Ford has $2B more in warranty costs than GM

Status
Not open for further replies.
brianl703 said:
TFI-IV ignition module failures.

Aluminum piston cracking on Taurus transmissions (early 90s?)

Plastic waterpump impeller failures on early Duratec 2.5L V6 engines in the Contour/Mystique

Engine wiring harnesses made with incorrect insulation (was PVC, should have been XLPE), causing the insulation to crack and fall off, 1995-1997 Contour/Mystique

Ford Crown Victoria Lighting Control Modules with poorly-soldered headlight relay, causing headlights to fail (they finally issued a recall for this).

3.5L V6 engines with waterpump designed to require massive labor (several hours) to replace AND which fails by dumping coolant into the engine oil, resulting in engine destruction

(EDIT: Forgot the steel ac accumulators they wrapped in a foam insulator to GUARANTEE that they would corrode and start leaking. Easy fix, rip that wrapper off...I once paid $200 to the local hee-haw Ford dealer to fix this problem and that was all deductibles on the extended warranty I had. $50 deductible, 4 trips. Took them 4 trips to figure out where it was leaking)

and my favorite

1987/1988 Ford Mustang with foglights, using the foglights would cause the thermal breaker in the headlight switch to open because they never increased the wire size to account for the additional current draw of the fog lights. (IT appears that the original design had the foglights powered off the main headlight circuit before it got to the multifunction switch (which selects high and low beams), then someone figured out that regulations don't allow foglights and high beams to be on at the same time, so their "quick fix" was to simply redesign it so that the low-beam circuit powered the foglights. At least that's the only reason I can figure for there being a larger wire gauge going into the headlight switch than coming out of it...engineer forget that the current in a series circuit is the same at any point?)
Click to expand...

I'm trying to remember what the deal was with the cruise control switches that would catch fire. Did they run unfused 12v through them?

All manufacturers have blunders like this. We're covering like 4 decades here.
 
dishdude said:
I'm trying to remember what the deal was with the cruise control switches that would catch fire. Did they run unfused 12v through them?

All manufacturers have blunders like this. We're covering like 4 decades here.
Click to expand...

As I recall it is fused, but at a high amp rating, like 20 amps (which is more than enough power to start a fire, your cigarette lighter is probably fused at 20 amps if not 15).. The recall fix is either to replace the brake-fluid pressure actuated switch if it is leaking, or add a fused jumper harness to protect it with, as I recall, 3 amp fuses.

The circuit is also always hot, which is why some of these fires started when the vehicle was parked.
 
And all 2 billion is deducted from their taxes, effectively making Uncle Sam participate in the repairs. Businesses always have that angle for them to lighten the load.
 
I couldn't hold back any longer.

87457245_10219091008939440_2485939655178977280_n.webp
 
Seems like a really bad way to run a company. Gotta be cheaper in the long run to clamp down on areas of weak manufacturing and QA ... gotta be way cheaper than nearly $4B.

From a previously linked article in this thread: "For the first nine months of 2020, Ford's warranty costs totaled $3.87 billion, while GM's were $1.68 billion, according to regulatory filings."
 
Last edited:
JimPghPA said:
So what are the recent and past major design blunders that cost Ford in terms of warranty and loss of customers?

The most recent one I recall is the terrible DCT fiasco.

Going back over the years:

Bad paint problems.

The F-150 spark-plugs with the very long section that were almost impossible to remove without breaking them off and spending a long time on each one with special extraction tools. I recall quotes of $700.00 just for the labor to change 8 spark-plugs IF YOU COULD FIND A MECHANIC WHO WAS WILLING TO DO THAT JOB.

The Ford SUV vehicles that allowed exhaust gas into the cabin.

The small rims with tires that were too high and had serious control problems and there after market fix that did not work, of telling the owners to run low tire pressures.

The Crown-Vick police vehicles with exploding gas-tanks when a troupers car would be rear ended while parked along side of a highway. At least they came up with a fix of a styrofoam block that prevented the pumpkin from rupturing the gas-tank. But they never included that fix in vehicles to the general public.

The switch on the master-cylinder that would cause a fire. ( Which could happen even when the vehicle was not being used, even if it was parked in a garage attached to a house. )

The ignition switches that could catch fire. ( Which could happen even when the vehicle was not being used, even if it was parked in a garage attached to a house. )

The variable venturi carburetor that seamed to never work right.

The engines had valve seals that leak too much oil into the combustion cylinder and smoked like a car that had 150,000 miles on it even though the actual miles were very low. ( Though some of those vehicles may have been making that much smoke because of the bad variable venturi carbs. )

And of course the gas-tanks on the pintos that would go up in flames with even a small rear-end crash.

I am sure there are some things that I missed. Maybe some can add to the list. Were the windshields that had special sun blocking layers that did not hold up and had to be replaced with a different type of windshield made by Ford or was that a different vehicle maker?

My brother use to say that there was something on his F-150 engine that would repeatedly break if he demanded a lot of power from it while towing his RV.

Didn't some of there engines have a system of cylinder deactivation that had plastic pieces in it that would break and cause the engine to be stuck in a mode where not all of the cylinders were firing. Or was that a different brand?
Click to expand...
Don’t forget the well known and documented paint defects that they almost always deny for warranty repairs.
 
When I started towing cars in 2017, I was towing a lot of Fords that had the electric power steering system fail back to the dealer; I had 5 Fiestas in one day I remember. Then I was surprised one day to find a 2018 Expedition has electric steering and it failed under warranty!
 
GM is trying to catch up. They just announced the recall of 840,000 pickup trucks for possible seat belt failures and suspension issues.
GM has been making vehicles for about 100 years. Seat belts have been standard equipment since the mid-1960's. They haven't figured out the engineering yet ? Seriously ?

Oh yeah, back to Ford. I'm just waiting for the poor suckers who got all nostalgic about the reintroduced Broncos to start reporting serious issues. Sad to think that companies with enough experience as GM and Ford are producing so many vehicles with avoidable major flaws.
 
Last edited:
DwightFrye said:
GM is trying to catch up. They just announced the recall of 840,000 pickup trucks for possible seat belt failures and suspension issues.
GM has been making vehicles for about 100 years. Seat belts have been standard equipment since the mid-1960's. They haven't figured out the …
Click to expand...
There are no injuries related and most will be in/out for inspection, some of these go back to 2012 …
… if Toyota did this there’s going to be a virtual standing ovation on this website …
BTW: They put out 7.7 million vehicles in 2019 … similar other years …
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

wwillson
  • Sticky
Pennzoil - Low-speed pre-ignition (LSPI) Q&A - Answers
Replies
2
Views
1K
SubieRubyRoo
wwillson
  • Locked
Answers - Pennzoil Technology behind "Made From Natural Gas" and Vehicle maintenance while driving less Q&A
Replies
5
Views
38K
RateNate
wwillson
  • Locked
Pennzoil API SN Plus & 0W-16 Q&A - Answers
Replies
17
Views
17K
Barn01
dave1251
  • Locked
Exxon Mobil
Replies
19
Views
16K
MolaKule
S
  • Locked
Interesting article from Fuchs/Silkolene chemist
Replies
14
Views
20K
yannis
Back
Top Bottom