IS IT BLUE BLOOD FORD OR IS SOMETHING OFF – MAYBE ITS FROD!

IS IT FORD OR IS SOMETHING OFF – MAYBE ITS FROD!

To Whom it May Concern Ford South Africa RE: 2019 FORD EVEREST 3.2 AUTO 6 SPEED LTD EDITION I am sticking to saying I am a totally sold-out Ford fanatic! In spite of all my problems I love my car to bits! I purchased my car from a non-Ford dealership and therefore contacted Ford Maher where she was sold to her first owner. At 53000 kms I bought her as a beautiful, well looked after second hand vehicle with a clean bill of health, in black and white from a well-known and respected Ford dealership: Ford Maher in Sandton. Unfortunately, my history with this spectacular vehicle is not such a good one – actually a very sad and frustrating journey that started on 2022-08-24... As you are aware by now, I do have a huge problem with my current vehicle – I have the records from the day she was sold by Ford Maher in Sandon to the day I took her to Ford in Nelspruit (60 000km Service) – complaining about the gearbox being very bad when shifting and that there is a definite “Goef” sound / feeling AND that the car actually stalls on you sometimes when you stop at a stop street or traffic light – kind of unusual for an automatic car. I was told there are NO fault codes, and NOTHING was wrong, and a normal service was done. This was on 2022-09-23. I then took her to Ford McGee in Lydenburg still having problems with a very uncomfortable gear shift AND still stalling at some stopping events. They then “reset” the gearbox and it would apparently learn my driving style. This was done on 2022-11-23. The problems persisted. Again, I was told NO fault codes so there is nothing wrong mechanically with the vehicle. I then took her to Motus Ford in Germiston where I hoped she could be fixed as the City Dealerships see more of these cars etc. This Journey with them started on 2023-01-02. they LISTENED to me and took my car in without a blink gave me a loan vehicle and started searching for the problem. NOT giving me all the “no fault codes” or “our computer isn’t powerful enough” go to another garage… Nothing, they listened to me, and the Master Mechanic immediately identified something wrong with the gearbox without even driving 1 meter, but just shifting her from P to D to R and back. A shortage of gearbox oil level was found. Over and above this, the gearbox oil was found to be milky as if it somehow got water inside. The gearbox was drained and so was the transfer box. New oil was provided, but the problem persisted – it took them 6 weeks - if my memory serves me right - to finally find that some fingers arced on one another causing the 2nd gear to double engage. Amongst other things the bearing in the transfer case was changed (I have photographs of everything) I am not sure what they did to solve the stalling problem but that now only happens once a month or so 😊 My journey with Motus Ford continued as the “GOEF” would just not go away. My vehicle was at Germiston Ford for numerous times 2023-01-02, then 2023-03-23, then 2023-05-09 then 2023-12-12 (which includes normal servicing).

She is now out of warranty – she has around 97000km on the clock and I was of the intention to drive her all the way to 300 000kms as she is such a brilliant vehicle. But December 2023 I came to Amanzimtoti on holiday and realised on the way that on deceleration there is a bad vibration on the car. If she is under tension, she is stable and quiet but the moment you lift your foot from the pedal she vibrates through the whole vehicle. The GOEF was back once again. I spoke to Motus Ford and they suggested taking her to Ford Fury in Amanzimtoti. Unfortunately, the mechanic given to drive with me was not able to feel what I felt and again the NO fault codes excuse was dished up. Tyre noise on the road, he said. He did put the vehicle on the lift an ensured me safe travelling’s as everything was mechanically in order. I went back to Steelpoort and installed a new set of tyres at R19k to again making sure from my side the car is as far as I can go being looked after very well. I moved to Amanzimtoti during the month of February 2024 and the vibration became much, much worse, almost getting worse daily. If I got under the car, I could move the prop shaft behind the flange behind the gearbox with my hand. The solution was in the end to insert a “missing collapsable part and new nut to fasten the prop shaft flange behind the gearbox. BUT the GOEF went on. I took her back again on 2024-04-23 to Ford Fury Amanzimtoti and now the rear Differential is identified as the problem due to a bearing that collapsed. So,DEAR MR FORD, I have a beautiful, magnificent vehicle with a DRIVE TRAIN PROBLEM which I have reported over and over and over again since 60 000 kms whilst she was under warrantee. So hopefully someone is NOW going to take me serious that my FORD PRODUCT has let me down (most probably due to mechanics that are purely relying on fault codes). I don't really know, and I don't really care about the who is responsible at dealership level but do not believe the bill of R55k is fairly mine to pay. Your national engineers came back with the lame excuse that I did not mention the Diff from 60000kms and therefore they are only willing to assist with 50% on parts for this repair. What they are saying is, that I should have been able as a user to Identify and diagnose the problem correctly from the start then they would have look at the case with more assistance. Your very own Ford Dealership in Amanzimtoti says the following: “tested vehicle and found nocking noise coming from 6,150.00 S diff remove oil and found metal filings in oil and metal pieces on the drain plug on the magnet side cause of failure is internal mechanical failed inside the diff causing the noise when pull of and due to metal filings in oil an on sump plug causing gears to shave of a bit causing filings and causing noises when pulling off/play inside diff causing the gears not to mesh properly causing noise” Hence I could only identify the gearbox as problematic and I have stated so since 60000km! I really don’t even know how to react to this….. other than it seems like Ford does not believe in their own product for starters; and secondly they do not want to assist when the paper trail is quite clear that I found something wrong on the drivetrain all along.