Question for Ford service dept. people

[Knocker69]

It's been a while since I posted here. I apologize, but I am hoping that one of you can give me a bit of insight to an annoying problem that I have with my car?

I have an '03 GT with approx 41,000 miles on it. At 20,576 miles I brought my car into a Ford Dealer and had the multi-function switch that controls the wipers, turnsignals, etc. replaced under warranty because the windshield washers would only intermittenly work (Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't). That solved the problem and I've been quite happy until recently. One day I was riding down the road, put on my turn signal and my wipers turned on, did a couple of swipes and turned off. It's done it several times since, but not all the time.

I called the dealer I took it to and they told me replacement parts are only covered for 12 months or 12,000 miles. My question is, do I have any recourse with Ford to get this item covered again, or am I stuck having to buy a new multi-function switch every 20K miles?

Thanks in advance -NB

 

[tjm73]

Unfortunatly you are out of the warrenty period. Ford won't cover it. On the upside that switch only costs the dealer about $36 bucks. How do I know? My father is a Ford dealer and I just bought one at cost to fix the turn signal not working. If yours went bad at 20 some thou and then again 20 some thou later, I'd be inclined to think something else is going on to cause it.

 

[propellerhead]

Sometimes it easier to just replace it yourself than try to fight with a dealer.

 

[tjm73]

Sometimes it easier to just replace it yourself than try to fight with a dealer.

If you tackle this yourself, be sure to disconnect the battery and let it for a while before you change the switch. I am told the steering wheel has to coem off and if you accidentily discharge the air bag you will A.) probably hurt yourself and B.) cost yourself a fair ammount of money since you now need an airbag and just went to the emergency room.

The force they have is ammazing. I saw a video once where an airbag as set off laying on the ground. It shot straight up with quite a hang time. I think they said they thought it went like 100 feet up. Took off like a model rocket. Crazy.

 

[Knocker69]

Unfortunatly you are out of the warrenty period. Ford won't cover it. On the upside that switch only costs the dealer about $36 bucks. How do I know? My father is a Ford dealer and I just bought one at cost to fix the turn signal not working. If yours went bad at 20 some thou and then again 20 some thou later, I'd be inclined to think something else is going on to cause it.

Hey thanks. I figured that I'm going to have to pay for it, but it's just annoying as hell that this is the second one in 40K miles. Also typical that the ****er started going bad just after the warranty expired. Oh well. Good news is I didn't know that they were that cheap (guess that's why they only last for 20K miles).

 

[USMstang]

I had this happen on my 99 Explorer. They replaced a relay or something but not the switch. It never gave me anymore problems after that. This is also apparently a quite common problem in many Ford models, maybe someone will recall the name of the part...

 

[USMstang]

It's the GEM module! Lights, wipers, horn, washers, etc.
According to my Ford Service Mgr. friend, this is as likely a culprit as the switch itself! Good luck.

 

[CManT1914]

Common problem I suppose. Mine went out too, but at least it lasted until 90k. I'm now at 115k and the replacement still works fine. I guess that's thanks to the fact that I never use my blinker or my wipers! (rain-x is awesome!)