Help!!!! Dealer forgot coolant Cap!!!

[I Truck Naked]

Currently being towed. The tow guy said this is the 4th or 5th vehicle this week he has taken back to this dealer for something they messed up. Said a lady yesterday got stranded on the interstate a few minutes after leaving for a repair on a new car that took them over a month to fix. Said they forgot to connect a line somewhere and the tranny failed right after she left. Wtf is going on at Ford and their dealers... never heard of complaints like this when I was driving Rams.

lazy techs. simple as that. there is no pride anymore in the job being done.

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[Frenchy]

Sorry to hear what happened to you and your truck....... It just shows how shitty of a dealership that one is.... I have worked at 67dealerships in total and the one I am at now takes pride in their work!!! All the others disnt give 2 shits because it wasnt their vehicle. Customer service and employee loyalty was a huge problem qhen I worked in Arizona. Im now in Colorado and this Dealership has shown me a thing or two and it s wonderful.

 

[Tim H.]

Need urgent help on what to do. My new ranger was taken in for its 15k service last week.
Today in the way to work it threw a bunch of codes and limp mode.
got it home a few blocks.
Popped hood and the F’ing dealer didn’t put the coolant cap back on last week. No idea what kind of damage is done. Don’t want them to sweep this under the rug. I’m pissed.

what should I demand and look for to ensure they don’t hide the extent of damage done. Needless to say mistakes happen but I have no faith in their honesty.

Sorry to year. Hopefully no serious damage has occurred. Make the dealer give you a Ford Motor Company extended warranty.
I know folks who've had big issues like you and after things were repaired correctly they got the extra warranty.

 

[AzScorpion]

Sorry to hear what happened to you and your truck....... It just shows how shitty of a dealership that one is.... I have worked at 67dealerships in total and the one I am at now takes pride in their work!!! All the others disnt give 2 shits because it wasnt their vehicle. Customer service and employee loyalty was a huge problem qhen I worked in Arizona. Im now in Colorado and this Dealership has shown me a thing or two and it s wonderful.

I guess I got lucky because my Ford dealer has been really good to deal with. From the sale to the service they've been very professional and on time. But I do make my appointments for the first one in the morning so that might help too.

OP sorry this happened and hopefully Ford corporate can help you out seeing as the dealer is incompetent!

Trust me it's an AZ thing! I've never seen such piss poor customer service until I moved out here. My realtor warned me that when you make an appointment don't count on them showing up on time. It's true too they'll show up 2-3 hours later and no phone call or text. I've opened the door and told them to leave and they just stare and you like it's your fault! That's why my customers are so amazed that I show up for my appointments 15 minutes early and if I get stuck in traffic I always call,even if it's only going to be 5 minutes late.

 

[rang19ca]

Good advice here. A bad dealer is hard to deal with, but remember it is not Ford corporate.

 

[outdoorphotog]

The tech was probably saying "Whats this cap on my bench? Must have been for my Snapple" then proceeds to toss it.

 

[khyros]

The good news is that the truck is designed to protect itself in situations like that. Old vehicles used to monitor coolant temperature to determine overheating... and that didn't really work when there wasn't any coolant in the system, so you ended up frying your engine and whatnot. But your 2.3L has a cylinder head temperature sensor, which monitors the actual metal temperature of the engine. And if it starts getting too hot, it enters the fail safe mode, which reduces power and torque and potentially round robins the firing order to pump cool air through the engine to cool it.

It's also a progressive protection. It sounds like you stopped your truck when you entered it, which means you were at the lowest threshold for the truck to determine something's not quite right. As such, there's almost certainly no damage to your truck (assuming the missing coolant cap was the only thing that was wrong).

That doesn't mean the dealership screwed up and you have every right to be pissed at them, but perhaps that can put your mind at ease that your truck should be fine.

 

[thewhiteranger]

Dealers do make a big difference and Ford could do a better job of keeping dealers accountable-- especially for this level of carelessness, any dealer with multiple complaints should be addressed. I also own a 19 Subaru Outback (wife car now - but its a great car) and the difference in dealer experience between Subaru and Ford is night and day. I get surveys regularly from Subaru corporate asking about satisfaction and every time I take it in -- at least 2 surveys follow from dealer and corporate. How would they handle a problem? don't know because I haven't had one. Another difference is when you make an appointment for service - they keep it and the car is out in less than an hour and a half both ford dealers I use want you to leave the car for a minimum of 1/2 a day for an oil change with an appointment - they could do better on that. Ive had 4 fords and never had that kind of follow up from ford after service or purchase, yes I knowFord sells a lot more cars.
I'm not bashing Ford at all, like I said Ive had 4 and love my new Ranger so far. I know dealers are independent but they still have the Ford name on he building -- Ford could do a better job of making sure customers are happy and get rid of dealers that don't take care of their customers. I did have a pretty significant issue with an Escape (seat worn through at 7k miles) and it was a HUGE fight getting the seat cover replaced under warranty calling Ford corporate got me nowhere "we don't interfere with dealers" not a helpful policy from Ford corporate, It was a HUGE deal getting it repaired going through multiple people at the dealer all the way up to the owners rep. It was finally replaced but shouldn't have been anywhere near that big of a fight it was an obvious defect.

I hope they make this right for you an extended warranty is the minimum they should offer- incompetence or negligence, if they can't check fluids what would they do with a difficult repair?

 

[NickTheEnforcer]

Need urgent help on what to do. My new ranger was taken in for its 15k service last week.
Today in the way to work it threw a bunch of codes and limp mode.
got it home a few blocks.
Popped hood and the F’ing dealer didn’t put the coolant cap back on last week. No idea what kind of damage is done. Don’t want them to sweep this under the rug. I’m pissed.

what should I demand and look for to ensure they don’t hide the extent of damage done. Needless to say mistakes happen but I have no faith in their honesty.

thats the exact reason they can keep their worthless 'points' & freebie oil changes! Only warranty work...and after that I always inspect before I leave the lot. I've had mud guards torn off, oil cap left off, lug nuts rounded out and way over torqued on...and on. Not to mention the filth they regularly track in the cab [seat, armrest, steering wheel]. They should re-name it, "FORD AUTHORIZED FACTORY DIS-SERVICE CENTER". jmo

 

[t4thfavor]

Get ready for "Sorry Mr. Somebody, looks like you forgot to put the coolant cap back on when you installed your CAI"...

Even if they installed it, they are going to pull that BS.

 

[gbritt89]

Get ready for "Sorry Mr. Somebody, looks like you forgot to put the coolant cap back on when you installed your CAI"...

Even if they installed it, they are going to pull that BS.

beat me to it lol

 

[ranger]

Sucks man. But always remember the moment you mention lawyer the conversation is pretty much over at that point. Just be patient this stuff does happen we are all human. I’m sure there are many times that you have not done something right. They will have to own up to there mistake at the dealer. Remember the dealers do have camera’s in the shop so you can probably have them review the tapes if they tried to blame you. Let me know if you need any help or advice!

 

[Rick - Saber]

Sorry to hear this happened to you. I can't help but wonder why they took the cap off in the first place. At 15k you should not be low on coolant. Not even for a top up. The plastic tank is semi see through so there is no need to remove cap to check the level.

 

[weasel1]

Sorry to hear this happened to you. I can't help but wonder why they took the cap off in the first place. At 15k you should not be low on coolant. Not even for a top up. The plastic tank is semi see through so there is no need to remove cap to check the level.

I was just thinking the same thing. Dafuk were they doing?

 

[gbritt89]

In my industry as soon as someone threatens to lawyer up, our conversation is done with you and we await your lawyers letter.

It worked to get a manager on the phone for OP so... Being told a manager isn't available by dealership is unacceptable. Whenever I get that line from Ford I ask for a name and tell them i'm 40 minutes away and we can help eachother find a manager together. That typically helps get a manager on the phone without the L word.

Need urgent help on what to do. My new ranger was taken in for its 15k service last week.
Today in the way to work it threw a bunch of codes and limp mode.
got it home a few blocks.
Popped hood and the F’ing dealer didn’t put the coolant cap back on last week. No idea what kind of damage is done. Don’t want them to sweep this under the rug. I’m pissed.

what should I demand and look for to ensure they don’t hide the extent of damage done. Needless to say mistakes happen but I have no faith in their honesty.

I see that this was posted yesterday, saying that you took it in for 15k service last week, could you please share the date that you picked up the truck from the service and any usage between picking it up and the meltdown it had requiring tow yesterday?

How long have you had the CAI/who installed it out of curiosity (for science).

Easy thought process to prove dealership left cap off if you didn't have the cold air intake.. 1)Dealership had to depressurize your coolant system to remove the quick connect line that runs over your factory air filter box to aid in changing your air filter
2)Dealership had to remove the cap to simply top off coolant.

Since you don't have the factory intake that eliminates one possibility leaving you with they topped off the coolant and left it off. Did you notice it was low/ask for them to top it off?

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