Ford Dealer overfilled oil in my Fusion by double the amount

just_focus · October 2015

My local Ford dealer changed my oil on Thursday of last week. I drove it home (1.8 miles) and parked it in the garage. The next morning I was half way to work (about 8 miles) and my Fusion started smoking like a freight train. I turned around and drove it right back to the dealer. We checked the dip stick and the oil was 2" above the full mark. They said the tech must of pushed the oil fill button twice by mistake. When they started the car up to take it back to drain the oil out the white smoke filled the whole garage. I insisted on talking to the service manager and he apologized. I said you guys ruined my engine and he said no there was no damage but he is willing to give me a 100,000 mile warranty on the engine. How much damage do you think was done to my engine. Its a 2012 Fusion SEL 4 cid. When I start the car now it stinks like chemicals for awhile.

thecardoc3 · October 2015

The PCM will actively test the catalyst. If it has been compromised, it will fail the test that the PCM runs on it and turn on the MIL.

stever · October 2015

Would that happen relatively quickly @thecardoc3?

@just_focus, is the dealer going to put something in writing about that warranty extension for you?

carboy21 · October 2015

Seals were busted most likely. Take the warranty and any engine work will be done free by the dealer.
forums.edmunds.com/discussion/3698/honda/civic/can-too-much-oil-damage-your-engine
Or tell him to put in a new Engine for free.

thecardoc3 · October 2015

There is no way to know if any damage has occurred. One can only rely on experiencing some symptom if/when one occurs and investigate from there. The odor will pass, and that has every chance of being the only annoyance from this mistake. No One can reliably predict if this event will result in a malfunction or not.

just_focus · October 2015

How about the catalytic converter? Did that get toasted by all the oil that blew out the exhaust?

just_focus · October 2015

Yes the dealer said that it would take a few days but he will have an extended warranty on the engine. I am hoping its an official FMC extended warranty and not a IOU from the dealer warranty.

thecardoc3 · October 2015

stever said:
Would that happen relatively quickly @thecardoc3?

It would happen if/when it happens. The criteria to get the catalyst test to run while pretty specific is fairly easy to accomplish. If you want to give the roulette wheel a spin and take black for an engine failure and red for an emissions failure from this the bet is that the house is still going to win especially if there is no failure at all.

just_focus · December 2017

Update: I ran out the dealer Warranty and traded for a Honda. No More Fords for awhile.

kyfdx · December 2017

just_focus said:
Update: I ran out the dealer Warranty and traded for a Honda. No More Fords for awhile.

Probably a good idea.

berri · December 2017

You go to a dealer for service because they are supposed to know their vehicles. Just had a Honda dealer mess up on wiper blades. Wasn't obvious until I turned them on in a rain storm. Certainly not as bad as on that Ford, but still, how can a dealer be this carelessness on their product?

thecardoc3 · December 2017

You blame the dealer but what really happened is an individual at the dealer failed at that exact moment. Now how exactly someone failed installing a set of wiper blades needs some investigation but mistakes happen, no one is perfect and there is always a lesson to be taught when something goes wrong. Unfortunately instead of it getting to be a learning experience it usually becomes an exercise in "who to blame" and that serves to put a less experienced person in place who now likely has to make and learn from the same mistakes as the previous worker.

Now that being said, have you installed many sets of wiper blades lately? There are many different designs of universal blades that have unique adapters to connect them up to the many different O.E. wiper arms with usually nothing but outline drawn pictures to demonstrate how to install the adapters. Suffice it to say anyone would have to stop working at their normal pace to figure most of these things out and most of them would be beyond reasoning for an individual who isn't mechanically gifted.

berri · December 2017

Understand, but a professional checks their work before finishing. Otherwise it is like saying a pilot forgets to lower the landing gear - just a mistake. If dealerships are going to short cut, then you might as well just take it to a quick lube and save a bunch of money.

Mr_Shiftright · December 2017

My friend's shop had some quality control issues for a while, all from one guy, They worked with him but it didn't get better, so he was let go. Too many comebacks, and even though he had to eat them himself, the shop's reputation was at stake.

You can get killed on Yelp if you don't maintain tight quality control.

This dealer has heard the alarm bell, so he'd better do something about it.

PF_Flyer · December 2017

Doesn't take much to lose trust. I had NO problems taking my vehicles back for regular service at the dealership. We had a good track record over 12 vehicles and new owners took over the dealership. Had two vehicles at the time, a brand new and a 6 year old with 180,000 miles on it. New car went in for its first oil change at the same time the older car went in for regular service interval/oil change. About two weeks later I'm driving past my buddy's tire shop/garage and the oil light comes on in the older car, so I stop in to see him and have them check. REALLY low oil level. I figure, OK, maybe this one is starting to eat/leak oil, even though there are no sots on the driveway and no telltale blue smoke. Next day, the oil light in the brand new car comes on and so I stop in at my friend again and it's almost 3 quarts low.

So I go back to the dealer to tell them about it and they come back with "I guess it could have been a malfunction on the gauge on the oil filler hose".

While I had been perfectly satisfied doing the whole small/medium/big regular service interval things for 25 years, all my routine maintenance (fluids, belts, hoses, brakes, etc.) has been done at my buddy's shop, which has saved my quite a bit of money over the last 10 years.. If there's a recall or an item my buddy doesn't handle, I go back to the dealer shop, but they lost my maintenance business on two simple oil fills

thecardoc3 · December 2017

berri said:
Understand, but a professional checks their work before finishing.

Most of those employee's that are assigned that kind of work haven't worked in a shop long enough to be considered a professional. That's how they can do that as cheaply as they do. Did they charge labor to install the blades?

berri said:

Otherwise it is like saying a pilot forgets to lower the landing gear - just a mistake. If dealerships are going to short cut, then you might as well just take it to a quick lube and save a bunch of money.

Attempting to compare this to a pilot and his/her responsibilites is a stretch. You were having wipers replaced, you were at a quick lube inside the dealer.

thecardoc3 · December 2017

Mr_Shiftright said:
My friend's shop had some quality control issues for a while, all from one guy, They worked with him but it didn't get better, so he was let go. Too many comebacks, and even though he had to eat them himself, the shop's reputation was at stake.

So how many comebacks is acceptable? How slow should it be OK for a tech to work in order to achieve a zero comeback rate?

Mr_Shiftright said:

You can get killed on Yelp if you don't maintain tight quality control.

You can killed on Yelp for anything, your fault, their fault, nobody's fault.

Mr_Shiftright said:

This dealer has heard the alarm bell, so he'd better do something about it.

Yep, one strike and your out. Or wait, maybe make him/her a manager. If they can't put on a set of wiper blades then maybe they are management material, or they could be a writer, a poet, or a pilot or????? Just get them away from someone's car.

berri · December 2017

You can be sarcastic, but I consider a mechanic as a trained professional and therefore expect professionalism in return regardless of whether a car, aircraft or home matter. The rather large overfill of oil on that Ford is just not comprehensible to me. The wiper issue is not nearly as major, but again shows maybe dealers need to get a little more oversight emphasis. And yes, I did pay labor on the wiper blades. Dealers seldom do anything for free.

thecardoc3 · December 2017

berri said:

You can be sarcastic, but I consider a mechanic as a trained professional and therefore expect professionalism in return regardless of whether a car, aircraft or home matter.

The quick lube employee's even in a dealer are NOT mechanics. They don't need any experience or training at all to get one of those jobs.

berri said:

The rather large overfill of oil on that Ford is just not comprehensible to me.

I can envision it occurring quite easily and it probably occured under the heading of what I call "A well timed interruption". The most likely cause instead of a double fill was that the original oil wasn't drained. Then the oil level wasn't checked after the service, however even doing that has traps associated to it that even some exerienced people can struggle with.

https://www.edmunds.com/ford/f-150/2015/long-term-road-test/2015-ford-f-150-easy-diy-oil-change-holds-a-minefield-of-potential-screw-ups.html

berri said:

The wiper issue is not nearly as major, but again shows maybe dealers need to get a little more oversight emphasis. And yes, I did pay labor on the wiper blades. Dealers seldom do anything for free.

There always should have been a fee for labor, but we never got paid to install wipers.

kyfdx · December 2017

I think this discussion has run it's course.

Ford Dealer overfilled oil in my Fusion by double the amount

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