Aircon stopped working

[Freman]

On my contract it says Owners Advantage+, I'll presume the '+' was typo :-).

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[GT 550]

Hi folks,

Just wondering...any more of these failures that anyone knows about? Thankfully seems to be going quiet...

Cheers

 

[Drewbo]

Just wondering...any more of these failures that anyone knows about? Thankfully seems to be going quiet...

With the warm weather starting to ramp up, expect a few more to fall off the perch shortly.

 

[Waldial]

Had failure of my 2016 GT Mustang Air Con last week, took it to the Ford dealers in Canberra, warranty expired last April and the vehicle has only 15,000km on the clock. I explained to the Service rep that there was an issue with the air con evaporator in the first release models but alas they have never heard of it before also never heard of the oil cooler failures. Tried to enlighten them but not interested. Anyhow the mechanics could not find any leaks but suspected the evaporator was the culpret so the system was recharged with dye added now it is wait and see if the system still works in a few weeks time. Told that I am looking at approx $1500 if the evaporator is leaking also that the standard extended warranty does not cover the fault. Hate to see what Ford will do if the oil cooler fails!

 

[Drewbo]

I explained to the Service rep that there was an issue with the air con evaporator in the first release models but alas they have never heard of it before

Show them this:

https://ford.oemdtc.com/3936

Told that I am looking at approx $1500 if the evaporator is leaking also that the standard extended warranty does not cover the fault.

Then refer them to this:

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/consumer-guarantees

 

[trumpeteer_au]

Had failure of my 2016 GT Mustang Air Con last week, took it to the Ford dealers in Canberra, warranty expired last April and the vehicle has only 15,000km on the clock. I explained to the Service rep that there was an issue with the air con evaporator in the first release models but alas they have never heard of it before also never heard of the oil cooler failures. Tried to enlighten them but not interested. Anyhow the mechanics could not find any leaks but suspected the evaporator was the cullpret so the system was recharged with dye added now it is wait and see if the system still works in a few weeks time. Told that I am looking at approx $1500 if the evaporator is leaking also that the standard extended warranty does not cover the fault. Hate to see what Ford will do if the oil cooler fails!

Yes my biggest fear as well. Mine went at 8 months the first time when they recharged it, but then was good for another 18 months before it failed again and they replaced it.

I hope the new one they put in was a "new and improved" version that won't let me down. Now I am out of warranty I don't want to be paying for this fault myself.

 

[snake bite]

That's what happened to me except they replaced the compressor. I'm paranoid that isn't what's wrong and ultimately the evaporator will go. Mine has done 37k km and now out of warranty

 

[GT 550]

[QUOTE="Waldial, post: 2714163, member: 25661I explained to the Service rep that there was an issue with the air con evaporator in the first release models but alas they have never heard of it before also never heard of the oil cooler failures. Tried to enlighten them but not interested. [/QUOTE]

Bugger!

Let us know how you get on, as discussed earlier in this thread there was always going to be some poor owner who's aircon was the first to fail out of warranty and the first to test Ford on this. You should not pay a red cent. It's a perfect consumer law test case as well as something to bring to the attention of Choice magazine.

 

[GT 550]

Hi @Waldial any luck ?

 

[Waldial]

GT550 - The air con is still working but I have to take it back to Ford in about 2 weeks to get the system pressure checked. Fault may have possible been insufficient gas in the system as there are no signs of any dye leaking out. Here's hoping that was the problem.

 

[FrogXA]

My late 2016 GT fastback's aircon started to fail about a week and a half before the original warranty ran out (I'm the second owner). They booked me in to have a look at it 2 days before the end of warranty and when I picked it up they said "Yep, it's the evaporator, we've got it booked in for 2 days next month to do the job and you get a loaner car while we fix it"
I was very surprised as I thought they might fob me off with some sort of excuse, gas it up till the warranty ran out then I would have to pay for it myself.
I had a bit of an issue on the way home where the sync 3 was doing weird stuff and the check engine light came on so I rang them up, took it back in the next day and it turned out one of the plugs behind the dash hadn't been seated properly. They were very apologetic for their mistake and I couldn't fault their work. No rattles or squeaks in the dash.
So I count myself lucky that I had a good experience with a dealer that I didn't even buy the car from new.
Don't forget that this is a very well known problem, both here and in the U.S., so Ford are well aware of it. I don't really understand why some dealers make it so hard when ultimately Ford should be footing the bill, not them.

 

[GT 550]

GT550 - The air con is still working but I have to take it back to Ford in about 2 weeks to get the system pressure checked. Fault may have possible been insufficient gas in the system as there are no signs of any dye leaking out. Here's hoping that was the problem.

Fingers crossed, hopefully they've done some homework.

My late 2016 GT fastback's aircon started to fail about a week and a half before the original warranty ran out (I'm the second owner). They booked me in to have a look at it 2 days before the end of warranty and when I picked it up they said "Yep, it's the evaporator, we've got it booked in for 2 days next month to do the job and you get a loaner car while we fix it"...I don't really understand why some dealers make it so hard when ultimately Ford should be footing the bill, not them.

Great result under the circumstances, and how it should be. Some dealers probably see it as a high risk job that'll take them longer than normal, and for which Ford may not adequately compensate them, and hence don't want to go near it.

 

[Waldial]

Just had my 2016 Mustang checked after the air conditioning failed at 15,600km, the system was regassed and dye added early November. Vehicle has been driven approx 1200km since then so booked it in for today to be checked for leaks, early this morning I noticed a whitish smear on the inside of the windscreen above coming up from the demisting air vents which was not a good sign. Ford mechanics checked the air cond system for leaks and saw that the evaporator was faulty, new one ordered to be fitted early January. Dealer will contact Ford to see if it can be done under extended warranty. Here is hoping that with such low km's on the clock when the system first failed and driven on smooth roads that Ford will cover the repair otherwise I might have to take up GT550's advice above. Will have to wait several weeks for a reply. On another common fault, the factory oil cooler. Decided to bite the bullet and had a Harrop air to oil cooler fitted last week, cost a bit but it has eliminated a common fault. You would think that on a $60,000 plus vehicle that these issues would not exist.

 

[GT 550]

You would think that on a $60,000 plus vehicle that these issues would not exist.

...and that when found to exist Ford would extend the warranty to cover acceptable service life of the affected parts at least to original owners with a Ford service history.

Hasn't appeared to hurt the sales of 2018+ cars so I guess they're not interested in trying harder. Hopefully they'll come good ie there will be zero cost to you but if not there's every chance they can be compelled to make it right, after all they did get fined 10m over the Focus transmission fiasco. Big companies are well versed in this sort of thing, if 30 Mustang owners get pissed off and leave the brand it's nothing compared to what it'd cost them to cover every car a/c for an extra 5 years, and they already have your money. Sadly it's often a minority of individuals that have to fight their corporate bullying.

Is the 'extended warranty' one that you purchased, or just based on goodwill and reason?

Given it appears that an answer won't be forthcoming for several weeks, which is in itself ridiculous over summer, you could ask Fair Trading if you can have the work done and recover costs later as it's unsafe and unreasonable to have a car over summer without a/c. It'll have to be done at some stage anyway so if Ford says yes happy days but if not, have it done by them and go down the cost recovery route.

If Ford declines to accept liability try to obtain their response by email or at least log the time/date of the call so you can take it to a tribunal hearing as evidence if it comes to that.

It can be a grind but hang in there.

 

[radar]

contact Ford to see if it can be done under extended warranty.

Read my Ford Factory Extended Warranty; only excludes batteries, tyres and other consumables presumably

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