Dream Car Turned Nightmare
06-17-2013, 09:37 AM
#11
Resident Ginger
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Cali
Posts: 4,624
Well OP as much as I am sure you will hate this you might have to go "Lemon Law" with your car. You have the documentation from your several trips to the dealership with the same issues not getting resolved. As much as I hate to say it you might have just gotten a bad car, it happens. Hundereds of parts, put together by humans. Just something to think about. Good luck!
Matthew
Matthew
Maybe now you can get your dream back on track
06-17-2013, 01:53 PM
#13
Gentleman's Relish
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: AZ
Posts: 13,090
Long story short, I've wanted a mustang since I was 8. I saved up for a down payment to buy a 2012 black glasstop/3.73's/6spd manual/GTCS/Electronics Pack/comfort pack. My dream car! Here's where the nightmare part starts to come in.
Here are the larger issues that I've had with the car so far:
Brakes sticking. After parking overnight I'd hop into the car and get ready to leave. Even if I was parked on a decently slanted hill, the car wouldn't start to move at all even with my foot completely off the brake. I'd have to take off in gear before the car would start to move. When it started to move, it would groan and shudder for the first maybe 50 feet then seem to be ok. It happened almost every time. It started to happen at around 1,000 miles. After 3 or 4 trips to the dealership this has finally been resolved. They said they had to resurface the rotors (because they got scored pretty heavily from the issue) and grease the caliper slides or something.
Suspension noise. Loud creaking noise when going over any sized bumps at slower speeds. When it's cold, when it's hot...doesn't matter. This started happening at around 500 miles on the car. I've been to the dealership possibly 10 times now over the course of 2 years and now my car has 25,000 miles and it's still a constant issue. Current attitude at the dealership "keep bringing it back so we can do nothing to it, waste your time and then give it back to you."
GPS/Navigation issues. This started happening at around 18,000 miles. The GPS location in my car is always off. This morning it showed me driving through a lake. A LAKE. With "breadcrumbs" mode enabled you can see that it pretty much never thinks I drive on streets. The navigation is useless because it doesn't know where I am. EVER. There's nothing I can do to correct it. Turning off the car, nope. Resetting everything, nope. I might of well just burned the $2,340 cash that the Nav System Cost. The head technician says he's been waiting to hear from Corporate Ford on what to do. He has no idea what's wrong with it and has never seen another car with this problem. He doesn't know how to proceed, but still tells me to keep bringing my car back.
Drastic decrease in power from 3k to 6k RPMs. At around 15,000 miles the car started acting very strangely under WOT. It feels like it happens in gears 1-4 the most. It has normal acceleration until around 3k RPMs and then it'd just stop pinning my against my seat. 3k used to be when it'd really hit it's power. It continues making lackluster power until it hits 6k RPMs, then it almost lurches forward until it hits red line. When on a road trip I was on the interstate and shifted to 4th gear. To get around a truck I floored it and the car started bucking. At this point the check engine light started blinking and then stayed on. I took it to the dealership and they said it was a software issue. The car feels the same and given how they've handled the issues in the past I think it's safe to say they simply turned off the light.
Due to the incompetency of the local dealerships and having to go back and forth so many friggen times, I'm considering getting a different car NOT made by Ford. Loyalty can only go so far...I'm running out of patience as it's a colossal inconvenience to me to continue driving to the dealership, then going to the rental car place (about the only thing "right" they've done is pay for the rentals) and then going back to the dealership to pick my car up. I pay for rental insurance and gas and taxes every time. Also, there was some sort of mix up between Ford and Enterprise one time as far as payment, and instead of contacting either me or Ford to collect the money, the rental company sent it to collections IN MY NAME.
I'm most likely gonna see about getting an attorney and using Lemon Law to just get rid of the thing. It'll be a sad day, but at this point I don't know what else to do.
Here are the larger issues that I've had with the car so far:
Brakes sticking. After parking overnight I'd hop into the car and get ready to leave. Even if I was parked on a decently slanted hill, the car wouldn't start to move at all even with my foot completely off the brake. I'd have to take off in gear before the car would start to move. When it started to move, it would groan and shudder for the first maybe 50 feet then seem to be ok. It happened almost every time. It started to happen at around 1,000 miles. After 3 or 4 trips to the dealership this has finally been resolved. They said they had to resurface the rotors (because they got scored pretty heavily from the issue) and grease the caliper slides or something.
Suspension noise. Loud creaking noise when going over any sized bumps at slower speeds. When it's cold, when it's hot...doesn't matter. This started happening at around 500 miles on the car. I've been to the dealership possibly 10 times now over the course of 2 years and now my car has 25,000 miles and it's still a constant issue. Current attitude at the dealership "keep bringing it back so we can do nothing to it, waste your time and then give it back to you."
GPS/Navigation issues. This started happening at around 18,000 miles. The GPS location in my car is always off. This morning it showed me driving through a lake. A LAKE. With "breadcrumbs" mode enabled you can see that it pretty much never thinks I drive on streets. The navigation is useless because it doesn't know where I am. EVER. There's nothing I can do to correct it. Turning off the car, nope. Resetting everything, nope. I might of well just burned the $2,340 cash that the Nav System Cost. The head technician says he's been waiting to hear from Corporate Ford on what to do. He has no idea what's wrong with it and has never seen another car with this problem. He doesn't know how to proceed, but still tells me to keep bringing my car back.
Drastic decrease in power from 3k to 6k RPMs. At around 15,000 miles the car started acting very strangely under WOT. It feels like it happens in gears 1-4 the most. It has normal acceleration until around 3k RPMs and then it'd just stop pinning my against my seat. 3k used to be when it'd really hit it's power. It continues making lackluster power until it hits 6k RPMs, then it almost lurches forward until it hits red line. When on a road trip I was on the interstate and shifted to 4th gear. To get around a truck I floored it and the car started bucking. At this point the check engine light started blinking and then stayed on. I took it to the dealership and they said it was a software issue. The car feels the same and given how they've handled the issues in the past I think it's safe to say they simply turned off the light.
Due to the incompetency of the local dealerships and having to go back and forth so many friggen times, I'm considering getting a different car NOT made by Ford. Loyalty can only go so far...I'm running out of patience as it's a colossal inconvenience to me to continue driving to the dealership, then going to the rental car place (about the only thing "right" they've done is pay for the rentals) and then going back to the dealership to pick my car up. I pay for rental insurance and gas and taxes every time. Also, there was some sort of mix up between Ford and Enterprise one time as far as payment, and instead of contacting either me or Ford to collect the money, the rental company sent it to collections IN MY NAME.
I'm most likely gonna see about getting an attorney and using Lemon Law to just get rid of the thing. It'll be a sad day, but at this point I don't know what else to do.
Having said that, why o why do you keep going back to the same dealershipif they're that incompetent/flippant??? Find another dealer and if they can't get it right, then your attitude is justified. You can't expect a different outcome if you keep doing the same thing.
If there is more than one within a reasonable radius from you, go to a different one. There is one in the Phoenix valley I will NEVER go to EVER for anything and I always tell other people to stay away whenever I hear the name mentioned or whenever I'm asked of where they should go.
Then there's the one I frequent. They knew of my bad experience with the other dealership and have alawys taken care of me and my family's fords, first time, every time. No fussing or anxiety as to whether they'll do what they're supposed to do or take responsibility for an oversight of theirs.
06-17-2013, 02:30 PM
#14
6th Gear Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Southeast Virginia
Posts: 6,409
I really hope you can get it resolved. It sucks having spent all those years saving and dreaming of owning such a car only to have headaches. It does sound like you got the Lemon out of the bunch. Best of luck and keep us posted.
06-17-2013, 05:56 PM
#17
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 2,307
I know there can be night/day difference between dealers. I would have gone to another dealer much sooner. Going a tad further cant be more of an inconvenience than returning to same dealer over and over. 
The dealership where I bought my stang will NEVER touch it again. New Country Ford
in Saratoga is THE worst dealership I have ever been to, for any manufactuer. They have actually damaged my stang & work van while having it there for service. I take my FORDs to CARMODY FORD in Greenwich. They always get it right & treat me like I matter, unlike New Country.
GL, hope you get it resolved soon. I know it sucks when you have issues.
The dealership where I bought my stang will NEVER touch it again. New Country Ford
in Saratoga is THE worst dealership I have ever been to, for any manufactuer. They have actually damaged my stang & work van while having it there for service. I take my FORDs to CARMODY FORD in Greenwich. They always get it right & treat me like I matter, unlike New Country.GL, hope you get it resolved soon. I know it sucks when you have issues.
06-17-2013, 06:04 PM
#18
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Washington
Posts: 389
Try this!
Hoodlum54, Try this neutral, start up, push-in clutch, Three buttons on the center consul. Traction Control, hold it, on the center screen you'll see first "Traction Control Off", continue holding until you see "Advance Track Off".
Now see if you still have those problems.
That PCM trick won't work if you're just reseting the same flawed codes. During the production runs PCM codes were programed into the cars on the assemble line. As the engineers developed fixes to bugs, they could update the PCM codes, but cars that were gone were gone. That's why every Mustang has a PCM code number on a sticker on the electrical box under the hood. You know the one they want to sell you a chrome cover for. The reason to even have it is because there're different codes throughout the production run, otherwise they wouldn't need it at all, would they now?
I'm going to guess your VIN# would put your car as an early production run.
You might ask the dealer to update your PCM. Know this, Ford sells new cars. They have no incentive to waste resources to up-date tunes for old Fords. SCT/BAMA/Brennsport they do have an incentive.
One option is to get the Ford PRO CAL Tuner ($400-450) at the Dealer, they will ask for your PCM code, get it off the sticker on the elect box. The dealer told me after I was done with it to toss it because Fords never going to upgrade,
makes sense for what I said above - but what if I upgrade to a FR S/C? a blue box Pro Cal comes with that???
Good luck and let us know if this fixes it. If you drive with both track and advance track off remember it resets at each engine start so you'll have to kill it every start and if it rains don't get "crazy with the cheese whiz" or you may end up on the side-walk! I just went with an SCT 92 tune on a 2013 GT/CS 5.0 with a Boss intake and had it checked and custom tuned on a Dyno with Mustang specific race pro's and that thing screams after 60, **** my warranty.
Good luck.
Now see if you still have those problems.
That PCM trick won't work if you're just reseting the same flawed codes. During the production runs PCM codes were programed into the cars on the assemble line. As the engineers developed fixes to bugs, they could update the PCM codes, but cars that were gone were gone. That's why every Mustang has a PCM code number on a sticker on the electrical box under the hood. You know the one they want to sell you a chrome cover for. The reason to even have it is because there're different codes throughout the production run, otherwise they wouldn't need it at all, would they now?
I'm going to guess your VIN# would put your car as an early production run.
You might ask the dealer to update your PCM. Know this, Ford sells new cars. They have no incentive to waste resources to up-date tunes for old Fords. SCT/BAMA/Brennsport they do have an incentive.
One option is to get the Ford PRO CAL Tuner ($400-450) at the Dealer, they will ask for your PCM code, get it off the sticker on the elect box. The dealer told me after I was done with it to toss it because Fords never going to upgrade,
makes sense for what I said above - but what if I upgrade to a FR S/C? a blue box Pro Cal comes with that???
Good luck and let us know if this fixes it. If you drive with both track and advance track off remember it resets at each engine start so you'll have to kill it every start and if it rains don't get "crazy with the cheese whiz" or you may end up on the side-walk! I just went with an SCT 92 tune on a 2013 GT/CS 5.0 with a Boss intake and had it checked and custom tuned on a Dyno with Mustang specific race pro's and that thing screams after 60, **** my warranty.
Good luck.
Last edited by VistaBlueFrank68; 06-17-2013 at 06:08 PM.
06-18-2013, 12:43 PM
#19
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Florida
Posts: 14
I purchased my 2013 Gt back in January of 2013. For the first month the car was in the shop for 24 days out of 31 for the 'Check Engine' light coming during normal and spirited driving, code was the generic misfire code. Cylinders 4 and 8 were misfiring. The service tech tried several fixes that the Ford Engineers suggested before finally solving the problem. He replaced the crank shaft sensor and I have had zero issues since then. 'KNOCK ON WOOD.'
I do not know if this will help here but it is an option for you to give to the Ford Technician.
I do not know if this will help here but it is an option for you to give to the Ford Technician.
06-18-2013, 01:34 PM
#20
Former Sponsor
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: FL
Posts: 630
My 5.0s check engine light has also been coming on for "cylinder misfire" during spirited driving. Usually it just blinks for like 30 seconds or a minute and i have like 1/4 my usual power and then goes away like yours, once it stayed on and ford said they "updated the software". Well it just blinked for 30 secs again yesterday during some spirited driving after their "software update" so its safe to say that didnt fix it.
Not sure what im going to do.. Maybe a tuner would fix whatever issue the stock tune has with spirited driving?
Not sure what im going to do.. Maybe a tuner would fix whatever issue the stock tune has with spirited driving?
