- The button on the dash for popping the hatch didn't work.
- The CD changer was having problems.
- The suspension was making noises. Of course, having put new tires on it the week before and finding a piece of the coil spring hanging in down from the spring itself probably did nothing to help this issue.
- There was an additional issue this time. Leaking antifreeze.
I took the car in last Wednesday. Ford diagnosed the car.
As I have an extended warranty which was purchased form the Ford dealer when the car was purchased, they contacted the extended warranty company, who wanted to send an adjuster out to have a look at it. They had to have the car for the adjuster to see. They said the adjuster usually shows up within 48 hours, so I left the car. The warranty company said they would cover everything (excluding the deductable).
It ended up being Monday before Ford ordered the parts.
Ford said they would replace the switch for popping the hatch.
They would swap out the stereo, which has been done once before, and another time they sent it off to be worked on.
They were ordering a spring to replace the broken one.
And they said the antifreeze was leaking from the thermostat housing. While they had it apart they asked if I wanted them to go ahead and put in a new thermostat, not covered. As it was $16, I said to go ahead, as I didn't want to be overheating in a week and have them blaming it on the old thermostat.
They said they would have the car done yesterday, but late yesterday they said they were not done that it would be today. They called over the lunch hour today to say they had it ready.
I ended up taking off of work early so my wife would not have to make a trip back to get me from work, as she gets out of work earlier than I do and we pass Ford on the way home. She dropped me off and headed on home. They brought the car around and I jumped in and pointed towards home. I got a block away and realized the CD player did not have all of the CDs in it, and while doing so, noticed on both sides of the stereo there were big marks on both sides of the facia. Not sure who took it out, but they messed it up big time. Even had some marks on the dash. I made a U-turn and headed back. I pulled into the service entrance and got out of the car. I had not tried popping the hatch and did so when getting out. Of course, it did not work. I waited for a few minutes before a service advisor asked if they could help me. I took them over to the car and showed them that the hatch would not pop and that the dash was messed up.
This individual went back and got the service dispatcher, who took a look. He could see the dash was messed up around the stereo and after trying to pop the hatch asked for the key and turned it on then tried to pop it. Still nothing. He had a technician come out. He watched the service dispatcher try to pop it while he tried pulling up on the hatch and listening for it to pop. He said that he tried it 100 times and it had worked everytime. Hmmm. Anyway, the service dispatcher said that the technician said some of the marks were already there around the stereo. If there were any from before they were not noticable. Hmm, seems to kind of imply that I am lying about it or something, and even if there would have been some before, it would still mean that their staff did it during a previous incident, so what a great response. What they had done was extremely evident. Basically leaving a gap in spots of the fascia on both sides of the stereo. They have taken the stereo out twice before without incident.
Anyway, the service dispatcher said that they would order a new fascia to take care of that issue and I would have to bring it back when the part came in for it, then sent the car back with the technician for them to work on the hatch release. After waiting around a while he came and said that they would go ahead and send me home with the car rather than have to continue to wait and then have me drop it back off first thing in the morning. I told them that didn't save me any effort, I would just leave it and have my wife come get me tonight. He said they would continue to work on the latch until close and have it in there first thing in the morning. He said they would get the fascia in tomorrow as well. We'll see what they end up doing this time. Tomorrow will be a week since taking it in. I have not looked under the hood, or gotten to drive it enough to see if the suspension noise is gone. I guess I'll see if they had any luck with those items, if I actually get the car back at some point.
On another note the new gas mileage numbers are still better than what I have ever gotten out of my focus.
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