Unsolvable misfire and potential engine replacement

[taztay]

Hey everyone, I guess I just need to vent / get this out and ask for some feedback. A few weeks ago I got a check engine light for a misfire on cylinder 5, at 55k miles. I get it over to the ford dealer and they find cracked ceramic on the spark plugs. Replace a harness to the injectors and then finally do an injector swap. They still can’t get the misfire to go away and are now waiting on the technical line to tell them what they need to do. The service advisor says they might need to order a new engine. Well this is now about a week into this and we’re still waiting on the technical line for them to tell the dealer what to do. Meanwhile they only give you a loaner for 4 days and the dealer tells me I to call customer service to get a rental. Customer service says the rental they authorize is for only 10 days and it’s a reimbursement. Which seems crazy to me, if my truck is in the shop for warranty work how can they possibly not give me a loaner/rental for a longer time and not make me pay for it. Especially when this seems to be appearing more like a manufacturing defect. If anyone has had this happen I welcome any and all advice. Thank you.

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[Dakar09]

This was me experience with Ford customer service in the past. They even had a rental office on the premises (was a big dealer). But it seems idiotic to me. You may be able to recoop the costs later if they deem it is a manufacturing defect and the engine gets replaced, but that still puts you out of pocket. Some could suggest you go through insurance, but the way ins companies operate nowadays I doubt you'll have any luck there (they'll simply point to your warranty covering things). And honestly, they aren't responsible for mechanical defects in your vehicle.

However, way back in the time before, I was screwed by Ford in this type of situation where they determined the repair wasn't covered by warranty and I wound up taking the car back, having 2 independent mechanics look at it to determine they were wrong, and then suing them for the runaround, rental car costs, repair costs, etc. Not ideal, but I don't think this will go that route.

It may be up to you to call Ford district office or HQ and get this moving. Most Ford dealers I've dealt with are a-holes who hate their jobs, unfortunately.