Starter failed at 18k miles.

[Allted]

Looking for some hive mind opinions.

Went to jump in my truck after parking it 5 minutes earlier, push the start button nothing happens, gets towed to Ford. 2021 ecoboost, under 18k miles, and nearly the entire time I have owned it the battery has been low enough that the autostart stop never kicks in. I drive the truck 5-6 days a week for 10 minute trips and the occasional long drive. They say the starter is the issue. My 3 year warranty expired two months ago and this is going to cost me $1,100.

I thought these starters were rated for an insane amount of starts, any idea if this is a known issue? $1,100+ is a huge bummer for a new truck should I have not used Ford (I thought it would be covered by power train)?

Any idea if they will give me the old starter or if there is a core charge or something? I am a mechanical engineer and would love to take a look at it, possible have some spare parts if this happens again?

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[My 2ND Ford]

Looking for some hive mind opinions.

Went to jump in my truck after parking it 5 minutes earlier, push the start button nothing happens, gets towed to Ford. 2021 ecoboost, under 18k miles, and nearly the entire time I have owned it the battery has been low enough that the autostart stop never kicks in. I drive the truck 5-6 days a week for 10 minute trips and the occasional long drive. They say the starter is the issue. My 3 year warranty expired two months ago and this is going to cost me $1,100.

I thought these starters were rated for an insane amount of starts, any idea if this is a known issue? $1,100+ is a huge bummer for a new truck should I have not used Ford (I thought it would be covered by power train)?

Any idea if they will give me the old starter or if there is a core charge or something? I am a mechanical engineer and would love to take a look at it, possible have some spare parts if this happens again?

Is this for parts and labor? Probably will be a core charge unless it is a new unit, you will have to ask. If the $1100 is starter only, that does sound high. I do know that when I left Napa 8 yrs ago, [ retirement], starters were approaching $600 on select vehicles. Unfortunately even though parts are engineered to last, there is always the one that fails prematurely . Always seems to happen when the warranty expires. Powertrain usually doesn't cover accessories, ie starters , alternators, water pumps, etc .

 

[Allted]

Thanks for offering up a point of view.

I had really hoped since these are supposed to be extra rugged starters to handle the start auto start stop that they would be covered for longer, nope. Read through the warranty contract.

Just one of those things, I have had the truck in the shop soooo many times. I'm always getting treated poorly, like somehow I am an inconvenience to them. It sucked when it was free and just took time, if they are going to start charging me this sort of price for things, I think it is time to give another company a try. I am seeing this started listed for ~$300 from Ford direct. $200+ of the charge was a diagnostic fee

I liked the truck overall but I have just had a poor experience from the time of delivery. I found a 2" scratch on the roof the day after I received it, the dealership would literally not return a call, text, or email. I used a touch up pen on it.

 

[sbi]

@OP - if you only have 18K miles on it, I would contact Ford. Not sure if all manufacturers have it, but Honda for example offers some kind of a "goodwill" reimbursement in different cases. My daughter's Civic's a/c compressor leaked 2 years after the 3 years warranty but she had way less than 36K miles. It is a known issue with that generation of Civic. We contacted Honda, wrote a nice letter, and they reimbursed her the full repair ($1500).

 

[SALEEN961]

It looks like the labor time for replacing the starter on a 2021 3.5EB or 2021 2.7EB is 1.3hrs. The starter itself lists for about $400, even if you add in $200 for diag, a total bill of $1,100 means they are charging you about $384/hr to replace the starter. I'm not sure what a normal labor rate is in California, but $384/hr is very high for my area.

 

[Allted]

I called the Ford mothership, went through a process of submitting info. In the end "we can no control over dealer service pricing and that part is not covered under the power train warranty" I asked what the warranty is on the new replacement Ford Starter they are putting in "that is up to the service department".

I kinda thought I would get them on the new part warranty, I was hoping they said three years or something like that. Nope.

I really did hope ford corporate would kick in and say something nice, they have helped me before with a wild issue, not today.

Such a bummer, I was so very excited to purchase this brand new truck, nothing about it has been much fun since.

- I am extremely interested to see that invoice I am not seeing that make much sense either. I almost towed it home and did it myself. I should have, this is just a huge let-down.

 

[Allted]

Follow up / conclusion(?).

Labor - 675 (225 shown at top but not listed on invoice)
Parts - 431.70
Tax - 35

Get this one "Tech said he has seen several of these fail at low mileage like this, the Auto Start stop is rough on the starter" asked if they could turn it off "no, sorry", Time to fire up forscan do it myself.

If anyone is wondering, they said 2 year unlimited mileage warranty on the new starter.

 

[Ricksc]

Just wondering why you never changed battery? Weak battery could also be part of the issue. I had several deep sleep issues changed battery all problems gone. Ford stock batteries are too small and the the SOC is too low.

 

[Natetroknot]

Is your truck still using the original battery or has that been replaced?

 

[Allted]

It took a lot or effort to finally get them to replace the original battery, I think it was after they replaced the APIM. The new battery was put in, in November and 3 weeks ago at my oil change they said I was showing a low state of charge.

When I brought it in for this no start issue I asked for the battery to be double-checked, they said no issues with the current battery, but it showed 12.1v Thought it was supposed to be higher for an agm battery?

 

[Ricksc]

Should be a bit higher. I went from H6 to H7. Changed SOC with forscan to 90%. The dealer will always fight you. I did the battery on my own. Not worth the dealership BS. I went with an Interstate. Just search this fourm on battery issues.

 

[Allted]

I was having a lot of issues at the time. I knew the battery would be the easiest of the fixes. Updates were all sorts of funky. The tech literally dropped it off saying it was done and fully updated when I opened the door the screen said Update pending, handed me a printout that listed the pending updates, even though he just told me to my face it was all fully updated and nothing pending on any system. I have been through it with this truck.

One of the other sensors was also replaced at some point. So I just figured either the continuous update failures were killing the battery or it was bad. No point in replacing it until the rest got fixed.

At some point I did change it to 90% SOC and nothing seemed to change. The BMS has been rest so many times. I used to keep it on a trickle charger overnight, several days a week.

 

[Ricksc]

Once the battery is killed it’s dead. There’s too many draws on these trucks for Ford to put a H6. Thanks to fuel ratings alternators don’t charge all the time. If battery is changed the BCM needs reset or it will just think it’s the original battery. I had my 22 for 9 months before went to a real battery. A year latter not 1 weird issue.

 

[Ricksc]

It really sucks at the price these trucks that they skimp on the battery. Have read you can run your heater or ac to make alternator charge battery on short drives. I only drive 15 miles a day.

 

[Allted]

Yeah, I watched it on forscan a few times to see what was going on in terms of charging, pretty wild.

If there are any more issues, I will be trying out the service department one town over. I am wondering now if it is just the tech's at my local shop or Ford service in general.

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