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Leisurely Oil Leak Repair - 2015 Ford F-150 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited December 2015 in Ford
imageLeisurely Oil Leak Repair - 2015 Ford F-150 Long-Term Road Test

This update to Edmunds' long-term 2015 Ford F-150 details the truck's latest dealer visit - a warranty repair to a leaking turbo oil-supply line.

Read the full story here


Comments

  • ebeaudoinebeaudoin Member Posts: 509
    Wow, that is upsetting. I really dislike finding my vehicle altered after service (in a way that seems unnecessary). One would hope that someone who works on 4WD vehicles often would know to put it back into 2HI when they are done with it. And 7 days for a warranty repair is a bit crazy.
  • nate001nate001 Member Posts: 102
    edited December 2015
    Any other details on where the leak was from: O-Ring, Cut Line or was the hose coming out of a crimp fitting. did they check the other oil lines? Since it was supply line it could have ended much worse had it blown off and damaged the turbo or caused a fire.

    After a week out of service and needing to replace some of the oil that has leaked out, they should have included a oil and filter change.

    Also what did they give you for a loaner?
  • carguydarylcarguydaryl Member Posts: 27
    my buddy had that same oil leak on the turbo line of his Explorer Sport with the 3.5 Ecoboost. Hmmmm
  • handbrakehandbrake Member Posts: 99
    This reminds me of a dream I have...I wish Ford would reintroduce the old 300 cubic inch straight six. Put it in the last generation F150 with the option of a manual transmission. Just a simple, no frills truck and I bet Ford would sell every one it could make. Of course, they'd make less on the old tech workhorse and get no press, but they'd have a lot of happy customers.
  • reminderreminder Member Posts: 383
    Another glaring case of customer no-service. I would've reamed a few rear ends before I left that outfit.
  • allthingshondaallthingshonda Member Posts: 878
    This dealership only has two people capable of working on the best selling vehicle in the country. Maybe the tech that works on Ford Flex could help out, I'm sure he doesn't have much to do.
  • longtimelurkerlongtimelurker Member Posts: 455
    edited December 2015
    I can't say exactly what the connection would be between this truck having had its crankcase overfilled by four quarts and now having an oil leak in a turbo supply line, but If I were the owner, I would probably be starting to hear phantom footsteps following me around.

    It is not good that the truck was left in 4 low when you picked it up, and it's not good that either this or another Ford dealer overfilled its crankcase so badly. It's also not good that you folks were informed by a couple of commenters at that time that the wrong oil had been used and that it had been overfilled, but did nothing about it and then drove the vehicle for 10,000 miles without ever checking the oil, which would have remedied both the incorrect oil viscosity and the overfill.

    This truck has not been treated that well and there is enough blame to go around.
  • allthingshondaallthingshonda Member Posts: 878
    edited December 2015
    All good points longtimelurker. The incompetence of Ford dealerships is amazing. There is no reason why the truck was put in 4WD Low to begin with. Also amazing is how incompetent Edmunds is at maintaining their vehicles. Driving the truck with the wrong oil and overfilled for 10,000 miles is also amazing.
  • dm7279dm7279 Member Posts: 63
    Maybe Edmunds is treating the long term fleet the same way 95% of buyers treat their vehicles. That said, having 2 techs to work on the most popular vehicle in the country is baffling.
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,742
    dm7279 said:

    Maybe Edmunds is treating the long term fleet the same way 95% of buyers treat their vehicles. That said, having 2 techs to work on the most popular vehicle in the country is baffling.

    When you understand just what the career is really like, you should be wondering why they have any let alone two. But this article has a chance to correct that. I wouldn't blame them if they called it a career and walked away from the trade over this article and its responses.
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,742

    All good points longtimelurker. There is no reason why the truck was put in 4WD Low to begin with. .

    That you can think of. There is a legitimate reason it would get shifted into 4WD and 4WD LOW after the truck was repaired because one has to make sure that everything still worked correctly. The reality is that nobody knows for certain who shifted it into 4WD low and left it there. It easily could have happened by accident when someone at the wash rack was cleaning the truck up after the repair was complete.
  • roadburnerroadburner Member Posts: 17,312
    edited December 2015

    All good points longtimelurker. The incompetence of Ford dealerships is amazing. There is no reason why the truck was put in 4WD Low to begin with..

    I really, REALLY like the Mustang GT with the Performance Package, but when I think about taking it to one of my local Ford dealers for any warranty work it cools my enthusiasm almost completely. Both my BMW and my Mazda dealer have first rate service departments- which make me VERY reluctant to change brands- and possibly have to deal with a fiasco like this situation(or worse).

    Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive

  • kirkhilles1kirkhilles1 Member Posts: 863
    Seems to me that maybe its not so smart to go with the Ecoboost engines. Too much drama.
  • actualsizeactualsize Member Posts: 451
    There is no reason why a turbo oil line repair would require a 4Lo test. None. But the 4WD shift knob is a rotary dial that's located close to the volume tuning knob. Someone that wasn't familiar with the truck might twist it clockwise toward 4Lo in an attempt to get tunes, and if they did that while still in park or neutral, they'd get 4Lo. Why they wouldn't know the truck was acting weird as soon as they began driving, I couldn't say. But I can guess.

    Twitter: @Edmunds_Test

  • jjacquotjjacquot Member Posts: 16
    I suspect it was an attempt to turn on the headlights since it was dark when I picked up the truck. But this is just speculation.
  • g35bufg35buf Member Posts: 89
    Definitely not my local RAM dealer service level - Had a CEL come on with my EcoDiesel - went on a Monday a.m. to a very busy RAM dealer in the Buffalo area. They said if you can leave it, their lone diesel certified tech would look it at that day. By 10:00am, they called. It was the Active Grill Shutters (bad from the factory as under 1,000 miles on the truck > but the only RAM ever with my 2 RAM 1500s). Said they needed to order the part, which they did. I picked up the truck. Called when the part was in a few days later, I dropped off the RAM and they had it fixed by lunch that same day. AND this wasn't even the dealer I bought the truck from.

    I'm sure there are RAM horror stories but I hear more via Ford dealers. Ironically, you always hear bad stuff on VW dealers but two of the local dealers I use for VW are exemplary...Either that or we just have good service departments in general here in Western NY.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,256
    edited December 2015
    Welcome to just in time parts inventory. If something is rarely replaced, it isn't kept in stock. My Fusion had a purge valve go bad. It took 2 weeks to get it fixed, but the dealer provided a loaner immediately.
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • longtimelurkerlongtimelurker Member Posts: 455
    g35buf said:

    Definitely not my local RAM dealer service level - Had a CEL come on with my EcoDiesel - went on a Monday a.m. to a very busy RAM dealer in the Buffalo area. They said if you can leave it, their lone diesel certified tech would look it at that day. By 10:00am, they called. It was the Active Grill Shutters (bad from the factory as under 1,000 miles on the truck > but the only RAM ever with my 2 RAM 1500s). Said they needed to order the part, which they did. I picked up the truck. Called when the part was in a few days later, I dropped off the RAM and they had it fixed by lunch that same day. AND this wasn't even the dealer I bought the truck from.

    I'm sure there are RAM horror stories but I hear more via Ford dealers. Ironically, you always hear bad stuff on VW dealers but two of the local dealers I use for VW are exemplary...Either that or we just have good service departments in general here in Western NY.

    I'll bet one of the two VW dealers is Northtown...they have always treated me well and seem to know what they're doing.
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,742
    edited December 2015

    There is no reason why a turbo oil line repair would require a 4Lo test. None.

    There is a shop owner/writer who has a character that he uses for instructional purposes that he named, Everet Sinchu.

    If a tech does not confirm the operation of every function on a vehicle after a repair, then that opens the door for "Ever since you fixed the oil leak, XXXXXX doesn't work anymore". What you are missing with your perspective is the 4WD in this case doesn't have to be disturbed by the repair for the shop to still be considered liable if it is discovered to be inoperative for any reason once the vehicle is returned to the owner. It's actually common for shops to get blamed for problems like that because the owner of the vehicle hadn't used a given function lately for any number of possible reasons and then they notice that issue only after the car is serviced or repaired.

    A good technician would confirm the operation of that system, and every other system on the truck before parking it after any repair. Or else they would be fixing anything that was later found inoperative for free.

  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,742
    jjacquot said:

    I suspect it was an attempt to turn on the headlights since it was dark when I picked up the truck. But this is just speculation.

    Hi Josh. All in all, nice article on just what working in a service department is really like. The people who often have to deal with a problem like this one usually don't have any idea that or how a given problem occurred. The service writer is totally blindsided by something like this.
    Meanwhile, it doesn't matter if someone knows how the 4WD got switched or not, its easier to just blame than it is to do anything else and that of course is usually tossed in the technicians direction. Just imagine what that does to one's self esteem and job satisfaction.

    BTW, 4WD low operation for short periods if time won't hurt anything, even on dry pavement. Yes it binds and fights on turns, but the design takes that into consideration. Boaters often use 4WD, and of course 4WD low when trailering their boats and the transfer case and the rest of the driveline handles that kind of loading just fine.
  • redgeminiparedgeminipa Member Posts: 74
    All of these years with the EgoBoost, and Ford still can't keep them from losing oil. A friend of mine nearly opened a lemon law case because the dealer could never find where his was leaking oil from. Of course the sales department stepped in and traded him into a new 5.0L. He still says he should've just bought another GMC. He had virtually zero issues with it in the 5 years he owned it.
  • nagantnagant Member Posts: 176

    All of these years with the EgoBoost, and Ford still can't keep them from losing oil. A friend of mine nearly opened a lemon law case because the dealer could never find where his was leaking oil from. Of course the sales department stepped in and traded him into a new 5.0L. He still says he should've just bought another GMC. He had virtually zero issues with it in the 5 years he owned it.



    BS, pure and simple. GM and Ram fanbois have tried to call the EB a "bad" truck engine but its a losing argument. The EB line is extremely popular because it is an excellent truck engine.
  • g35bufg35buf Member Posts: 89

    g35buf said:

    Definitely not my local RAM dealer service level - Had a CEL come on with my EcoDiesel - went on a Monday a.m. to a very busy RAM dealer in the Buffalo area. They said if you can leave it, their lone diesel certified tech would look it at that day. By 10:00am, they called. It was the Active Grill Shutters (bad from the factory as under 1,000 miles on the truck > but the only RAM ever with my 2 RAM 1500s). Said they needed to order the part, which they did. I picked up the truck. Called when the part was in a few days later, I dropped off the RAM and they had it fixed by lunch that same day. AND this wasn't even the dealer I bought the truck from.

    I'm sure there are RAM horror stories but I hear more via Ford dealers. Ironically, you always hear bad stuff on VW dealers but two of the local dealers I use for VW are exemplary...Either that or we just have good service departments in general here in Western NY.

    I'll bet one of the two VW dealers is Northtown...they have always treated me well and seem to know what they're doing.
    Longtimelurker - Actually I was talking about Schmitts and Basil's new VW facility in Lockport...but I've used VW of OP as well with good success...So ALL 4 VW dealers in the Buffalo area must break the trend you hear about - or the pressure to perform created by the others has created a good environment for good service (it's all good as long as you don't want to buy a diesel).
  • jerrry44jerrry44 Member Posts: 16
    edited December 2015
    I once brought in a toyota corrola for repair at an independent repair shop. They put over 1,000 miles on the vehicle over the course of one week to fix a fuel-related problem. They told us that they had to drive it a little bit to make sure everything was ok but their estimate was something like 30 miles. I was furious. We recorded the odometer miles every day so we knew it was no mistake over 1000 miles. Luckily for them it was a church-owned vehicle and the church let them off the hook. If it was my own vehicle I don't know what I would have done, but it would have been bad for them.
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,742
    edited December 2015
    Lets go with the idea that they really did have to drive it that far to prove exactly what the failure was. Many random problems can only be diagnosed during the failure, and if they are infrequent enough a tech can tie up a lot of time (and miles) in the process. If the going rate for diagnostics was 100/hr and figuring an average speed of 50mph in combined conditions, that would work out to about twenty hours of a techs time being spent in an attentive, diagnostic wait mode. So did they charge $2000 for the diagnostics alone? Probably not.

    Many will want to portrait that as "joy-riding", but that's because they don't understand what the techs actually have to do and go through when dealing with some problems. For a flat rate tech, this is time on the job that he/she isn't paid for. The tech has to have all of the tools already connected to the car in the anticipation of the failure occurring and it can be quite tedious just choosing what to test and then physically setting that up. In some cases he/she may even have to remove the tools and reset them each time the tech gets to go out on the road trying to make the problem occur. ( Not to mention the increased danger of that much time on the road with all of the test equipment that must be monitored)

    Meanwhile, (hopefully for the business) the other techs in the shop are doing much simpler work, and turning productive hours. The tech assigned to the nightmare car often has regular work to do, but of course doesn't get to put in a full productive day since about half of each day would be spent with the nightmare.

    Now is this what occurred? If so the shop may well have dropped the ball by not communicating with the church about what they were doing on a daily basis, or maybe they did and that is just omitted here. Shops/techs don't have to work that hard to solve a vehicles problem, they could just give the car back and say that no problem was found. For that matter they could just choose to avoid work that is that complicated and send you away, or back to the dealer. Then again, someone could start guessing and maybe they get lucky and guess correctly, or maybe spend a thousand or more of your money with try-zee's.

    I've repaired a number of the most random issues and there have been times that the customer had to leave the car and I had to drive it as if it was my own waiting for it to act up. Then when it finally did, where-ever I was at and when-ever that was I had to do the testing to prove what the failure was, and hope that I wouldn't be stranded. (These routines are known as suicide missions) Needing to drive the car enough to log hundreds of miles is not out of the question, the key however is how this is all communicated, and to whom.

    Now just imagine someone making such a sacrifice and solving a nightmare problem only to have it be appreciated as little as the above post suggests.

  • jerrry44jerrry44 Member Posts: 16

    Lets go with the idea that they really did have to drive it that far to prove exactly what the failure was. Many random problems can only be diagnosed during the failure, and if they are infrequent enough a tech can tie up a lot of time (and miles) in the process. If the going rate for diagnostics was 100/hr and figuring an average speed of 50mph in combined conditions, that would work out to about twenty hours of a techs time being spent in an attentive, diagnostic wait mode. So did they charge $2000 for the diagnostics alone? Probably not.

    Many will want to portrait that as "joy-riding", but that's because they don't understand what the techs actually have to do and go through when dealing with some problems. For a flat rate tech, this is time on the job that he/she isn't paid for. The tech has to have all of the tools already connected to the car in the anticipation of the failure occurring and it can be quite tedious just choosing what to test and then physically setting that up. In some cases he/she may even have to remove the tools and reset them each time the tech gets to go out on the road trying to make the problem occur. ( Not to mention the increased danger of that much time on the road with all of the test equipment that must be monitored)

    Meanwhile, (hopefully for the business) the other techs in the shop are doing much simpler work, and turning productive hours. The tech assigned to the nightmare car often has regular work to do, but of course doesn't get to put in a full productive day since about half of each day would be spent with the nightmare.

    Now is this what occurred? If so the shop may well have dropped the ball by not communicating with the church about what they were doing on a daily basis, or maybe they did and that is just omitted here. Shops/techs don't have to work that hard to solve a vehicles problem, they could just give the car back and say that no problem was found. For that matter they could just choose to avoid work that is that complicated and send you away, or back to the dealer. Then again, someone could start guessing and maybe they get lucky and guess correctly, or maybe spend a thousand or more of your money with try-zee's.

    I've repaired a number of the most random issues and there have been times that the customer had to leave the car and I had to drive it as if it was my own waiting for it to act up. Then when it finally did, where-ever I was at and when-ever that was I had to do the testing to prove what the failure was, and hope that I wouldn't be stranded. (These routines are known as suicide missions) Needing to drive the car enough to log hundreds of miles is not out of the question, the key however is how this is all communicated, and to whom.

    Now just imagine someone making such a sacrifice and solving a nightmare problem only to have it be appreciated as little as the above post suggests.

    Not at all what happened. They actually lied about the miles on the odometer on their paperwork. They tried to cover it up and then lied to us when we confronted them about it. There was no mystery about what was wrong with the car. Some bad/contaminated fuel had been added to the gas tank by accident. All they did was drain the tank and clean the fuel system. There was absolutely no reason to drive the car over 1000 miles and when we talked to them about it they had absolutely no explanation for why it needed to be driven that far and denied that they did it. They said it needed to be driven 20 or 30 miles to make sure the bad fuel was out of the system. WE recorded the odometer miles every day so we knew without a doubt they lied to us.
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,742
    So then they are some of the ones that make doing the job right that much harder.
  • gslippygslippy Member Posts: 514
    For a $51800 vehicle, I'd expect better - better reliability and better service.
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