I need help. Botched service, may need new motor.

[EF300]

I am very sad to write this message but here is the current story.

About 6 months ago I had the Evap core on my ac unit go out. Ford warrantied the Evap core but also found and issue with the AC compressor not kicking on. At that time they changed the AC compressor as well. All seemed fine until I noticed a strange sound under the hood. Long story short, the AC compressor had come loose from the engine and thrown the AC stretch belt. The tech said something may be wrong with the compressor clutch causing the belt to come off so they need to remove and warranty out the AC compressor again.

Later that day I got a call for the service manager stating that during removal of the compressor a bolt sheared off in the block. To remove the bolt they had to drill it out of the block. They went ahead with the work and the next day said everything went well, the bolt was out and the AC compressor was fixed.

Well the other day I heard a "clunk" under the hood so I dropped the car off for service at A DIFFERENT dealership. Today they called to tell me that there is a sheared off bolt in the block in the AC compressor post and the other two bolts posts in the block were heli coiled. They are saying its basically impossible to fix correctly and a new block is needed.

Looking through my service history the dealership that originally "fixed" the AC compressor made no mention of a broken bolt in the block, drilling a bolt out or putting heli coil in the block posts. Luckily I have a text message from the service rep stating that 1 bolt was broken off in the block and they repaired it.

The car is being towed back to the original dealership that seemingly botched the repair for evaluation. Needless to say I am almost certain that ford will punt any repair / engine replacement costs back on to the dealership rather than warranty it out.

I am going to give the dealership a chance to do the right thing.

Attached are pics of the botched repair showing a sheared bolt and 2 heli coils in the block.

TY
Sheared bolt

Heli coil

Helicoil

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[lightrules]

Man, they better get this all done right for you. Sorry to hear this. Please keep us posted.

 

[Zeromaz]

Pretty sure they’re not allowed to do ANYTHING to these motors. To include drilling. Might want to check into that.

 

[Shift]

Jfc. I hope they make your car whole again, sorry to hear.

 

[300mag]

Good luck, hope they make things right for you

 

[Tomster]

They screwed it up and a new engine doesn't make you whole again. The value of your car will go down. May I suggest the buyback option? I'd buy another however.

 

[EF300]

Will probably need some outside help to initiate a buy back I think.

There's going to be an inspection early next week with all the higher-ups at the dealership. I will see what comes of that. I know they want to remove the subframe to get a better look at everything. I told him not to do any work on it after subframe removal until I come look at it.

Also I'm not totally sure that the stuff in those bolt holes is Helicoil. That's what the a tech at the dealership that found the problem told me. The dealership that did the repair as swearing up and down that they didn't use Helicoil. I don't have much experience with it does that look like Helicoil to you guys?

 

[300mag]

I'm no expert but it does look more like a helicoil(or some other type of insert) since it's recessed. Hopefully the dealership make things right for you because in case like this I believe Ford is going to nullify the self as it was workmanship error and put it on the dealership to fix on their dime.

 

[Wriggly]

Does not look like Helicoils in the two bosses. If there were Helicoils installed, that would not be a negative and personally they would make those bosses more repeatedly serviceable versus threading into the aluminum.

Rolls Royce used Helicoils routinely in some of their aluminum engines to allow better servicbility on engine components that might need repeated removal and installation during the life of the engine.
As for extraction of the broken bolt. It happens more frequently than you would think, and removal is pretty straightforward.

Personally, I prefer Timeserts over Helicoils, but there's really nothing wrong with Helicoils used in situations were they can be fitted. Stronger hole than a standard hole threaded into aluminum.

 

[SVTinAR]

Right - a helicoil in aluminum is not a bad repair. As a matter of fact some aluminum parts are produced with all the mounting holes already helicoil's for serviceability and durability. Anyone who restores old vintage hi-po heads and intakes for older cars knows that helicoils are your friend. May be other issues going on thought that haven't been properly handled.

 

[EF300]

Thanks guys I appreciate your input. If they can get that bolt out and then clean up those threads and get the compressor back on I will definitely take that. Good to know that Helicoil is an acceptable repair in that situation so to speak. I may also have to look into threaded inserts if they are going to do some kind of thread work on it. Personally I'm willing to at least take a chance on a repair like that rather than going straight to engine replacement.

 

[Wriggly]

Interesting test of the commonly available thread inserts. A little long, but certainly worth the time.

 

[EF300]

Interesting test of the commonly available thread inserts. A little long, but certainly worth the time.

I watched the whole thing. It was very good thank you. Makes me feel a lot better about threaded inserts. I'm actually kind of surprised about the performance of the time sert's

 

[Wriggly]

Scroll down to page nine for the Rolls Royce Helicoils reference....

https://heritage.bentleymotors.com/...f;jsessionid=131EA2A50D01C329E111F45E6C668031

 

[EF300]

Scroll down to page nine for the Rolls Royce Helicoils reference....

https://heritage.bentleymotors.com/...f;jsessionid=131EA2A50D01C329E111F45E6C668031

Thanks 1962 ftw. Honestly if they can fix it I'm willing to give it a go. But I want everything they r doing documented in the Ford service database.

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