From: anrlk@acad2.alaska.edu
Subject: Ford Dealer Service Dept part switching
Organization: University of Alaska
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 02:54:22 GMT

       NOTE: To shorten this long story some text from some
       dates will be left out.  If I get requests I will post
       the long version.  Be advised that this story is still
       going on and is not over.  I want to let the NET know
       that the need to be careful with any repair shop even a
       New Car Dealership.

This is the true story of my Ford truck and the repairs at a Ford
dealer.

The truck is a 1990 Ford Ranger, purchased on January 8, 1990 at
Cal Worthington in Anchorage, Alaska.  1FTCR14T4LPA23466 is the
serial number.  The truck has less than 23,000 miles.  It has a
standard warranty of 1 year and/or 12,000 miles bumper-to-bumper
and 5 year and/or 60,000 miles on the powertrain with a $100
deductible.  

It was at Cal Worthington three times for an engine oil leak. 
First time they replaced the valve cover gaskets.  They did not
clean the dirt off the engine before, during, or after the
repair, except the valve covers themselves.  I had to take it to
a car wash to clean the engine to tell if the leak was stopped. 
It was not.  

At the next oil change I noticed oil on the fan blades.  This
time they replaced the front main seal.  Again they only cleaned
around the front main seal.  I had to take it again to a car wash
to see if the engine had stopped leaking.  It still leaked.  

This time they replaced the rear main seal, oil pan gasket, and
added a dye to oil to check for any new leaks.  The oil pan was
cleaned but not the block.  I had the engine steam cleaned.  All
this was done in the first year and less than 12,000 miles.

I believe that Ford dealers only fix the symptom and not the
cause of the problem.  If they do not fix the cause of the
problem, you will be back.  The customer does not check most
repairs because it is under warranty and Ford is paying the bill. 
The customer believes that the experts know what they are doing. 
Since the customer is not paying the bill, less care is given to
the work orders.  (If the customer had to pay, the customer would
want to see every part, to see if it needed to be replaced.)

This attitude set me up for the following adversity.  


January 31, 1992           Friday
              Odometer     -      22387
       While pressure checking the coolant system the mechanic
       determined that the head was cracked.  We were told that
       this was covered under the warranty with a $100 detectable. 
       The thermostat was said to be the probable cause of the
       cracked head.  It was replaced at a cost of $68.  During the
       repair the oil and coolant was replaced, but the old oil
       filter was not checked.

February 18, 1992          Tuesday
       The big break down
              Odometer                   -      22756.0
       Robert smelled oil smoke while at a red light.  The oil
       pressure was midway.  As soon as the light turned green,
       Robert changed to the right hand lane.  Robert shut the
       engine off as the oil pressure dropped and the lifters
       started making noise.  The truck was towed to Cal
       Worthington.  Phil Morris told Robert that repairs were
       covered by the warranty.  Phil Morris said there would be no
       charge as it was on the same repair as January 31, 1992.  

February 28, 1992          Friday
       Robert called Cal Worthington around 11:30 a.m. He talked to
       Phil Morris.  It was at this time that Phil tells Robert
       that they stopped work on the engine (Thursday) because the
       oil filter gasket was dry.  He said the oil filter was
       installed without any oil on the gasket.  The gasket had
       slipped, and all the oil had leaked out.  

       Robert and his wife Pearl went to Cal Worthington to see the
       service manager and to find out what was going on.  Don
       Leavy took Robert to look at the engine.  Don removed the
       oil filter and found two oil filter gaskets.  Immediately
       Don changed his mind from the oil filter gasket being dry,
       to the two gaskets leaking all the oil out.  

       We told them that we needed to know what was wrong with the
       engine and how much it would cost to fix it.  Don told Phil
       to find out what was wrong with the engine.  Phil said that
       maybe nothing was wrong with the engine.  Phil said that
       they would take check the engine that night, that a mechanic
       was going to be working late.

March 2, 1992        Monday
       Robert called Cal Worthington after 2:30 p.m.  He talked to
       Phil Morris.  Phil told Robert that repairs would cost
       $2796.00.  Robert said he would get back to him.

March 3, 1992        Tuesday
       Robert stopped in at Cal Worthington around 3:30 p.m. (to
       look at the damages).  The only difference with the engine
       from Friday, was that the oil filter was off.  Phil Morris
       tells Robert that for them to take the engine apart to see
       what is wrong, that it will cost us six hours of labor. 


March 4, 1992        Wednesday
                                      Deleted Text

       At 4 p.m. Robert talked to Don Leavy.  Robert told Don that
       he wanted to know what was wrong with the engine.
  
       Don said, `What do you mean it was all apart, I saw it.'  
       
       Robert said, No, nobody has touched my engine since Friday
       (February 28, 1992) when the oil filter was removed.
       
       Don said, `Oh, I did not know that. What do you want us to
       do?'
       
       Robert said, `Find out what's wrong with my engine.'
       
       Don said, `I'll get someone right on it after I get off the
       phone.'

March 5, 1992        Thursday
       Robert called Cal Worthington around 2 p.m.  Robert talked
       to Phil.  
       
       Phil said, 'Well, We took your engine all a part.  The
       crankshaft is okay, but the bearings are shot.  Looks like
       the camshaft is okay, also.

       Robert said,  As soon as I can get away from work, I will be
       down to look at it.

       Robert got to Cal Worthington around 4 p.m.  Phil went with
       Robert to look at the engine.  Robert saw that our engine
       was in pieces piled into the oil pan.  Phil showed Robert
       the rod bearings.  The rod bearings showed some brass with
       scratches, but no gouges or nicks.  The center main bearings
       were smooth without any blemishes at all, like it was brand
       new.  One of the other main bearings had a few hairline
       scratches.  Michael Nguyen, mechanic said that the scratches
       would cause to lose oil pressure, that is why the bearings
       were shot.  (the bearings looked almost brand new)  Robert
       asked Phil to write an estimate as we have not seen anything
       in writing.

March 6, 1992        Friday
       At 7:30 a.m. we arrived at Cal Worthington.  We had our
       camcorder with and we filmed the engine parts.  Robert also
       put his initials on some of the parts.  

       At 9:30 a.m. Robert's father (Ed Knoebel) stopped by
       Robert's work.  He told Robert that he talked to Don Leavy. 
       Don told Ed that they would not charge us anything if we
       towed our truck somewhere else to rebuild it.  They would
       sell us the parts at 20% off.  Don gave him the parts
       requisition dated 3/2/92 ordered by Michael Nguyen.

March 24, 1992 Tuesday
                                      Deleted Text

       Don said, "Look we're tired of this, get it fixed or get it
       out of here."  

       Robert told Don as he handed Don the letter from our lawyer,
       "I want my truck tonight."

       Don said, "No, you can pick it up tomorrow."  

       Robert said, "Why can't we get our truck now?"

       Don said, "Well, it's late, it's 4:30 p.m.  We have to get
       all the parts together."

                                      Deleted Text

       Robert said, "I'm going to call a tow truck now.  I want our
       truck now."  

       We then walked out of his office.

       Robert called for a tow truck.  

                                      Deleted Text

April 4, 1992 Saturday
       Still no response from Cal's lawyer.  We talked to our
       lawyer, asked him to send letter to Cal requesting copies of
       all paper work concerning our truck.  Robert told Jay he
       would get the engine parts over to a machine shop on Monday.

April 6, 1992 Monday
                                      Deleted Text

       Robert loaded all bearings, pistons, oil pan, oil pump, into
       the back of car.


April 8, 1992        Wednesday
                                      Deleted Text
       At 6:30 p.m. went back to ABC Towing to get block to take to
       a 'machine shop.'  Put engine block into back of car with
       pistons and all other parts.

       10 p.m. Put car in garage to look at the engine parts.
       Robert counted the rod bearings; found eighteen.  

       Twelve Rod bearing had a mark of 3-89.  Robert determined
       that twelve of the rod bearing with the 3-89 markings did
       not show any brass.  All twelve bearings did not show any
       failure of any kind.  They were almost brand new.

       Six had 5-88 mark.  Three showed brass and all six were
       shot.

       Robert counted main bearings; found ten.

       Three lower main bearings with a CP mark.  One upper main
       bearing marked with CP mark.  The upper thrust bearing has a
       mark of 3-89.  All five bearings looked almost brand new. 
       None showed any sign of failure.

       The three more upper bearings that are there, are of the
       right part number but with a EN marking.  The EN main
       bearings are scratched and in poor condition.  (Two extra
       main bearings were not even from a Ford engine.)

       These bearing were shown to Robert by Phil Morris as our bad
       bearing on Thursday March 5, 1992.  He also showed Robert
       the 5-88 rod bearing with brass showing as belonging to our
       engine.  None of these extra bearing came from our engine.

       The following table is an inventory of the engine bearings
       halves:

Bearing     Qty   1st #             2nd #       3rd #       Shape       From
Type              Part?                         Date?                   Ranger
rod         11    73TM6211FA        3301        03-89       good        Yes
rod         1     73TM6211FA        6403        03-89       good        Yes
upper main  1     73TM6333AA        CP                      good        Yes
thrush main 1     73TM6337AA        1240        03-89       good        Yes
lower main  3     88TM6A338AA       CP                      good        Yes
rod         3     73TM6211FA        4039        05-88       poor        No
rod         3     73TM6211FA        4048        05-88       poor        No
upper main  3     73TM6333AA        EN                      poor        No

April 15, 1992
       At this point I was shocked.  I realized nothing was wrong
       with my engine on February 18, 1992 except for the oil
       filter gasket.  I need help at this point on how I can prove
       what the Cal Worthington service department did to me.  I 
       requested all copies of my work orders from them.  After a
       delay Don Leavy only gave me a copy of one invoice.  He said
       that was all I was going to get.  

       By law he was to give me all copies by now I will have to
       sue to even get copies of the work orders.

If any body knows how to tell the year of a bearing manufacture,
please let me know.  I do not know if 3-89 or 5-88 stand for the
year or not.  

================================================================
Thank you for reading this.  It is all true but I cut about half
out.  Because I did know of the bearing switch until
April 8, 1992, I wasted a lot of time.  
================================================================
This is not the view of my employer.
================================================================
From: borowski@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (Don T. Borowski)
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 14:40:38 GMT
Subject: Re: Engine Temp Quickly "Surges" Up & Down
Organization: Hewlett Packard Company, Spokane, Wa.