warranty voided?

[blackfang]

Yes, they may have told you to bring it in and may have said "yes" it can be covered under warranty which it can be if the headers and intake did not cause the failure

In case you didn't read the other posts

MAC Longtube headers have and do cause oil consumption issues

This is what they are going off of and going by regarding not covering the warranty. The question at hand is how did they diagnose the vehicle.

 

[oxfordgt]

the car was sent there because of a ticking sound in the front of the engine and not oil consumption. I understand the oil consumption problem with the mac headers but I deleted the egr and cleaned them to prevent it from happining. I am pretty sure it is a bad valve seal cause the car sat for 8 months and the oil consumption is to bad to be from the mac headers it burned 4 qts in just 4 days. Most people with this problem from the headers burn maybe a qt pre oil change.

 

[blackfang]

the car was sent there because of a ticking sound in the front of the engine and not oil consumption.

Ok and what caused this? A lack of oil as you stated oil consuption in the original post.

I understand the oil consumption problem with the mac headers but I deleted the egr and cleaned them to prevent it from happining.

Do not tell them you did that.

I am pretty sure it is a bad valve seal cause the car sat for 8 months and the oil consumption is to bad to be from the mac headers it burned 4 qts in just 4 days. Most people with this problem from the headers burn maybe a qt pre oil change.

Yes, but some have had engine go south because the Mac's ruined the valve stem seal because it pulled oil through it. So you are not an exception.A Valve stem seal doesn't go bad by sitting there. Something internally had to cause it to fail and a non running motor wouldnt.

 

[streetstang03]

all stealerships suck ass

 

[blackfang]

Yeah, lets blame all of them. Make it that much easier because we can't fathom the fact that putting on an aftermarket part might cause our ***** to break.

Just to prove it wrong, I have had warranty work on my old Cobra(Ford in NJ) and it had LT's, full exhaust, gears, shifter, pullies, etc and had my rear hubs and bearing replaced under warranty. Yeah they all suck

 

[oxfordgt]

Ok I'm not hear to argue with you. You may be right and the headers caused all of this. I plan on taking the heads off to inspect the shortblock and install new springs, seals, titanium seats and locks, and throw in a couple of vt stage II cams. If I replace all of this do you think the headers will cause the same problem with the new seals?

I think the ticking is the driver side timing chain guide tentioner that died when the oil level droped.

I mac headers causes the valve seals to leak by pulling the oil through wouldn't all LT headers do that?

There is smoke at start up which means the seals leak while sitting do the headers just destroy the seals?

 

[blackfang]

Ok I'm not hear to argue with you. You may be right and the headers caused all of this. I plan on taking the heads off to inspect the shortblock and install new springs, seals, titanium seats and locks, and throw in a couple of vt stage II cams. If I replace all of this do you think the headers will cause the same problem with the new seals?

I am not here to argue either, but this entire thread is just that. You can take it for however you want. Mike, myself and some other offered some info for you. You also have alot of people just yapping away to jump on the bandwagon and never turned a wrench for a repair shop, let alone a dealership to even know how it is.

Will it happen again, possible if you keep the headers, but it is hard to say since you have upgraded the top end.

I think the ticking is the driver side timing chain guide tentioner that died when the oil level droped.

I mac headers causes the valve seals to leak by pulling the oil through wouldn't all LT headers do that?

There is smoke at start up which means the seals leak while sitting do the headers just destroy the seals?

Not all LT's do this. Mac has had some quality issues with them. That is why with 2 cobras I never got Mac LT's. I went with other brands that didn't have those issue. Look at the posts in here, that speaks for itself regarding Mac LT's.

 

[thomas91169]

moral of the story?

if you have a warranty, dont mod the car to the extent the mods cant be removed within an hour(IE headers, power adders, etc). boltons like intakes, pullies, plenum/tb's, x/h pipes can all be reversed easily.

second moral of the story.

if youre half a world away, and think towing a modded car in for warranty work is a good idea, you got something else coming.

third moral of the story.

if you buy a mustang and know youre gonna do **** to it, steer clear of the warranty. the warranty is there to fix a stock car, not a modded one. alot of us screw the system by going back to stock when something major happens, but if youre half a world away, kinda hard to do that. IMO you should have just waited till you got home, and not had your wife deal with all this bull****.

 

[Uncle Meat]

4th moral of the story.... hit up the forums first and ask what mods people are running. I'll bet if you had come here first and stated you were going to put MAC LT's on the car someone would have warned you of the potential danger these headers represent. At the very minimum someone would have warned you to ensure all the welding slag was cleaned out of them before installation was performed. Not saying emphatically this is what caused your current problems....

U.M.

 

[Mike97gt]

all stealerships suck ass

 

[Mike97gt]

They knew everything that had been done to my car. I called down there and talked to them. I told them my mod list and made sure they knew that I had headers and full intake. They even ran my vin to check if warranty was good. Then the guy I talked to checked with the service manager and he said no problem they can still fix it under warranty even with the mods and they only thing I would have to pay for would be new exhaust gaskets.

I am not not mad that they voided my warranty so much as I am now out the money for the tow there which is $200 and now I have to pay the same to tow it back. The least they could do for lying to me is pay for the tow back.

I had my dad call and ask them if they did a compression check and they said no. He asked how they came to the conclusion that it has a dead cyl and they couldnt give him an answer. Which proves they never looked at the car. So now I am going to be out $400 and I still done know what is wrong.

That is why I will cause bad publicity for their dealership.

I am sorry to hear that you were told that. BUT any writer that has working in the buisness for more than 2 seconds should know better than that.

It just seems really funny he would tell you that your covered with mods, unless he did not understand what your mods were. Some of the writers are not very knowledgeable about stuff like long tube headers and other mods, in fact I would bet many of them never heard of them.

The reason I find it ODD that he told you the mods don't matter is because, he is the one that has to break it to you when your not covered. So why the hell would he set himself up for a argument.

99 percent of writers would have probally advised you that mods can void parts of your warrenty and to be sure a tech would have to look at the car.

I don't think this writer tried to rip you off, I think either he was not knowledgeable in modifications and the effects of them. Or he is just a awfull writer. Still I think they handled this whole thing wrong, I would not go back to them again.

EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT

Three: Update I emailed the dealer and the only thing I got out of it was the service manager called my wife and said he wanted money to tow the car back and he still doesn't know what is wrong with it. I told my wife to tell him we dont have the money to tow it back right now and when I go back I will go down there. I will make a huge show there and try to get a reporter to go with me. I will also be bringing a bunch of friends there who will walk around the lot and advise people not to buy a car there and give them other dealerships cards. I have had it with this dealer and all I asked for was to know what is wrong with the car and to send it back, simple request I think.

This might get you arrested. I have seen a guy get arrested for doing that. AS soon as you and your buddies tell one person to buy elsewhere the first thing they will do is ask you to leave and then call the cops at the same time. if your on the lot when those cop get there then your probally goign to be leaving with them.

Do you really honestly think it's right to mess with some salespersons livelyhood because of ford warrenty policy.

Plus why would the reporter go with you.. your car is modded, there is no fraud here or any reason for a reporter to get involved. Ford warrenty is very damm clear about this. This has been to court MANY MANY times and the manufactuer wins in these cases.

just get your car and bring it someplace else.

 

[Mike97gt]

The same reason one cop does not give another cop, fireman, ambulance driver, etc a ticket....RESPECT. If it was not for him being a servicemen, then he would have been here to handle the problem himself. The fact he is risking his life for all of us, he deserves a little more respect then ignored phone calls, refused meetings, etc.

IMO, Ford will try to screw ANYONE out of money if they can get away with it, from the salesman to the service tech. Each dealer is a sole operated business and they are in business to make MONEY. The bad ones don't care if they loose a customer now a days. All they care about is the balance sheet. (The bad dealers that is, I have had some dealers go WAY out of their way to help me, but that is RARE RARE RARE to find).

~K

IMO, Ford will try to screw ANYONE out of money if they can get away with it, from the salesman to the service tech.

I take serious issue with this. I am a ford service tech my self as I am sure you already know. I spend many hours of my personal time on here trying to help out with providing free diag help, access to service manuals and warrenty history and I am on staff of this site. In fact right now I am working on a way to make a searchable database for each engine light code.


So please any member reading this if I have tried to screw you speak up.

Your right about the dealers in buisness to make money.. What is the company you work for in buisness to do LOOSE money?????? If so I would start lookign for a new job. Sure many dealers and private repair shop do screw peopel sometimes, and yes some techs do rip people off but to lump all of us in there is wrong.

BTW the thing about your frame getting twisted. They probally took the subframe connecters off so it could be driven on the alignment rack, mustang are HARD to get on many alignment racks. They have to get the car up there one way or another and the tech chose that way.

How the hell was he supposed to know that your car was in a accident and that aftermarket subframe connectors were the only thing holding your car square???

as far as lifting your motor off the mounts I doubt they did that. NO tech is going to waste his time unpaid to jack your motor up just for ****s and giggles.

Ohh I forgot one last thing.. FORD did not do a thing to your car other than build it and pay for warrenty work. A ford dealer dealer worked on it. Dealers are not part of Ford motor company.


MAN this is why I would never work as a writer.

 

[blackfang]

Mike you hit it on the head again. Sometimes I wonder why I stopped being an Apprentice tech to become a writer. However the stories on stagnet are so comical and farfetched I should read them to our little one.

 

[GT-03]

For any of you that are having the same problem or are affraid to bring your car to the dealer because of aftermarket parts click the link below.

http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=60128

Fortunately, that link only gives you about 1/2 of the law; the The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

Of course, since that site supports aftermarket part suppliers, it focuses just on the part of the law which favors them, and pretends the rest of the law doesn't exist. IMHO, that is pretty irresponsible.

There is another part of the same law, which favors manufacturers. It allows them to completely, 100%, void the warranty if there is any sign of abuse. Not just the warranty directly associated with the part, but the entire warranty. What's is a sign of abuse? For our discussion here, such a sign can be the installation of any high performance part. The theory is, if you install high performance parts, you must be making use them. Of course, if it went to trail, you could try to convince a judge that you have never done such (made any use of the high performance parts you installed), but good luck.

Of course, all of this depends on your dealer and their service department. They can simply overlook any mods you made, and not affect your warranty at all. Or, they can note your mods into the manufacturer's database, and have your warranty voided. So, it always pays to be real nice to whomever to talk with, at the dealer.