rtpstang

I left work one morning early December (I work the overnight shift) and my rear end was dragging. I could clutch it and the car would slow down as if I had my foot on the brake. Luckily there's a Ford Quality care center right around the corner from my work not far, and I was already headed that direction.

I got out of the car at the FQCC and smelled burning brakes. (I hadn't even gone a mile.)

The guys at the Ford place were nice, they pulled my car in, "untangled the E brake cables" and "recommend you get the 2 E-brake cables replaced soon", and sent me on my way with a warning to not use the E-brake unless I have to.

This disturbed me since my 2005 Mustang had just hit it's first birthday. It wasn't supposed to be falling apart yet, and I couldn't imagine sending me off with such little information and just telling me not to use the E-brake. I bought the whole car and expect the whole car to work. I hit the Internet in search of a better answer and found this forum. More specifically I found this post: https://mustangforums.com/m_1045042/tm.htm

BTW, afixer...if you're in the triangle North Carolina area, shoot me an E-mail (isptech151@yahoo.com) and I'll buy you dinner. That PDF just saved me a lot of grief. It was still frustrating though...I'll explain.

After I found the TSB afixer posted, I was happy to know that it was just frozen and not damaged goods. I still don't use my E-brake 1/10th as much as I did when I got the car, but back to getting it fixed.

Knowing what was wrong and that there was a TSB, I set out to get the cables replaced at the same FQCC.

Timeline so far:
- Saturday morning brakes freeze and they free them. They promise to have the parts manager call me on Monday with a timeline to get the brake cables.
- Tuesday I call back (now kowing about the TSB) and ask where we were on getting brake cables. It was like I was never there on Saturday. They had no clue who I was, couldn't find any record of me being there and couldn't tell me anything about anything. Strange, but maybe I caught the new guy. I explained the story again, and he promised to set about finding some Ebrake cables for me.
- Wednesday I called back and was told they found the part numbers for my Ebrake cables (still hadn't found Saturday's invoice) and it would only cost $210 to get the cables replaced. I explained I knew there was a TSB, and that it should be covered under that and was matter-of-factly informed that they do TSB searches when they enter my car in to the system, and none came up. I asked that they order the cables knowing that I could print out the PDF and bring it with me. This was like December 6th.
- First week of January, I decided to call back and find out where we were on getting the parts. I was transferred to Wendy who is the only sane person in this FQCC. She was a wonder to work with. She said she had to back-order the parts (not unexpected after reading this forum) and would let me know when they came in.
- Second week of January I stopped by to meet Wendy in person and find out the progress on ordering the parts. They had been shipped and should be in within a week. She also looked up the TSB on the computer with me while I was standing there and said "This will not cost anything. It's covered under the manufacturers warranty." "You didn't even need to claim it under your premium care warranty since there is a TSB."
- Tuesday January 23rd Wendy calls. The parts are in. I agree to come 1/25 at 7:30 AM when they open to get the cables replaced.
- Today I went by and dropped my car off at 7:30 sharp (I don't like being late.) I hung around the neighborhood and ate breakfast with my wife. Then decided to wait back at the FQCC until the car was ready. Got back to FQCC at about 9:45.

The guy behind the counter tells me, "That'll be $100 as the deductable on your warranty please." I was ready this time. I printed the d***ed TSB out and had it in my pocket. I started by asking if Wendy was around. Of course not. I handed the guy the TSB printout and said Wendy indicated this would be completely covered under the TSB.
Sheepishly the 2 guys that had given me 2 wrong quotes stared at the TSB printout for a minute and then plugged away at the computer and made me an Invoice that said $0.

I took my car, and I've made a promise to myself to talk to Wendy and do my homework before getting any more serious work done by Ford.

I'm also trying to find out how I can tell Ford how wonderful Wendy was and how desperately they need to send a training crew to the RTP FQCC.

Thanks to the owner of this forum and afixer. You saved me $210.