visit to my friendly Ford dealer

[justjon]

Now first off .. I like my dealer. i get great oil changes for under $30.00 with breakfast or lunch depending when I come in (they have an in house snack bar -it's a big dealership). I bought my Michelins there cheaper then Costco or AmericasTire.
My Bird flashed the dreaded orange engine light within a mile of my dealer when i was 18 miles from home. running fine, Ok, has been missing a little for awhile, so I pulled in. Service guy said light meant a problem with emissions."Want to leave it?" .. well no ... "you can ruin your Catalytic converters if gas is dumping into the exhast" "Cops are $110 apiece $340 installed" " "or somrething else?" ... Your right ,wish i had ESP. Drove it home .. on to my indy guy in the morning.. I sent his kid through grag school when I had my Allante .. the beat goes on.. i do love this car.

[justjon]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

My mechanic said he can't diagnose for sure, head gasget maybe, bad plug. The car is running great now. Did throw a misfire code on #6. So much hastle to exchange cops to see if it is bad, we just buttoned it up and erased the code. I'll drive it for a while and see what happens...

[Rondor]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

If it's like anything else in todays world it may have just neede re-booting (-:

[DavidA]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

It is almost for sure the #6 cop. If you decide to change it .. DO ALL OF THEM!!! Same labor charge and once 1 goes out the others will follow soon after. Also, make sure you change the plugs too.

[5bird7]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

Well, David, some of these dealers have been known to charge labor costs for each coil. Such a shame as once those two coil covers are off, changing one or more is as fast as changing the spark plugs.

[justjon]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

Ford quoted me 125 per cop parts and 340 installed. My indy mechanic said 92 for the part 180 installed. Your right that the installation for all of them is not much more then for one but 8x92=736 plus 150 installation is 886 plus 75 in tax plus 8 spark plugs were looking like $1000. But at ford that would just buy the cops pluss $100 tax plus plugs and install. Yes, we pay ten and a half percent sales tax, we have nice roads. Has there been a poll of which cylinders go out first? there must be some pattern? put me down for 6 i guess.

[94mcd]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

I recently had a COP go out. The Ford dealer price was $218 for the Cop and plug including labor and tax for one COP. Of course I did not pay anything because of the 100,000 mile warranty. Sounds like we have dealers ripping people off.

[Will]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

I picked my Retro up from the Ford dealer/shop yesterday. Cylinder #8 had thrown a code 3 a few weeks back when I took it in for a diagnosis. They changed out #8 COP yesterday. Their charge: $0.00. I gave them 2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies as a 'thank you' because they gave me a metal sign I had admired on their shwroom wall over the past few years. It shows an '02 IY & says "A legend reborn." I'll bring the sign to the next TBN event. Look but don't touch.

[MATBird]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

Will, please post a picture for us. We all cannot make that trip,

[V8 Cat]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

Will,
I'll bet it is this sign.

[Ol'Dave]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

"...Sounds like we have dealers ripping people off."

Not really. His is an 02. Only year NOT covered. Dealer's are suppose to go by a book for the hr.s they can charge X whatever their current shop rate is.

$1,000. for all 8, out the door. I'd do it.

[2K2BIRD]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

I recently had a COP go out. The Ford dealer price was $218 for the Cop and plug including labor and tax for one COP. Of course I did not pay anything because of the 100,000 mile warranty. Sounds like we have dealers ripping people off.

Pat,

Do you know if this was the retail price or the price the dealer charged back to FORD for the warranty work?

If it was the retail price, then that is as cheap as I've ever heard a dealer doing it. If it was the charge back price then I can see where the retail price could be over $300 considering mark-up on parts and labor costs in some areas.


Jon,

You might want consider doing what I did. If you only have one bad COP just do that bank while it is open. If a COP goes out on the other side later on, have them do that whole side while it is open. Cuts down on the out of pocket expenses at one time. There seems to be no rhyme or reason on how long these things last so it could be months or years between doing the sides.

[Will]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

Will, please post a picture for us. We all cannot make that trip,

That's precisely my new sign in post #10. Check it out. ---Will

[94mcd]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

Paul, I don't know whether it was retail or not but when he told me the price was $218 he stated it was not covered by ESP. When I disputed his finding, he looked again on the print out and found it was covered by ESP and I then explained about the 100,000 mile warranty which he did not know about so I was not charged. This is a small Ford dealership and I might be the only Thunderbird they work on. I also have become a friend of the main mechanic who is also a NASCAR and Bill Elliott fan. So any time I take my cars to that dealership, he always works on my cars.

[2K2BIRD]

Re: visit to my friendly Ford dealer

Sounds like a good dealership. Considering what an OEM COP and spark plug cost at a dealership, the labor cost doesn't seem too bad compared to most.