Ford F-150

So I took it to another Ford dealer who is really trying hard to figure it out, now it's in for the third time - reboot comp., valve body, now complete trans tear down, total time without truck over 3 weeks. Ford's got some major problems with this adaptive learning trans. Not happy and cannot wait until I hear back from Ford on a buy back. I've been told that I'm not going to be happy with what Ford will do. We will see.

After having the truck 4 weeks they called and said it’s fixed so I went to pick it up. Signed the papers got in the truck and noticed the check engine light was on. Went back in, found the service advisor, they pulled the truck in and did a reset. Ok, I left with my truck. Headed out of town and about 250 miles later the check engine light was back on. Went back to Ford. They kept the truck, ordered new sensors, installed and gave me the truck back a week later. Got the truck home and the next morning I noticed oil in the driveway (it had been raining). Called the service advisor. He said it was residual oil and would just go away. Went to visit family in Augusta and noticed oil in their driveway. Went to Ford in Evans GA. They said it was leaking around the main seal. Safe to drive it back to Atlanta.

Went back to the dealer, gave them the truck. They determined it was not the main seal. It was actually the seal(s) around the valve covers. Replaced and two weeks later I got the truck back. Started hearing a grinding noise from the rear and took the truck in for an oil change. The advisor recommended some other 30k items one being the transmission flush, which I had them do. As for the grinding noise I would need to leave it and it would be a week before they could look at it. Drove the truck 10-14 days and noticed it was skipping from 3-5 gears, which I never noticed before. Went to open the sunroof on the weekend before taking the truck in for the grinding noise and the skipping well, the sunroof glides broke.

I took the truck in the next day (Monday), explained the sunroof, the grinding and the skipping. They have now had my truck 3 weeks. They have ordered parts and repaired the sunroof, ordered parts and repaired/replaced the rear ends pins and a rear axle. Guess what??? The noise is still there and they have ordered a from axle and another part (I don’t recall the name). Oh and as for the transmission. They have ordered a new floater valve mechanism to replace the current one with... I’ve contacted Ford to open a case, I’m trying to get some help from somewhere. I just don’t know what to do.

The dealership informed me it would be $12,000.00 to replace the engine and turbos. I still owed about 23,000 on the truck so not something I can really walk away from. Ford was no help whatsoever stating my warranty expired at 69,000 miles. For this model of truck something should have informed me the oil pump was going out or the engine was having trouble. I did not have Ford replace the engine. Instead I had a local reputable company rebuild it (Texan Motor Co.). They rebuilt the engine for 8000.00 and gave me a 3 year warranty. I have switched to a Toyota since my Ford Fiasco. Should have never gone with Ford and never will again!

Was blasting music at the time, so I didn't hear it but I Felt the high rev when the truck went to failsafe mode (M Drive) and I looked down and saw the low oil pressure light came on, my hands reached for the key as fast as it could and Turned it off (if it wasn't already) the Cab smelled of oil but before I could think about that I hit my flashers and try and push the truck fully off the road and I manage to get help to push this truck to the side in manner of few seconds after I started to try.

Once to the side I immediately checked the oil and it wasn't too low it dropped just below the hash marks (so the pickup tube still had oil) and the oil that was lost was from this catastrophic fail that left oil coming from the sides of the engine, on to skidplate, small trail on trans and small puddle oil on the ground, so after checking the oil I try to bump the starter and when that fail I already began to think the worse that my engine is locked up. Got it confirmed by the closest Ford dealer (since I was kind of hoping that it was some sort of safety that was stopping me from bumping the engine over but forgot I could just try to bar it over by hand to circumvent the electronics) that happened to be Holmen Ford.

January 29 they manage to get it in and try to bar over the the crank over, it failed to move and they quoted me 10k to put a new engine in, got an independent shop and they wanted 9k and that's when I began to look at other avenues as mechanic that lack the equipment to take out an engine out and the proper ground to do it on, I began the dance to find a way forward.

Try talking to my tech school. I want to to see if I could bring it there and do the work, that was no go, try to see if I could take it to work and that wasn't going to fly, looked at a few used engines that where going for 3k and they where out of my price range since I wasn't able to save more than 1,500 dollars when this fail occurred and let's be honest I had no reason to keep more than 3k since the engine was at relatively low mileage in my eyes, looked in to new engine (with discount from work) and found it to be just 1000 dollars more (after I return the core charge) and it's not worth the risk putting in a used engine that might need all of the TSB updates to make engine reliable.

February 7, 1987 after feeling defeated I came back to Lilliston Ford hoping they would buy back the defective truck they sold me, what I got at first is "we would look into it. He would call me." A week passed and I had to call them to basically be told I was boned (this is paraphrasing). I was honestly ready to handle anything but a Powertrain issue but sadly I got something I never bargained for and now SOL. Long story short just stay away from Ford and buy something reliable like a Toyota with a manual or automatic transmission and you might be set for life. (Don't get CVT with your Toyota.)

Bottom line: the course of action now is for me to pay for oil changes that "may" gradually remove the "debris" from the oil. I tried this and the conditions returned 125 miles after paying for an oil change. If the oil change idea does not work (they have no idea how many changes it may take $$$), Ford recommends a new engine that will not be covered under warranty! It won't be covered under warranty because the debris is not metallic. The debris in the oil that started this whole situation was identified 600 miles after Ford performed the oil change on the truck.

There was an "aftermarket" Carquest oil filter on the truck when it came to Ford and they are now blaming that filter that was on the truck for 6,500 miles. This seems to be illegal if there is no evidence to prove the "aftermarket" part caused the issue. Keep in mind, there were 6,500 miles of trouble free driving on that filter. This issue started 600 miles AFTER the Ford oil change. They have no evidence that the previous filter had anything to do with this issue. The Ford Hotline notes even say that if the dealership suspected an aftermarket filter, the filter should have been kept and cut open. Nothing was done with the aftermarket filter and the use of one on the truck was never even mentioned to me, as there was no problem.

I have now started a case with Ford Customer Care who said they will review the notes from the dealership. I asked how I can submit my notes and explanation and they said they do not have a way for me to submit information... I do hope that someone within Ford reads the Ford notes carefully, which will illustrate everything stated above is true and accurate and stands behind either the engine, the oil filter or their service work. I will update this review accordingly based upon their decision. Thank you, Chris.