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Any minor issues with your new GT500?

marklboris

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Thought I would start a thread of minor issues I have found with my car in the 10 days of ownership. I figured it may be of interest to some and also others can post what they have found so we can maybe benefit from this.

I am not in any way bagging on this car as I really love it but most of these things or maybe all of them were due to the way it was put together. My car's final assembly was on Friday, February 28th so that may have something to do with it. :)

I did not take photos of each of the issues even though I meant to.

We all know of the heater hose problem and mine also had it. Wasn't too difficult of a fix. Just had to support the hood while I removed the tower brace which has the hood support shock attached.

On the B Pillar right behind the drivers door, the inside panel (large rear quarter panel next to the rear seat) was not fully snapped into place. The edge of the panel is supposed to be tight against the weather stripping but it wasn't. I had to pull the panel off anyway since I was tearing apart the entire interior to sound deaden it and found that when it was assembled, two of the white plastic pins were bent and obviously not going into the holes they were intended to go.

When removing the lower cushion of the rear seat, there are two plastic levers you easily push back and it unsnaps the cushion and you pull it right out. One of the plastic levers was broken so in order for me to remove the seat I had to use a screwdriver to finagle down in where the catch is to remove it. After removing the seat, I found the broken plastic latch. The way it must of happened is when the seat was installed, the latch was not properly in the hole and the seat was pushed down anyway.

After removing the rear seat, under both sides are wires that go down into the top of the fuel tanks. They go into a rubber boot and should be snapped into place so that it keeps the noise and air out of coming into the interior. One of them was not in place.

The drivers side kick panel was bulging out a bit just under the hood release at the bottom where it come close to the edge of the carpet. After taking the panel off, I found the main wiring loom that comes down inside that panel, going to the rear of the car has a strain relieve pin attached to it and was supposed to be pushed into a bracket that was about an inch away. This would hold the loom back against the body of the car and not sticking out and pushing the kick panel out like it was.

In removing the drivers Recaro seat, I found one of the two plugs had a wire that had been cut and two others were damaged but not cut through. This plug was not being used as it is for the power connections for the sport seats that have power, heating and cooling. Even though this plug was not being used, I am not sure if there is still power going to this plug so I was concerned when I saw the bare cut wire there. The reason this happened is that this plug is supposed to be attached to a clip to keep it out of the way of the seat rail but it wasn't and in moving the seat back and forth it got in the way.

The window in the passenger door when opened makes a rattle sound. The drivers door is completely quiet when opened. Since I had to take the door panels off anyways because I was changing the trim on them and sound deadening the doors, I adjusted one of the window rails so the window would not move and rattle when the door was opened.

The lid on the fuse box in the engine compartment does not stay up when you open it. In fact mine would not even open past 45˚ so I had to reroute the battery negative cable wire around the fuse box loom behind the box (as shown in the photo below) to allow the lid to open fully and stay open. This is not a big deal but I would think the lid should at least open fully so you can get to the fuses easier.

When installing the resonator delete x-pipe, I looked over at the DCT and saw a wiring loom resting against a very sharp edge on a metal bracket. The loom was very tight against this bracket and I could not see how this could be good over time and in feeling the edge it was definitely sharp. I took a pair of pliers and slightly bent down the edge of the bracket to allow a bit of space between it and the loom.

While I was replacing both headlamps, first thing I noticed was two of the three screws on the drivers side headlamp were loose. What I mean by loose is they were finger tight, not even snug tight. Second, behind the passenger headlamp is a plastic tube that supplies the fluid for the windshield washer nozzles. It has three strain relieve pin supports attached to it. None of the three supports where in the holes they were supposed to be in so that hose was just moving around back there.

When I opened the glove box for the first time, I thought it was kind of weird that is just flopped down hard. Most all of my other cars/trucks in the past few years had damped door openings where it comes down slowly when opened. Looking inside the glove box, I saw the plastic gear/wheel that is supposed to be attached to the arm on the right side that allows the glove box to come down slowly. Bringing the glove box down out of the dash and installing the gear and arm was an easy fix though.

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Wine dude

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That seems like a lot of things maybe all minor but way more than I would expect or accept, I don’t think many will look at all of the things u found, the scariest is the wiring stuff.
 

Myshelby3425

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All the interior issues mostly carry over from the s550 model from 2015 since they didn’t change anything for the GT500.
 

kilobravo

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HOLY CRAP, MARK!

Dude, Ford desperately needs to HIRE YOU, no kidding, your post was that darn good, man..really, and thanks a million.

Like most, I haven't gone on a safari hunt or at least not very deep into the jungle, <smile> but I did notice the problem with the fuse box lid.

But I have to agree with WD, that's just too many screw ups.
 

AngelDeath

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Welcome to quality control. When I got my '16 CS there was a slew of things wrong that I brought back to the dealership a week later and made them fix. the biggest one that was clearly apparent was the truck lid was waaaaay off and not aligned, I looked at them (I was real nice about it) and ask "Can someone explain to me how no one saw how off the truck lid was"? They thought I was referring to the quality control at the plant, which I was, but I was also referring to the prep dept as well.
 

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marklboris

marklboris

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What was this?
Yes Tom, that is the unused drivers seat connector. The drivers side Recaro seat only uses one connection (for the seat belt and airbag). This second connector is for the base sport seats that have power movement, heated and cooling. It was supposed to be attached to a restraining clip but wasn't. It was just loose under the seat and did not notice it until I removed the seat. I assumed since it was close to the seat rail that the wire got caught.
 
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marklboris

marklboris

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HOLY CRAP, MARK!

Dude, Ford desperately needs to HIRE YOU, no kidding, your post was that darn good, man..really, and thanks a million.

Like most, I haven't gone on a safari hunt or at least not very deep into the jungle, <smile> but I did notice the problem with the fuse box lid.

But I have to agree with WD, that's just too many screw ups.
Well, like I said in the beginning, these are minor things (mostly) and I would not have known about any of them had I not taken apart the car as much as I have. If I had to take a guess, I would say the car was rushed when put together.
 

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Tomster

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Yes Tom, that is the unused drivers seat connector. The drivers side Recaro seat only uses one connection (for the seat belt and airbag). This second connector is for the base sport seats that have power movement, heated and cooling. It was supposed to be attached to a restraining clip but wasn't. It was just loose under the seat and did not notice it until I removed the seat. I assumed since it was close to the seat rail that the wire got caught.
That's typical of a mass produced car. The same wiring harness for all models and they just use what is needed. Was your harness chopped by the seat or did you chop it off. I would want a new harness if it came like that.
 
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marklboris

marklboris

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I don't know where to ask this question so I will ask it right here. Is there a reason that we did not get ambient lighting in this car? Why would the regular Mustangs, GT's, Ecoboost's etc. get the cool ambient lighting in the footwells, door latches, door bins, cup holders etc. and not us? I am at least going to add ice blue LED lighting in the foot wells when I get around to it.
 
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marklboris

marklboris

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That's typical of a mass produced car. The same wiring harness for all models and they just use what is needed. Was your harness chopped by the seat or did you chop it off. I would want a new harness if it came like that.
No Tom, it came like that. Maybe with me moving the seat back and forth the three times I drove the car before removing the seat caused the wire to get caught and break but that is how I found it. I am not concerned with getting a new connection since I am not using that plug anyway. I just taped it off.
 

Tomster

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No Tom, it came like that. Maybe with me moving the seat back and forth the three times I drove the car before removing the seat caused the wire to get caught and break but that is how I found it.
Oh boy..... I'd have to look at my service manual, but that would be a hell of a job to replace the wiring harness. And I would want it replaced.

Edited to add: Since the harness was severed so close to the terminal block, new pins could be crimped and re-inserted into the terminal block..... if there was enough slack.

Another edit: It looks like an independent harness from the wiring schematic ie) it goes from the seat control switch to the various motors (tilt, height, track). So the harness replacement wouldn't be that big of a deal.

This is the schematic from a GT350R. Any S550 should be about the same, the wiring colors of the harness may vary.

seat wiring schematic.jpg
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