Looking for a good Service Department North NJ/South NY Area
 

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am looking for a good service department at a Ford dealership in the Northern NJ, North of the Asbury area, or up into Southern NY, Rockland County or Southern Orange County (Middletown area and south). I live in Hackensack NJ so this would about an hour and a half to two hours of travel range for me, but if the dealer's service dept is really good I'm willing to drive the distance. This seemed like the best place to post this and get advice from my fellow Mustang owners.

To give everyone a little more background, I am dealing with some clutch and transmission issues in my 2014 GT. I bought my car brand new (with about 100 miles on it from being driven from another dealership) early in April of 2014 and within the first month or so I experienced pressure loss in my clutch pedal, or from what I have read in other posts on the forum, a "dead" pedal feeling. The loss of pressure or dead pedal would not allow me to shift into the next gear and I really didn't think anything of it because I thought the engine RPMs were too high and the syncros were not matching speed, blocking the shift. Since then, the dead pedal has occurred maybe 10 times over the past year. I have also noticed that this only seems to occur when I am trying to shift up from 2nd into 3rd gear.

This again happened to me about 3 weeks ago, and I was unable to shift into 3rd and became frustrated. I tried to shift again and missed 3rd gear altogether and wound up forcing a shift into 5th gear. I heard a very loud and noticeable crunching noise. I didn't hear the noise again while cruising in 5th gear, but while driving in moderate traffic conditions (shifting up and down matching gears to my speed) I noticed that the crunching noise was continuing only when I would shift up into 5th gear at a slightly quick pace. I did notice that when I was gentle with the shift up into 5th the noise was not there anymore. I was in western NY last week and took my car to be checked out at Mastel Ford in Olean. They were very nice, but this was the first Mustang that the service tech had seen and worked on, and I think it was one of a very few, if not the only Mustang that this dealer has seen. Again, I'm not upset with them because they didn't even charge me for attempting the diagnosis the car and performing Ford's multi-point service check on the car. So I thought nothing of it and would look to the forums for research, and if the issue continued I would take it to a dealer when I got back home to NJ.

On my drive home on Sunday, I again experienced the dead pedal issue and forced a shift into 5th gear causing the same loud crunching noise. Now the crunching noise is happening every time that I shift into 5th gear, whether it is shifting up, down, quick, or slow. I believe that I have messed up the synchros for 5th gear, so I attempted to bring the car into Schultz Ford in Nanuet NY where I work. I set up the appointment online for 3PM, with the assumption that someone at the dealer in the service dept would read my appointment request and details of my service request, and would call with any questions or if there was a need to reschedule. They were busy in the service dept, and the first two service advisers were on the phone, but there was a third adviser around the corner of the counter. I walked over to him and told I him was there for a 3PM appointment, at which point he scoffed at me as if he didn't care that I made an appointment. When I told him what car I had, what the issue was, and that I had made the appointment online, he continued to berate me and belittle me. I am extremely annoyed with Schultz Ford, so please don't suggest them, and I plan to complain to both the Dealership and to Ford directly. It makes absolutely no sense to me that in 2015 a dealership would have an online service that they apparently don't use or pay any attention to, and that they could treat there customers and potential customers in such a manner.

Well, now that I have blown off some steam and completed this book... Thanks in advance for your suggestions, and I hope to be able to resolve this issue soon.

Thanks,
Jose

Looking for a good Service Department North NJ/South NY Area
 

Wow that sucks that you've had such a terrible time with service. I go to All American Ford in Paramus and have had great service there, except for that last time I was there. It was mainly a communication problem between me and the service rep not keeping me updated. Long story short my car had a low oil pressure warning so I brought it in and it took them almost 2 days to figure out that the problem was a chewed on wire. Not other than that I think the do a good job and I would still go back if I had a problem.
I've also been to Mawah Ford. It's not the closest ( all American is 5 minutes from me) but they did a decent job too.
Hope this helps.

Looking for a good Service Department North NJ/South NY Area
 

Oh, also I agree with you that why some dealers let you make an appointment online but you still need to make sure that they actually recorded it. You'd think since their system is computerized it would make their lives easier if you could schedule simple service online so that the service reps would be free to talk to people who have more serious issues.

I have no direct personal experience with this dealer, but they have a very good reputation from what I hear at shows and cruises. They are also a Roush dealer and performance oriented, and that could suggest more talented service technicians. They're located in Mendham (Morris County), approx 45 minutes or so from Hackensack.

http://maplecrestford.com/Service.aspx

Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm going to try out Maple Crest because of the performance orientation.

I have had good service at Salerno Duane Ford in Summit NJ. They are a smaller dealership, and the service manager - Frank - is a Mustang guy. If I needed service again I would take it back there again.

****UPDATE****:

I finally was able to get the car into the dealership to get checked out yesterday. In addition to the clutch/transmission, I had the dealer look at the rear differential because there was some oil dripping from the front of the diff at the connection point with the drive shaft, and at the front suspension because I was hearing the typical creaking noise from the LCA's.

They called be back by lunch and told me the problem with the clutch was the slave cylinder and that they would be replacing it. They confirmed that there was a grinding/crunching noise shifting into 5th gear, so the dropped the trans pan and found metal shavings in the trans fluid. They ordered a new transmission and will be replacing it. The rear differential will be getting a new ring and pinion seal to fix that issue, and they confirmed that the front LCA's are creaking and they are replacing those as well. All of this is still covered under the warranty and will be replaced at no cost to me.

Oh, I did wind up bring it to Maplecrest Ford in Mendham, NJ and they have been pretty helpful, and I am extremely satisfied with my experience so far.

The trans will take about 3 days to ship so they were expecting it on Tuesday next week, and I am looking at getting the car back near the end of next week.

-Jose