A/C Evaporator Factory Defect

[stevejon]

my evaporater packed it in yesterday,its at the dealer"s now and they will have a replacment by the end of january as iam on the east coast of Australia.

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[Asharus]

My evaporator just went out this past week. 2016 mustang gt pp with 13500 miles. Only took the dealership the past weekend to fix it. Felt uneasy about the repair being the dash needed to come out. The repair actually solved a rattling issue, but caused other issues such as illuminated cup holders no longer working and some broken panels and most screws underneath the panels missing. I haven't had a ford since the early 2000's and took a chance with this mustang, which I absolutely love, but me and the wife decided that between the evaporator issue and the horrendous service with the ford service department (not the first issue with shotty work and a couple blatant lies to nickel and dime), we are going to try to sell it before the arizona summer. I love this car and hope in the future there aren t any other issues like this cause it's a great car. Just frustrated with the whole experience, especially the dealership.

On a side note, did anyone who had the repair done receive the vehicle back with the interior completely covered in dirt? Makes me wonder what else they did with the car.

prob had the window open when they went on multiple joyrides in it

 

[Frenchy480]

prob had the window open when they went on multiple joyrides in it

:lol: ha, and probably in the large dirt field by the dealership too.

 

[MakStang]

When my Acura MDX power steering had an issue with service repairs, Acura mailed me a letter stating they extended my warranty on the power steering system. When will Ford issue a similar letter on this evaporator failure?

I think these two phrases describe a partial solution to the issue. Everybody knows now that the S550 evaporator is defective. Ford could address the problem in a similar way.

 

[Ambrotos]

Just had mine go out last month. I hit 21000 miles on a 16 gt. It was fixed in 2 days. Every now and then when I turn on the ac it smells like finger paint or playdough. Is this normal break-in thing? Kind of annoying.

 

[[email protected]]

Just had mine go out last month. I hit 21000 miles on a 16 gt. It was fixed in 2 days. Every now and then when I turn on the ac it smells like finger paint or playdough. Is this normal break-in thing? Kind of annoying.

If it's an oily or band aid type of smell that's what mine and others smelled like when the system is leaking. Mine smelled neutral or slightly like new car when I got it back.

 

[S550IngotGT]

Another Option instead of getting rid of the car:

I spoke to my local mechanic, who I trust completely, and he said the labor costs to remove and replace my a/c evaporator control box is $550. He removes and reinstalls 2 dash boards a week and guaranteed I would never know it was taken out.

The cost of the a/c evaporator box is $350. So if my evaporator fails out of warranty it will cost me $1,000 to get it fixed by someone I can trust will do the job right. I would likely pay my mechanic to do this job even if it failed before the 3/36 warranty expires since I wouldn't trust an unknown Ford mechanic to do this job. I could possibly get the part for free in this case.

I would lose a lot more money than $1,000 if I sold the car or traded it in. Plus, I love my Mustang so it looks like I will be keeping it for now. Just another option to consider.

 

[TripleB]

Got Whipple on order. Warranty expires in May. Will these guys fix this thing if a Whipple is installed?

It likely won’t get hot enough to use AC until after the warranty is up

I’ve smelled something similar come out of
My vents last summer... smelled
Kind of like mold or mildew???but the smell would go away.

How can I break this thing before my warranty is up?

 

[DR_]

Mine was fixed with a Procharger on and the dealer didn't say a thing about it.

 

[cechk01]

Got Whipple on order. Warranty expires in May. Will these guys fix this thing if a Whipple is installed?

It likely won’t get hot enough to use AC until after the warranty is up

I’ve smelled something similar come out of
My vents last summer... smelled
Kind of like mold or mildew???but the smell would go away.

How can I break this thing before my warranty is up?

run the windshield defogger, that will kick in the AC. My windshield kept fogging up bad, that's how I found out mine broke.

 

[jdoug]

Mine was fixed with a Procharger on and the dealer didn't say a thing about it.

Some dealerships are cool like that, while others are not. Mine is pretty good about aftermarket parts and stuff, but you just never know.

 

[ElAviator72]

:frusty:10,000 miles. AC out for a SECOND TIME.
First time was 5,000 miles.
Last time they just recharged it as no parts available.
I demanded Evap core replacement this time.

Ford Service, We love you, but this hurts us.

Rant in 3, 2, 1, ...
This seems like a very expensive labor repair on Fords part.
How could Ford risk a new unproven design change in 2015 for something that carries such a high cost to repair?
This a responsibility of both engineering and management.
I am driving my 198,000 mile 2005 Accord with its perfect and very cold AC for now while my 10,000 mile 2015 Mustang has no AC a second time.
When I get the Mustang back, I would like to donate the Accord and its AC to be reverse engineered. (It was assembled in Marysville, Ohio).

Is there a career AC guru at Ford whose only job is insuring AC systems are robust and competitive with decade old US built Hondas?

The CAD 3D parts assemblies should be able to be viewed during engineering review with the quantified R&R, full recall and risk to safety data able to be superimposed or color coded.

Ford should have their own internal AC design bible by now.
The problem is not just a mechanical, metallurgical, or supplier issue: it is a fundamental example of identifying and managing risk.
Is the design difficult for suppliers to reproduce?
What is R&R cost if the part fails?
How will the part fail?
Are you set up for success? Or on the razors edge of failure?
I would love to listen in front row at the post-mortem meeting with engineering and the program manager.

How this exact issue is understood and managed, how Ford puts in place a system for identifying these risks in the first place:
this will define the coming success or failure of Ford.

Maybe the issue is not defining the solution; Maybe it is a bigger picture issue of defining the problem philosophically or holistically?
Are you designing cars? Or are you designing a system of exploring, defining, and managing a structure of relationships where the output is a company that can build not only cars, but also authoritative core competency.

Ford cannot continue to relearn this lesson over and over.

Rant over...
*edit, in case any Ford management or engineering reads this:
Yall did an outstanding job on the S550. Because it is so good, something like this stands out.
I (and the whole community) love each and every engineer, manager, assembly tech, you name it.
Outstanding work.
If any of you ever has a bad day at work, you are free to come do donuts in my Mustang anytime.

RE: Career AC guy, probably not. My first car was an '84 T-bird (hand me down), that used to eat HR980 compressors like there was no tomorrow. Had more than one mechanic tell me that they couldn't believe that anyone would throw so cheaply made compressors in an automotive application. They also had a tendency to distribute fragments of compressor through the system when they failed, which required a costly evacuation/cleanup of the lines. Factor that in with the R-12 phaseout, and I got to the point where I just had to make do without AC in a climate where summer temps regularly get above 100 deg :frusty:

 

[MyFirst5.0]

Another Option instead of getting rid of the car:
.

yup, i wouldn't trade or sell mine either. its paid off and there is nothing out there that i want anyway. prob just get a pickup as a daily and get a power adder sooner than later

also, i am not sure if anyone who had theirs replaced with the newest core has gone bad a second time. im in sw florida, ac is used literally 360 days out of the year, so if mine goes again, then the fix is just a bs bandaid..

 

[JuRuKi]

It happened to me too! A couple days ago i noticed my AC wasnt blowing cold air.
I have a dash cam wired to my passenger side fuse box with a cable running all the way to the top of my windshield near my rear view mirror. Should i disconnect that before taking it in?
I hate taking my car to the dealer! My car has quite a few mods and my headers hang pretty low. I hope they dont have any crazy speed bumps...

 

[MyFirst5.0]

It happened to me too! A couple days ago i noticed my AC wasnt blowing cold air.
I have a dash cam wired to my passenger side fuse box with a cable running all the way to the top of my windshield near my rear view mirror. Should i disconnect that before taking it in?

id disconnect it, mine was wired the same way, and when i got the car back the cable was just hanging off the pillar..

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