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2015 Drive Shaft Recall - Dealer problems - denied claims


MikeW

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Hello, 

 

I recently purchased a Used 2015 Transit, I had to travel 500 miles to the dealer to pick it up. Vehicle was super clean, around 110k miles. I purchased it and drove it home (6 hour drive). After a couple weeks I noticed a vibration at low speeds, I took it to a local dealer and they then told me the drive shaft was damaged, and said it would be covered under Recall. They kept my new service truck for 2 weeks, and called me and told me that the Recall had already been completed by another dealer (600 miles away) 9 months ago, and that ford would not "repair the vehicle again". This was after they had my truck, for over 2 weeks, and had already told me it was a recall claim. This left me two options, pay out of pocket to repair the drive shaft, or drive the broken vehicle 600 miles back to the original dealer, who apparently botched the repair job, wait who knows how long for repair's of a service vehicle, and drive back to get it. Im trying to run a business here, this was an untenable option. 

 

I opted to pay out of pocket for the repair, to the tune of 1200$ (discounted from 1600$)

 

Now... a mere 2 months later, I get another Recall notice, explaining that the old repair was no good, and I need to come back every 40k miles for a re-do. The vin has now been, apparently "re-flagged" as "recall status" and ford would now "pay" for this repair. How irritating. 

 

Do I have any recourse here? 

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I think your only recourse is to sue the selling dealer IF you can prove their repair was botched.   Ford isn't going to pay twice because the dealer screwed up.   Maybe you could get something out of them just by threatening to sue or sending a letter from your attorney.

 

At least you'll be covered going forward.

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It won't hurt to ask for reimbursement, but this isn't a normal failure repair (I agree that would be reimbursable for sure).   This was a repair of a botched previous repair.   I don't think Ford normally pays for a warranty repair on something another dealer screwed up (correct me if I'm wrong).

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3 hours ago, akirby said:

It won't hurt to ask for reimbursement, but this isn't a normal failure repair (I agree that would be reimbursable for sure).   This was a repair of a botched previous repair.   I don't think Ford normally pays for a warranty repair on something another dealer screwed up (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

Typically, no. But the new FSA *should* cover it, but the CRC will be involved, so its hard to say. If they replaced it with the updated u/Joint equipped shaft, I think he should be golden. 

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I have all the original paperwork, for the repair, and purchase of the vehicle. To be clear I purchased it from a chevy dealer 500 miles away, this dealer is not the one that did the botched repair, that was another Ford dealer, in the same area. I had been looking for a good deal on this vehicle for months, usually i'd buy closer to home, just were non available in my area. It looks like when my local dealer did this repair they replaced the entire drive shaft and some associated small parts.. the drive shaft was like 900$ and there was another 150$ in parts, the rest was labor. Every since the repair the transmission feels weird at low speeds too, sometimes in stop-and go traffic it feels like I get a kick in the ass, random, jerky behavior in 1st gear. I don't recall this issue before the repair, (just vibration), though to be fair, I'd only had the truck 2 weeks and put maybe 800 miles on it.  I've now owned it about 4 months, and have put 2k miles on it 

 

Edit: I just checked my VIN and there is indeed a new recall for the drive shaft again. I had checked previously and there were no "Open" recalls. This is crazy I thought they already came out with a permenant fix for the 2015 transit's, why are they still issuing temp-fix letters? the way it's worded seems to make it clear that there is not a permanent fix. Odd. 

Edited by MikeW
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  • 1 month later...
On 12/4/2019 at 3:54 PM, MikeW said:

I opted to pay out of pocket for the repair, to the tune of 1200$ (discounted from 1600$)

 

Now... a mere 2 months later, I get another Recall notice, explaining that the old repair was no good, and I need to come back every 40k miles for a re-do. The vin has now been, apparently "re-flagged" as "recall status" and ford would now "pay" for this repair. How irritating. 

 

Do I have any recourse here? 

 

Any follow up ?

 

If the last repair was done by a a Ford dealer, I would expect you to be reimbursed.

 

(Segue - Similar thing happened to my daughter.  Her 2007 Expedition had a transmission problem.  Based on Ford data, she thought it should be covered under a recall.  Her claim was denied.  About 1-2 years later, she received "official" notice of the recall and the dealer refunded the initial repair costs.)

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Greetings,

   To all that read this post, please forward to as many Transit owners as you can. The best thing for Transit owners to do right now is to sell the van. Get rid of the hunk of junk that Ford pushes off as a contractors dream come true.

I own a 2015 250 transit with the 3.5 ecoboost engine. At 38,000 miles my right rear brake caliper failed. Yep, right out of warranty. I have had two drive shafts replaced. All under the recall but WTF. These are the problems I've had this year so far : spring of 2019,  I change the spark plugs, pick up a miss and ruin the cats at a cost of $3600. The coolant reservoir sprung a leak and cost I think $60 for the part. I did the replacement but had two days of no heat last winter. Just last week I blew an upper radiator hose, which I would have replaced myself, but no parts supplier in the area had it in stock. So I towed it to the dealer and the repair cost me $450. Plus $200 to tow it, and $100 for a rental car. Two days later the weld on the tail pipe breaks separating the tail pipe from the muffler costing another $300, plus now the engine is coding because of the universal muffler I has Midas put on. I think the Ford muffler would have been twice that much. The service shop guy said that Ford makes a muffler for the ecoboost which has a fiberglass insert and is insanely expensive. This 2015 Transit has 112,000 miles on it and is literally falling apart. The brakes are horrible, the van likes to 'nose dive' when i brake too hard.   So my last Ford econoline, a 2003,  I got 300,00 miles out of with minimal down time and maintenance costs. ( and the same muffler for twelve years )

    I believe Ford has engineered these Transits to fail. I've spent close to $5000 since last spring to repair this wreck of a van. They use shoddy sub-standard parts that don't last and I've had enough. I need my van to run every day so I can get my jobs done, and the Transit is a very weak truck. I've read other posts from contractors who hook up their trailers, plug in the wiring harness and blow the fuse panel. I went from a good running van to maintenance costs this year at &5000. Coincidence ???? You bet, the Ford engineers have designed to increase your costs which goes directly into their pockets. No thanks Ford, you can go pound sand.

Headed to Nissan for 5 yr 100,000 mile warranty....

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12 hours ago, Bryan9 said:

    I believe Ford has engineered these Transits to fail.

The Transit was (and to the bet of my knowledge, still is) engineered in England.  Some things that work overseas just don't work in the US (giubo flexible driveshaft coupling; have all new Transit finally gone to U-joints ?).  The seating choices in the van versions are a joke for passengers unless you are Twiggy.  And who puts a parking brake on the floor making it almost impossible to install a swivel base.

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On 1/23/2020 at 8:14 AM, theoldwizard said:

The Transit was (and to the bet of my knowledge, still is) engineered in England.  Some things that work overseas just don't work in the US (giubo flexible driveshaft coupling; have all new Transit finally gone to U-joints ?).  The seating choices in the van versions are a joke for passengers unless you are Twiggy.  And who puts a parking brake on the floor making it almost impossible to install a swivel base.

Batteries are under the Driver's seat anyway. 

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Aaaaaannnd : I am going to guess that there were 500,00 of the Transits bought in 2015. If half of those sold have the same breakdown issues as mine, which according to other Ford forum posts they are falling apart at 100,000 miles, Lets do some simple math....

                     250,000 units with repair costs at $4000, thats ummmmmm, 1BILLION revenue stream to Ford....adios indeed,  5yr 100,000 warranty her I come....

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21 minutes ago, Bryan9 said:

Aaaaaannnd : I am going to guess that there were 500,00 of the Transits bought in 2015. If half of those sold have the same breakdown issues as mine, which according to other Ford forum posts they are falling apart at 100,000 miles, Lets do some simple math....

 250,000 units with repair costs at $4000, thats ummmmmm, 1BILLION revenue stream to Ford....adios indeed,  5yr 100,000 warranty her I come....

 

Here is some "gentle" advice for you...go over to  https://nissannvforum.com/  and drool over the 5yr 100K fake warranty there...your calculator could use some batteries (and facts). Sayonara.                                                               

Edited by twintornados
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29 minutes ago, Bryan9 said:

250,000 units with repair costs at $4000, thats ummmmmm, 1BILLION revenue stream to Ford....adios indeed,  5yr 100,000 warranty her I come....


Whatever that revenue stream happens to be it doesn’t go to Ford it goes to the shop doing the repairs.

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  • 6 months later...

At this point it's water under the bridge. I would have screamed bloody murder and emailed my complaint to all the principal parties to get resolution. I ordered a 2016 Mustang GT Premium from a dealer in Salem NC. Flew up to pick it up from Fort Lauderdale to spend a week driving through the mountains. I noticed that I accelerated up to speed and decelerated I sensed a vibration. I took it to my dealer with 1200 miles on it. They rebalanced the tires not once but twice. It was still vibrating. I asked the Service Manger to drive it with me onboard. He said to leave it. They sent out the drive shaft to get balanced. It got fixed but once you sense a problem, never let up. My advice.

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