Ping: Jim Warman

I'm looking for an opinion or some advise. My 3 year warranty expired

01/03/04 on my 00 MustangGT with 26K miles on the OD. About a month ago I smelled Coolant in the passenger compartment, but thought it was coming from another car on the road. I take really good care of my car and as far as the coolant, it's been changed at least twice with the green Prestone and distilled water, 50/50. So now I found my heater core is leaking and am seeking to get Ford to cover this. I heard there may be some kind of good faith warranty coverage. Am I wrong to do this? If not, any tips on what route to take (I have an appointment at the dealer tomorrow to do a diagnosis) Figured I'd get an opinion from a dealer mechanic. TIA
Reply to
Gill
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I'm not really an expert on the good faith warranty thing, but...

I'd bet that most dealers will pop the hood on your car, see the blower, shut the hood, and tell you to take it elsewhere. One that would even work on it would probably be very less inclined to fix the problem under a good faith warranty than if the car weren't modified.

As unfortunate as it is, these things do happen. I'd be willing to bet that you'll be paying for this repair out of your own pocket.

They're under no legal obligation to fix the car for free. I guess it can't hurt to ask, but I definately wouldn't expect them to.

JS

Reply to
JS

Sorry to take so long getting back to you, Gill..... Just got back home from another bout of factory training.

The only thing I can suggest is, in a case like this, go to the selling dealer and just be nice about asking.... never hurts and all they can do is say either yes or no or cover at least part of the repair. Unfortunately, if you haven't been a regular retail customer and have only had them perform warranty repairs..... again, that's all up to dealer service personnell. Bear in mind it's a lot easier to fudge mileage numbers than to fudge sale date.

TSB 01-15-06 deals with repeat heater core failures (due to electrolysis) but it covers a lot of years and pretty well all car lines - warrantee terms are "information only" so I doubt there's much sympathy to be found anyway.... sorry I can't say happier things...

Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

Reply to
Jim Warman

I wondered what happened cause your last post was a while back.

I just got home from the dealer and the Service Advisor said he could not make a decision but, he may get Ford to pay 2/3rds. So out of over a grand I would pay $300.00. I have an open spot in the garage for this Tues.

I heard from someone that Ford recomends that their techs now GROUND the cores. If true, would you recomend to anyone with this kind of aluminium core to put a ground strap on the nipple part of core the sticks out into the engine compartment? Seems it would be a good preventitive messure.

Thanks Jim

Reply to
Gill

They didn't exactly shut the hood right away, had to wait for about five or six mechanics to stop looking.

Reply to
Gill

The TSB does mention attaching a ground wire to the heater core (use a hose clamp to attach a 16 ga or larger wire to a heater core nipple and attaching the other end to an existing body ground). We can also use litmus strips to monitor the Ph of the coolant or even a DMM set on the low volts scale (dip one end into the coolant in the rad - not the reservoir - and touch the other end to battery ground and observe the reading....... anything over .4 (4/10ths) of a volt is bad kharma)....

The motor should be up to operating temp and running above an idle when the voltage test is made.

Here in the north we don't seem to see many of these problems..... those in climates that put the cooling system under a heavy load seem to have more of these kinds of problems. If your supercharger (I understand you have one installed?) features nylon or polymer sealing strips on the rotors, I suggest making sure the power-adder is well grounded..... I don't have much experience with these, but there is the possibility that there may be an induced voltage from dis-similar materials.

Construction techniques and materials have us on a whole new learning curve from past technology...... too bad we can't just add an anode to the back end like they do on boats....

Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

Reply to
Jim Warman

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