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4th gear is gone

Fordman460

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My 16 GTPP 6MT has just lost 4th gear. I haven't been driving it hardly at all l took it to the gas station this evening and was just driving along at 35ish when I went to put it in 4th, it fell in and it sounded like the tips of the gear teeth were bouncing off each other. It wasn't grinding there just wasn't anything there. Only mods are long tubes cat back and CAI with a tune. I don't track it at all. What could it be? Whatever it is I hope its covered under warranty.
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armykyle1 [HACKED ACCOUNT

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Most likely they'll deny your warranty because of the mods. Unless you really know the dealer.
 

2015 Silver GT

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It won't be covered under warranty nor should it be.
 

Dominant1

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Yep denied! I have a buddy who broke 3 built mt82 transmissions, he just got a tremec magnum xl and he is in heaven now!
 

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Sounds like you might want to look for better dealerships or stop taking 'no' for an answer. Denying a transmission failure on car because of a intake and exhaust?

There are Federal laws regarding what auto manufacturers can and can't do when it comes to warranty - and the burden of proof is on them. Problem is a lot of people simply take "NO" and stop pushing.

I guarantee you (seen it in person) that in this age of social media and how much business is generated for dealerships via social media and networking, it wouldn't take much to get a "no" turned into a "yes" and every bit of it is legal and straight up.
 

mustang1

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hopefully they cover this under warranty. Clutch is one thing, but gears should be good for N/A level power and stock clutch.
 

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Sounds like you might want to look for better dealerships or stop taking 'no' for an answer. Denying a transmission failure on car because of a intake and exhaust?

There are Federal laws regarding what auto manufacturers can and can't do when it comes to warranty - and the burden of proof is on them. Problem is a lot of people simply take "NO" and stop pushing.

I guarantee you (seen it in person) that in this age of social media and how much business is generated for dealerships via social media and networking, it wouldn't take much to get a "no" turned into a "yes" and every bit of it is legal and straight up.
The intake/exhaust is not the problem...it's usually the tune. And all a manufacturer has to do is say that the increase in power (which can be substantial for even for those simple mods) caused the failure as the unit was not designed for that kind of power. Not much one can say there.

And AFAIK it's up to Ford to deny coverage, not the dealership. I don't think throwing a stink on Facebook or other social media is going to "scare" a multi-billion dollar company like FoMoCo into covering your broken transmission.
 
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Fordman460

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I have not been denied yet, the dealership just got the car this morning. Its a BAMA tune so its pretty conservative.
 

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ctandc72

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The intake/exhaust is not the problem...it's usually the tune. And all a manufacturer has to do is say that the increase in power (which can be substantial for even for those simple mods) caused the failure as the unit was not designed for that kind of power. Not much one can say there.
Actually there is a lot to say there - since Federal law requires the manufacturer PROVE that is the reason for the failure. You are telling me that adding a tune and exhaust to a GT is enough to lunch 4th gear? Come on....really?

And AFAIK it's up to Ford to deny coverage, not the dealership. I don't think throwing a stink on Facebook or other social media is going to "scare" a multi-billion dollar company like FoMoCo into covering your broken transmission.
Well unless you volunteer and tell them you have a tune, how would they know? The only thing the dealer techs can see is how many key cycles since last flash. So if you flash back to stock, you have a low count. The burden of proof is theirs. And 9 times out of 10, (and it's not just Ford Dealers) it's the dealership that tries to deny warranty repairs. And car dealerships, more than many other types of businesses, depend on word of mouth and positive reviews.

It's a bottom line thing. Each dealership gets basically reimbursed for their labor / parts to take care of warranty repairs. Manufacturers will sometimes 'audit' repair departments and so they have to justify why certain repairs were done etc.

And it ALL starts with the dealer. If a dealer denies a warranty repair, the next step is up to the customer. If they don't say anything and just pay for the repair, do you think the service manager at that dealership is going to tell Ford they denied a repair?

I worked in the car business for a good while....this happens more than you know.

Find a good dealership. They are out there. Hell, a friend of mine was telling me about a Ford dealer that had a dyno on the grounds and had a lot of business from selling / installing Ford Performance add on's.
 

mustang1

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The intake/exhaust is not the problem...it's usually the tune. And all a manufacturer has to do is say that the increase in power (which can be substantial for even for those simple mods) caused the failure as the unit was not designed for that kind of power. Not much one can say there.
Tune isn't making significant torque gains so it would be a stretch for a dealership to claim increase in power. Maybe if the OP was running a ceramic clutch with no hub springs. I could see them denying an engine failure, detonation, etc.
 

jayvajj

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To each their own but talking to the dealer like a human being and not that your owed this or that tends to work well for me.
The burden of proof falls on the dealer? The Magnuson Act is a pipedream some folks use to justify why the modifications did not cause the failure. In a black and white world sure, but the dealer's simplest answer is that the modified tune is performing outside the parameters of the factory specs and is the cause of the gears blowing out. That will be their story. The burden of proof now falls on you to disprove it with your own specialists, lawyers costing you time/money.
 

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You are telling me that adding a tune and exhaust to a GT is enough to lunch 4th gear? Come on....really?
I personally don't believe that, but if it comes to a court ruling and Ford says we rated our transmissions at XXX torque and this setup had XX more torque then they can easily say that that was the cause of failure.

Tune isn't making significant torque gains so it would be a stretch for a dealership to claim increase in power. Maybe if the OP was running a ceramic clutch with no hub springs. I could see them denying an engine failure, detonation, etc.
You're right, it doesn't. But all it takes is 1 more hp/tq increase over stock and the manufacturer can say that their unit was not rated for that power and they can't warranty it. There's no law or rule that says only a certain amount of power can be considered too much for the rating, so even 1 extra hp is technically over the rating.

Look all I'm saying is basically you're at the mercy of the dealer, because Ford can easily and legally deny coverage based on the modifications done to the car.
 

ctandc72

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To each their own but talking to the dealer like a human being and not that your owed this or that tends to work well for me.
The burden of proof falls on the dealer? The Magnuson Act is a pipedream some folks use to justify why the modifications did not cause the failure. In a black and white world sure, but the dealer's simplest answer is that the modified tune is performing outside the parameters of the factory specs and is the cause of the gears blowing out. That will be their story. The burden of proof now falls on you to disprove it with your own specialists, lawyers costing you time/money.
Again, how do they know you have a tune? Every tuner I've seen lately specifically advises to flash the car back to stock for dealer / warranty service.

Why is that?

Because once it's flashed back to stock, the dealer can only read key cycles since last flash. So they have zero proof the car has an aftermarket tune, much less able to prove the tune caused any damage.

And I'm not talking about being an ass to a dealer off the bat. I worked in service departments. Hell, I remember trying to save a customer a few thousand dollars on a repair they SAID they needed - that they didn't - and they cussed me out. I replaced their GOOD engine and they were happy. So be it.

Heck, I've personally been to GM and MOPAR dealerships where most of the techs / service people are gear heads and they don't blink an eye at headers, exhaust, intakes etc.

On the opposite end, I witnessed a dealer try to deny an engine failure on a friend's SUV. A bone stock SUV. Told him that it looked to be caused by "poor maintenance". He told the guy "I don't see any record of you bringing your vehicle in for scheduled maintenance." The guy in question was an engineer. And a pretty anal one at that. He had receipts scanned in for oil / filter purchases and date / time / mileage records of EVERY Service (not just oil changes). When presented with all of the maintenance records, the vehicle got a new engine - because that guy knew he's lose that battle with Corporate and would end up replacing the engine anyway.
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