tizzo

Not sure who you're expressing agreement with. I updated my original post last night (before your reply) with some additional information that I'd found. Specifically, the car started having problems that Ford tried (and I paid them) three times to fix in 1999, when the car was only 4 years old, and they never even checked the harness. As far as "it has to end somewhere", I agree in general, at least with mechanical things that are supposed to wear out. But this is a wiring harness. It's lifetime is essentially infinite -- it should outlast any and every moving part on the car. There are also limits to any limits, so to speak. If this had been a recall instead of a tsb (as it should have been, due to the safety implications, as I explained in my original post), there would be no such limits. To take it to an extreme example for illustrative purposes, if the car had exploded for no reason other than some sort of engineering defect, Ford's liability would not be any different on a car that was 11 years old than it would be on one that had just rolled off the lot. There just has to be some common sense applied. Some problems just can't or shouldn't be subject to time limits. And even if it is subject to time limits, Ford can't be permitted to get a customer to delay action until it's too late by concealing a problem that they know exists. Tony

I already explained this. The problem was not evident until it caused a failure much later. The bottom line is that, at some point before the warranty expired, the insulation started cracking and falling off the wiring harness. This is a condition, according to the bulletin, that would have triggered the warranty. The condition went unnoticed because it did not present any external manifestation. It eventually lead to a more serious (and obvious) problem, but not until the warranty had expired. I didn't take it to the dealer before the warranty expired because I didn't know the problem existed, and I didn't know about the warranty extension. Ford is trying to treat the fact that the problem was undiagnosed as if it was the same as the problem not yet happening. And Ford is directly responsible for not notifying me of the warranty extension. I don't want them to extend the warranty beyond the 10/100k time limit. But I do want them to honor the agreement to fix something that broke before that limit was up. Ford's position is that, even though this happened before the warranty was up, they are not going to fix it because it was not discovered until after the warranty was up. Furthermore, since they did not notify me that there was even the potential of a problem, which they undisputedly knew about since 1999, they at least look guilty of trying to conceal it from me. That impression is only strengthened by by the fact that they're using that concealment to get out of covering the defect. I do, however, believe that once they discovered the defect, since it does have implicit safety implications, it should have been treated as a recall rather than a warranty extension. If companies in general didn't use that doctrine, most of their CEOs would be in jail! What can I tell you. I guess it's a good thing you're not Ford.

To Whom It May Concern: I am writing with respect to a warranty issue with my 1995 Ford Contour. The issue has to do with the main engine wiring harness, and technical service bulletin 99M03. According to this document, the original main engine wiring harness insulation was defective, causing it to crack and fall apart under temperature and humidity conditions that are generally found under the hood of a car. Depite the obvious safety implications (my car failed by shutting down while being driven, thankfully not in highway traffic), no recall was issued. Instead, Ford's solution was to issue this technical service bulleting, extending the warranty on this particular component to 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. Although the car must have started to exhibit this problem well before the extended warranty period expired, the symptoms did not appear until just recently. The car is now 11 years old and has around 110,000 miles on it. Because I was not notified of the problem, I did not even have the opportunity to have the harness inspected to make sure that it was OK before the warranty expired. I called two dealerships' service departments, and Ford's 800 customer service number. The unanimous response I got was that my particular vehicle, based on the VIN, was indeed covered by 99M03, but that there was nothing that they were able (read "willing") to do because it is now past the extended warranty period, regardless of whether or not the part failed while the warranty was still in effect. Common sense dictates that if a company offers a warranty on a product for a set amount of time, and that product fails before the warranty period has expired, then the product should be covered by the terms of the warranty, even if the nature of the failure is such that it is not discovered until some later date. Ford's position appears to be contrary to this common sense doctrine. Furthermore, the rationale (as expressed to me by the Ford customer service representative) for this problem being handled as a warranty extension rather than a recall is that the problem does not constitute a safety issue. In my particular case, the failure of the wiring harness eventually manifest itself in a shutdown of the engine while the car was being driven. While noone was injured in my case, it would have been a very different story if this had happened while the car was being driven on the highway in traffic, instead of on local roads during light traffic. I have also learned that this problem involves so many subsystems that it has manifest itself in many other ways as well, including spontaneous disabling of the anti-lock braking and traction control systems, and fires. In other words, this problem absolutely has safety implications and should have been handled with a recall. Finally, I'd like to point out that this is not a wear and tear issue, it is a defective part issue, as evidenced by the technical service bulletin itself. A wiring harness is not expected to deteriorate in this way under normal operating conditions at any time. As such, any wiring harness that deteriorates in this manner is defective, whether it is one year old or eleven years old, and whether it has been driven 90,000 miles or 110,000. Tony Izzo Updated 2006-03-02 I just got home and checked my records, since Ford claimed that the only reason I wouldn't have been notified is if they didn't have my address. Wanted to see if I had the car in to the dealership any time before the notice was issued, which would have updated my address. I found out that, not only did Ford have my address, but the car was in their service department three times around October 1999 for problems that may or may not have been related to this harness (no way to tell now). I spent several hundred dollars there, and they never did solve the problem. This changes a couple of things. First, Ford's defense that they are not at fault for not notifying me because my address must have been wrong is gone, because they did have it. Second, the fact that they didn't have to fix it unless it came in with some kind of related problem becomes moot, because it *did* come in, three times, and they never fixed it. Tony