if it was covered under my warranty they assured me it was. I had a loaner car from them a new Escape had my truck back in two days no charges and no problems. I’m quite happy with my Ford dealer. Thanks for your incite.👍🏻
That's why those hacks never touch my car unless it's for a state inspection. This is pure fraud and he should sue. I truly hope he does and you should provide evidence for him.
Ford owners are lucky to have you as an option. You are very helpful and give great advice. As a retired mechanic myself with 35 years on the job I feel that any manufacturer that would put the water pump inside the engine (driven by a chain) should be ashamed and certainly avoided by consumers. Driving a water pump with a timing belt is one thing especially when the belt has a required change interval usually between 60 to 120K depending on the manufacturer. The water pump and belt tensioners also get changed at the same time as part of a required PM. Many Toyotas have timing chains with external water pumps that are easy to access. Ford customers, like many consumers fail to properly research a product prior to purchase and are stuck with a poorly designed vehicle loaded with expensive issues.
So true! These vehicles are being designed and built by manufacturers who are looking for ways to provide cheaply made vehicles. There is no concern with reliability or quality control. Think about it, why do the vehicles have stereos and other non essential gadgets tied into the ECU, when these items can function perfectly on their own with separate circuits! These items are thrown together to increase the new car sale prices and increase the profits from replaced parts that malfunction. It also makes it difficult for aftermarket suppliers to make generic, cheaper parts in lieu of dealership parts. In my opinion, a car does not need a computer screen in the dash for a driver to operate the vehicle on the road! Just a distraction and crash hazard! Thus, a short warranty with exclusions allows the company and its dealer network to make huge profits!
in some cases, having the water pump inside the engine with chains works well. My infiniti g35 and g37 both have the water pump inside, the good part I am not touching it. One car has 300k miles, the other 131k. Luckily, these two cars are known for not having water pump issues and no need to replace them.
Crazy! My friend took his Silverado in for a trans flush and some other small stuff he hid a go-pro under the truck they did nothing to it! They loosed some bolts up wiped things down with dirty rags so it looked like it was serviced. He showed the serviced manager who ended up being in on it. He said he's still dealing with corporate.
Good job of pointing out the details. My Dad taught me - 50 years ago - that you should .... buy cars from a dealer, have cars worked on at a garage, and buy gas at a gas station. And never mix the three! And that's why even at 62 years of age I still either do the work myself or take it to a garage for repairs.
Thanks for making me have flashbacks to the times we have been hosed at stealerships. When you find an honest and capable mechanic, ever let them go. Take care of them and they will take care of you, that's how it works.
My wife was told her water pump needed to be changed when she took her Ford edge in for service. The quote was for 13 hrs plus parts to fix. Took it to a trusted mechanic and he said nothing wrong with the car, no leaks runs great. Calgary Alberta Canada area.
This has been going on for years. Way back in the 90s when I lived in Ohio, the airbag light on my '94 Mustang came on. I dropped it off at the dealer after work and the service manager said that he thought it was still under warranty but he'd call me the next day with an estimate if it wasn't. After not hearing from him all day, I went to pick it up after work. He said they'd had it on the monitor all day and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. He then said we should talk about the bill, and I said yeah, we should, because he'd never given me an estimate before doing work so by law he had to eat it. He said yeah, you're right, and miraculously they found the problem and fixed it in the next 10 minutes. A month later, the airbag light goes on again. Still under the repair warranty, so I took it back and they "fixed" it again. Six months later the airbag light comes on, but no longer under warranty so I said to hell with it and kept driving it. Several months later the check engine light also comes on, so I took it to a different dealer. He said that my oxygen sensor needed to be replaced, and oh yeah, why were there two grounding straps from my airbag to my frame? I explained the deal with the airbag and this guy told me that the number of times the airbag light blinks before it comes on steadily is the error code and they just have to look it up in the manual, no need to have it on a monitor. The first dealer, after having failed to fleece me, decided instead to make it so the light just wouldn't come on and sent me out on the road with a defective airbag. Twice, in fact. I wrote to Ford about it but never got any response, and the dealership still exists so I assume they're still out there ripping off their customers.
You should have visited the dealer, intentionally crashed into the building and sued the fucking hell out of them. Thats a FEDERAL OFFENSE TAMPERING OR INTENTIONALLY DISABLING AN AIRBAG. You either fix it correctly or you pretty much are intentionally killing someone though negligence.
Had the water pump in ours done at a national chain shop a friend of mine managed at the time. It was obvious they had the engine apart. The tech seemed to mark all the bolts with some sort of paint as he torqued them which I assume was to make sure none were missed. Not to mention the engine noticablly ran smoother/quieter as he followed ford procedures replacing tensioners, etc. No further issues.
While i haven,t worked at a dealer for over 20 years i still paint the bolts with different color nail polish ,my own code e.g. white paint long bolts .
Love your videos man I'm a ford tech currently going on 5 years almost senior master tech. I take this stuff seriously like you. I hate see people go through this. Keep up good work. I would also love to chat sometime about some tech stuff
Maybe you could help me, I've had my 16' Explorer sport for 1 month, I just had 100,000 mile service done 2 days ago. I get up to 90mph from 40 entering the freeway then from 70-80 up to 110 then back off 3-4 times a wk with no problems, yesterday I did the same and now I have a funky ticking sound that seems to increase after I get up to 30-40 and not that bad while driving??? 2 wks ago the Oil was still clear & smelling new, now it's black & burnt smelling. Any ideas. Just spent $880 on coolant / tranny flush and plugs at dealership so I'm hoping I'm not in trouble. Thanks
Unsure if you heard any reply, but I'm thinking a head gasket leak is allowing combustion gases to enter the oiling system. You can see what a compression test shows. If you push compressed air through the same hose into the cylinder you may also find other surprises.@@TyDomi
You did a very good job on explaining and showing all of the items that would have been changed if the dealership had done their job like they said they did. Great work on your side!!
I love your presentations. Articulate, thorough and delivered by a skilled and seasoned professional who sets the bar higher. Please keep them coming! The countless hours you sacrifice to create educational and informative videos should prompt everyone in the industry, from customers to engineers, to stand up and take notice. Thank you.
Your the best! I had to lean on my dealership pretty hard when my transfer case went out on my 16 F150 with 30,000 miles. Tried to blame it on me. It’s your vehicle stand up for it and request your replacement parts. Probably the only thing California has done right!
Happened to me when I asked my Ford dealership to change my sparkplugs on my 2009 Ford Escape 3.0. If you know that engine, the 3 sparkplugs in the back on the engine are a pain to get access to, you need to remove the intake and many other components. They charged me a high price for the job. When I picked up the car, I noticed old rusty bolts NEVER touched hence the job wasn't done at all. That infuriated me to say the least and they soon learned I wasn't their regular Joes.
For eight (8) plugs at the dealer in Melbourne, Florida//the bill was $1750.00; when challenged, the hourly rate at $160.00 per hour was not in line with standard book rates for specific jobsa. In short, they did reduce the bill by $500.00. Still far beyond the what expected since I could do it in 2 hours..but did not wish to to do it again. Be advised, most dealers are only concerned with warrantly vehicles..those of us beyond the warranty are basically defrauded.
I've watched Rainman Ray change spark plugs and coils a number of times. Anyone who knows which end of a wrench to use can do it on most passenger vehicles. The only trouble is disassembling and keeping track of all the dust shield crap on top of the engine. $1750 is proof the mechanic believes the adage "There's a sucker born every minute". (P.T. Barnum).
The dealerships try to dismiss your warranty claims and have you buckle under to paying cash so you can quickly have your car running again! People need to fight the warranty denials! It is true that many shops have fraudsters working for them and many States have little to no consumer protections on the books for such fraudulent activity! I found that some States like New Jersey have made it more difficult to even file a consumer complaint. Counties were handling these complaints for years and now the State has taken over all the work. Now, you can't get anyone to talk to you on the phone and it is difficult to file a basic complaint.
I do my own plugs, brakes and other minor things. These dealerships really piss me off with how they take advantage of people that are not mechanically inclined.
It seems as if most dealership service departments operate to spite their auto sales departments. I 've worked for a dealership before. I couldn't believe the complaints that customers had after having their vehicles serviced by "Factory Trained Service Technicians". Keep up the honest work! Love the channel!
Once someone has invested thousands and thousands of dollars in to a vehicle, what incentive does a service center have besides nickel and diming a customer after a sale? Very little incentive, especially if the techs don't suffer for their shotty work. The compay already made their money off the sale of the vehicle, it's why awareness is so important. That service center should be equipped and empowered to make their customers whole. I mean, that's they sale themselves on after all.
@@PearComputingDevices The money for dealships is in the used car sales and service. New car sales are money makers for the factories. Well, that's the way it was before Covids.
@@scurfie2343 you forgot financing. The dealerships will get a kick back on the financing and how many addin services get financed on top of the vehicle. Of course with used cars, the interest rates are a bit higher so that may be built into your analysis already.
When I take my vehicle to the dealer for a warranty repair, I tell them I've already had it diagnosed by a master tech at an independent shop, with video. They always ask me "what did he tell you?" I always reply "SHE told me not to tell you what she told me"
The owner of that Ford is extremely lucky to have you working on it. I applaud your honesty and integrity. Unfortunately most dealerships should be avoided unless your vehicle is under warranty or it’s a recall issue. Look for a busy local shop and check their references and quality of work. Thanks for all your helpful videos, my 2005 Ford Escape is running great.
I just took mine in for a recall issue, and they screwed me over really bad and did damage to my truck....so you aren't safe with recall work either sadly.
As a Ford Senior master technician and I’ve been in this business for 37 years, I don’t blame the dealership as a whole but I do blame the technician and management for letting him get away with this. It’s unfortunate that a few mechanics that work at dealerships well actually do this type of work and think that they can get away with it and actually do get away with it over and over again. It disgusts me because I fix vehicles the way I would fix my own car, I want the customers to come back because of the quality of work that I do not because of shotty work. Such a shame to see.
Ford tech 78-81..I say middle mgmt. knew about this from the Parts mgr that sold a water pump to this RO [there is a xtra water pump in inventory]..To the Service advisor.. To the Service mgr who is supposed to monitor what his crew is doing, To the Tech..
I am a retired auto repair shop owner/mechanic. What I have not read yet is the fact that factory warranty work make little money for the technician (about 1/2 labor hours and reduced markup on parts. According to the video, the water pump was supposed to be replaced under warranty. Management may be a partner in this scam. Dealer techs don' like factory warranty work. low man on the totem pole usually gets it.
@@antoniop1968 yes absolutely the person at the top is ultimately responsible for those under them. As a proud American it saddens me to hear and experience these stories, whatever happened to hard work and integrity? When did it get replaced by greed and selfishness? Thee are still some good ones out there but they are fading fast!
I own a 2018 ford. And I'm sure they try to put things off till after warranty is up. I still have a couple of issues , one is my moonroof clicking and sticking they just frighten few screws and say it's fixed. 3 yrs later . They said there is a part to fix that but my warranty is up on it. So they want me to pay $900. TO FIX a problem I had since new. Not gonna happen. Lost my breaks at 14000 km.had them checked the week before they said they were good. I could not stop at intersection went across and clipped a sign off. Drove my truck in and had the breaks inspected . The was Back completely gone. Under 2.They've lost me as a customer. No more faith in the dealerships. They are sneaky. I had a loud clanking rattle when I started it . Kept telling them about it .I recorded it and filmed it happening. They kept saying there was nothing wrong and it's alright until they decide there is something wrong. Took me a most three years to get it fixed. Took them almost 2 days.
I wish you were here in Phoenix. Are you? HA! My 2018 F150 Raptor has had sooooo many issues with the engine...The work at the dealerships has been well below par...Thanks for the video...
I was a transmission tech at a Ford dealer in ottawa Canada. I've had certain jobs where I new I could replace the failing parts without quite removing the transmission but never claim I replaced a part that I didn't. I don't think anyone in our shop was that bad. Some overselling yes but that's just wrong.
Haven't met a dealership mechanic that was an actual mechanic yet. Also, haven't been to an independent shop that did good work either. I have to do my own work or fix what a shop screwed up every time.
ford dealership in Irvine, CA tried to rip off my son on claiming $4600 job on replacing 2013 Ford Fusion broken transmission at 150000 miles on odometer, in which charged $200 for diagnose . I had my son send his car back to me in Kentucky to fix myself the leaking axle seal, bushing and replaced driverside axle, watching your video. I've been driving it in the last 500 miles without any issues from transmission shifting. Thank you for your videos, I saved lots of money. Bewares when taking your car to Ford dealership for service.
@@MR.KNOWITALL1982 Franklin mostly work on my own cars and trucks! But getting older my daughter lives in Boston and went to bmw 2010 217,000 miles starter and engine ground $1200 bucks! Sad 😢 that dealers don’t care just want to sell new cars! Franklin tire is a good guy but takes 1 week to do any job so backed up!
I’ll tell you why I don’t trust my old Ford dealership. I normally do my own maintenance and repairs but health issues have limited that lately. The dealership charged me over $400 to replace an EGR valve that was not hidden deep within. In fact I could lay my hand on it from the top. They then gave me a “ comprehensive “ list of problems that included leaking oil from almost every seal and a worn serpentine belt. There are no oil spots on my driveway where we park the car and I had replaced the serpentine belt, pulley, and tensioner around two months earlier. This was my local dealership that I’d done business with for decades. They had recently sold and the new owners are what I would call crooks.
My wife has a Mazda CX5 made in Japan. Zero issues 50,000 miles. A friend had a Mazda 6 from Japan years ago, 340,000 miles with regular maintenance, brakes, oil, fluid changes.
Excellent video. Dealers are all crooks. I own a Lexus and the Lexus dealer is just as crooked when it comes to 'recommended service'. That said, my car has 160,000 and I've never had to make a repair so I'm fortunate. I'm shocked that such a well cared for Ford Explorer needs so much work. I guess quality is not job #1.
All dealers are crooks? Painting a wide brush there aren’t you? Manufacturers set the recommended service intervals and services, not the dealerships. However, it’s the dealerships responsibility to make you aware of them. So you’re never had to make a repair on your Lexus yet the Lexus dealer is crooked? Your post makes zero sense.
A car needing a decent amount of service at 160k isn’t crooked. If they’re recommending things like flushing fluids and changing plugs, there’s nothing wrong with that at that mileage.
My dealership broke a nipple off the turbo intake pipe and just jb welding it back and said nothing. I was gonna come to you but you had about a 2 week wait since you do such good work.
Ran across your video as a suggested, love your competence and forthrightness. This has me thinking lawsuit for perpetrating fraud, and as you added at the end, a devaluing of the client's property.
That's criminal! It's hard to imagine this shit is still going on especially at the dealer level that is supposed to be a Ford certified dealer. Disgusting.
I am an independent tech. Customers come in daily with a list of crap that doesn't even have a problem. All dealers are crooks as far as I'm concerned.
This is why I do my own work. I once took my Ford Contour to a dealer for an alternator replacement. Dealer tech 'forgot' to secure the bolts properly and the damn thing dropped from the car when I was doing over 70 mph on I-95. I also took my car to a lube chain for an oil change. Paid the bill and was sent on my way. I checked the oil before leaving and it was as dirty as when I arrived. I crawled under the car and the oil drain plug still had road grime on it - untouched. F'n thieves.
I was doing a service on my Expedition. I went to change the fuel filter and realized that I didn’t have the right tool to remove the fuel line. I knew that it was a plastic line and I didn’t want to break it, so I took it to the dealer to get the fuel filter changed. I sat in the waiting room for about an hour and they came back with my keys and said they couldn’t change it because someone had broken the connector and the whole line would need to be special ordered for like 180 bucks. I told them that I knew exactly who broke it, because I specifically brought it to them so it wouldn’t get broken. Eventually got my own tool, and snagged a line in a salvage yard and changed it myself. I will never take anything back to a dealership again.
I have a '16 Explorer, and have also had issues with the dealership. This will be my last Ford. I refuse to deal with them anymore. Thank you for confirming my suspicions of their shady work.
Mak....sounds to me like you could make a tidy sum in a side business as an expert witness in small claims court...because that is where the owner of that '17 Explorer should take the dealer who claimed to install that water pump. That is just absolutely unacceptable and the owner should push back on that shady dealer to stand by it. Sounds like Ford is in a competition with Harley in the shadiest dealer contest! Great video...keep em coming!
I worked as a motorcycle mechanic in a American motorcycle factory in York pa. You wouldn't believe the shit I've seen done to 20 to 40,000 dollar motorcycles I always took my time to do any job right because my friends and loved ones ride as do I it has to be right and dealers are all a joke retired now but I will still wrench mine and others for free but I really enjoy babysitting others as they wrench they're own we both take pride in a job well done no payment required or excepted
One way to combat fraud is by asking for the replaced parts at the time of write up, if there is a core charge ask to see the old part, have the tech show you what he replaced.
A while back I was taking a new car to get oil changes done while in warranty (I do it myself otherwise) then noticed a charge for the drain plug as it was plastic, and since I usually do a QA inspections after any work done in my cars, I noticed the drain plug could not have been replaced. So the next time I took it in, I put a mark on the plug, and took a picture. And after the oil change , yup, the same plug was reinstalled, and I was charged for a new one. I took the pictures (timestamped) to the manager, and he was "surprised", but returned my monies, and of course never took it back again, even while in warranty. So I wondered how many small things like that go around. Hope Ford sees your video. Good job.
That's exactly the reason i opened my own shop saw how bad they took advantage of people. Keep the great video's coming thanks for the hard work you do to help us all!
I used to be a mechanic worked for both gm and Ford at times and sorry to say this is an auto industry problem. It's not a lot of mechanics doing this but unfortunately you find them in dealers and independent shops. And yes so shop's or dealers are worse than others. I myself worked for a gm dealer that had a guy that would recommend repairs and not even replace the parts. The dealer caught on and found a pile of parts in his toolbox and fired him. All good mechanics need to expose the crooks and run them out of the industry.
Based on my experience and what I see here the front cover was never removed to replace the water pump. Everything about this "repair" is very suspicious but the only way to truly verify it is to open up the front cover and remove the water pump. As for the $2,500 rear main seal leak, well that obviously was misdiagnosed big time. Let me know your thoughts based on the evidence shown here in this video!
Ford strikes again. Literally had the same problem with my neighbor. He's the same, takes care of his vehicle like his baby - power mirror didn't work and small oil leak from his 2012 F250 King Ranch he wanted fixed. Ford dealership told him it was the rear main that was leaking.... I replaced the oil cooler and gaskets, $250 later, no more leak. Same thing for the automatic tow mirror. They wanted $700 + labor to replace a mirror because it stopped folding - turns out, one of the gears that folds the mirrors is plastic. $135 later, new brass gears and motors, fully functioning mirror.
Thanks for the content! Just curious...what would the price be to change the valve cover gasket at the dealer? Would be interesting to see the price difference between that and the main seal. Thanks!
Please let us know how the story ends. Did the dealership acknowledge that the water pump repair hadn't been done? Did they end up fixing the problem?
@@JimLambier - Yes...I too would love to hear how this story ends! I hope they refund the water pump replacement cost at the very minimum. Just goes to show how valuable an honest mechanic is these days.
@@StonedGamers has nothing to do with ford!! It's every dealership
The fact that a technician could do this without anyone else in the shop noticing is insane. (No one wondered how he did a massive job in 20 min?) And the fact that a supervisor or shop foreman probably DID know about this and the technician still has his job is just unbelievable. I work as a technician for an independent shop and I would lose my job in a heart beat if I did this. I mean... HOW does this happen?? Shops like that are giving all of us a bad name and they need to be held accountable.
It is not just the tech, everyone is in on it....
This is criminal.
I'd sue the balls off these idiots.
They don't care as long as it makes the dealership money..
Contact Ford and report warranty fraud. Bet that dealer get's their shit together real fast.
@@DISOPtv With what evidence? A You Tube video?
Too many dealerships (of various brands) are simply not trustworthy. Recently, my neighbor (a female senior citizen) had brought her spotless 2006 Toyota Camery to the local Toyota dealership dealer for an oil change and a complaint of a braking issue. After the oil change, she was presented with a list of over $8,000.00 in "necessary repairs". They recommended she accept a trade in offer and purchase of a new car. Thankfully, she told them she would like to go home and think it over. She showed me the list which included among other things, major oil leaks (head gasket, rear main seal), all new front end parts, etc. (I crawled under her car and found no signs of any fluid leaks). They did note that there were no issues with her brakes (her only complaint) but that she would need the brake fluid flushed at her next oil change.
I had her take her car to my mechanic for a complete inspection of her vehicle. The result? NONE of the items noted by the dealer were valid. The car needed front brakes and clean brake fluid. It cost her around $200.00 as opposed to over $8,000.00. Needless to say, she now is a regular customer of my mechanic.
So, did she just let the whole thing slide regarding the dealership? Did she file a complain, or a lawsuit?
Garrett Lindgren >>> This why they call the "dealership" aka *stealership* they cheat & con punters off the street. Robbing the hard earned money from hard working class folks ! Get know ex-employee/s that worked in the dealerships that works in a other non dealership garage & wait for the bill to shrink more than 50% than the stealership.... for more work - cash.....
Dealerships have a lot full of cars they want to sell to make a profit. They have no incentive to fix your out of warranty car.
They have an incentive to scare you into a new car on their lot. They have an incentive to not fix you car or, as was my case once upon a time, break your car WORSE while fixing it to nickel and dime you into a new car on their lot.
Find a GOOD mechanic that isn't associated with a dealer, and hang onto them. Dealer is only worth a damn when you have a warranty, and even then...
@@JohnSmith-bq1sj I believe that she called the service manager and informed him that she would no longer be a customer of their dealership for service or future purchases due to their less than honest practices. I wanted her to file complaints with the BBB, Chamber of Commerce and the manufacturer, but I don't think she followed through on that.
@@spiv_gennedy I agree. Good (and honest) mechanics are tough to find, I'm fortunate to have one.
As a former service manager for a Chevrolet dealership actually more than one dealership, part of my responsibility was to make sure that my mechanics were being honest. There were times when they weren’t and I had to deal with it. This goes back many many decades.
This is an excellent video and you absolutely nailed it.
@SCMongooseT4R It's usually either suspension or immediate termination. A shop's reputation is more important than being short a tech for a while.
Dealerships get bought out by investment groups and that's when the good employees leave and the business gets run into the ground for a short term gain.
@@dcdanger6151 100% right.
The good techs move to independent shops or get out of the toxic industry.
@SCMongooseT4R
I actually never had to fire anyone. Many times in the past I can’t speak for now, service managers had little knowledge regarding the mechanics of cars and trucks. Many times they were just nice people and got along with the customers and the mechanics. It didn’t take them long to figure out that I knew what was going on and if our dealership got embarrassed because of shotty work or work not done at all they would lose their job.
I left the automobile business and got into sales selling associated type products for mechanical repairs. It’s the best thing I ever did because I ended up eventually in my own business and I never regretted it.
@@davidparker9676
A lot of times the problem is warranty work. The manufacturer pays a certain amount of money for doing a certain kind of job and in reality it takes longer to do the job then what they say in their book, hence an issue. One of the problems independent shops have is that there are very few schools that you can go to to really get a hands-on in-depth experience and the manufacturers provide such a deal. It’s actually I think now mandatory that the techs actually go to the manufacturer school to learn about transmissions and engines etc. Independent repair shops very seldom have the correct tools for diagnosis and special tools for doing repairs. It isn’t that the tools aren’t available it’s that if you’re an independent you’re working on everything not just a Chevrolet, Ford or Chrysler.
First time viewer here. This video shows excellent Diagnose/ investigation skills. Not surprised he runs his own shop now. I'm a master mechanic for 40 years. Today exactly that's my daily businesses in the automotive prototype and durability testing industrie.
Good job, keep them coming. Subscriber!
I thought it was just us women that got subjected to this sort of stuff. I've worked as an engineer in the auto industry for over 30 years and I never cease to be amazed at the amount of baloney dealerships dish out. Of course, I never told them that I was an automotive engineer because that would have ruined all the fun. Over the years, my vehicles have been "diagnosed" with all kinds of "you gotta fix this right away!" issues (none of which were true), but my all time favorite was when the service department at one dealership told me that I needed to have HALF of the engine replaced (standard V6 internal combustion engine). While struggling to keep a serious look on my face I asked: "Which half?" Answer: "the entire right side and it will cost around $5,000 dollars to replace it". I told them I'll just let it run on the 3 cylinders on the left half until that side breaks as well; then they can replace the entire engine. Lord help us.....
🤣 love it ! I do the same i just let them think im a novice until they make me laugh with the garbage they talk 😂 i had one guy do work for mot a few years back it involved fitting a suspension arm and drop links, when i went to collect my car i had a quick look under, nothing fitted 🤯 when i confronted the so called mechanic he said forgot to fit them 🤣🤣🤣
I'm an engineer too, different industry than you though. But I too have played dumb one too many times when others were trying to pull on some wool.
Next time where a body camera, and tell them afterward that if they don't fix it for free you will cancel them... :D :D :D
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Fraudsters like these should be charged and prosecuted. As soon as that is done,
95% of this crap will cease!!
As a former tech, I don’t know how these guys can live with their dishonesty. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
Not all dealership technicians are dishonest.
Do you have a shitty tech detector? Then they are all dishonest.
They sure aren't. But whiny parts swappers whine and the dealer has gotta scam to keep "certified" parts swappers in order to claim and receive payment for warranty work. A knowledgeable technician can make an honest living.
Where are the honest ones? Tired of crossing my fingers....
Not all, but most are dishonest.
Are you sure it wasn't the service writer that tried gooping their way through this scam?
As an honest wrench turner, this kind of stuff makes my blood boil!
I hope he shows this video to his State's Bureau of Automotive Repair, and the Consumer Fraud section of the County District Attorney.
And the Attorney General
Love to share the way I was treated by a Ford dealership in Harrisburg area
I know this is a year old. However, the honesty and integrity of the mechanic reporting the dishonesty of two Ford dealerships needs to be applauded.
I worked at 2 different GM dealerships after going to Mr Goodwrench School from 84-86. I never had a service manager ok anything like that, but I have met some mechanics that would do something like that and write it up for the full flat rate charge. I definitely trust my own work more than a dealership. I've worked on my own at a couple of small towns , and nearly put the local repair shops out of business by being honest, and not over charging people. Trust me. If word gets around that you're a good mechanic that's honest , you'll be swamped with work in no time.
Agreed 100%. I do my own mechanical work but there is one mechanic I trust if I can't do something and he is ALWAYS full. In good times or bad he never wants for business.
Yes sir. Honest mechs get huge referrals.
Same situation with body repair,, no , you dont need a whole new door, repairing it was only a very small fraction of the cost, not a1000 dollar scam job.... and in the process I gained a loyal customer ,and the rest of thier family followed ,,,years of work and very happy customers,, I cant stand the dealership bullshit runarounds,, greedy bastards .
Considering how easy it is to do those things, you would figure more would do it.
You are correct. I live in rural PA. There are plenty of dealerships within 8 miles of me including a Pep Boys. I've been dealing with a local, family owned repair shop here for 30+ years and won't trust anyone else. They, like you treat me right and don't overcharge.
A few years ago when Ford was having a carbon monoxide leak issue with some of their Explorers, my now wife took hers to a dealership to get it checked. The service adviser she spoke to actually told her she would be able to smell it if she had a leak. That dealership is no longer open.
The service advisor probably confused CO with the parp (H2S /SO2) he released.
I would have maybe wanted to punch that idiot and I probably would have gone back and made the dealership owner over see that the issue was taken care of, those guys don't like negative publicity and I have a big mouth!!!
Carbon monoxide also has no smell.
@@brayannexon4613 Propane/ butane have no smell either and oil companies add a smell chemical (ethyl mercaptan) to the bottled cooking gas to alert the consumer that there is a leak!
@@seraglioborneo2803 you're right.
As a retired Ford dealership technician, I suggest your customer contact Ford's national head office CS department with a copy of his warranty repair invoice and a copy of this video. I have personally experienced Ford head office send us a customer to warranty a repair of another dealerships so called repair. It's worth a try with the evidence you have shown.
If vehicle is in the warranty window, he should contact a lemon law attorney. Ford HQ won't do anything.
bahahaha
I've heard of dealers that refuse to do warranty work the first time because it pays so poorly.
Ford Corporate will just tell you to shove it. Like they did to my father when his engine blew up just past warranty!
Mikey, I called the service dept at my local Ford dealer and talked to the service mgr. Asked how much a tune-up would be for my car. He said, "What's a tune up, I've never heard of that." When I told him, he quoted me 2k unless there are problems. 😳
Silver lining: the dealer didn't actually disassemble or BUTCHER anything under the hood before the vehicle came to a real specialist :)
Except they did
@Josh Strickland Who is the real specialist you refer to?
@Josh Strickland I just thought I would give you the opportunity to clarify. For instance, the person in this video is a qualified, quality mechanic.
To be more clear, when a vehicle goes in for warranty service, routine or otherwise, a person will never know what will happen, til it does, or does not.
One time I actually had a dealer try to hold my car hostage for BS they made up. They were trying to force me to have and pay for a repair I did not need, or they were not going to give me my car back. That did not end well for them. But, it was a PIA for me. However, my attorney had no problem with the situation.
@Josh Strickland Why are your last two posts gone? Did you delete them? Your last post was really goofy. And, I'm not your "homey".
@Josh Strickland Then why are you back? Get an education so you can learn to comprehend simple words. And, stop getting so triggered because you cannot understand. And, cute, like you can Bless me.
As a Ford owner and dealership customer, my biggest gripe about situations like this has been needing to work through the service advisor. I can't count the number of times things have been misdiagnosed because my concerns were ineffectively relayed to the technician. Only after multiple visits and finally getting to talk with the tech directly was I able to get multiple warranty concerns resolved properly. There are too many cooks in the kitchen with dealership service, and this is one of the benefits of going independent - you get to talk directly with the person doing the work, which can help ensure a proper repair as well as friendlier service.
Bang on point about the message getting lost in translation, or rather transmission. It happened to me once at a Honda dealer. I told that imbecile sales guy one thing, he wrote some rubbish and the mechanic understood some other rubbish. After wasting my entire day and my money, they did a poor job, wrong job and annoyed me.
3 Ford dealers I used when I had a Ford were Atrocious! Never changed my oil, forgot to put fish oil in the rear after it was found leaking. Couldn’t “Find” an oil leak. The list goes on. Needless to say I don’t own a Ford anymore.
The example I remember well is a Ford pickup I had purchased new in the late 90s. The steering wheel developed a slight wobble/click when it was rotated. It was a common problem, and I had found the TSB online that spoke to replacing bearings in the column. When I presented it to the service advisor as the "steering wheel would click and wobble when rocked from side to side", I would get that they could not duplicate the concern. I asked to speak to the mechanic at one point, and he proceeded to demonstrate to me how the drive-by-wire accelerator would make a clicking noise when pressed. I asked why he was demonstrating the accelerator when I specifically mentioned a concern with the steering wheel. I ended up buying the TSB kit for the dealer and having them do the labor to replace the bearings under warranty, which of course solved the problem. Not a big concern, but I would have thought the dealer should have been better equipped to find the information that I needed to provide to get the job done.
@@mooch91 funny you mentioned that. When my rear was leaking, and I brought it in and they “Fixed” it. It made a horrible grinding sound when I turned left. I physically had to put the service mechanic in the truck and take him for a ride to show him. Unreal!
@@rayrussell6258 I hate service advisers, their main job is to upsell the customer. I go to a local small garage (car out of warrantee) to get things done. I deal with the owner and buy the tecs (6 guys) coffee if its around 10 am. Believe me they get to know you and your car fast just by having a coffee with them.
I never worked at a ford dealer but I’ve wrenched for a couple other brands. When crap like this happens the fault lies with management. Mechanics come and go, some are better than others. Most aren’t very good frankly. It falls to the service manager and the shop foreman to set and enforce the standard of workmanship and honesty. Clearly those dealers aren’t doing that. I wonder if they billed ford for the water pump repair under warranty? If so it’s not just scummy it is literally criminal fraud!
Hard to imagine if they are shady enough to pass a water pump replacement job being completed to a customer, that they would not also do the same to Ford reimbursement for warranty.
@@GiovanniGomez Bingo!
dont they have to send old bad one back to ford for reimbursement?
@@ufartface Probably not hard to find a 3.5 waterpump laying around : (
Years ago a local dealer chain got caught doing the warranty fraud game. 2-3 of their stores were doing it, a handful of middle managers went to jail for it and the RV store went under, but the higher ups kept the chain going for many years after that. Just sold this year.
The motor industry never fails to disappoint. Good for you for exposing this.
Yup..so true, car makers sell vehicles at quite small profit margins, so they make up in service and parts...always been that way. Matter of fact; the longevity of parts is designed in the whole process
@@MolloRelax Don't kid yourself that they have small profit margins. My coworkers son worked as a lawyer for Ford in Detroit and was able to buy vehicles at the price his son could. It was disgustingly cheap.
Sadly every brand has a dealership like this. My dads tundra had a similar problem thing done to it at our local Toyota dealership. He had a oil leak and they said it was fixed a week later it was leaking g worse. Took it to another Toyota dealer a hour away and they fixed it no charge and they called our local dealer and had them pay for the work. So I have to thank that dealer for doing that job right and taking care of my father
I have an older 2000 Toyota. I was taking it to the dealership as the issues were dealership only repairs. The first time the dealership repaired my car, I had a leak from the reservoir tank. The tank was broken all of a sudden. I repaired it myself. The 2nd time I decided to mark certain parts. I get my car back and look under the hood. I noticed parts were changed out that should have never been touched. The mechanic was using my car as a parts car for his car. He would swap the bad part into my car. I have finally found and repaired all the parts he stole.
The mechanic was damaging cars to buy them from the owners to resell. He was making easily fixed problems. He would write on the sheet the "more than the car is worth" issue.
The Toyota dealership didn't care and said it wasn't true. The 2 Toyota dealerships near are part of a massive corporation. I know drive an hour away if I need Toyota delaership only repairs.
Kinda sorta similar story. Love this channel by the way as I’m a Ford fan. However, this comment concerns my 2020 Chrysler 300S. Nothing serious but numerous small issues cropping up that should have been warranty items. Dealer fixed nothing and charged me for 2 of 3 items. Independent shop I’ve used for years properly fixed the car free of charge as the dealer paid him, presumably with my money LOL.
Many of dealerships do stuff like this across the brand lines especially to older people. Always good to see an honest technician good job!
My handycapped friend went to the Suburu dealership in Asheville, NC. He has a 2005 LL Bean. Dealer was young & went down a list of what was wrong with the car. & tried to sell him a new one. We went to Suburuls R Us & he said it was not true & only charged him for a simple issue. The car looks & runs well. CAUTION Stay away from the thieves that are abundant out here.
I have a good friend who worked for a Chevy dealership as the service manager, the stories he told me pissed me off and made me never use a dealership again.
Many old people.
Many more gay men.
Most straight women.
The smart ones get 2nd opinions so the don't get too scrooed or 2nd Amendment to let them know not to scroo with YOU!🤠
LolOwell
They try it on anyone they junk isn’t smart enough to understand when the wool is being pulled over them. A Honda dealership in Indianapolis tried me because they didn’t think I was serious about getting a lawyer on a lemon. They ended up replacing a transmission free of charge
I often wonder if the mechanics are just that dumb. I have been to so many places and still can't find one I trust to fix it right the first time.
I'm getting to the point where I have to check over work that gets done to my car whenever I take it in for service.
Example: Just had 4 new snows mounted and balanced a few weeks ago. After a few days of driving, my front rotors started hopping. I loosened and retorqued the lugs, found out the driver's side was torqued correctly and the passenger's side was just blasted on using a gun. I had to use a cheater bar to get 3 lug nuts off, they were so tight. When these shops can't even get techs to do the basics, how can you trust them to do anything major?
lol. i had to stand and bounce on a a SIX FOOT schedule 40 pipe on a breaker bar to take EVERY lug nut off a classic trans am. i had squirted every nut with penetrant for a week. i was shocked that none of the lugs broke. the only thing that saved me is with age i have learned patience and little tricks like soaking stuck bolts and nuts for a week before trying to loosen them.
I had a set of tires mounted on my wife’s new Mini Transit while getting an Out of Province insp done last week.
When I went to re-tq the wheels, I found all 20 lug nuts bulged so badly, I had to use a 5lb sledge to get a socket on them.
On and off with a gun, tq stick if we were lucky.
I brought this to the service manager and he offer to sell me new lugs, but he’d cover the labour…
@@wadedoucette1819 should have told him he already owes you new studs. It's illegal to sell you a replacement for something they broke
My daughter has a Chevy Sonic she bought new. They give her free oil changes and almost every time she brings it in they find a new problem.
They sold her a couple of tires one time and the only way I found out is when she called me to come get the wheel off. She couldn’t do it with the lug wrench, neither could the sheriff that pulled over to help her. He broke the wrench trying. I had to bring a 1/2 breaker bar and a pull pipe to change the tire. I bought her all new lug nuts (OE have chrome caps on the lug nuts and they are all destroyed from being over torqued during tire installation/rotation. I always check my lug torques when someone works on my vehicles.
A very similar thing happened to me, but with an exhaust leak on my relatively new Ford truck. The exhaust manifolds were a bad casting, and did not fit the heads, but we’re forced on at the factory. The exhaust manifold bolts were breaking due to the pressure, and the bolt ears on the heads were cracking. The dealer just kept torquing down the exhaust bolts until the warranty ended, after which the bolts and heads broke , creating an unreparable exhaust leak. The dealer and Ford accepted no responsibility for the failure. I had to replace both heads, and both exhaust manifolds, but did the work myself because I no longer trusted the dealer, and never returned to the dealer, who has since gone out of business. The only good part of this episode was that I replaced the heads with better castings with larger valves, and had porting done on the intake ports, and I ported the exhaust ports and the exhaust manifolds, all for less cost than the dealer wanted to fix the engine. As one can imagine, the truck ran a lot better after this work, with lots more torque and horsepower to tow; I repeat all for less money than the dealer wanted. Joe
This dealer not only cheated the customer, they most likely charged Ford for the warranty work.
Yup warranty fraud right here.
I think if ford catches wind of this they might contact you, ask questions, get a vin, and hopefully go after that dealer with some kind of punishment and take the money back they paid to the dealer for work done, or not done in this case..
@@neallowey7383 You think Ford corporate would waste that much time? The corporate attorney bills at $1,000 per hour. The vehicle owner needs to contact Ford, file a complaint with corporate, then file a small claims court suit to recover this mechanic's work to replace the water pump if Ford does not reimburse him.
That's why when I start getting the run around from those incompetents I turn into a real asshole because they know they don't want me coming back
@@FordTechMakuloco I worked at 2 Ford dealers in the first 9 years of my career, 1 treated technicians like slaves (which is why I left) and the other had 2 con artists that ended up getting fired after I left. They did shady warranty crap all the time (find another VIN, claim the work there and fix another car, really shady) BUT the advisors and fellow technicians where the BEST people out there! I left due to an opportunity to work in my own city (had a 45 minute each way commute to this job) and now work for a local police service as an in house technician/upfitter at a MUCH higher pay with full pension vs. Ford dealership life. I miss working at the dealers sometimes, but the constant shady practices, and being screwed out of a good wage kind of sealed the fate for me, and a lot of other good techs have done the same that I have worked with sadly. Car manufacturers have no-one but themselves to blame for good technicians leaving.
This is precisely why I've started flying down to my dad's place at least twice a year - I've taken over the maintenance on his F150. The two dealers in his area have pulled fast ones on my dad, convincing him to spend thousands on unneeded repairs or services. The last straw was when the dealer told him he was in dire need of a complete brake job, the brakes were nearly down to metal - they tried to scare him into thinking it needed to be done ASAP due to it being a safety issue. I flew down, inspected the brake system and found that the front pads still had over 70% of the original thickness left, rear ones were at 90%. The brakes were just fine!!
ba$tard$
Probably a lube tech who did the free mpvi
My dealership told me the same exact thing. I have a car that only got highway miles, but I took it to Ford for frequent oil changes.
I noticed that Every oil change my brake pads lost one millimeter on their inspection sheet.
They told me the brakes were dangerously low and needed to be done ASAP. I pulled the wheels only to find they were basically brand new pads and rotors
Why doesn't Ford drop them as dealers? They aren't helping Ford's sales.
At the cost of that flight, he could have had a 100% new set all around with money to spare ; let alone 2x a year -.-
Damn criminal what these dealerships are getting away with. It is FRAUD in every sense of the word!
not Fraud its out right THEFT ,
That dealership forsure is going to get redflaged by ford's warranty department if they got payed for the repair
I believe it is time for all customers ,to require a video proof of ALL the work performed on their vehicle, specially at the hourly price that dealerships are charging nowadays...here it is $229/hour. Cameras are a dime a dozen these days
I’m a current Ford dealer technician and I very much enjoy doing Explorer 3.5L water pumps. This crap some dealers are doing is despicable! I’m thankful to work at a large, very busy and honest dealership. Management at my shop would fire any tech who tried that fraudulent repair BS.
you might want to name the good shop/location - promote the good guys
That’s good to hear. Thank you for doing honest work and not ripping off the average hard working person
A lot depends on the dealer principles and shop and Workshop head mechanics and managers.
Andy Mohr Ford just called and said "stop exposing us!"
So why are garages doing this, Ford should do a technical investigation, they themselves are being ripped-off, is this even legal?
It's not only Ford. I owned/operated a shop in Rochester, NY and saw so much thievery that I started making copies of receipts and hanging them on the wall in the office. Absolutely unbelievable stuff!! After a family health issue I ended up in Florida where I took a job at Chevy dealer. My plan was to understand the lay of the land and open another shop. Well, I spent 9 months tearing my hair out as all I saw there was a continuous bank robbery of every customers cash!! I received all of the heavy line work because it was actual work that couldn't be scammed. You know there is not much money in that and the toughest work in the house! It seamed that every car that came in needed a ton of stuff that went out of warranty 6 - 12 months after the warranty was up. Then I started seeing comebacks that looked exactly as you showed in this video. UNTOUCHED EVERYTHING!!! I could not wait to get out of there.. By the way, my CSI was on top every month. Hmmmmm,,, I wonder why??
I have a garbage plate in your honor
@@jeffh4505 I cannot tell you how often I think of a garbage plate!! Food in Florida sucks. I could eat a different mean at a different restaurant 3 times a day for months in Rochester and they would all be delicious!! Pizza sucks. Even burgers suck here.. No idea where they get the beef. BUT,,, Our local greasy spoon does have Haddock and Zweigles!!! ;)
@@SteveP-vm1uc everyone arguing over the best hot dogs are all wrong. Zweigles are where it’s at!
HYUNDAI is the worst
Fellow Rochesterian and garbage plate eater. Lol
Glad to see this. Tough to find an honest mechanic that takes time and cares about the customers.
The “Stealership” should be the last place to take your vehicle for anything.
Great breakdown! Takes some serious critical thought coupled with real world knowledge to pin a lie on “supposed” work
Unfortunately there are enough shady shops and techs that make a whole industry untrustworthy. I've worked in several dealers and have seen honest work and hacks, the best thing a customer can do is ask questions and request a visual explanation of repairs. Honest techs will show the quality of their work and the losers will try to hide it.
Imagine a single mom who takes her car in for a simple oil change which turns into a never ending leak. These people are the worst
This happens in ALL the tech repair industries, air heating, Electricians, etc.
I blame the service riders, they are the ones that dole out the work. Thier buddies get the gravy jobs and the guys they don't like get the crap jobs. Working off book time is also a problem. If the book says it takes 4 hrs to do a job the tech does it in 2 he gets paid for four. That also works in reverse the crap jobs always take longer than the book says, this leads to short cuts and shoddy work.
@@williamnovotny5776 The reason we can beat the book is because we buy the tools. & have the knowledge to do the work. But you think we don't deserve to be paid enough to pay for our tools, & education , You think we just woke up one day & knew how to do this. I bid a job once told them the price. They asked how I knew how long it would take. I said I look ed it up in the book, I told if it took longer I didn't charge for it. It's a set price. They asked a shade tree how much. He just said he charged by the hr. They let him do it . Later when they picked up the car it was 2X's what I said. They asked me why it took him so long. I said I'm a certified mechanic. I know what I'm doing. That's why we used the book.
@@williammarkhart7047 strike a nerve there buddy? Tools don't make the man, how many short cuts and shoddy work has left your bay?
How refreshing to see a mechanic describe the scams that go on all the time. I generally do my own mechanic work on my vehicles. Nearly every time I’ve taken my Sierra truck in for oil changes, the techs will point out some issue that will no doubt cause me a disaster. Nothing has yet to break down and it’s just disheartening to know these dealerships have to overcharge or scare customers simply to justify the staff they carry. American dealerships have caused their own demise to off shore manufacturers.
Yeah but sometimes a tech may actually be telling you something IS dangerous. Thats the thing
Amen
Truth.... i was really Never the "mechanic type" but unfortunately I CAN actually understand the tech all too easily. When I did a little calculating & figured out that if I bought the tools, as time went on I'd spend less & less on (official) mechanics...... & PLUS....
All too often a mechanic DOES try to "Scare" you into service. There is service that _COULD_ Be done to your vehicle. And there is service that _SHOULD_ Be done to your vehicle. I prefer to have a slightly older car / truck, that I care for myself.
And when it IS a super heavy or complicated job.
I give it to a GOOD "off label" tech. Like a tranny or engine rebuild
(I've even hand rubbed my own paint.... _But I will NEVER do that again)
(it was painful for me to try to do my own paint)
🙂
When I was in Alaska many years ago I took my Ranger to a local dealer in Fairbanks to replace my transmission. They charged an outrageous price (blamed it on being in Alaska) and sent me on my way. Transmission was still acting weird. I was in the Army and a maintenance Warrant officer at Ft Wainwright crawled under my truck and promptly informed me no work had been done on my vehicle. I took it back to the dealer, demanded my money back and told them I was going to report them to our Provost Marshall and ask they be placed off-limits. They replaced my transmission but charged it under the warranty. The truck wasn’t under warranty. I have never bought or even gone to visit another Ford dealer.
If they will cheat active-duty military, they will cheat anyone.
I have a good
People cheat active duty military
I've mostly owned Ford trucks. My last Ford truck was a 1998 half ton f150. I had that truck since I bought it with 10,000 miles. Some fool hit me and totaled it. 189 k and didn't burn a drop of oil. 2016 I bought a sierra and that's tale for another time. But of late most of what I read of Ford is how they've made their vehicles to be exclusively maintained by by Ford.
@@falcon8553 if you take the time to learn your car they're surprisingly easy to keep going, just have to know the tricks, and they'll last a long ass time if you can maintain them.
As much as it kills me to say this this is the new Normal when taking a car to a dealership, I can't even count on both hands how many times I've had to go back behind techs that did not do the job right
"new Normal" ... ? No insult intended, but you must be young. Congrats! :-p This type of nonsense has been going on forever, and it is the same with way too many, dare I say almost all, independents.
Yep, the new world we live in...
@@davidlaws1438 nothing new about it in fact it’s probably better than it used to be
@@philgar7786 I've never actually met a dishonest independent shop.
I always took my 2014 to the Ford dealer for oil changes during warranty. No other place, just the Ford dealer. So, after warranty I changed my own oil. The very first time I changed oil my drain plug was stripped out. I had to get a new one at Auto zone. I would expect this from a quickie lube place but not from a Ford dealer service department.
Excellent work on your part investigating this!! Whoever performed this scam is a criminal in my opinion. It was violating a person's trust, lying to them, and sealing their money! Please do a follow up on the Owner's actions, which should include a letter to Jim Farley - the Ford CEO. I hope the Owner gets an attorney involved.
"That's the Chicago way!" - Sean Connery.
You’re too funny Wes!
Yes, very funny indeed!
They send one of yours to the local mechanic.. You send one of theirs to the Ford dealership service department!
Hi Wes.
I live in the 'burbs and took my 15 Edge Sport to two different dealerships 4 different times and there's still oil on my driveway. Yep, definitely the Chicago way.
This doesn't surprise me at all. My wife's 2010 Flex had a failed water pump early this year after a few weeks of random "clanging" sounds coming from the engine bay. The engine overheated one day but was shut down right away. Had it towed to a Ford dealer in North Aurora, Illinois (the closest dealer from the break down) and they replaced the water pump. Tried calling FordTechMakuloco's business first but they were too backed up with other jobs. The work was done and the water pump replaced for about $2500 and all was good for about a month. Then I noticed oil was leaking out from the area near the ac compressor and it would drip onto the drive belts. Fast forward another few weeks and my wife came home from work with the battery light on and saying that the steering was hard to turn. I inspected it and found the drive belt partially shredded. Had it towed to a dealer in Indiana and they replaced the water pump, again, for about the same price as the original dealer, $2500. I would have preferred to take it back to have the original work repaired under warranty, but they are over 60 miles away and my wife didn't want anything to do with them after they did such a crappy job. We will never buy another Ford product that has an internal water pump. A simple $200 water pump replacement turns into a $2500 nightmare due to this idiotic design.
Sorry you had these issues. We have a 2010 Edge with same engine, 168K now, and no water pump issues. Who knows if it mattered but we switched to Amsoil products from the first oil change. We also swapped out the Ford coolant with Amsoil coolant at 60K and again at 120K. I hear these Ford 3.5L V6's like clean fresh coolant and that might preserve the water pump seals better.
Nightmare
2012 Explorer 300,000 miles on original water pump. Feels like a ticking time bomb….
@@CStockner If you ever hear metallic clanging coming from the engine bay, take it to a shop and get it changed. That should have been a tell tale sign but my wife drives her Flex exclusively. It started doing it intermittently too, so whenever she would ask me to come listen, it didn't do it.
I would have kept the parts and filed a small claims case. I assume the pump was never actually replaced. Sorry that happened to you. I stopped buying Fords 30 years ago, too many costly problems with Transmissions after 50K miles.
Oh man this is some crazy timing! I just got my '14 3.5 F-150 back from a Ford dealer for a Rear Main Seal repair. I've done everything possible to maintain this truck since I bought it. I mean everything. I've never delayed maintenance on any single part of this truck. My truck only has 80k miles on it and everyone keeps telling me that it shouldn't have had that issue so early. Watching this gave me a sinking feeling... oof. Thank you for having the integrity to help that owner out though. I wish I could find someone like this near me.
When dealerships pay by the job instead of hourly rates and on top of that they hire just any tech to do the work either ASE certified or not, that is the result! I admire you a lot for having the cojones to point it out like is never being done before! Being there done that!!! That is why my bosses hated me so much cause I tell it like it is!!! Thank you so much!!!
Living in the sanctuary state of MA - There are very few Americans working as techs at dealers & repair places like Firestone. They fire the Americans & replace them with cheap foreign labor that performs low quality work.
Why i quit wokring in the automotive industry, i worked at ford as a tech and have seen this happen all the time. Getting paid for what you do vs a flat out hourly pay is the reason i say
To clarify, I'm not saying it's right that they do that to customers because clearly it's not. But the dealership breeds this kind of behavior. I've always said the manufacturers need to step in and get their service departments under control. Unfortunately they couldn't care less.
ASE certified doesn't mean a tech is any good, just that he managed to get past those certifications. Means he's the barest minimum of a tech. Same as when a doctor graduates at the bottom of his class, and is the worst. He still gets called 'doctor'.
Also, how many certified "techs" are willing to work for $14 - $18 per hour, especially with a shop rate of $150 - $200 per hour.
Dad would get other people's 'work' in his shop.
He taught me how to prove/disprove jobs done or not done.
His customers were loyal.
You, sir, just took me back 55yrs.
You are the SAME professional he was.
Send this to a Zone Manager . Make him inspect it in front of the customer . Then explain how BOTH dealers are crooks . Take the local news channel along !
Great idea. See if they'll do it.
What's a zone manager never herd of that?
They used to have territories that were managed by a zone manager . They were the factories person who managed issues with the customers and dealers . Some dealers are thieves , overselling service and unneeded repairs . When you buy a product and a manufacturer can't or won't fix it under warranty , that is a problem . These schmucks MUST be held accountable . We are not talking about $ 20 or $ 30 relay . Sometimes it is FELONY theft ! " You need a new transmission " . But it's a $ 200 to $ 300 solenoid that needs replacement on a low mileage vehicle .
@@billsmith2212 Its not all dealership fault, for not doing a warranty repair. My 2016 Nissan Rogue started vibrating ( cvt) at 30,000 miles. After about 4 trips back and a song and dance, each time, they finally said they couldn't replace trans. under warranty without a code showing. This is a common problem which Nissan knows about . They at least extended the warranty 10ys 120,000 miles.
I had a similar bad experience with the two local Toyota dealers. After about 120,000 miles trouble-free, suddenly they were finding leaks at every oil change and wanting big bucks. The last time I went in for an oil change, they reported a leaking gasket on the timing chain cover and they wanted $2600 or $2800 (I forget which). I took it to an independent shop, and they reported that a couple of the bolts on that cover were loose! They tightened them up and that was that. I've been with that independent shop ever since. Oh, and I learned from my neighbor, a former dealership service writer, that those service writers get commission pay based on writing up more repair work.
This is why I do all my own maintenance and repairs…I dread having to take my vehicles into a dealer even for warranty/recall work. Very hard to find a dealer/mechanic who cares these days - my stuff always comes back with another issue: scratches, rattles, etc.
I just bought a new Ranger and it started leaking out of the front diff almost immediately. Dealer is supposed to repair in next week. Almost want to get the part and do it myself...
good for you, not everyone can do that type of work, boomer.
Seems like a general lack of integrity in the car repair business. I see lots of nightmare reports from all brands of dealerships and I'm sure someone could count up many independent shops that have dealt customers badly too. The common lesson is that the good guys are always cleaning up after the dirty cheats.
Been watching your videos for a while. I am an automotive and heavy equipment tech in Canada. I share your sentiments about shady technicians more so in the dealerships than anywhere else. Its too bad that the industry is designed the way it is, techs like that and the places that allow them to be like that is exactly what places stains in our profession. Keep up the good work of exposing these things! 🇨🇦🇨🇦
Yup! I wound up buying a 2001 Windstar for $600 because the dealership scared the lady into buying a new vehicle. They handed her a just over $5,000 parts estimate before labor costs, which were another few grand.
The only thing wrong with it was a $150 sensor. I drove it for 2 years, back and forth from North Alabama to Florida a few times and it was an every day vehicle. I sold it for over triple what I had in it!
This was in 2010, by the way. In Huntsville Alabama.
Getting more difficult to find good buys on used cars....
Reputation means everything but even that changes. Few years ago I had a Ford with rattling catalytic converters. Service manager diagnosed it and said it was a known defect and would be covered by an extended warranty. To make a long story short it took two months to get in, and by then I was over the mileage by a whole 75 miles. He said it wasn't covered anymore and it would be $2000. The worst thing was I knew this guy since 1988. I had bought several new cars from the dealership and even bought this one from them. I still remember him looking at his shoes and saying "it ain't the same Ford anymore, Bill". So I declined repair and replaced them myself. I didn't give them a hard time. But they'll never get another dime either. I'll never go back.
He played you. Warranty is recorded the day of the complaint and diag, for that very purpose.
That is correct
@@lynxstarautomotive208 thatd what i thought. My mechanic always tells me if you have a problem and we cannot diagnose it because its an in and off problem we will guess to make sure its covered under warranty.
I'll add that catalytic converters are covered by law to 80k miles or 8 yrs whichever comes first. Dealers MUST repair at no charge
Good for you. I'm sorry 75 miles they could have wrote a diffrent amount down and no one would have known.
I applaud your honesty for standing by a customer and calling out the Ford dealerships with shady practices.
I hope most dealership's service department's are honest folks, but it should be Ford's responsibility to straighten out the dishonest one's, or shut them down. Thanks, John
Customer should sue the living sh*t out of those dealerships. That's outright fraud, pure and simple.
Chances are that such shady businesses have shady lawyers with lots of experience stonewalling angry customers. Suing crooks is the right thing to do, but getting justice isn't automatic.
You can sue but are not guaranteed to win. Often times it turns into your technician against the other technician. What should be an easy win ends up being a 50-50 possible win or loss. If the judge or jury isn't really fully pursuaded by the evidence (and they need to like you, too), you could end up losing what is a strong case.
You are one of a tiny handful of honest mechanics on the planet. There’s no greater percentage of crooks in the auto business than any other, and I know whereof I speak
The real problem is that the management of those Ford dealerships or for any repair facility is there needs to be enough care about the quality and reputation of their business as well as ethics. Doing audits of repairs made by the shops staff is a good first step. Most shops do not take the time to inspect the work going out the door. I put this into practice in our City bus fleet repair facility. Some mechanics got upset that their work was being checked (union shop). But our rate of come backs dropped to near zero and the over all moral improved because the staff knew everyone was held to a high standard. That first Ford shop should be reported to Fords head office. Especially if they put in a false warranty repair claim.
What!? They don't give a rats ass! See also, Volkswagen. Zero ethics bottom to top.
This makes me think of my Dad, an auto mechanic (as far as I know, they were not called "technicians" in the 1950s) who was fired from his job at a car dealership because he refused to set back the odometers on used car trade-ins.
Still a common practice on second cars from the US here in Europe, they ship them from Dubai mostly accident cars repaired badly there in Dubai and turn them back between 25.000 and 50.000 miles. We checked them by searching auction sites and that's how we found out. There is a place in Newark run by Russians and that's the same problem.
@@Jay_Speed That's awful.
@@cjpreach Yes it is and it's the other way as well. Accident cars from Europe going to the US.
Damn Russian imperialists
This i believe is where Shoddy Kilmer got started on his career of hack and scam repairs, rolling back odometers. This was a huge problem in Houston back in the day insomuch that there was a investigation done on the Houston Mile Busters by 60 minutes.
PLEASE keep us informed on how this plays out. Does the Stealership back the lack of first repair or do they blow him off. I hate when shops do stuff like this. I hope he uses your video and all the evidence you pointed out and he takes the bums to small claims court if they don't stand behind their work.
He may very well prevail I'm the end but defense costs are brutal.
@@peterstarck564 and the dealer should pay for his legal fees when they lose
@@JohnS-il1dr possible depending on the state laws but doubtful. The dealer and certainly Ford Corp. have much deaper pockets.
This guy has integrity. Wish i had someone like him in my area where i could take my truck.
This crap happens for a simple reason. Ford has openly said they are out to "Skin the techs whenever they can." They have slashed warranty times, charge back jobs if tou don't use the exact wipes they want, constantly threaten and punish techs for recall mistakes made by other dealers, etc etc. They have created an environment of hostility and apathy, so some guys say screw it. I'm getting screwed so I'm taking shortcuts to make the time up. I'm not saying it's right and I don't do this but I understand. Example, the door latch recalls that require changing all 4 door latches the labor time went from 4 hrs to 1.3 hrs. They screwed up and the techs are paying for it. These vehicles are rushed into production with unproven technology and throwing the techs to the wolves.
Can vouch for this, Ford dealerships are fucking horrible with servicing.
You are absolutely correct! As I work at a ford dealer in the motor city!
Listen! The extremely well payed people working the assembly line all the way to the well payed engineers it seems fit to short change the guy that has to repair their mess! I personally do everything by the book!
I hope people read this reply because this is where the problem starts 46 years as a Ford the last 10 were a night mare thanks to ford and the way they shit on techs with monthly warranty time cuts
@@timcheek5134 Just got done with the Ford asset class and now I am 21 with 1 year to go and I am a senior master tech. Trying to work to service manager as fast as I can so I don't get screwed over by flat rate electrical diag for to long. Only had 1 come back and only cost the company a box of gloves every week about. By the book and wear PPE. Been doing it for 3 years now.
I had a rear driveshaft seal leak on my 2017 F250's transfer case, 1000 miles on the truck, the first Dealer I took it to tried fix the seal with silicone sealant. The second dealer replace the seal 3 times. It kept getting torn up, when it started throwing gray or black colored oil, supposed to be red, I finally convinced them to change the transfer case. It ended up being an improperly installed bearing in the case that was starting to spin causing the output shaft to wobble, tearing up the seal. The black oil was metal from the case being destroyed by the bearing.
Oh my God! We have had a deal replaced 5 times now, the rear diff seal on our 2018 f 150. We have 36,000km on it. I'm taking it to a trusted mechanic for a review. I think there is something else wrong on our f150. We have black oil all over our driveway. 5 repairs in 2 years.
Shame on them , saying that the work has been done but in reality they simply billed Ford and pocketed the money. Karma will get them fudgers . I can see why people will travel thousands of miles to have you repair their vehicles. THANK YOU for being HONEST !
Karma is the devils motivator, Just do the right thing because its right.
I think the Explorer owner needs to reach out to their State Attorney General irregardless of who paid, it wasn't done and now hes suppose to, "Thank You May I have Another".....
@@alphaomega8373 And always tell the truth... it's easier to remember.
Karma will get them? The losing end of a lawsuit would "get them", as would a ton of social media exposure in their market area.
Im a 38 year Auto Mastertech. I owned and operated a repair shop in SC. I worked on whatever came in the door. I can totally respect this tech and what he does. He is very thorough and sniffs out (Barbara Streisand) the way I operated my shop. He lets the clues dictate his conclusions. He includes his customers in his diagnostics, and thoroughly explains their options, using his years of experience. The dealership is full of BS artist, but I found when a REAL tech calls them on it...they tend to fold.
So sad when customers get taken by dishonest techs or dealers. Especially at the rates shops charge now! It especially makes it hard if a person is new to the area and has no idea where to take their vehicle. And how many times has someone thought they paid for a job to be done when it was not? Some may ever know they were taken! Thanks for your video and honesty with your customers!
I live in Ohio and I’ve had my 2015 F 250 at my dealer on a few occasions. They have always treated me well. I use my truck to plow with and I get the oil changed just before winter. While my truck was under warranty the mechanic pointed out that the tie rod ends were showing wear along with the drag link. They asked if I wanted it repaired and that I would have to leave it. I asked if it was covered under my warranty they assured me it was. I had a loaner car from them a new Escape had my truck back in two days no charges and no problems. I’m quite happy with my Ford dealer. Thanks for your incite.👍🏻
That's why those hacks never touch my car unless it's for a state inspection. This is pure fraud and he should sue. I truly hope he does and you should provide evidence for him.
State inspection? You must be living in a blue state?
@@WITHTEETH1 "red" States inspect too
In fact, this fraud is a great argument AGAINST state inspection (done by dealerships, of course), as they can use them to drive repair sales.
Ford owners are lucky to have you as an option. You are very helpful and give great advice.
As a retired mechanic myself with 35 years on the job I feel that any manufacturer that would put the water pump inside the engine (driven by a chain) should be ashamed and certainly avoided by consumers. Driving a water pump with a timing belt is one thing especially when the belt has a required change interval usually between 60 to 120K depending on the manufacturer. The water pump and belt tensioners also get changed at the same time as part of a required PM. Many Toyotas have timing chains with external water pumps that are easy to access. Ford customers, like many consumers fail to properly research a product prior to purchase and are stuck with a poorly designed vehicle loaded with expensive issues.
So true! These vehicles are being designed and built by manufacturers who are looking for ways to provide cheaply made vehicles. There is no concern with reliability or quality control. Think about it, why do the vehicles have stereos and other non essential gadgets tied into the ECU, when these items can function perfectly on their own with separate circuits! These items are thrown together to increase the new car sale prices and increase the profits from replaced parts that malfunction. It also makes it difficult for aftermarket suppliers to make generic, cheaper parts in lieu of dealership parts. In my opinion, a car does not need a computer screen in the dash for a driver to operate the vehicle on the road! Just a distraction and crash hazard!
Thus, a short warranty with exclusions allows the company and its dealer network to make huge profits!
in some cases, having the water pump inside the engine with chains works well. My infiniti g35 and g37 both have the water pump inside, the good part I am not touching it. One car has 300k miles, the other 131k. Luckily, these two cars are known for not having water pump issues and no need to replace them.
Crazy! My friend took his Silverado in for a trans flush and some other small stuff he hid a go-pro under the truck they did nothing to it! They loosed some bolts up wiped things down with dirty rags so it looked like it was serviced. He showed the serviced manager who ended up being in on it. He said he's still dealing with corporate.
NICE.
Busted... 😂
Brilliant idea!
THIEVES.
@SCMongooseT4R You mean true story! Troll
Good job of pointing out the details. My Dad taught me - 50 years ago - that you should .... buy cars from a dealer, have cars worked on at a garage, and buy gas at a gas station. And never mix the three! And that's why even at 62 years of age I still either do the work myself or take it to a garage for repairs.
Thanks for making me have flashbacks to the times we have been hosed at stealerships. When you find an honest and capable mechanic, ever let them go. Take care of them and they will take care of you, that's how it works.
My wife was told her water pump needed to be changed when she took her Ford edge in for service. The quote was for 13 hrs plus parts to fix. Took it to a trusted mechanic and he said nothing wrong with the car, no leaks runs great. Calgary Alberta Canada area.
This has been going on for years. Way back in the 90s when I lived in Ohio, the airbag light on my '94 Mustang came on. I dropped it off at the dealer after work and the service manager said that he thought it was still under warranty but he'd call me the next day with an estimate if it wasn't. After not hearing from him all day, I went to pick it up after work. He said they'd had it on the monitor all day and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. He then said we should talk about the bill, and I said yeah, we should, because he'd never given me an estimate before doing work so by law he had to eat it. He said yeah, you're right, and miraculously they found the problem and fixed it in the next 10 minutes. A month later, the airbag light goes on again. Still under the repair warranty, so I took it back and they "fixed" it again. Six months later the airbag light comes on, but no longer under warranty so I said to hell with it and kept driving it. Several months later the check engine light also comes on, so I took it to a different dealer. He said that my oxygen sensor needed to be replaced, and oh yeah, why were there two grounding straps from my airbag to my frame? I explained the deal with the airbag and this guy told me that the number of times the airbag light blinks before it comes on steadily is the error code and they just have to look it up in the manual, no need to have it on a monitor. The first dealer, after having failed to fleece me, decided instead to make it so the light just wouldn't come on and sent me out on the road with a defective airbag. Twice, in fact. I wrote to Ford about it but never got any response, and the dealership still exists so I assume they're still out there ripping off their customers.
You should have visited the dealer, intentionally crashed into the building and sued the fucking hell out of them. Thats a FEDERAL OFFENSE TAMPERING OR INTENTIONALLY DISABLING AN AIRBAG. You either fix it correctly or you pretty much are intentionally killing someone though negligence.
@doubleheadergr they may be responsible for faulty airbags, but not for fraudulent repairs.
Had the water pump in ours done at a national chain shop a friend of mine managed at the time. It was obvious they had the engine apart. The tech seemed to mark all the bolts with some sort of paint as he torqued them which I assume was to make sure none were missed. Not to mention the engine noticablly ran smoother/quieter as he followed ford procedures replacing tensioners, etc. No further issues.
While i haven,t worked at a dealer for over 20 years i still paint the bolts with different color nail polish ,my own code e.g. white paint long bolts .
Hey! Are you on leave today or what??? 😁
A lot of bolts need specified torque plus 90 degrees or something. Marking the bolts helps with that last bit. So it might've been for that reason.
Love your videos man I'm a ford tech currently going on 5 years almost senior master tech. I take this stuff seriously like you. I hate see people go through this. Keep up good work. I would also love to chat sometime about some tech stuff
Maybe you could help me, I've had my 16' Explorer sport for 1 month, I just had 100,000 mile service done 2 days ago. I get up to 90mph from 40 entering the freeway then from 70-80 up to 110 then back off 3-4 times a wk with no problems, yesterday I did the same and now I have a funky ticking sound that seems to increase after I get up to 30-40 and not that bad while driving???
2 wks ago the Oil was still clear & smelling new, now it's black & burnt smelling. Any ideas. Just spent $880 on coolant / tranny flush and plugs at dealership so I'm hoping I'm not in trouble. Thanks
Unsure if you heard any reply, but I'm thinking a head gasket leak is allowing combustion gases to enter the oiling system. You can see what a compression test shows. If you push compressed air through the same hose into the cylinder you may also find other surprises.@@TyDomi
You are an asset to the general public. We need a few more honest people like you.
You did a very good job on explaining and showing all of the items that would have been changed if the dealership had done their job like they said they did. Great work on your side!!
I love your presentations. Articulate, thorough and delivered by a skilled and seasoned professional who sets the bar higher. Please keep them coming! The countless hours you sacrifice to create educational and informative videos should prompt everyone in the industry, from customers to engineers, to stand up and take notice. Thank you.
Your the best! I had to lean on my dealership pretty hard when my transfer case went out on my 16 F150 with 30,000 miles. Tried to blame it on me. It’s your vehicle stand up for it and request your replacement parts. Probably the only thing California has done right!
Happened to me when I asked my Ford dealership to change my sparkplugs on my 2009 Ford Escape 3.0. If you know that engine, the 3 sparkplugs in the back on the engine are a pain to get access to, you need to remove the intake and many other components. They charged me a high price for the job. When I picked up the car, I noticed old rusty bolts NEVER touched hence the job wasn't done at all. That infuriated me to say the least and they soon learned I wasn't their regular Joes.
For eight (8) plugs at the dealer in Melbourne, Florida//the bill was $1750.00; when challenged, the hourly rate at $160.00 per hour was not in line with standard book rates for specific jobsa. In short, they did reduce the bill by $500.00. Still far beyond the what expected since I could do it in 2 hours..but did not wish to to do it again. Be advised, most dealers are only concerned with warrantly vehicles..those of us beyond the warranty are basically defrauded.
How much were the spark plugs? 1250 for a spark plug job is insane and criminal.
I've watched Rainman Ray change spark plugs and coils a number of times. Anyone who knows which end of a wrench to use can do it on most passenger vehicles. The only trouble is disassembling and keeping track of all the dust shield crap on top of the engine.
$1750 is proof the mechanic believes the adage "There's a sucker born every minute". (P.T. Barnum).
they make less per hour on warranty repairs. they need to feed the huge monster any way they can.
The dealerships try to dismiss your warranty claims and have you buckle under to paying cash so you can quickly have your car running again! People need to fight the warranty denials! It is true that many shops have fraudsters working for them and many States have little to no consumer protections on the books for such fraudulent activity! I found that some States like New Jersey have made it more difficult to even file a consumer complaint. Counties were handling these complaints for years and now the State has taken over all the work. Now, you can't get anyone to talk to you on the phone and it is difficult to file a basic complaint.
I do my own plugs, brakes and other minor things. These dealerships really piss me off with how they take advantage of people that are not mechanically inclined.
It seems as if most dealership service departments operate to spite their auto sales departments. I 've worked for a dealership before. I couldn't believe the complaints that customers had after having their vehicles serviced by "Factory Trained Service Technicians".
Keep up the honest work! Love the channel!
Once someone has invested thousands and thousands of dollars in to a vehicle, what incentive does a service center have besides nickel and diming a customer after a sale? Very little incentive, especially if the techs don't suffer for their shotty work. The compay already made their money off the sale of the vehicle, it's why awareness is so important. That service center should be equipped and empowered to make their customers whole. I mean, that's they sale themselves on after all.
@@PearComputingDevices The money for dealships is in the used car sales and service. New car sales are money makers for the factories. Well, that's the way it was before Covids.
@@scurfie2343 you forgot financing. The dealerships will get a kick back on the financing and how many addin services get financed on top of the vehicle.
Of course with used cars, the interest rates are a bit higher so that may be built into your analysis already.
@@sumduma55 You're correct dealer financing has become a huge money maker. Since car/truck prices have skyrocketed the financing can be 7 years!
"Factory Trained"...nowadays, that means they watched a couple of videos.
When I take my vehicle to the dealer for a warranty repair, I tell them I've already had it diagnosed by a master tech at an independent shop, with video.
They always ask me "what did he tell you?"
I always reply "SHE told me not to tell you what she told me"
Great video, it is sad to see dishonest dealership mechanics lying, deceiving and stealing from honest customers.
The owner of that Ford is extremely lucky to have you working on it. I applaud your honesty and integrity. Unfortunately most dealerships should be avoided unless your vehicle is under warranty or it’s a recall issue. Look for a busy local shop and check their references and quality of work. Thanks for all your helpful videos, my 2005 Ford Escape is running great.
I just took mine in for a recall issue, and they screwed me over really bad and did damage to my truck....so you aren't safe with recall work either sadly.
The pump was "warranty work" that should have prevented all the stuff in this video.
As a Ford Senior master technician and I’ve been in this business for 37 years, I don’t blame the dealership as a whole but I do blame the technician and management for letting him get away with this. It’s unfortunate that a few mechanics that work at dealerships well actually do this type of work and think that they can get away with it and actually do get away with it over and over again. It disgusts me because I fix vehicles the way I would fix my own car, I want the customers to come back because of the quality of work that I do not because of shotty work. Such a shame to see.
Ford tech 78-81..I say middle mgmt. knew about this from the Parts mgr that sold a water pump to this RO [there is a xtra water pump in inventory]..To the Service advisor.. To the Service mgr who is supposed to monitor what his crew is doing, To the Tech..
I am a retired auto repair shop owner/mechanic. What I have not read yet is the fact that factory warranty work make little money for the technician (about 1/2 labor hours and reduced markup on parts. According to the video, the water pump was supposed to be replaced under warranty. Management may be a partner in this scam. Dealer techs don' like factory warranty work. low man on the totem pole usually gets it.
Isn't management, the dealership?
@@antoniop1968 yes absolutely the person at the top is ultimately responsible for those under them. As a proud American it saddens me to hear and experience these stories, whatever happened to hard work and integrity? When did it get replaced by greed and selfishness? Thee are still some good ones out there but they are fading fast!
I own a 2018 ford. And I'm sure they try to put things off till after warranty is up. I still have a couple of issues , one is my moonroof clicking and sticking they just frighten few screws and say it's fixed. 3 yrs later . They said there is a part to fix that but my warranty is up on it. So they want me to pay $900. TO FIX a problem I had since new. Not gonna happen. Lost my breaks at 14000 km.had them checked the week before they said they were good. I could not stop at intersection went across and clipped a sign off. Drove my truck in and had the breaks inspected . The was Back completely gone. Under 2.They've lost me as a customer. No more faith in the dealerships. They are sneaky. I had a loud clanking rattle when I started it . Kept telling them about it .I recorded it and filmed it happening. They kept saying there was nothing wrong and it's alright until they decide there is something wrong. Took me a most three years to get it fixed. Took them almost 2 days.
There's a reason people are shipping vehicles from other states to have Brian fix them. This is one example
I wish you were here in Phoenix. Are you? HA! My 2018 F150 Raptor has had sooooo many issues with the engine...The work at the dealerships has been well below par...Thanks for the video...
This is why the right to repair is so important!
Imagine if only the dealer could fix your car??!!
I was a transmission tech at a Ford dealer in ottawa Canada. I've had certain jobs where I new I could replace the failing parts without quite removing the transmission but never claim I replaced a part that I didn't. I don't think anyone in our shop was that bad. Some overselling yes but that's just wrong.
Haven't met a dealership mechanic that was an actual mechanic yet. Also, haven't been to an independent shop that did good work either. I have to do my own work or fix what a shop screwed up every time.
That’s nonsense
ford dealership in Irvine, CA tried to rip off my son on claiming $4600 job on replacing 2013 Ford Fusion broken transmission at 150000 miles on odometer, in which charged $200 for diagnose . I had my son send his car back to me in Kentucky to fix myself the leaking axle seal, bushing and replaced driverside axle, watching your video. I've been driving it in the last 500 miles without any issues from transmission shifting.
Thank you for your videos, I saved lots of money. Bewares when taking your car to Ford dealership for service.
This is why I drove 15 hours to have BSG work on my truck
I wish I could find a guy as honest as you! Here in Massachusetts
You me both
Manny's in Weymouth has a good reputation
Where in MA? They are around.
@@MR.KNOWITALL1982 Franklin mostly work on my own cars and trucks! But getting older my daughter lives in Boston and went to bmw 2010 217,000 miles starter and engine ground $1200 bucks! Sad 😢 that dealers don’t care just want to sell new cars! Franklin tire is a good guy but takes 1 week to do any job so backed up!
I’ll tell you why I don’t trust my old Ford dealership. I normally do my own maintenance and repairs but health issues have limited that lately. The dealership charged me over $400 to replace an EGR valve that was not hidden deep within. In fact I could lay my hand on it from the top. They then gave me a “ comprehensive “ list of problems that included leaking oil from almost every seal and a worn serpentine belt. There are no oil spots on my driveway where we park the car and I had replaced the serpentine belt, pulley, and tensioner around two months earlier. This was my local dealership that I’d done business with for decades. They had recently sold and the new owners are what I would call crooks.
My wife has a Mazda CX5 made in Japan. Zero issues 50,000 miles. A friend had a Mazda 6 from Japan years ago, 340,000 miles with regular maintenance, brakes, oil, fluid changes.
I got quoted 2.5 hours to replace the side engine insulator mount. You can set a cup of coffee down on it without leaning over.
These failures and general quality concerns is why I switched to Toyota 30 years ago.
Excellent video. Dealers are all crooks. I own a Lexus and the Lexus dealer is just as crooked when it comes to 'recommended service'. That said, my car has 160,000 and I've never had to make a repair so I'm fortunate. I'm shocked that such a well cared for Ford Explorer needs so much work. I guess quality is not job #1.
Fords are POS
I need a book on a 99ford f150triten
It's a Ford.. Enough said
All dealers are crooks? Painting a wide brush there aren’t you? Manufacturers set the recommended service intervals and services, not the dealerships. However, it’s the dealerships responsibility to make you aware of them. So you’re never had to make a repair on your Lexus yet the Lexus dealer is crooked? Your post makes zero sense.
A car needing a decent amount of service at 160k isn’t crooked. If they’re recommending things like flushing fluids and changing plugs, there’s nothing wrong with that at that mileage.
My dealership broke a nipple off the turbo intake pipe and just jb welding it back and said nothing. I was gonna come to you but you had about a 2 week wait since you do such good work.
Ran across your video as a suggested, love your competence and forthrightness. This has me thinking lawsuit for perpetrating fraud, and as you added at the end, a devaluing of the client's property.
I think the shops that perpetrated these frauds should be identified and charged with theft The manager and the tech should go to jail.
That's criminal! It's hard to imagine this shit is still going on especially at the dealer level that is supposed to be a Ford certified dealer. Disgusting.
$$$$$$$
I am an independent tech. Customers come in daily with a list of crap that doesn't even have a problem. All dealers are crooks as far as I'm concerned.
This is why I do my own work. I once took my Ford Contour to a dealer for an alternator replacement. Dealer tech 'forgot' to secure the bolts properly and the damn thing dropped from the car when I was doing over 70 mph on I-95. I also took my car to a lube chain for an oil change. Paid the bill and was sent on my way. I checked the oil before leaving and it was as dirty as when I arrived. I crawled under the car and the oil drain plug still had road grime on it - untouched. F'n thieves.
I was doing a service on my Expedition. I went to change the fuel filter and realized that I didn’t have the right tool to remove the fuel line. I knew that it was a plastic line and I didn’t want to break it, so I took it to the dealer to get the fuel filter changed. I sat in the waiting room for about an hour and they came back with my keys and said they couldn’t change it because someone had broken the connector and the whole line would need to be special ordered for like 180 bucks. I told them that I knew exactly who broke it, because I specifically brought it to them so it wouldn’t get broken. Eventually got my own tool, and snagged a line in a salvage yard and changed it myself. I will never take anything back to a dealership again.
Maybe Brian should send the dealers a Christmas card thanking them for the customers and video content.
I have a '16 Explorer, and have also had issues with the dealership. This will be my last Ford. I refuse to deal with them anymore. Thank you for confirming my suspicions of their shady work.
Mak....sounds to me like you could make a tidy sum in a side business as an expert witness in small claims court...because that is where the owner of that '17 Explorer should take the dealer who claimed to install that water pump. That is just absolutely unacceptable and the owner should push back on that shady dealer to stand by it. Sounds like Ford is in a competition with Harley in the shadiest dealer contest! Great video...keep em coming!
I worked as a motorcycle mechanic in a American motorcycle factory in York pa. You wouldn't believe the shit I've seen done to 20 to 40,000 dollar motorcycles I always took my time to do any job right because my friends and loved ones ride as do I it has to be right and dealers are all a joke retired now but I will still wrench mine and others for free but I really enjoy babysitting others as they wrench they're own we both take pride in a job well done no payment required or excepted
One way to combat fraud is by asking for the replaced parts at the time of write up, if there is a core charge ask to see the old part, have the tech show you what he replaced.
With cameras being ubiquitous these days, I'd ask for pictures of the work in progress.
Unfortunately there is likely some sitting around they can show you too. Definitely cameras if don’t know them well.
A while back I was taking a new car to get oil changes done while in warranty (I do it myself otherwise) then noticed a charge for the drain plug as it was plastic, and since I usually do a QA inspections after any work done in my cars, I noticed the drain plug could not have been replaced. So the next time I took it in, I put a mark on the plug, and took a picture. And after the oil change , yup, the same plug was reinstalled, and I was charged for a new one. I took the pictures (timestamped) to the manager, and he was "surprised", but returned my monies, and of course never took it back again, even while in warranty. So I wondered how many small things like that go around. Hope Ford sees your video. Good job.
That's exactly the reason i opened my own shop saw how bad they took advantage of people. Keep the great video's coming thanks for the hard work you do to help us all!
I used to be a mechanic worked for both gm and Ford at times and sorry to say this is an auto industry problem. It's not a lot of mechanics doing this but unfortunately you find them in dealers and independent shops. And yes so shop's or dealers are worse than others. I myself worked for a gm dealer that had a guy that would recommend repairs and not even replace the parts. The dealer caught on and found a pile of parts in his toolbox and fired him. All good mechanics need to expose the crooks and run them out of the industry.