I'm angry at Ford!

jimz466, guess what. I was a service representative for hyundai. Glad i'm not any more. Hyundai always says no to customer complaints. Your 10 year warranty is on powertrain. Congratulations. That is engine and transmission only. NOT the electronics that control any of it. Soon as your warranty is up, your transmission controller is going to fail, and your )2 sensors will crap out. Trust me. Hyundai's all last until the 3 year comprehensive warranty ends.

Gee, I didn't know about this. You know, when I first climbed into my (02) Focus, I was comparing it with early 90s cars, and I thought "Hey, someone's been doing a lot of cost-reduction on this vehicle". The sheetmetal is the main thing I noticed, it's not much thicker than aluminum foil. I guess every year the outer body engineers shave a couple of mils off every thickness, claim a 1% materials cost and 0.5% shipping cost reduction (plus a gas mileage increase) and go on vacation with their performance bonus.

That is, if tech-slaves working in India and China actually GET a performance bonus.

My interior is 13 years old ( 1991 car ) and is show room condition. It is a Ford product, explain that. The car is over 200k miles all original ( except for wear items brakes and such ), explain that. It's never been in the shop, explain that.

Cadillacs are already poor reliability vehicles. If it is true, I can't imagine what they'll be like from China. John

As an ex-service rep, I'm sure you know the basic warranty is actually 60 months or 60,000 miles. The roadside assistance is 60 months unlimited milage. And, as you said, powertrain is 10 year or 100,000 miles for the original owner. And yes, I understand the drivetrain warranty as it is written with very specific components. ENGINE: cylinder block/heads and all internal parts, manifolds,timing gears and belt,timing cover,gaskets and seals, oil pump, water pump, flywheel, oil pan assembly and rocker cover and engine mounts. TRANSMISSION/TRANSAXLE:Casr and all internal parts,axle shafts(front), constant velocity joints,front hub bearings,seals an gaskets,torque converter and converter housing and clutch cover and housing.

I can't count the number of 2.3 liter Ford Tempo's I've worked on that had a broken piston, although the last one was about 2 years ago for a friend and it was a 1994. Don't do side work any more. Did Ford have a warranty to cover it? Sure they did, if you chose to pay an extra $1800 when you bought the car.

So, going by your experience with being a service rep, I should expect my wife's car to puke completely 2,000 miles from now, as I pass the 60,000 mile mark? Of course, puking after a 60 month 60,000 mile warranty is better than puking after a 36 month 36,000 mile warranty, isn't it?

I cant remember a time in thirty years I found a broken 2.3 Tempo/Topaz piston. Not a common problem.

Oh, that explains it...............

Power train warranty changed over the years. 12/12 6/60 depends on the year.

Again depends on the insurance policy you would purchase ( factory or aftermarket ), you know that thing called an extended warranty ( which is an insurance policy )?.

Probably. My wife has her eye on a Toyota Sienna.

Maybe because the repair exceeds the value of the car? Went to a salvage yard to find a decent head for my friends car, as the combustion chamber and valve seats were pretty well beaten up by the broken upper ring land. The piston was actually eaten away down to the oil ring. Guess what? First head I pulled the same exact cylinder had a broken piston and the head was worse than the one I was trying to replace. Didn't like any of the others at that yard, so I went to one a little farther away, but owned by my parent company Commercail Metals (stock CMC, howaboutthatforaplug::check it out up 250% in about the last 12 months). Found a car with a very recently rebuilt engine. Pulled the head and it was practically new. Cost me 50 bucks. Looked like the engine had been replaced, but the trans wasn't properly bolted back on. (I'm guessing) the trans and engine had fallen apart where it bolts together. Maybe the majority of the ones that fail like this get junked, unless you happen to know someone who does it for a hobby and won't pack it in your ass with a 4 digit bill. I did my friends car 2 years ago for parts cost plus $300. Towed to my house on a Friday morning and my friend drove it home on Monday. It's still being driven every day. Wonder what it would have cost at a dealer? Or would they have just quoted a price for a new engine?

And out of curiosity, what do you mean by the "that explains it" comment about me no longer doing side work? I stopped doing sidework because I felt like doing other things with my free time. No need to include comments meant to be derogatory. You don't know me and I don't know you. I mostly lurk to read and learn, but I notice you always have something to say about just about everything. My experience does not encompass everything in the world. But remember, neither does yours. I know for fact that there are people out there who know more than me. Maybe you need a reality check, because there are people out there that know more than you also.

Thomas Moats,

Do you ever respond without purposely trying to aggravate people?

Thomas Moats,

Although the message I'm responding to wasn't meant for me, it's always interesting to see one of you sandpaper comments. So the answer to my previous question is==>No, I guess you don't. How much research have you done in modern metallurgy? Excuse my lack of memory, but aren't you a 30+year experience mechanic? 30+ years experience in metallurgy also? Modern metallurgy is a mighty big subject, but I wouldn't know anything about it, working in a steel mill and all.

This was, by FAR, the best response to the original post................................

You were simply lucky?

Rick

transmission

I find it pretty odd that you've seen so many Tempo's with broken pistons. My experience has been pretty much the same as Moats's in that I have never seen one. Those 2.3 engines are cheaper than dirt at the salvage yards because they generally outlive the cars. I run into a leaky oil pan or valve cover from time to time but very rarely anything serious. Bob

I don't need to, in order to put the palm of my hand on a piece of sheetmetal and see how much force is required to bend it. A simple tap with a fingernail will tell one a lot about the thickness of it, too. I venture that the average fifth-grader could take my car and my wife's car and tell which one has thicker body panels without requiring any tools or disassembly.

I guess you're terribly insecure about something, to make such a pointless and acidic comment. *shrug*

Ah....no.

You mean junk yard.

Really? Did it run to your "shop" or towed in? Let me guess, the "friend" said it just started running bad.

Give me an address, I'll check your references. Get my drift?

Must not get there stock from the same source?

Fallen apart? Explain.

Oh yea, beat that flat rate time, made a killing too!

People who stop doing side work do it for a another reason. Like they do not like working on junk. Do not like working for less than the job is worth, only to name a few.

Really? What have I had to say about hazardous waste? Race relations?

Gee, you are so smart..........

You got me there.

Let me see if I understand your story correctly:

You bought a used vehicle. It broke. Then you took it to the most expensice place possible to get it repaired. Now you are complaining about the cost to fix it. Correct?

And what everybody else saya about cost reductions is probably correct as late model Fords are junk but I attribute it mostly to that Arab bean counter that was in charge a couple of years ago. I'm going to be avoiding Ford and Mazda in the future.