Took Contour to Dealer....big mistake...

Took the CSVT to the local Ford dealer because I've been dealing with a intermittent cold idle problem....Back in 2005, had the cats replaced under federal warranty at same dealer, in 2007 same dealer installed rebuilt MAF....Last year around Thanksgiving, car started having the cold idle problem, meaning wouldn't hold idle while cold...Took to a local shop and they couldn't figure anything out except saying change out the K& N filter because of excessive oil....Still had idle problem....Fast forward to April 13 where I took the car to local Ford dealer....They found the following:
1.Faulty MAF Sensor
2.Misfire at #1 cylinder-cracked spark plug
3.Bank 1 CAT lost efficiencey
4.Baro reading 143 hz causing incorrect fuel control
5.All spark plugs have excessive gap
6.Fuel level sending unit reading erratically.....
Codes that came up P0301,P0420,P0460,P1100,P0300
So I approved the above repairs meaning another MAF(rebuilt)new CAT,new fuel pump and filter which came out to 2343.72 but they took off 10% so came to 2121.71 because they promised me the car on a certain date and they couldn't deliver on time...
Fast forward to Sunday April 26...When I start the car while its cold, it is searching idle .....will go up to 2k and then back down to almost dying... Also check engine light came on.....Took the car back on Monday, they gave me a rental and cleaned the throttle body and changed out the upper intake gasket and EGR gasket.....Another 353.00......So in the past three weeks I've spent almost 2500.00 on a 11 year old car with 138k miles on it....If it last another year, I'll be happy.......SORRY SO LONG OF A STORY!!!!!!

Yikes! That's why most of us have started working on our own cars and posting troubleshooting problems here on CEG. CEG is code for "do it yourself dummy, the dealership will rape you"

wow. you could have gone to school for automotive repair, gotten a couple ASE certifications, and dropped a 3L engine into there for less than that!

You shouldn't have had to pay the second time you took it back. Cause you took it in the first time to fix the idle issue and it came back...

They discounted the bill on the second visit from 550.00 to the 353 .00 I paid....The service writer felt bad I was back so fast after the first visit.....

Hey Frank, do not feel so bad. You didn't know it and you learned it the hardway.
This should be a rule of thumb "Don't take any car to any dealer unless the car is under warranty" Or you have lots of $$$ that you simple don't care...

Take a well maintained and problem-free car to any dealer, play a dumb @$$ and tell them that the car doesn't feel what it used to before and you want them to check and advise. After checking it, if they say "There is nothing wrong with your car sir...", I would cut a finger...

I notice they cleaned throttle body AFTER they got the $2100+ first. Incompetency at it's finest. Should have been one of the first things done for idle problem. I took a still in warranty vehicle in that had 2500 miles on it. Before done, they were trying to tell me it had windshield changed, electrical harnesses changed, all 4 doors pulled off car. A car that ran super smooth at 70 mph would not go 50 without steering wheel shaking so badly you couldn't hold it. When I got car back, I was screaming at them, doors had never been pulled like claimed, and windshield all original also. I had NOT OKed any such work. They gouged their own company for $3000 in charges. I fixed the original problem, which they had not, for $.25 fuse. Never again. They left on the original wheel weights which were on backside and added weights to fronts to make the shake, I pried off, scratching my brand new wheels and car went back to super smooth at 70 mph. The service writer could not understand why I was so mad, all he kept saying was 'Ford is gonna pay for it.' Seriously, dealerships are not that stupid, rather it's about how far they will go to scam you into thinking you need the work they propose. There are NO LIMITS.

It is a partnership

It is a partnership

Listen. Just like anything in life that involves more than one person. It is a partnership. If you ever have to buy services the very first thing is to ask around to find out if that service provider is honest and competent. If so then arm yourself with some knowledge, get a WRITTEN estimate to address the WRITTEN complaint, talk to knowledgeable persons to see if it makes sense. If not, pull the car and find someone else, if so then go with them. But keep a wary eye out and if they call and recommend much more work, again check with knowledgeable persons to guide you.

If they perform the work and it does not satisfy you, then be nice and show them the written compliant and written estimate. This may work, if not, then never ever go back to them. They are supposed to be experts, but if they cannot fix what ails you, stay away.

Going back to them reminds me of the old adage, "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me".

I would not go so far as to call it a partnership if one must check them out ahead of time. A partnership denotes some level of trust, at least mine do. In my case the written complaint was filled out, they just went way overboard with what they supposedly did with no OK from me at all. All they were to fix was a driver window that quit going up/down, I even knew ahead of time it would be electrical in nature by the way it died. I gave them no flak or trouble until they insisted on keeping car 1 1/2 weeks without clearly explaining what they were doing. When I finally got someone to speak to me that knew more than 'we're working on it' it was with the revelations spoke of above. I could have (and indeed ended up doing so!) fixed it, but no, I had to think 'for once I can get someone else to fix it besides me'. They knew full well there was nothing really wrong with the car, they just saw an opportunity to rape their own company by warranty. What's worse, when I called Ford to complain and explain what they did they did not seem to even care. That tells you all you need to know, never mind finding a good repair site, just dump the entire company. Done and done. They are experts all right, but not in the manner some may think. I apologize ahead of time for any of you who may be mechs and are pretty sure you are good at what you do, it's just that based on what I've seen and heard both in person and anecdotally there's not a whole lot of reason to have faith in dealership quality anymore, the average across the street mech can do you just as well. All that special training in high tech equipment and systems seems to have just empowered dealerships to wreck havoc on people's checkbook without a lot of commensurate good result.

Sorry to jack your thread Frank................

That's okay.....I think most dealerships hire what I would call "Parts Replacers"...meaning they just replace the part the code tells them is bad, not figuring out what caused the code to come up in the first place.....No more figuring out what caused the problem, just pull the code and go replace the part....If that doesn't work, go and replace another part to see if that fixes the problem.......Before the advent of on board computers, mechanics had to figure out was caused a certain problem, not anymore..........