Dealer Issue

[chesster51]

I've been experiencing a couple of "noises" from my Bullitt and found the cause for both. The first is the large damper/counterweight on the right side of the transmission. It rides on a shaft but is not fitted tight and wobbles with ever shift and makes noticeable noise. The other is excessive gear lash in the diff. Had the car of jack stands and when I rotate the driveshaft everything is tight from the trans back, no slop, but the shaft rotates quite a bit before the dif engages and makes a loud "thud" every time. I've had it at the dealer for both issues on separate occasions. First time for the damper on the trans. They replaced it, or at least said they did, and no difference. Learned to try and live with that one. Second time for thud in the rear. Now I've modded the car for sure and service guys eyes got big when he seen the red diff lock out bushings. He immediatly mentioned it and then said it looks like someone's been in the rear end based on the type of sealant on the cover. He implied that a possible gear change. I told him the car only has 1800 miles on it and no one has been in the rear end and that it's easy to check the gear ratio checking driveshaft to wheel rotations. He said they would rather count teeth. My thought was they would have to drop the cradle and pull the cover anyway to address the lash. So they kept the car for 5 days and when I came to pick it up I was told there was no gear change and the lash was in tolerance. They found out the car has been tuned and he had the gall to tell me the tune was causing the thud! I asked him if he really believed what he was saying and replied that the fuel trims are off causing the thud! I couldn't believe what I was hearing and left disgusted. The thud in the rear is easily duplicated in parking lot driving just by applying and letting of the accelerator. I know they never dropped the cradle to measure lash so they did nothing for the 5 days they kept it. I'm going to take it to another dealer, but on my receipt it was noted "vehicle has modified engine programming" which I'm sure is in a database the next dealer will see. The thud is so bad I'm not enjoying the car. If I don't have success with another dealer I'm going to have to have it fixed on my own.

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[Louk]

you may have luck with another more mod friendly dealer, when I worked at dealer if the car was modified the dealer was very cautious about touching anything that appeared non-oem due to possibility of damaging or other issues arising from a third party installer/part.
unfortunately I have seen first hand warranty claims denied due to a long drawn out reason of you modified this which caused stress on this which in turn caused this part to fail or prematurely wear. Good luck I know they can be a pain.

 

[BimmerDriver]

Everyone here knows that an engine tune doesn't affect the rear end. However, the dealer is understandably shy about fixing something under warranty that Ford may later deny because of a mod. I'd be surprised if they bend over backwards to make you happy.

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