new - 5/25/02
1. VIN#s
1FALP54N4VA132813
2. Date of malfunction
September 20, 2001
3. Where did the malfunction take place (highway, city streets, driveway,
parking lot, etc.)
Driveway/Garage
4. Odometer reading at time of malfunction
86,575
5. How fast were you traveling?
5 mph (had just pulled into my garage when the engine died)
6. Were you accelerating or staying at a constant speed? Staying constant
(at idle speed)
7. Estimated date of purchase, new or used? August 1997, new (program
vehicle leased to a Ford exec in Detroit)
8. Estimated Odometer reading at time of purchase 8,300
9. Full Name, address, and a good phone# to reach you at during the day and
night.
David Lehman
10. Brief description of the time of events leading towards the malfunction.
(what did you hear and see before, during, and after the malfunction) For
about 3 weeks or so, we heard a light ticking sound coming from the engine that
sort of reminded me of a lifter problem. We had no noticeable loss of power or
performance. The night the engine died with the cam failure, we were pulling our
car into the garage and when we almost came to a complete stop, the engine
missed a couple of times and the engine died, and would not restart.
The next day we towed the car to the Fred Jones Auto Collection (OKC Auto
Collection), and explained the problem and the sounds to the service advisors.
After 5 days of them poking (stalling) at the car, I told them to stop working
on my car and give me my bill, about 30 minutes later, I showed up and they said
that they had looked at my car and told me that my engine was sludged out and I
hadn't been taking care of my car, and I needed a new engine. I didn't buy that,
so the same night I took it to Reynolds Ford in Norman Oklahoma and the next
morning, they looked at my car and within about 30 minutes they discovered that
my water pump belt was not moving. The tech that was working on my car knew
immediately that that meant something internally in the engine was wrong. Also,
on top of that they even had the Zone Rep look at my car and they both said that
the engine was not sludged
and was as clean as they had seen for a car with as many miles as it had. They
discovered that the left #2 intake cam had broke loose, and they said that they
had never seen or heard of this happening before.
After all of that, the service advisor told me that the zone rep was
authorized by Ford to cover 40% of the cost and the dealership picking up 10% of
the bill. And also, Reynolds just charged us warranty cost for the rest of the
bill.
11. Customer service phone # you called and the name of the person you talked
to. (if you can remember)
1-800-392-FORD, Vicki (I think)
12. Did you feel satisfied with the answers customer service provided?
Explain.
Yes, the customer service rep was very friendly, and was very concerned about
our problem. She contacted us every day and also contacted the dealership every
day to check the progress of the repairs.
13. Which dealership did you take your vehicle in for service? (name,
address, phone #)
Reynolds Ford Inc.
825 N Interstate Drive
Norman, Oklahoma 73069
(405) 321-2844
14. What was the cause of failure determined by the dealer?
Camshaft Sprocket Failure
15. What was the cause of failure determined by you?
Poor design of the camshaft
16. How much was your statement?
$1,294.77
yes, I do have my receipt.
17. What can FOMOCO do to make you a satisfied Ford owner?
First, determine what needs to be done to fix this problem. Design cams for
our cars that won't fail. REPLACE all cams in all the Taurus SHO's with a better
designed cam even if repairs have been made to the cars, basically a total
recall of all the SHO's. REIMBURSE ALL OF THE REPAIR costs to everyone that is
out money because of this problem. This is not a preventable problem. All the
care in the world could not stop this from happening unless you have the cams
welded or pinned in advance, and nobody knows if this is a permanent fix or not.