Hamhole

Here's a mildly amusing little story, just thought I'd share my recent dealership experience.

Ever since the installation of my Edelbrock E-force supercharger, I'd get a CHECK FUEL FILL INLET message on my dash every month or so. It didn't cause any problems except that eventually it would trigger a CEL with code P0445 (Evaporative Emission Control System Purge Control Valve Circuit Shorted).

I had my dealership check it out three times, thinking it was some factory crap that let loose in the rear of the car. First, they installed a locking gas cap. Then they replaced a butterfly valve. The third time they actually found a loose hose hiding underneath the Edelbrock wire covers on the driver's side. In all the times I've been under the hood, I never saw this hose before. Naturally, because there was a supercharger under the hood, the dealership left the hose hanging. I asked to see the hose, which turned out to be the EVAP hose that recycles exhaust emissions back into the intake manifold. I thanked them for their bumbling ineptitude and left.

Back home, I peered inside with a flashlight and saw that the EVAP hose hookup on the supercharger still had the rubber protector on it from the factory. Looks like the guy who installed the blower forgot to take it off and plug the EVAP hose into it. So I pulled off the rubber protector and attached the EVAP hose to it as per the very detailed Edelbrock installation instructions. A monkey could do it.

Now on the one hand, I can't fault the dealership for avoiding the supercharger altogether. However, you'd think Ford would just plug the damned hose in instead of leaving it hanging. It's not like it was difficult or inaccessible. I had no trouble plugging it in myself.

Strange?

Nuke

Only strange if you return to that dealership. Glad you resolved the issue.

SpartaPerformance

Did you call the guy that installed the blower and thank him for his bumbling ineptitude and inform him that a monkey just installed that hose properly?

Bmr4life

Seriously. I see no fault in the dealer not fixing this super silly problem.

Say FORD had connected it and then something went wrong with your engine down the line. If your SC installer could miss something so simple, what else could they have screwed up.

I wouldn't have accepted that responsibility either. You should be thanking FORD for finding something you and your installer missed.

SpartaPerformance

Exactly my point! You can call the dealer dumba$$'s but not the guy who took your money and forgot to install the "simple" hose. As a service writer at a dealer I wouldn't have even brought your car in, be glad they were willing to.

ShaneM

that's what irritates me about dealers though, a blower under the hood does not mean the problem the owner is having is related. not taking the car because of a supercharger is certainly not going to get a dealer my business in the future. case in point, i have a ford dealer 5 miles away that i have bought three cars from in my life. they were douche bags on one attempted car buy and then again on service with my blown 10 and the last three new fords i bought I drove 2 hours to get rather than give them my business.

i guess it works both ways, the dealer wont honor what might be a simple ford warranty issue because of a blower (which is exactly what it was in my case, a simple tranny sensor not related to the blower in the least), the next time i needed a new car for the wife, the $40k sale on teh SUV they didn't get and i bought my boss elsewhere. i have also cost them several sales from friends looking for cars. i guess what i am saying is don't be such a hard *** lol, be sure whatever is wrong is actually caused by the blower otherwise you are doing nothing but hurting you company in the long run.

Mikes_BLK_GT

In the event it was one of the factory SC's like the Roush m90 or the Saleen then I'd expect them to connect the line maybe. With a kb or an Edlebrock or even the Roush TVS not so much. For one the installer botched the install not the dealer and their techs aint trained to work on modified engines and SC's are not always plug and play. I had to do an awful lot of soldering for "plug and play" on my TVS. The dealership techs are trained and expected to work on stock cars if they want to refuse service on a modified car that's their business.

SpartaPerformance

Exactly. There are no Ford classes for performance upgrades so dealer techs don't get trained. They don't know what to look for, or to begins where to pinpoint for issues. It's not that easy especially when most customer think diagnosing a car is as easy as going to Autozone and getting codes pulled for free.

ShaneM

im not suggesting they should have fixed the car, i can understand not fixing something clearly not factory and covered by the warranty. i was speaking more to sparta saying he would not have even let the car come in and pointing out the consequences of that for a dealer since they would have no idea what was wrong with the car until they looked. if it was clearly related to the blower that is one thing, but to say no its gotta supercharger we wont even look is another thing altogether.

Hamhole

I did have a throttle position sensor go bad a month prior and Ford totally refused to look at it because, naturally, it was attached to the Edelbrock throttle body. Again, I can see the dealership not wanting to touch that—and yet it was a stock part. I brought the car to the guy who installed the S/C and he replaced the TPS with a part from that dealership's own parts bin. Problem solved, just not under warranty.