UrS4

Long story short, to get up to speed you can check out my two other posts about a clunk in the right front that is clanging over every bump now and the rear end wiggle threads.

Cliff notes: Pinion seal leak, wiggle from the rear when coming off the throttle and loud clunk/clang from the right front. Mods in Sig.

So I dropped my car off at a Ford dealer near my work in the Central Valley in CA last thursday and have been in a rental car. When I dropped it off I told the Service manager everything that has been down and wrote down the specific concerns. They looked at it on Monday and Tuesday but didn't call me. I called them today, and their response was say your car is too modified so we won't be able to work on it, so its ready to be picked up whenever. They said I have a pinion seal leak and that it would need a new seal and new flange ($389) and I have a problem with the rear central tunnel system (??). Since the car has been modified with rear LCAs and a one piece DS they will not even fix the leak and think it is stable enough to drive indefinitely. They would not even look at the front.

I asked if the rear central tunnel system was the rear UCA and the service manager didn't know what I was talking about and said it is the piece that holds the diff to the chassis. He said they will not open this can of worms as it will end up being them replacing everything back to stock for free to find the problem and they will not do that. He said I should take it to a performance shop but said he knew of none in the area.

I'm at a loss here. I got upset about their lack of timely communication as I had been paying for a rental this whole time and that when I told him the car was modified when I brought it in he could have said sorry we don't work on modified cars, instead on thursday he said they had a couple of modded shelbys getting work done.

So, what advice do you guys have, I can't fix the leak by myself.

Anyone know of a good way to find a mustang or suspension performance shop in the east bay in northern california? Should I just call around to independent shops and see if they will work on the car? I would think they would charge me a diagnostic fee even if I tell them about the leak and bad seal.

I need some help guys, thanks.

jz78817

find an independent shop which does suspension work. dealer techs are trained to work on factory cars. you've basically replaced your entire suspension with aftermarket parts, therefore you've taken it into your own hands to fix it if something breaks. expecting a dealer to know what to do with it is unreasonable.

Norm Peterson

I find it difficult to believe that they couldn't tell you one way or the other whether that "rear central tunnel system" was the UCA or not - it's a simple enough question. A visual check once the car is up on a lift can determine whether the UCA bushings have deteriorated (which short of an actual crack in the metal or loose UCA bracket fasteners is about all that can go wrong with a UCA).

They apparently suspect wear on the pinion shaft where it passes through the seal, otherwise a seal replacement wouldn't involve any more work than replacing it. Which I hope they'd be willing to tackle, else I wouldn't have them touch most anything else mechanical on the car.


Norm

movielover40

I would look for a body shop. Most body shops around me know more than dealerships about underneath a car.

UrS4

I disagree, the service manager bragged when I first brought the car in about the shelby's they were working on. The gears, driveshaft, headers, front control arms, alignment, and tie rods were all installed by a Ford dealer.

Currently that is what they suspect is where the problems are coming from, the diff and the front lower control arms. The rear UCA is stock. If a tech can tell you which stock part needs to be replaced they can go through the same algorithm to find a worn out aftermarket part.

UrS4

I didn't understand it as well Norm, he put me on hold twice to talk to the tech to figure it out and said its the part that connects the diff to the chassis. I asked why they wouldn't replace the pinion seal and flange and I can only guess it was because they thought the pinion angle would be off and if it failed again within a year or 12K they would be on the hook. I have talked with Steeda and they think that with the 1-1.25inch drop from their ultralites, the pinion angle would not be affected enough to cause a deliberate fail of the pinion seal other than just normal wear and tear on a 97K mile car.

Norm Peterson

The factory shop manual calls that thing "4 5K671 Upper arm assembly". Kinda scary if swapping the FSM word "assembly" for the common-conversation "control" confuses them that badly . . .


I think the pinion angle would change by about a degree (becoming more), when with the firmer-bushed aftermarket LCAs what you want is less. But that's still mainly a U-joint problem.


Norm

PNYXPRESS

This was the problem. Who wants to work on a regular GT after working on several highly modified shelbys.

jz78817

... the Shelbys are still factory cars...?

UrS4

Sure they are factory cars but they were modifying the shelby's they had there.

The front control arms I have a OEM 2007-2009 GT500 front LCAs, that is a factory part. The rear UCA is a stock part. The rear differential is stock, the 4.10s are Ford racing performance parts. Ford offers plenty of Ford Racing performance packs on their website. Plenty of Ford dealerships are Steeda and Shelby installation centers.

So I fail to see how Ford can manufacture parts, performance parts, partner with companies that have worked specifically with Ford for decades, and turn around and say your car is modified so we are incapable to figuring out what is wrong and how to fix it.