Hello folks. Here I am trolling this forum again hoping someone could tell me how to get this problem fixed.

I let my wife drive my 2011 to work a month ago and got a phone call... "Did you paint the hood of the car?" My answer of course was why the heck would I paint the hood of the car. Turns out that she noticed bubbles forming at the front right of the hood. It feels like sand trapped between the paint and the hood material. I let it go for a while but it seems to be getting bigger and wider... however you want to put it. Now, there is another section starting to bubble up on the other side of the hood.

How do I figure out the warranty repair? My car is a 2011 bought mid 2010 and still only has 27K miles on it. Crazy that my 2004 Mazda 3 with 60K plus miles still "blings" when it's washed while my 2011 mustang's hood is bubbling up. This is really disappointing because I love the car.

 

Suggestion, ford should fix this under warranty, sounds like you are right on the tail end though... If they offer to 'repair' it, i would INSIST on them letting you see it before repainting, dollars to donuts upon them grinding it off there will be mising metal on the edge, at tat point 'perforation' would require replacing rather than the grind and paint.

Before my 09 ever sees water again, its going to get 'goop' adhesive around the edges to seal the sharp aluminum edge. Right or wrong, has got to be better than what the factory did.

I'm kinda wondering now if Fords perforation warranty might still cause them headaches- i bet the repair procedure often required grinding away material to the point of requiring the original metal to be removed due to corrosion thru it at the edge, if so wouldnt doubt there could still be some ort of class action thing looming... I generally hate lawyers, hope not, but ford did drop the ball here and for a long long time never really tried to pick it up. They shoulda fixed the production line problem and just thrown new hoods on those with issues... Bet in the end it coulda been far cheaper- doubt their true cost on that hood is 100 bucks, where time even at reduced cost / warranty hours is going to exceed...a lot of folks that had them repaired just had it return within a year... Lasting just long enough to get out of warranty shouldnt equate to 'adequate repair'. Sorry, but i think someone at ford shoulda been canned years ago over this bull****.

Did you see those pics from the auto show a ways up the thread? Ive always been a 'buy American' type, but the lack of concern on a obvious issue all these years since the first S197s rolled out in 04 is just plain stupid.

I just hope the 2015 and the new f150 get the obviously poor , near decade old, process brought up to snuff. A guy at work has a od 90's miata he drives yearround in the salt, his hood is fine- and back then ford was mazda... Its not like they dont know how to do it right. Sorry for another rant, but with what we paid for these cars we deserved better. I fixed mine by replacing it years ago, but still reading of newer models having this issue just gets my blood boiling. Ford knew/ knows about it, yet they are still peddling the same after all these years... Its not a employee problem, most ive dealt ith have been great- its a upper tier management issue that lets bull**** like this roll off the line and thru repeated 'repairs' until that pesky warranty finally runs out. I never needed any warranty on our three S197s ( shoulda had them fix the hood before replacing- maybe i coulda jumped on it after repair just to make a point) but still, the fact stuff like this has went on so long has pretty much erased any brand loyalty ive ever had. Hope they get their act together, but my concerns for ford went the way they have on their concerns for buyers. This thread shoulda been over years go.

 

Hello GooBear,

Welcome to the forum! My name is Deysha with Ford Service. I recommend you bring it in to your dealer and have it checked out. Your service manager is in the best position to look into this for you and can check into any warranty, assistance, recalls, or customer satisfaction programs that may apply to your vehicle.

Also, remember most repairs done at a Ford Dealer come with a 24 months/unlimited miles warranty. You can schedule an appointment online here.

Deysha

 

I called my Ford Service Manager today and he told me to go straight to their body shop to have it looked at. I'm going there tomorrow. He did tell me that the warranty is supossed to be 3 yrs/36K miles, but he doesn't know if there is an extension for this particular problem. So is there? This really sucks if there isn't. I've already had to deal with the "engine tick problem" for the first gen engines for the new 3.7 a while back (same car), now this. Oh, thank you Deysha, for helping me find my way to a solution back then too. But.... I am not prepared to spend my own money for a production problem especially since I just lost my job recently. Even my dad's 2000 Honda CR-V ,even with faded paint, still has no bubbles forming on them and my 2004 Mazda 3 still shines.

 

You’re welcome, GooBear. I’m not aware of any recalls, but your dealer will make sure to look into any available coverages.

Deysha

 

I just came back from the Ford body shop and the deal is... they can fix or replace it, BUT the car, though way below 36K mile (26,641 miles), is around six months over the 3 years warranty. So the shop director told me to contact Ford to see what can be done to fix this. He mentioned something about it might be an electrolysis problem during manufacturing or something, but he wasn't sure what exactly causes these hoods to go fugly on their owners. This is ridiculous though, that there is a ticking time bomb on these hoods and "guess what", they don't show up til your warranty just expires. So the problem now is, will Ford step up or just leave me out to dry? Here is a photo of the bubbling. It goes under the lip and the other side of the hood too (the driver side). This one close to a foot long starting from below where you can see my reflection. It seems like it's "weirdly" growing too. It was smaller just a month ago. I attached a photo of the bubbling.

Deysha, what do I need to do to have this resolved?

 

mine looked very similar, heres how i 'fixed' it-

its the old 'Fang performance' shaker hood, still available from Aeroform- just materials for paint cost nearly as much as the hood...

hope Ford can get yours taken care of- if they give a 2 year warranty, that would be great- i just wonder if the 2 years is a one time thing, or if it returns 1.9 years later and it gets fixed again, do they guarantee that for 2 yrs again, or is that it? i *think* some shops offer 'lifetime' warranty on their paint- but dunno if they will cover these problematic hoods forever...

 

I don’t want to promise anything, but PM me with your VIN, dealer, mileage, full name, and best daytime number, GooBear. I’ll get it reviewed for you.

Deysha

 

So I got contacted by Ford today and was denied a warranty. I was over the number of years (I was 6 months over the 3 yrs). Even if the car is still 10K miles below the 36K miles warranty, that didn't matter because it was over 3yrs. I was told that there needed to be perforation or rust eating through the metal. Wait... it's aluminum, that's not supposed to rust, right? What a sorry excuse for Ford. The employees I did contact were great... not too sure about the actual company as a whole caring about their customers.

I guess when Ford paints these cars, they don't really care to clean it well because they know that by the time problems occur, it should be just barely out of the warranty and they don't have to fix it. And it won't be bad enough to fit their fine print to warrant a fix anyway. Instead, they could offer their so called customers to "see if there are any discounts" to have the problems that they caused in manufacturing fixed at their shop. Talk about a revolving door. If GM took this approach, they would have financially stayed above the red too. But I guess they clean their cars well before they paint them.

I have a 2004 Mazda 3 hatch that was first generation when i came to it's design and my dad has a 2000 Honda CRV. Both of those cars have no problems with paint. My Mazda is still shiny. Although the CRV is a bit faded from being old... no paint blemishes. Here comes my 3 1/2 year old Mustang with it's bubbling hood. What a wonderful manufacturing process and to top it off, customer satisfaction guaranteed. That's not to mention the headache I had to go through to have "an engine tick" problem fixed before. Yes, on the same car. Conveniently, the Ford owned dealership I bought it from closed. I hope they all close.

So warranty for perforation... That is only to cover in case whoever is sleeping during their manufacturing process falls into even deeper sleep that their aluminum hoods start to rot before 3 years. I've seen cans of tuna that took longer to rot than that without paint and exposed to the elements. I guess I will be driving around with my messed up hood and telling anybody who sees it what a great company Ford really is. From what I've experienced so far, my family will be staying away from any future Ford products and hopefully my friends and their families too. And should I get the itch to buy American again, I'm going to send my money to Ford's competitors. I know it's bitter, but for more than $30,000 these problems shouldn't be showing up this early.

 

Good luck with that. Guarentee if you go to gm or chrysler you will have so much warranty work it won't be funny. It sucks that your hood bubbled and that it's just out of warranty and I would be pissed to. But bubbling paint on the hood pales in comparison to the crap quality of the other 2. I worked at a gm dealer for a year and could not believe how many vehicles with under 10k miles came in for leaking seals, recalls, oil consumption etc etc. It was terrible!!! Chrysler is just junk period. Their designing is terrible for placement of parts. Even if it makes it a few years without problems they just keep coming on those once they start

 

theyve all got good, theyve all got bad...

long term i wouldnt be surprised if a class action thing comes along from this problem- not that it will do us any good, just make a bunch of lawyers richer...really think ford shoulda just swapped out the hoods- but the current ones are no better regarding the hem crimp. I too was very disgusted with seeing the auto show mustang hoods last year... ford has been oblivious to a crappy process for long enough to tell me its not anything they really were concerned with fixing...just bubbly paint, not like a windstar axle. my loyalty has pretty much faded to zero... three new fords in 4 years here, ever again? meh... maybe if I need a hyundai to photograph with all my other American cars, and send Ford pics of the build quality of all of them. sucks, but the American built hyundai, ugly as it is, is one of the best fit and finish anywhere- far,far above and beyond ford or chevy.

ive always been a ford fan, seen crap from all manufacturers though...hate to say it, but the best build quality ive seen at the auto show was hyundai. next time the wife want to buy one I wont be pushing the big three anymore - her avalanche has been a great truck, if I were to buy another American car today, it would be another avalanche or a challenger(mopars have too many stupid issues, but the car looks GREAT). for transportation 'commodity' car, the little hyundais I cannot fault.

 

Haha. I was just saying... if I get the itch to buy American again. I probably won't buy GM though since I don't know how long they can stay afloat with all their problems. I don't want to be like a Hummer owner where the car totally vanishes out of production. No offense intended to those who own and love their Hummers. But from what I've experienced so far, Ford quality is not worth another $30,000 for another car that I'm not sure will bubble up before the loan is even paid off. Like I said, 3 1/2 years... really? I didn't have to use any manufacturer's warranty for my little Mazda, but guess what... it stood the test of time and is still going strong. At least Mazda knew what they were doing when they painted the car. Ford on the other hand, has seen this problem with Mustangs in previous years and actually had a TSB for it (TSB 06-25-15). Yet they still kept the same BS warranty that's only long enough and only good if you actually had a rusty steel hood that they picked off the junk yard and painted without cleaning it again. It seems that Coke cans are better painted than Ford's Mustang hoods at this point. Sad comparison, but that's how sorry this Ford paint job is. The paint job is sorry, they're not. And we as "customers" end up paying more to have their error corrected because their warranty is all but BS. I am asked if I want to check with service managers to see if there are discounts available to have it fixed... WHAT!? I don't want any discounts. For an item that already cost more than 30K dollars, I shouldn't have to pour in more money to have your (Ford) careless error fixed in the first place. I wonder how long before the 2015 hoods start corroding.

 

I wouldnt worry as much about the 2015 mustang as the 2015 f150...they went with more aluminum, and if those start failing it could be devastating to ford... the f150 is a lot more of a bread and butter product than the mustang- think its been one of the best selling vehicles since the 50's...

funny you mentioned a mazda- i have too... a guy at work has a old miata as a DD, things got like 200k on it, body(aluminum) is perfect. the odd thing is, ford WAS mazda back then. the mazda6/mustang/shelby all came down the same flex assembly line at AAI too... hard to imagine a Mazda, a shelby, a v6 mustang all mixed in sequence on the same line, but they did it... anyways- they knew how to hem/seal/prep aluminum at some time prior to 2004, just wonder who/how the ball got dropped on the mustangs.

they all have good/all have bad- but seriously- check out any hyundai around the hood/door/trunk seams- it will make you mad if you compare it to a new ford or chevy. just sad more care isnt taken to be at least as good as the cheapest cars out there

hope down the road they fix these things, maybe someday folks that got burned might return- I know a few folks that had the blown out plug/head damage in ford trucks that still thumb their noses at all things wearing a blue oval...getting hit with stupid repairs that were obvious defects tend to be the best way to lose customers forever.
i tell you what, if hyundai could make a decent looking oldschool musclecar bodystyle/put that genesis v8 in it, they could probably knock the mustang and camaro into oblivion. they do make very good cars, ten year warranties, etc...just they are all fugly.

 

I had an engine shake problem with the Mazda 3 (engine bracket went bust with oil leaking out) after years of abuse. That was an easy repair, but guess what... that was a Ford part too. My Mazda 3 was still part Ford when we bought it, I don't know if they still are since Mazda has been more successful after the remodeling of the Protege 5 to the new Mazda 3s. It has some Ford parts in it, but the body was designed by Volvo and tweaked by Mazda. Ford had something to do with the suspension or something and tweaked by Mazda as well. My Mazda 3 came all the way from Hiroshima. As far as I understand, the Mazda 6 were made in Michigan and used the Ford V6 engines. It's sad how "Made in America" does not mean as much anymore. To add to it, it seems that Ford doesn't really care in keeping their customers loyal.

 

this is how it starts

this is how IT WILL END

For anyone who has any kind of warranty and sees that this is happening, go to ford NOW. They WILL deny everything after your warranty is up. The problem WILL get worse and the paint WILL break apart.

 

That's exactly how my hood looks right now. For years I tried to get Ford to fix it when it when it first showed up a few years back. But all I got was BS. So I'm biting the bullet and getting it fixed myself. It's peeling off under the hood behind the front lip and moved over to the outside of the lip. And the other day I just noticed it started bubbling on the left rear corner and on the right side under my stripe facing the windshield. But the thing that gets me the most is that I have a small chip on the front fender and its been there for almost three years and all year driving even in snow , NOT ONE sign of rust or paint peeling , go figure. They were better off going with a steel hood despite the extra weight if you ask me .

 

Same cut and paste letter they send everyone.

 

People. Be reasonable.

They have to deny stuff like this. Legalities are an issue, once one person gets it, *everyone* wants it, and then when will it end? What is the actual period?

I get that, because in my years of work, warranty/guarantees are a pain in the butt. But you do them because honor and return customers. But there must, Must, MUST be a hard limit to how much extending of good will goes forth.

Also, as regards to whatever actions, be it painting, or steel hood, or whatever everyone envisions for Ford, the truth is this. A small, *small* percentage even complain. Most people who buy/lease these cars don't care after 4 or 5 years or whatever, they just go get something else. That's the bread and butter of the car industry, keep them buying another. People such as us, who want to keep and care for the car aren't the large demographic they want. Believe it or not. My keeping my car for 15 years or more is not what Ford wants, they would rather I just keep getting another and another and...

So changing the system isn't very likely, when you get down to the raw desires and numbers they are after and get.

That being said... what's not a problem for me is the warranty expiration, it's that Ford doesn't seem to be **LEARNING FROM THE PROBLEMS** and it's continuing to happen on newer Mustangs. You would think, for a company who used to have the slogans "Better Ideas" and "Quality is Job 1"...

Having said *that*, I cannot wait for the class actions that the upcoming F150s are going to produce with the all aluminum body panels comin'. That's gonna be a *hoot* to watch, and hopefully, possibly, Mustangs will get included. But holding my breath on that is not an option.

 

+1 bigtime.

its simply unacceptable these issues went on for 9 years...going to the auto show this weekend, will let you know if the pics from last years crappy hoods did any good...

 

well, the shelby at the show looked good, all the rest had proper front sealing, so maybe the pics from last years did some good...however, the side hems on all the mustangs except the shelby were bad, oddly all on the drivers side... pics are hard to get, so many reflections/lights, couldnt see most in the pics except the blue and black mustangs- the black one had a blister already rolling to the top- side pic you can see the blister about halfway around the edge... got pics of vins/stickers too, in case anyone at ford cares- they can easily find these cars by vin and notify dealers of issues even before PDI...

sadly the mustangs were good compared to taurus/focus... see pics of odd paint peels in same places on all- HAS to be a racking issue before clearcoat dries, all had similar damage or dirt in paint in same areas both sides, worse on passenger sides... plants need to review paint prop rods/handling fixtures/cleanliness. vins shown too.

sadly, couldnt see anything on the aluminum f150- its a prototype behind a barrier, and with doors open, no hems...obviously a one-off with filled/painted hems...i still worry if they havent got the aluminum hem crimp/seal/paint process sorted out, this aluminum f150 could become a huge issue

rather than resize all the pics, or flood your screen with big blurry pics, to anyone interested, heres a link to my pics: (auto show 'set' has tonights pics- its loading slow, might be a hour or three till the set shows up...)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83232178@N06/sets/