P.O.S Plastic Lower Cracked OPTIONS?

HoustonGT

Gilded Gelding
Apr 6, 2003
1,418
0
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Houston
Well, on my way home from work tonight the car was running perfectly fine. I got on it once on the freeway, exited and made it all the way to my apartment complex. As i pulled in the gates my car started idling at about 900rpm and sounded horribly poppy. So i limp it through the complex and pull up in front of my place.
White smokes starts to POUR out from under my hood as i shut her down. I got out and from the smell knew instantly that it was coolant. I'm furious at this point and pop the hood to a huge puff of smoke and steam. After it calms down for a bit, i look around and discover the culprit.
There is a 1 inch or so hose that connects to the plastic lower intake on the back right passenger side. The part of the intake has a female end that comes up about 2 inches and the hose slips over it. First i thought that the coolant hose had simply popped off, but after closer inspection, i realized that the intake part actually cracked and was left inside the rubber hose. Awesome news! :notnice:
Here's where my dilemma comes in. Tomorrow im calling Ford to see if i still fall under the 7 year rule based on my build date. If its still covered i have 2 options;
1.) Let Ford fix it for free and be happy with another plastic intake
2.) OR i have heard that Ford will re-imburse you if you show them the receipt for paying to fix it yourself. If i buy the Trickflow lower and have it installed will Ford still cut me the check for ~$730 for having to replace the lower intake manifold or is that only if i buy the original Ford POS?

If my car isn't covered i obviously will go out and get the Trickflow lower and leave it at that. Kind of sucks that i have to deal with this on my daily driver :mad:

Any info would be greatly appreciated,

Mike
 
Well i called around to a few dealerships today and every single one said that I would need to bring the car in for them to check it out. Then they would decide if it would be fixed for free or not which doesn't really make sense to me. Based on my VIN they say the car is still covered and the Intake Manifold bulletin pops up.
Im worried about them giving me crap because my car is modded or saying they won't pay for it because it didnt crack around the t-stat housing. Any of you dealt with this already?
 
Man that sucks Mike :(

Yep time to upgrade :D And I heard the the trickflow intake sucks :shrug: . I remember seeing a before and after dyno with not much improvement. Id persoanlly go with the HPS intake so you can reuse your plenum.
 
Well i called around to a few dealerships today and every single one said that I would need to bring the car in for them to check it out. Then they would decide if it would be fixed for free or not which doesn't really make sense to me. Based on my VIN they say the car is still covered and the Intake Manifold bulletin pops up.
Im worried about them giving me crap because my car is modded or saying they won't pay for it because it didnt crack around the t-stat housing. Any of you dealt with this already?

yeah, ford likes to diagnose these coolant leaks themselves, they dont like to take your word for it over the phone. ford just recently denied my warranty on my manifold because i was 4 days over, but im fairly sure they denied me because of my mods. i had a STB that is a PITA to remove. anyway, i would try to have ford take care of everything, since they'll use the updated OEM part anyway. the Trickflow really doesnt add any power from what ive seen, it actually loses hp in the lower RPMS.
 
Man that sucks Mike :(

Yep time to upgrade :D And I heard the the trickflow intake sucks :shrug: . I remember seeing a before and after dyno with not much improvement. Id persoanlly go with the HPS intake so you can reuse your plenum.

i also heard that the trickflow sucks.
+1 on the HPS hardball'r. thats what i'll be going with as soon as i get the money. that guy is really friendly and helpful. He even sent me another stock intake manifold for FREE off one of their project cars just to hold me over until they had some more of their HPS intakes in stock.

and btw...i know how you feel...mine melted and cracked sprayed coolant everywhere. its even worse when you look at the underside of the car :(... and the fact that you can't even drive it to take into a shop... pain in the ass.
 
Does anyone have a link to the dyno sheets for the HPS?

I'm lookin at a new manifold, I still have faith in the trick flow though.

Have you guys ever seen the Purple Racing manifolds? There was one on ebay not long ago. They looked like an effective manifold if they could have ever worked out the bugs.
 
Well, just found out Ford won't cover it for me so now im SOL and the bill is close to $1800. Im planning on picking the car up from them and towing it back home, ordering the HPS intake manifold, getting new plugs and some COP and putting it back together myself. Do y'all think it would be sensible to claim it with my insurance company and simply pay the deductible instead? Its my daily driver so i need this car up and running ASAP.
 
Well, just found out Ford won't cover it for me so now im SOL and the bill is close to $1800. Im planning on picking the car up from them and towing it back home, ordering the HPS intake manifold, getting new plugs and some COP and putting it back together myself. Do y'all think it would be sensible to claim it with my insurance company and simply pay the deductible instead? Its my daily driver so i need this car up and running ASAP.

if you just need the manifold replaced, it costs $200 for the updated PI intake manifold and alternator bracket at rpmoutlet.com and if you can't/unable to install it yourself, it should only cost around $200 for installation, at the most $300.
 
Did they say why at first they could cover it and now say no? I'd argue that before I just took their word for it. That is weird that it broke where you said. Mine was at the thermostat housing.

The swap isn't too hard. I had mine done in a day, time wise.
 
The same thing happened to me about two nights ago. I got really upset when i opened the hood and found out it was that stupid plastic intake.. My car is at the ford dealership right now, waiting for a call.