A/C Evaporator Factory Defect

[350sexZ]

so about 5 months into owning my mustang i had the evaporator replaced. That was april of 2015. About a month ago every time i would stat the car i would have a refridgerant smell coming out my vents. Now i'm noticing the drivers side vents blowing warmer air then the passenger side on max cool. Popped the hood and the compressor is on. Car just broke 15k miles and agin with the ac. Getting kinda pissed this is happening again.

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[MSMStannyl]

Any word back?

Yes! It actually took over a week which is why the delay in responding. Just got the car back yesterday afternoon...

So, as I mentioned, I lost all A/C about 2 weeks ago. Just hot air. Dealership was super busy so my appointment to drop the car off was 1 week ahead.

- Car was dropped off on the morning of Monday 8/28/17.

- Got a call just before 6pm of that day telling me that they did their testing on the system and the "good news" was that it was not the evap core, which meant my dashboard would NOT need to be ripped out. It was the A/C compressor which is in the engine bay. As it was explained to me, the pulley had somehow disintegrated (what??). Since this was all 1 piece, the pulley could not simply be replaced. The whole compressor would need to be replaced. Cost of the new compressor was $800 plus labor.

- At this point I again mentioned that I had previously contacted Ford about covering this under warranty and had the dealership made contact with them? No, they had not but the service manager would look into that tomorrow (Tuesday).

- Tuesday came and went with no word. (My GF and I were driving by and pulled in just out of curiosity. Car was way out in the parking lot.)

- Wednesday came and went with no word. In the evening (well after they were closed) I left a voicemail and an email wondering why there had been no contact and I had not been notified of anything. I also mentioned that I took this as a sign that Ford was covering 100% of the repair which is why there was no need to contact me for approval!

- Thursday morning I get a call that they had "suddenly" gotten a response from Ford (Pretty sure my car was forgotten about for 2 days but whatever). Ford was covering the repair, less a $200 deductible that I would be responsible for. Not the 100% coverage I was hoping for but being 5,000 miles out of actual warranty, I couldn't complain too much.

Car would be done by EOD Friday.

- It wasn't. Of course because of the wasted time Tuesday & Wednesday, my car was not completed and thanks to the Labor Day holiday, it wouldn't be ready until Tuesday. At this point I made a case for a loaner car and was given one.

- Picked up car on Wed 9/6/17 (I ended up having to go out of town for work on Tuesday). A/C seems to blow cold and everything seems to work.

 

[Captdistraction]

Update on mine. Its been intermittent, so of course they've not been able to duplicate the issue on my car.

Bummer, because I'm getting pretty tired of being sweat-soaked at the end of a commute. Authorized them to do more test drives in the car so hopefully it continues

 

[MSMStannyl]

I do want to add to what I just posted above. While the A/C does seem to be working again, I do have some concerns that I'm not sure what to do about regarding the dealership:

I should also add that during the 8 days of the dealership having my car, they did also perform the door latch recall, in case that has any bearing on what I'm about to mention:

So, when I dropped my car off initially, I did what I usually do. I made a MyKey using my spare set. I locked everything down that I could based on the settings available to us. Obviously I would also be able to track the mileage. Stupidly, I did not actually record the mileage of the car when I dropped it off.

When I received the car back, the first thing I did was go into the menu to check the MyKey status. Interestingly, it said that there were no MyKeys and that I now had 2 admin keys?? At some point, they reset my MyKey to be an admin key. For the life of me I can not figure out why they would have done that for an A/C repair.

I also recently Lund tuned my car with an Ngauge. Out of curiosity, I plugged it in to make sure my tune was all good however, it looked like it may have been back to stock. If I recall, there was nothing shown under status (which I believe is where it usually tells you the current tune file). To be safe, I reflashed the car with my tune.

Lastly, the paperwork receipt I received shown the same mileage for "in" and "out". I don't have it in front of me but it was something like:

IN / OUT
41,350/41,350

Meanwhile, the actual mileage was 5 miles more (41,355 using my example).

I dunno. Each of these things independently are nothing major I suppose but somehow, all of this together has me wondering...

I hate dealerships.

 

[BeauxXL1200]

I'm probably jinxing myself with this post, but I'm coming up on seven weeks since I recharged the system myself and it's still blowing cold. Maybe the sealant in the recharge plugged the leak. Fingers still crossed. :cheers:

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Update on mine. Its been intermittent, so of course they've not been able to duplicate the issue on my car.

Bummer, because I'm getting pretty tired of being sweat-soaked at the end of a commute. Authorized them to do more test drives in the car so hopefully it continues

So its not a leak if the problem comes and goes. Of course so many other things are in the box that contains the evaporator the dash may still have to come out.

 

[Turbong]

We hear so many of failed ones, what about the ones that haven't? who has the most miles of function without any issues?

 

[Asharus]

32k miles 2014 oct build date

 

[GTAG07]

I may be next in line. Cool air gone and hum sound behind the dash. 2016 GT with 29k miles. Surely they're working on an improved system?

 

[Zathras]

I'm an S197 owner who's been expecting to trade in for a new Mustang when the time is right; but my first Ford (1990s T-bird) had constant A/C issues and I'm not eager to do that again. Ford needs to quash this issue for good. You can't have this kind of QC in the 21st century global auto marketplace.

 

[MyFirst5.0]

well, i guess mines going..seeing the exact same symptoms as everyone else. as of now the center and pass vents blow cold, drivers is def warmer. only a matter of time..im not dropping it off unless i get a rental either. i knew it was coming i live in sw florida, i dont think a day has gone by that i have not used it since i moved here a year ago. if i was still in ny would prob last another year..only 11k on the car

why wont ford issue a recall at this point? i'm guessing its an expensive repair that why..

 

[Asharus]

i was wondering when yours was gonna go since u moved down there.

like mentioned earlier, recalls are not done for these kinds of issues. recalls are for safety issues only.

the best you can hope for on this, when out of warranty, is a "goodwill" from the manufacturer, where they offer to pay the full or partial amount for the part.

 

[MyFirst5.0]

i have an extended warranty, but i may or may not have the car, been wanting a truck

 

[Asharus]

i definitely would get out before the warranty is done. you have evaporators and hood corrosion to worry about beyond the warranty. engine seems bulletproof though, it's a shame ford still has both issues plaguing them for several years across multiple models.

 

[Dary]

Update:

I got my car fixed finally. The dealer changed the clutch/compressor and the evaporator. The clutch was visibly messed up; I saw some rubber seal or casket sticking out. The compressor was jammed for some reason. The cherry on top was the evaporator leaking.

It was interesting reading the technician note. He mentioned there was metal particles in the refrigerant oil. I hope they properly flushed the whole system.

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