Coil Springs Recall/Warranty & Fords Laughable CRC

[danielbecker]

Long rant, I apologize up front.

Well I know only a few people have followed up on the Coil Spring Recall/extended warranty issue and how it doesn't apply to SVT models. Call me crazy but I wanted to find out why! So after spending over an hour on the phone with two separate Customer Relationship Center people they had no idea why my SVT isn't covered. They told me I had to write Dearborn. Which I did. A very long and detailed letter that ended with a simple question: "Why isn't my '98 Contour SVT covered under the warranty?"

I got Ford's Response today, here it is for your reading pleasure:

Dear Mr. Becker,

Thank you for your contact and valued thoughts.

After receiving your letter, we have thoroughly reviewed your situation. Our records indicate that you spoke with Representative at our Customer Relationship Center who appropriately addressed your concerns.

Based on the information you provided, we support the previous decision.

This issue has been closed. However, should any new information become available, please contact us and we will be happy to review the situation with you at that time.

---That's it! That's their response! Over the phone they told me they had no idea why Ford isn't covering the coil spring and that I needed to write to Dearborn. Dearborn says they appropriately addressed my concerns? How? By making me write a letter? They also say they support their decision? What decision? That I needed to write a letter?

Do you see where I going with this?

I swear Ford CRC honestly thinks I'm stupid.

So I sent an email to CRC tonight to see if maybe I just wasn't making myself clear. I asked the same question as above and explained that I wanted an answer or a name of a person who could answer it. And of course the response is as follows:

"As previously communicated to you on 8/8/2007, we feel that every consideration has been given to this matter, and it was appropriately addressed in our response. Based on the information you have provided, our decision remains the same."

Still no answer! And they keep talking about consideration and decision making. I've gotten clearer answers from Politicians. What are they paying these people for?

Rant Over...Letter writing campaign just about to begin.

 

[ohsigmachi]

two words...class action

 

[Big Jim]

CRC is outsources. Ford did themselves no favor when they did this. Even more stupidly is that the CRC told you to contact Ford for further information. Ford responded as though you were appealing the CRC decision and did not provide any additional insight.

In truth, most likely with the time that has passed and the number of employees cut back of the last couple of years, there is probably no one left that has any idea why the SVT was not part of the recall.

I suspect that they got away with it because the SVT is a limited production vehicle. Also I suspect that the band-aid retainers that rattled like crazy could not be applied to the SVT for lack of clearance.

Perhaps you may get somewhere with the NTSB. That's the body that pushes auto makes into safety recalls.

Edit: That should be NHTSB, National Highway Transportation Board.

 

[danielbecker]

CRC is outsources. Ford did themselves no favor when they did this. Even more stupidly is that the CRC told you to contact Ford for further information. Ford responded as though you were appealing the CRC decision and did not provide any additional insight.

In truth, most likely with the time that has passed and the number of employees cut back of the last couple of years, there is probably no one left that has any idea why the SVT was not part of the recall.

Outsourced is an understatement. The person I spoke with today didn't even no SVT had disbanded. I was also informed that it's next to impossible for them to contact anyone with any answers ie. engineers or any decision makers. After telling my story for the 5th time the CRC Rep agreed that my question was simple and that it had yet to be answered. I was told my case is being dropped on the desk of the highest person in the building. We'll see what he/she has to say.

 

[Rara]

The SVT wasn't covered under the spring recall, because it wasn't part of the production lots that were suspect for premature breakage. Simple as that. Nobody recalls more parts than they absolutely need to.

 

[elraido]

The SVT wasn't covered under the spring recall, because it wasn't part of the production lots that were suspect for premature breakage. Simple as that. Nobody recalls more parts than they absolutely need to.

Then they need to stipulate in the "recall" that SVT's are excluded. Plain and simple. What it states in it applies to all SVT's. And i was also told that the springs from the SVT were the same as the SE from my local stealership

 

[danielbecker]

The SVT wasn't covered under the spring recall, because it wasn't part of the production lots that were suspect for premature breakage. Simple as that. Nobody recalls more parts than they absolutely need to.

That would be an acceptable answer to my question, but how do you know this? I was told all SVT contours were built stock and sent to SVT for tweaking. So am I to believe that all 6,535 '98 Contours that rolled off the production line headed to SVT for tweaking included coil springs that were a different production lot from every other coil spring on every other '98 Contour and Mystique? That doesn't sound quite right. And lest we forget, I had a corroded, snapped coil spring on a well-maintained, garage kept, never abused car.

Either way...Ford should be able to answer the question as simply as you have. But after asking the same question 5 times they haven't and they seemingly refuse to even try. I find that totally unacceptable. As an SVT owner I should be one of Ford's most loyal customers, a sure thing for repeat sales. I can endure the horrible paint, faulty trim, bad sensors, sagging bumpers and over-priced dealerships, but when it comes to customer service and answering a simple question, there's no excuse.

 

[Nick98CSVT]

I know that Im not the only one that had them replaced. I have a 98 SVT. Ive always wondered how some people can get it dont and some cant.

 

[icysvt]

Sounds about like the fact my 98 svt had the same corroding wiring harness issues that the pre-98 had the recall on and my car was built in early 97 but wasnt covered cause it was a 98 model despite the build date. the cs sucks with ford plain and simple

 

[Big Jim]

That would be an acceptable answer to my question, but how do you know this? I was told all SVT contours were built stock and sent to SVT for tweaking. So am I to believe that all 6,535 '98 Contours that rolled off the production line headed to SVT for tweaking included coil springs that were a different production lot from every other coil spring on every other '98 Contour and Mystique? That doesn't sound quite right. And lest we forget, I had a corroded, snapped coil spring on a well-maintained, garage kept, never abused car.

Either way...Ford should be able to answer the question as simply as you have. But after asking the same question 5 times they haven't and they seemingly refuse to even try. I find that totally unacceptable. As an SVT owner I should be one of Ford's most loyal customers, a sure thing for repeat sales. I can endure the horrible paint, faulty trim, bad sensors, sagging bumpers and over-priced dealerships, but when it comes to customer service and answering a simple question, there's no excuse.

You got some bad information. The Contour SVT was built as an SVT at the Kansas City Ford assembly plant. They didn't get sent to SVT for tweeking. They were built as sold.

 

[Big Jim]

The SVT wasn't covered under the spring recall, because it wasn't part of the production lots that were suspect for premature breakage. Simple as that. Nobody recalls more parts than they absolutely need to.

If this is true, and it very well may be, someone had their head in the sand since they use the same springs. Or maybe it was an excuse to keep from recalling more than they had to.

 

[Big Jim]

CRC is outsources. Ford did themselves no favor when they did this. Even more stupidly is that the CRC told you to contact Ford for further information. Ford responded as though you were appealing the CRC decision and did not provide any additional insight.

In truth, most likely with the time that has passed and the number of employees cut back of the last couple of years, there is probably no one left that has any idea why the SVT was not part of the recall.

I suspect that they got away with it because the SVT is a limited production vehicle. Also I suspect that the band-aid retainers that rattled like crazy could not be applied to the SVT for lack of clearance.

Perhaps you may get somewhere with the NTSB. That's the body that pushes auto makes into safety recalls.

Edit: That should be NHTSB, National Highway Transportation Board.

And I still didn't get this right. it is NHTSA, National Highway Transportation Safety Association.

 

[Rara]

If this is true, and it very well may be, someone had their head in the sand since they use the same springs. Or maybe it was an excuse to keep from recalling more than they had to.

Even if the springs have the exact same specs, it doesn't mean they were made from the same batch of material, or were ran on the same day(s) as the suspect parts. Parts are tracked very carefully for production, and in the case of a safety related recall, all of the parts that were made during the suspect period of time and are potentially suspect, get recalled. Parts that are not part of the suspect window DO NOT GET RECALLED. It's pretty simple, a problem in production is identified, all parts that are suspect to be affected by the problem are pulled from stock and quaranteened, and any parts that made it out into cars are recalled. The problem gets corrected in production, and the assembly plant keeps building cars.
I've never researched the spring recall to know exactly why they were recalled, but it could have been any number of things, from a bad batch of steel used, to a bad coating application, to parts potentially being damaged in handling, or during installation into the cars. CRC isn't going to know why, because they don't get told why, and its not thier job to dispense technical information (thank god, most dealers do a bad enough job butchering that one). All I know, is that if the SVT springs weren't included (and it is my understanding they weren't) then they weren't part of the "bad" parts. Does that mean an SVT spring will never fail the same way? certianly not. You saw the recalled springs failing around 30k miles or sooner, where most SVT spring breakages are over 100k miles and 8 or 9 years later; certainly an order of magnitude less prone to the issue.

 

[Rara]

And one more thing, just becuase the current service parts are replaced by the same part number, doesn't mean that they were the same part number in production by any stretch of the imagination. The struts are the same way now too, both SE and SVT struts have the same service replacement part number now, because the SVT parts are out of production.

 

[Big Jim]

Even if the springs have the exact same specs, it doesn't mean they were made from the same batch of material, or were ran on the same day(s) as the suspect parts. Parts are tracked very carefully for production, and in the case of a safety related recall, all of the parts that were made during the suspect period of time and are potentially suspect, get recalled. Parts that are not part of the suspect window DO NOT GET RECALLED. It's pretty simple, a problem in production is identified, all parts that are suspect to be affected by the problem are pulled from stock and quaranteened, and any parts that made it out into cars are recalled. The problem gets corrected in production, and the assembly plant keeps building cars.
I've never researched the spring recall to know exactly why they were recalled, but it could have been any number of things, from a bad batch of steel used, to a bad coating application, to parts potentially being damaged in handling, or during installation into the cars. CRC isn't going to know why, because they don't get told why, and its not thier job to dispense technical information (thank god, most dealers do a bad enough job butchering that one). All I know, is that if the SVT springs weren't included (and it is my understanding they weren't) then they weren't part of the "bad" parts. Does that mean an SVT spring will never fail the same way? certianly not. You saw the recalled springs failing around 30k miles or sooner, where most SVT spring breakages are over 100k miles and 8 or 9 years later; certainly an order of magnitude less prone to the issue.

Rara,

I greatly respect your perspective as someone from the inside that saw how the program was applied, or at least how it was intended to be applied.

I'm also sure that there is sometimes more involved. The Field Service Action concerning late Cougar fuel pumps is an example. The failures were observed immediately after the returnless fuel system was introduced. Why was the recall applied only to the late ones when the earlier returnless system had the same flaw? Why wasn't the recall applied to the Contours as well as the Cougars? Perhaps we will never know. I do know that I am the one that had to face the angry customers with those question with no factory support. I hope you can see that it looks different from the dealer's side of the fence, and still different from the consumer's side.

 

[danielbecker]

All I know, is that if the SVT springs weren't included (and it is my understanding they weren't) then they weren't part of the "bad" parts. Does that mean an SVT spring will never fail the same way? certianly not. You saw the recalled springs failing around 30k miles or sooner, where most SVT spring breakages are over 100k miles and 8 or 9 years later; certainly an order of magnitude less prone to the issue.

I fired off a letter to James Vondale (the Director of ASO) who wrote the original letter to the NHTSA concerning the recall/extended warranty in question. His orginal letter is posted on the NHTSA site along with "the detailed information required by the applicable portions of 49 CFR Part 573 – Defect and Non-Compliance Information Report". Nowhere in the letter or the detailed report do they mention any SVT exclusion. However it does quite simply state the following:

"...Ford will notify all owners of 1998 Contour/Mystique vehicles manufactured at Ford's Kansas City Assembly Plant from August 27, 1996 through April 18, 1998, of a customer satisfaction program (01M08) in which Ford will provide additional warranty coverage for the front coil springs for 10 years from original date of sale of a vehicle or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first...."

It lists the states where the covered vehicles are registered and that it includes approximately 108,000 vehicles.

Considering I paid my $620+ to have my car fixed. I'm probably just beating a dead horse here. But I believe my coil spring was faulty. A clean, well-maintained car that's not abused shouldn't suffer a snapped coil spring. I got 78k out of my brake pads...I should get more than 120K before my springs snap. And I believe Ford isn't giving me the service I deserve especially as an SVT owner. They at least owe me an answer.

 

[Dr. Cross]

I believe the recall was for the front springs (correct?), but both of my rear springs snapped a few years ago (way less than the time/mileage limits of the recall). I took the opportunity to replace my suspension w/ the Koni Kit and haven't looked back since!

Now, if we could only do something about the dash warpage....

 

[JoeM]

I had 3 of the 4 springs on my car with snapped Springs.

They were snapped when i bought it with 138k.

I replaced them my self. I went through the same motions as above.

I was told, the Recalls are Tracked by VIN # of the car the parts were put into, and my car was simply not one of the ones with "bad Springs" in it...


Now keep in mind...

This car was Built in 2/98
In Kansas Plant
Car has lived its entire life in Minnesota.



The Car met the specifications for EVERYTHING other than it is an SVT.

I also had Steve @ tousley look up Part #'s.

As far back as he can tell, The springs for the SVT, were the same springs being used for any other v6 contour/mystique. They have each had the same part # since 1997 (oldest parts book he could find).


So to me, the argument that different springs may have been used is pretty much nullified, by the fact that ford has always had the same part # for any of the V6's Tour/Myst car.

 

[JoeM]

I believe the recall was for the front springs (correct?), but both of my rear springs snapped a few years ago (way less than the time/mileage limits of the recall). I took the opportunity to replace my suspension w/ the Koni Kit and haven't looked back since!

Now, if we could only do something about the dash warpage....

I've got an unwarped MNB Dash from a 02/98 CSVT.....

 

[Matt2kSVT]

danielbecker, I guess you are fighting for the principle, but at this point, with the number of stock springs popping up in the classifieds for cheap, why spend so much of your life fighting this?

Heck, get a BAT kit or Koni kit and upgrade your handling 10x, and enjoy your car more. I would love an excuse to upgrade!!!