Avoid Kings Ford

[sloick]

My dad has an 02 ranger, 4 cyl 5 spd, that is just a parts getter truck. It has 89k miles on it and runs great. From day 1 when my older brother bought it, its been the most reliable vehicle you could ask for.

With it just being a parts getter truck, it only sees MAYBE 5k miles a year. My dad being an old timer, only changes the oil once a year then. Last week was its turn for an oil change, and the oil plug bolt stripped on him. Instead of trying something different, vice grips or anything, he threw in the towel. He decided to let a Ford dealership do the work.

The person at the counter told him no problem, they will change the oil and the plug, and its a common thing on aluminum oil pans for the bolt to be tight. Well a half hour later they come back out and send him on his way. Here is the bullsh*t part.

The next morning their is a rather large puddle under the truck. Dad jumps in his Buick and heads off to work. After he gets home he puts the truck up on ramps and sees the oil pan covered in what can best be described as rubber cement, or some sort of spray adhesive. Under the gunk, a rather large crack in the pan.

Dad then calls Kings Ford to ask what happened. The guy on the phone said that the employee that did the service was not in that day, and they would contact him after finding more out. The next day he calls back to see what had happened and the man on the phone says that "the plug was very tight, and the pan cracked" (NO SH*T) " and that sometimes that gunk will fix the leak."

The only thing they have to say to dad is that they can knock a few hours off of the cost of labor to do the job. It will be over $900 to have it replaced. Now let me make myself clear. We do not want the job done for free! We want you to know what kind of work this dealership does and does NOT tell you until its too late.

We know that things break, big deal. But for them to cover it up and hope its not noticed until later is BS. With the way it was cracked, and if dad didnt notice it earlier we could have been buying a new motor at a discounted price from this dealership.


Cliff notes:
Kings Ford Cracked an oil pan and tried spraying glue(?) on it instead of telling the customer.

[SMOKE]

Car dealerships never win...... ;)

[Mista Bone]

I agree with trying to fix the crack, the mechanic had to clear his lift, but owner should have been told and asked want route to take.

Now the bad part, if the mechanic told the SA, SA will deny it and it goes back on the mechanics shoulders, had a good friend fired due to SA lying in this same way.

I would get a new quote from them with the lower hours and parts without the 40% markup. You could try the BBB, but they are not listed as being Accreditted.


BBB processed a total of 14 complaint(s) about this business in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total 14 complaint(s) closed in the last 36 months, 7 were closed in the last 12 months.

Notice almost all the other Kings car dealerships are with the BBB........makes you wonder.

[Dirtyd0g]

If it were an 01 I have a spare oil pan, but 02 was duratec. I don't think it will work.
Alan

[CNTLOSE]

I say they should replace the pan for free period...They broke it! The guy probably did not even tell his manager and was hoping it would slip buy. I would be pissed.

[sean]

I say they should replace the pan for free period...They broke it! The guy probably did not even tell his manager and was hoping it would slip buy. I would be pissed.

without quwstion. Its not like it was a pos that was going to break anyway. I would go to the gm and raise hell

[sloick]

without quwstion. Its not like it was a pos that was going to break anyway. I would go to the gm and raise hell

my dad went to the gm, acted like it was no big deal. the whole deal is bs.

[CNTLOSE]

my dad went to the gm, acted like it was no big deal. the whole deal is bs.

Deal with Ford directly then. I would take some photos of the "fix" and send it to them along with what they told you. I have always been lucky when dealing with Ford CS directly.

[tylerconner08]

I work at Kings Ford and was there the day that this vehicle came into the shop. They told the customer they would look at it and I saw the oil changer working on it. He was not at fault for it breaking because of who did the job before. I'm not bashing on the customer because I need customers to make a living in this profession, but the fact that the pan broke was not the technician's fault. The tech told the service adviser and he told the customer who said try to fix it. They used RTV to seal up the plug on the pan to save him money. At this point it would have needed a pan and plug anyway. And when the customer left he was told the technician tried to fix it and it might not hold. He said ok and left. The RTV fix didn't jeopardize the pan at this point it already needed repaired so sorry he tried to save you money and it didn't work.

[Mista Bone]

Devil's advocate, the pan might have cracked no matter who was able to get it loose, it at all!

SH!T happens.......but to cover it up is the dealership's failure, pass the potatos.

[Mista Bone]

I work at Kings Ford and was there the day that this vehicle came into the shop. They told the customer they would look at it and I saw the oil changer working on it. He was not at fault for it breaking because of who did the job before. I'm not bashing on the customer because I need customers to make a living in this profession, but the fact that the pan broke was not the technician's fault. The tech told the service adviser and he told the customer who said try to fix it. They used RTV to seal up the plug on the pan to save him money. At this point it would have needed a pan and plug anyway. And when the customer left he was told the technician tried to fix it and it might not hold. He said ok and left. The RTV fix didn't jeopardize the pan at this point it already needed repaired so sorry he tried to save you money and it didn't work.

Rut roh, two sides to the story now............

[sean]

This will go no where fast. If the pan was about to break no matter what, shouldnt the tech have noticed that if he/she worked on it it had a chance of breaking? Any time I have had a car somewhere and it was questionable they came out and talked to me. My response was always if it breaks can you fix it now and for a good price? Now if your going to tell me that it looked fine and seemed to be ok except for the stripped plug and they break it while working on it. Then they need to fix the problem that happend while in their care. They have to have some responsibility or why not just break all kinds of stuff and pad the bill? If the pan looked fine and they didnt warn of problems after they tried to get it off, its on them. we have all been working on things and we knew when we turned on a bolt and it didnt move or feel right that 1 of 2 things were about to happen. 1 the bolt was going to come loose or 2 we were going to break something. You know withen a few seconds of trying to turn on a bolt if your going to have a problem. When that happens and its not your car, you go talk to the owner and let him make the decision. Now instead of running around on oil that was ok for now, he gets a big problem of finding the pan and fixing it and an attitude from a gm. If I had a shop I would make it right at a good price for this man and have a loyal customer and his family for life.

[Mista Bone]

If I had a shop I would make it right at a good price for this man and have a loyal customer and his family for life.

Simple isn't it?

:popcorn:

[sean]

Simple isn't it?

:popcorn:

I dont know if your being sarcastic or not, but when I was selling cars the best customer was the one you took care of that felt he was just screwed over by someone else. I got him, his kids, the wife, family and friends.
So yea it can be simple, for the right person.

[capri5.0]

I work as a service technician for a local company and have done thousands of oil changes in my career on any make vehicle you can think of, panteras , mercedes all the way to kias. I have never in my career seen any oil pan break do to the drain plug being too tight. I have run into this problem on several fords with aluminum oil pans, part of being a mechanic is thinking outside the box when the conventional method does not work.

If this would happened at the company i work for the customer would have been told if the oil pan does crack it would neeed to be replaced. We would give them a quote before the oil change was even completed.

If one of the service techs did not inform the customer or management about the situation and tried to hide it ,then at that point the damaged oil pan would be replaced at no charge and the service tech repremanded or fired based on track record.

That is why most automotive repair shops have liabilty insurance.

[Mista Bone]

I dont know if your being sarcastic or not, but when I was selling cars the best customer was the one you took care of that felt he was just screwed over by someone else. I got him, his kids, the wife, family and friends.
So yea it can be simple, for the right person.

I wasn't being sarcastic.....

[sean]

I didnt think you were and I hope you didnt think I was trying to be either. Looks like we agree.

[sloick]

Sorry, i haven't checked back in awhile.

Nothing was said to my dad at any point that the pan was broken. He has called Ford, and all they tell him is that they don't deal with service issues, but do keep track of complaints for future reference. My dad has never been upset that the pan broke, just that it was covered up. He has always worked on his own cars, and would never trust a temporary fix for a cracked oil pan. This truck was an extra, he would have left there waiting to be fixed before risking that.

He spoke with the General Manger today and his response was that it is very common that a vehicle with 88k miles would need an oil pan. So right now he is trying to figure out whether or not to let the people who screwed him over work on it again to save a hundred bucks.