Jim74656

Ok I went out to the garage to take a picture for our picture game thread and here is the sight that welcomed me!!!



needing some help with this, as far as I can tel its power steering fluid the ATF, its a really dark colour, almost a brown (red??) as if its mixed with oil, however after smelling it, I do NOT smell the typical oil smell which I guess should relieve me, but no! I can't determine its smell and upon looking at the fluid inside the power steering pump its a dark colour, best way I can describe it is a almost chocolate colour as you see, how hard (or easy) is it to drain the power steering fluid and to replace it all?? whats a good way to do this, I don't want to run Buddy like this with this fluid in the system, and from what I can determine the colour tells me that the PS system has had years of neglect!!! which makes me wounder what else the poor car had to endure during its previous life! here is a pic of the fluid currently, this was taken at night so I will be getting more pics if needed tomorrow when I can have day light to work with and the ability to do something with the car...I just hope this is NOT going to be costly for me to fix...

Jim74656

well determined that I will need three major parts for the repair, the high side hoses (metal with fittings) and the low and possibly a new PS pump (got it just so I can be sure its good to go also) so I went to ford and got a quote and figured to be at least $150 - $250, nope they wanted over $300 with parts plus labbour...not going to happen, so I set out on a quest to car quest and Advanced Auto Parts (sorry for the pun) and picked up all needed parts for approximatly $150 ish and will get a cupon for at least $20 off my next purchase so meh its good! and will pick up the last bit tomorrow so on monday I can have Ford install the parts, which is all good!!!


as for this experience I am starting to reevaluate the experience (have not filled out there survey yet, that will be after I get this debacle completed!!!) but time will tell, before I set out to complete this process I looked on the paper with the recent service work order and it said "if your not 100% satisfied contact us and we will fix it", thought to my self, "ok I will do just that! so I went to the Glen Ford dealer service lane where I took Buddy on Monday and talked to the service tech that looked at Buddy, and showed the guy at the desk the paper work and my concerns and he quickly and very promptly had his service tech pull the car into the bay and address there failure to look at the suspension system and the steering system and made sure that I was not only advised of what was going on BUT made sure that I had the opportunity to look over the car WITH the service techs in the bay at the same time and allowed me to take pictures also! Michael also wanted to apologize for the over sight for missing the two areas on there inspection form (which would have allowed me to catch this before this headache cropped up as annoyingly as it did). so I will admit the fact that they quickly addressed there oversight in this situation has improved there chances of me being a return client of there for the service by Ford for the Mustang and now hopefully the Truck, but on Monday we will determine if they will earn the opportunity to have me as a repeat client and continue to say good things about them, so far its looking better for them then when I found the puddle.


I will say NOT ONCE did they make me feel like they were doing the whole "well you had it for two days in your possession you could have broken the steering system your self then come to blame it on us" mentality they just said "we apologize for the mistake and we will fix the error and get you taken care of" so kudos on that!!!



I will post up when I go back on Monday to have them install the parts (which they also said that If I wanted to I could go buy the parts I want to install and they would be more then happy to install the parts I supply, so i will be picking up one part that im waiting on tomorrow morning then taking the car back on Monday to get the parts installed!! I will be keeping everyone up to date on the situation as it develops

here are the pictures I took today






they did report on Monday the ball joints are going bad, but I did have another tech reevaluate them (one part they failed to mark as being checked) and he said the play was so minor it wasn't what he considered a fix it now item




One thing that makes me wonder about the experience and how I want to rate it is the fact that one of the techs told me flat to my face "oh don't worry about the chocolate colour fluid, thats ok, when you hear noises from the pump that is the sign its failing"...WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!:banghead : what KIND OF MORON ARE YOU is what I thought to my self!! the ATF fluid should be RED NOT BROWN!!!! this type of info just makes me feel ashamed to be trusting people that will tell you things like this!!!!!!

Im sorry but I know enough about cars that I can smell a lie and a pile of BS a mile away, and I hope this lack of info on the techs part will get addressed as I will be making comment about it when i go back on Monday and I WILL also insist that I get to be in the bay watching them install the parts and remove ALL fluids from the steering system, I may sound like I am going to give them a hard time with this but I know that ATF Mercon V fluid should be a red colour not this very dark brown like colour...



Sorry guys for the rant but I just had to get this out there in case anyone in my area happens to stop off by Glenn Ford on Nicholasville road near lexington that they will hopefully know enough to be warned and to double check things and make sure every thing was done correctly as to Fords standards.....

Glenn

Its very rare that the fluid gets changed in the steering system .... sometimes never.... and that is ok. No really! I would think you could probably get away with fixing just the line that is leaking but if you bought both lines go ahead and change them out. Also take it easy on the tech .... there's so many things to check they may have missed one or this might not have even been on the check list at all.

Jim74656

well as for going easy on the tech I am giving them the benefit of the doubt on this as I am in agreement with you but I don't think I should have the fluid as dark as it is, especially if the ATF fluid is supposed to be red...but maybe im just being particular with the car, and they did say the fluids will have to be drained as were going to replace at least three sections, the down side line, the upside return and the pump its self (its whining so I figure since were pulling this off I might as well replace it while Im doing the work, make more logical sense to me)

I will let them assist with the work and take it one thing at a time but meh as I said its a rant, and sorry if it sounds like im being hard on them, but I definitely am going to give them the benefit of a doubt or I wouldn't have gone back to day and have them look things over to confirm the leaking areas nor would I have gone out to get the parts and agreed to let them install the parts as well (usually I would have gone right to another place to have the work done and not return)...so we will see what goes on when Monday comes...I am honestly hoping that it was just a mistake and this whole experience was a fluke that just happened.


I mean am I just imagining things? but I seriously thought the ATF is supposed to be red? oh and I also want to mention the ATF is coming out with consistency of water mixed with 0W oil...very runny...

Maybe I am just being a bit over protective of my ride I don't know but I just want to be sure things are done correctly! Anyways sorry if it sounds like I am being **** about this, I am going to be civil with them as we do the work on Monday and get this sorted out

as for buying the lines, I bought the return and high pressure lines as they said both were leaking and I checked it and saw some leaning while it was on the lift out of the three locations so I figured its best to get it all done as its getting torn out anyways.

Glenn

I bet there's no warranty seeing how you are bringing in your own parts. ATF = red Yes. How many miles on your car?

Jim74656

74K on the clock, and the car was as far as oil is concerned maintained regularly (it also had to pass state emissions and inspections), as for the dealer situation I am not concerned with any warranty, if the parts fail I wil just get the auto store to warranty it out after if needed, but the service manager David took the time to talk to me and agreed that the clues to the puddle that I found were present and should have been found and to my surprise he said that when if I decided to come back, that I should ask for him or call him personally and he will make sure that I am taken care of and that he will personally ensure that I have the repairs done to my satisfaction and that the entire system is flushed in accordance with the Ford service shop manual for this particular car, so based on that it seems like he is wanting to make right where the initial check failed me, so I am slowly regaining my hope in the Blue oval known as Ford!!


I am glad that he didn't make me feel as if I was just another number in there system, and when I explained to the door greeter why I was there they quickly helped me get into contact with the the service manager and they both told me they want to make sure that this is done right and make things right with me, and hope to earn me as a valued customer!

I am starting to feel a bit better, Monday is when they scheduled my appointment and we will see what happens then!!