Ford broke my car

[SHKR281]

Ok little background info, i just got transferred to Long Island NY (active duty USCG) and the seal on my water pump went. I replaced it myself, and added napa brand coolant (emergency fix) until i could get my hands on the good stuff and do a system flush. Well the car hit 55k and im like you know what lets just have ford check her out, change oil and do the coolant.

Just picked her up today, and i have a 15m commute to home from base. Almost home i noticed a funny smell, and that my AC wasn't as cold as i remembered. I roll the windows down the smell gets worse, so i check my gauges and i watch my temp gauge climb and peg itself deep in the red. Pull over on the side of the highway and boy is she smoking. Smoke is pouring out of the shaker and anywhere it can escape. I let her "cool down" before i pop the hood and im overwhelmed with smoke. Ends up i find out all my hoses and radiator is empty, so i check the oil, decent amount is burned off. they only changed the coolant in the reservoir, didn't fill the engine properly

My friend comes and trailers her home, the dealership service was closed, lady at the desk took my number and the manage is calling me in the morning.

[4valve 4tw?]

Confused... so they drained your coolant, then only topped off the reservoir without burping it or letting it fill the lines up?

[SHKR281]

Originally Posted by 4valve 4tw?

Confused... so they drained your coolant, then only topped off the reservoir without burping it or letting it fill the lines up?

correct, sorry my typing skills are horrible. (you should hear me speak haha)

[shadowmaker]

Just curious, whats wrong with napa coolant? Probably made by the big name with the napa sticker.

I would be totally pissed. Just goes to show that just bc you take it to the dealership doesnt mean it ll get fixed right.

[SHKR281]

not sure just always used Motorcraft Premium Gold, the napa stuff was orange.

[oxfordwhite04]

I believe it. Sucks it happened to you and your Mach.

I have a friend who works at a Dodge Chrysler Jeep dealer in the service department and he tells me horror stories all the time about how much stuff they f*** up. I don't trust anyone else with my car -.- other people just dgaf

Like when a guy came to get his rotors changed, they couldn't get them off so beat them off with a hammer and broke two.. called the owner and told him two of his rotors were broken and he needed to have them replaced with new ones. On his dime of course.

[TKat13]

Sounds like a new free motor is in your future... Really sorry this happened, hope all goes well for you.

[SHKR281]

Originally Posted by TKat13

Sounds like a new free motor is in your future... Really sorry this happened, hope all goes well for you.

sadly i think it may come down to that as well. with that much smoke and some oil burned off. who knows the amount of damage. im going to ask them to do a compression test.

is our temp gauge hooked to our oil or coolant? im wondering why i didnt get any warning lights on the dash before the temp started climbing

[littlemags]

measures coolant at block...

[SHKR281]

Originally Posted by littlemags

measures coolant at block...

well there wasn't any to read haha

[donjuaniii]

Originally Posted by TKat13

Sounds like a new free motor is in your future... Really sorry this happened, hope all goes well for you.

Defintely should get a new motor...

Can't trust anyone

[shakeit04]

I'm on long island as well and am curious as to which dealership this was. The couple that are still open have been a little shady with my stepdad who just brought his 05 explorer in. Hope all gets fixed for you!

[iudelt89]

They should give you something out of the Ford Racing catalog for that f*** up. You could easily argue that it will destroy the "collectibility" of the car by no longer being numbers matching if the motor is beyond repair Tell them you want a RoadRunner

[Zack]

Originally Posted by SHKR281

Ends up i find out all my hoses and radiator is empty, so i check the oil, decent amount is burned off. they only changed the coolant in the reservoir, didn't fill the engine properly

Explain the text in bold, im confused.

It may seem bad, but the engine is most likely fine as long as you shut it down when you say you did.

[vertigyn]

Engine might be OK. I've overheated mine before and it has gone strong for at least 20k miles of beating since.

Making them do a compression test is probably a good idea. Hopefully nothing got too messed up...and if it did, they take care of it.

[nitmare]

I did my own flush before I learned how to do it properly and my car overheated like that 3 times before I finally got online and learned the proper way to burp. My car is fine , you should be ok. I told myself I wouldnt do it agian but I guess I will if thats what you get from the dealer...

[jpilone]

So did you drop it off for a coolant flush only? Your story is semi-vague

[SHKR281]

Originally Posted by Zack

Explain the text in bold, im confused.

It may seem bad, but the engine is most likely fine as long as you shut it down when you say you did.

the oil on the dipstick was 1/4

[MRS.SHKR]

Man I'd be pissed! I hope they do right by you!

[SHKR281]

Update with more simple background story.

Car ran with napa coolant and my replacement water pump for 200miles.
Thursday i brought it into ford for a coolant flush and to put in proper coolant.
Way home roughly 15mile trip, car's ac wasn't that cold
then i had a burning smell, which continued to get worse
finally the temp gauge went from normal to red quickly
pulled over shut her down, SMOKE everywhere, shut her down.
checked hose off thermostat empty, checked oil 1/4
filled with water to try to cool engine down(shouldn't have touched it, cause i needed to show them how empty it was)
friend came and we trailer-ed it home

Left a message with Ford, next morning they called me back wanting to take it in and see whats going on. My their excuse was air bubble at first, then i told him no way cause the engine was empty of coolant when i was on the side of the road. then i get call back saying the new water pump is bad it has a slight leak. I say yeah cause it was ran dry and burnt up the seal i bet, they said that cant happen. so i said if it had a leak how did you not notice it during the flush and fill, and while it was in your hands for 10 hours. and how would a slight leak empty my system that fast, but be fine before i handed it to you.

they aren't willing to say they were wrong, and i told them i want to pick up the car from them, don't do anymore work.

[XSELLR8]

Sorry to hear that man. Just make sure you check it all out, and even bring some buddies to help look it over when it's done. Aluminum doesn't like heat, but it sounds like you did well to shut it down quick. Keep us posted. Hope it all works out.

[4a7191a]

dont feel that bad, my mothers explorer was over heating, took it in to a ford dealership. they said nothing was wrong with it. my mother told my father it was still messing up. i looked at it, two gallons of water later. the problem is gone. i HATE dealerships, they care less than a gas station mechanic shop and will rape you twice as bad. they suck something awful and are slow to do anything.

note to self.... this thing saw oil changes and the billion point inspections at that dealership as well.

[shadowmaker]

Yes you should have left it alone and had it towed straight to the dealership. I know you just wanted it fixed and home but that was a mistake. Going to be your word against theirs at this point.

Years again I had bought a new camaro. I bought it 60 miles away and didnt know I could take it to any dealership. It had the bose system, so every speaker had an amp. So, I took it back to the dealer I bought it from. One of the speakers messed up so they sent it to a radio shop up the road. Couple weeks later, same thing. I get a loaner car go ride around come back several hours later.

Service manager has an attitude and says real hateful. 'your warranty is void on this bc someone has been working on it. LOOK at these wires'. I get hateful right back and yell, 'NO THEY HAVENT'. He said it didnt come from the factory this way. I said 'youre right, someone else did work on it. YOU DID!!! YALL sent it to the shop up the street.'

His face was priceless.

[SHKR281]

Originally Posted by shadowmaker

Yes you should have left it alone and had it towed straight to the dealership. I know you just wanted it fixed and home but that was a mistake. Going to be your word against theirs at this point.

pretty much, kinda in a shitty jam, take the car back from them, and pray she's not torn up inside and i caught the problem in time.

[b3warnick]

Pretty much had the same thing happen with my wife's Explorer. It's a 2010, with about 30,000 miles. She took it in for an oil change and some 30,000 mile inspection. Brings it home - says she can smell something burning - I figured they spilled some oil on the engine somewhere and it was burning off -didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Get in the next day to take the kids to the beach. Get about 8 or so miles done the road and one of the idiot lights comes on. I tell her immediately to pull over. Check the oil - it's REAL low. I crawl under one side and a friend of ours from the Discount Auto Parts place we happened to pull into crawls under the other side. He can get his hand on the filter and says it is coverd in oil. I buy 3 or four quarts and top it off - take it across the street to a Grease Pro place. I tell them I figure the guys at Ford either left the old gasket on or tightened this one too much and split the seal on this filter. Guy puts it on the rack cames back a minute or two later - tells me he was able to remove the filter by hand - it was that loose. Lucky we hadn't lost more oil than we did. The dealership paid us for our oil we bought and what we paid Grease Pro too. You figure you shouldn't have to recheck something as simple as an oil change if the dealer did it - wrong!