Warranty versus intermittent AC issues

[Captdistraction]

This is a bit of a crosspost, but not sure how I handle a warranty issue I'm dealing with:


My S550 PP GT has had intermittent AC cooling issues since I've owned it. Last year in the summer it went out on a drive out of town where there was just hot air coming out of the events, and just last week it did it twice.


This time there was some smoke and strong smell from under the hood when the AC went out. Each time the IAT (intake air temp) was very high, 140* or higher, indicating the temperatures under hood were very high. I had the car towed in due to the issues via Ford's roadside service.

now the dealer asked me to come look at it as they can't find anything wrong (again), supposedly its blowing cold air for them (which it wasn't doing even when we unloaded the car from the tow rig. My troubleshooting is limited, but the AC belt is intact, the compressor seems to be turning properly, and the car's powertrain is 100% unmodified (there's a catback, springs, braces, shocks on the car outside small appearance items).


I just want a working mustang. There aren't other cars out there that currently hold my interest in this price range. However, you can't do Arizona summer without air conditioning. Now I am in a real pickle.


Last week the car dropped the AC Thursday and Friday, Friday being the incident with smoke and the weird smell and towing to the dealer.


Now they can't find anything wrong with it. I just test drove it with the service advisor and while the AC performance was very poor, it was within specifications (its a hot day in Arizona, but admittedly the air coming out was cool enough to be considered working).


They're keeping the car a bit longer to try to make it repeat what its been doing to me, but ultimately it looks like I'm going to be on the hook for the diagnostic fee, rental car fees, and get the car back in a partially functioning state. This could quickly be a $500 bill.


I'm infuriated but I understand if the dealer can't get ford to pay for repairs then I'm the odd man out. What recommendations are there for what to do? Pay it and go to another dealer? Get Ford Customer Service involved somehow? These intermittent issues are a headache for all, and my service advisor is sympathetic, but its shaping up like I'm going to be left with a hot uncomfortable ride and emptier-than-usual wallet.

Sponsored

 

[white15gt]

This is a bit of a crosspost, but not sure how I handle a warranty issue I'm dealing with:


My S550 PP GT has had intermittent AC cooling issues since I've owned it. Last year in the summer it went out on a drive out of town where there was just hot air coming out of the events, and just last week it did it twice.


This time there was some smoke and strong smell from under the hood when the AC went out. Each time the IAT (intake air temp) was very high, 140* or higher, indicating the temperatures under hood were very high. I had the car towed in due to the issues via Ford's roadside service.

now the dealer asked me to come look at it as they can't find anything wrong (again), supposedly its blowing cold air for them (which it wasn't doing even when we unloaded the car from the tow rig. My troubleshooting is limited, but the AC belt is intact, the compressor seems to be turning properly, and the car's powertrain is 100% unmodified (there's a catback, springs, braces, shocks on the car outside small appearance items).


I just want a working mustang. There aren't other cars out there that currently hold my interest in this price range. However, you can't do Arizona summer without air conditioning. Now I am in a real pickle.


Last week the car dropped the AC Thursday and Friday, Friday being the incident with smoke and the weird smell and towing to the dealer.


Now they can't find anything wrong with it. I just test drove it with the service advisor and while the AC performance was very poor, it was within specifications (its a hot day in Arizona, but admittedly the air coming out was cool enough to be considered working).


They're keeping the car a bit longer to try to make it repeat what its been doing to me, but ultimately it looks like I'm going to be on the hook for the diagnostic fee, rental car fees, and get the car back in a partially functioning state. This could quickly be a $500 bill.


I'm infuriated but I understand if the dealer can't get ford to pay for repairs then I'm the odd man out. What recommendations are there for what to do? Pay it and go to another dealer? Get Ford Customer Service involved somehow? These intermittent issues are a headache for all, and my service advisor is sympathetic, but its shaping up like I'm going to be left with a hot uncomfortable ride and emptier-than-usual wallet.

Chris, this happened to mine. The Compressor seized up. Original dealer first replaced the clutch, didn't work. Then they put a new compressor on it. It worked great for 3-4 months. Now I don't have working AC, even though the compressor is still spinning... I've reached out to FCSD, cause my warranty timed out in Oct. but obviously the issue wasn't fixed correctly. SWEET

 

[scoggy_doogan]

Chris, this happened to mine. The Compressor seized up. Original dealer first replaced the clutch, didn't work. Then they put a new compressor on it. It worked great for 3-4 months. Now I don't have working AC, even though the compressor is still spinning... I've reached out to FCSD, cause my warranty timed out in Oct. but obviously the issue wasn't fixed correctly. SWEET

I hope your experience is better than mine with Ford "customer care." They basically told me to take a flying leap when my AC went out just outside of warranty and said I should have bought an extended warranty when I had the chance.

 

[Captdistraction]

Car returned to me without repairs. Ac Went out intermittently on way home. Will wait until it fully fails to take back. At least wasn’t charged for rental or diagnostic fees.

 

[rfcs550]

This is a bit of a crosspost, but not sure how I handle a warranty issue I'm dealing with:


My S550 PP GT has had intermittent AC cooling issues since I've owned it. Last year in the summer it went out on a drive out of town where there was just hot air coming out of the events, and just last week it did it twice.


This time there was some smoke and strong smell from under the hood when the AC went out. Each time the IAT (intake air temp) was very high, 140* or higher, indicating the temperatures under hood were very high. I had the car towed in due to the issues via Ford's roadside service.

now the dealer asked me to come look at it as they can't find anything wrong (again), supposedly its blowing cold air for them (which it wasn't doing even when we unloaded the car from the tow rig. My troubleshooting is limited, but the AC belt is intact, the compressor seems to be turning properly, and the car's powertrain is 100% unmodified (there's a catback, springs, braces, shocks on the car outside small appearance items).


I just want a working mustang. There aren't other cars out there that currently hold my interest in this price range. However, you can't do Arizona summer without air conditioning. Now I am in a real pickle.


Last week the car dropped the AC Thursday and Friday, Friday being the incident with smoke and the weird smell and towing to the dealer.


Now they can't find anything wrong with it. I just test drove it with the service advisor and while the AC performance was very poor, it was within specifications (its a hot day in Arizona, but admittedly the air coming out was cool enough to be considered working).


They're keeping the car a bit longer to try to make it repeat what its been doing to me, but ultimately it looks like I'm going to be on the hook for the diagnostic fee, rental car fees, and get the car back in a partially functioning state. This could quickly be a $500 bill.


I'm infuriated but I understand if the dealer can't get ford to pay for repairs then I'm the odd man out. What recommendations are there for what to do? Pay it and go to another dealer? Get Ford Customer Service involved somehow? These intermittent issues are a headache for all, and my service advisor is sympathetic, but its shaping up like I'm going to be left with a hot uncomfortable ride and emptier-than-usual wallet.

Anticipating the predicament you are now in, I've sued Ford to have the car lemon lawed before my warranty expires in March of next year. I've had the evaporator replaced twice and the compresssor/accumulator once. As yours, mine works intermittently when it's hot outside.

There's a Ford service message to dealers admitting the a/c evap problems in the new Mustangs. It's posted in google.

When you stated that the dealer said that the air blowing from the vents was in a normal range, did he measure it? how? what was the temperature? (I've read that it should be in the 40-44 degrees F range).

 

[Captdistraction]

welp, almost made it 24 hours.


Drove to drop off some boxes today, and while at a light there was a noise that sounded like an animal dying at a high pitch and the car violently shook (at a high rate) for 5-6 seconds, and back to warm air.


Has to be a compressor issue, but drove it home, started again and blowing sort of cold air. Have to find some evidence or I won't get anywhere with Ford on getting it repaired.






Ridiculous.

 

[Fleco17]

Wonder if the actuator is not switching to cool mode and staying there.

 

[Captdistraction]

Its definitely the compressor (or compressor failure is a symptom). They had the car for five days and couldn't find anything. In 15 minutes of driving, it failed on me twice.



I pull two bolts on the overflow bottle and move it out of the way in 5 minutes to see this:

There's bits of rubber everywhere, and some liquid or grease on the radiator support and timing cover along with the face of the compressor.

 

[texaswrx]

My 2015 GTPP had the condenser replaced as it died on a road trip last year. Now, it is taking far too long to cool down the car in Texas heat. My dealer handled the first failure with no issues. I'll see what they find this time. I have 2 months left of warranty

 

[Captdistraction]

(crossposted) Finally got the car back, and unfortunately Summer is here in AZ.


They replaced a compressor in my car but not the evap housing. Supposedly recharged.


The car blows cool air in mornings, but in the afternoon you can't tell its working unless you're cruising at 70mph and put your hands on the vents. Everywhere I go I sweat, which is frustrating as I am half time a suit/tie person. That's the third repair attempt, going to go test drive a new mustang this weekend to see if that's the case with all of them.


My last mustang wasn't nearly as problematic from a air conditioning standpoint.

 

[Captdistraction]

Some more bad news:


During the replacement of the compressor, the technician snapped the crankshaft damper bolt, requiring them to drill and extract the segment of bolt left in the crank. I'm pretty frustrated (I have a broken coyote crank sitting on my workbench at home from my other car), so now I have one more thing to be paranoid about. Hopefully the TTY bolt couldn't do much damage, but there's only one real way to break it which was just a bit careless. Also when I received the vehicle back it was missing the caps to the high and low side charge/test ports.


The service advisor took care of the issues, but its very frustrating to still be sweating everywhere I go. At this point I'm qualified for buyback, I'll visit one more dealer this weekend and if I have to start having conversations about buyback to motivate people to look at the car seriously, I guess I will.

Sponsored