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I just found out my sister had some work done on her 2000 Mystique w/ duratec. To make a long story short, her car would not start so she had it towed to the Mercury dealership. They ran the diagnostics and said nothing was wrong and of course the car started right up. That evening her car again would not start and was towed to the same dealer. This time they told her it was her fuel pump. They charged her $550 to install a new pump and sender. This was on top of the $200 they charged her for the tows and diagnostics! I asked her if this happened when her tank was below 1/4 tank. She was suprised I asked that and said yes. I think they charged her $750 when all that was needed was replacing the screen on the pump pickup. To make matters worse, when her car went in the first time, she had 36,117 miles. It was only 117 mi. out of warranty with a well-known problem and they still stuck it to her on the charges.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a regional or district Ford service manager that is not connected to any stealership she can complain to and request a reimbursement?
2000 T-Red SVT, #562/2150
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try contacting the zone manager, he works for Ford, well at least with the ford dealers, i guess mer. has one also??? or does ford cover for both of them... you say that the dealership took advantage of your sister??? this is the way they do business.. they dont replace screens on fuel pumps, they replace the pumps.... it is more cost effective for them to do this, they have less of a comeback with a failure.. it were you or i we would have checked the fuel pump and then fixed it for a few dollars, but when you dont know then you have to pay... i have been in this house since it was built in 1972 and have not had anyone out to fix anything in it as i do my own work on all the major appliances and upkeep around the house, i have an extensive library of books on all repair subjects and alot of speicalty tools including a minature lathe to make parts that i cannot locate...... so for me to pay the dealer to fix it would have been out of the question, but i bet alot of people pay repair people all day long to fix stuff that they dont know how to fix..... its called supply and demand. the customer demands the repair and the shops supply the service... but the dealer charged about twice of what a independent shop would have charged...
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Originally posted by musicnut:
I just found out my sister had some work done on her 2000 Mystique w/ duratec.
Phew! I thought you meant something else!! Carry on! 
2000 WS6 Convertible A4 13.11 @ 107.5 with a lid, Ram Air and LTs
Gone:95 Mystique LS Young America edition V6, MTX 15.6 @ 91
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That's why I purpossfully did not include more suggestive, although appropriate, words in the title. Careful now, I told her there were some very knowledgeable people here that could offer helpful suggestions. I also just introduced her to Contour.org so she is following this post.
Seriously, does she have any recourse? This just happened Monday and she put the charges on a credit card. If it comes down to it, she can contest the charges.
2000 T-Red SVT, #562/2150
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I think somebody said that the ford approved method of replacing the fuel pump is to first drop the fuel tank to get to the fuel pump so that would be costly to do. I think the people on here found it quicker to just open up the hole in the back seat area a little bigger to get to the pump but ford would not do something like this I am sure since their books do not tell them to.
I have the same problem with my 2000 SE and have just been living with it and filling up sooner for about 30,000+ miles now.
Beaten - 2003 MazdaSpeed Protege 29K <- broken hearted
Daily/Weekend Beater - 1990 miata 138K - AutoX every weekend = Adult driven on weekends
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Originally posted by musicnut:
I just found out my sister had some work done on her 2000 Mystique w/ duratec. To make a long story short, her car would not start so she had it towed to the Mercury dealership. They ran the diagnostics and said nothing was wrong and of course the car started right up. That evening her car again would not start and was towed to the same dealer. This time they told her it was her fuel pump. They charged her $550 to install a new pump and sender. This was on top of the $200 they charged her for the tows and diagnostics! I asked her if this happened when her tank was below 1/4 tank. She was suprised I asked that and said yes. I think they charged her $750 when all that was needed was replacing the screen on the pump pickup. To make matters worse, when her car went in the first time, she had 36,117 miles. It was only 117 mi. out of warranty with a well-known problem and they still stuck it to her on the charges.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a regional or district Ford service manager that is not connected to any stealership she can complain to and request a reimbursement?
Ford does not recognize what many of us have learned. Ford's idea of a proper repair is to replace the fuel pump. We might know a better way, but Ford is not about to recognize the removal of that little filter. They believe that the engineers had a reason for putting it there. We have learned that whatever that reason is, it is still better off without it. I don't think you will get anywhere with Ford trying to convince them otherwise.
Jim Johnson
98 SVT
03 Escape Limited
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I can feel your pain, but I can understand the technichian too. I worked at a Ford dealership for 2 years as a tech and until I read this post I didn't know anything about the fuel pump problem happening under 1/4 tank. I replaced about 4 contour/mystique fuel pumps in that time. There is a service message from ford about replacing the pump, but they would never approve just replacing the screen. In their eyes the pump is non serviceable. I think they did have a high failure rate with the pump itself also and imagine if they just replaced the screen and within 12 months the pump went, they would eat a lot of money and customers would say "why didn't you just replace the whole pump the first time". Removing the tank on those is a pain in the butt, I always hated it. Now as far as the dealer goes, they should have (don't have too, but...) given her some kind of discount since her car was just out of warranty. Usually they make an adjustment where the customer has to pay 50%. Personally I would have recommended a fuel pump from the beginning. Also I am glad to hear they didn't litterally take advantage of her 
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JasonL,thank you for your perspective as both an enthusiast and former service tech. Thanks to everyone else for your responses. My beef is really what JasonL alluded to, the dealer had some freedom in what they charged her due the the car litterally just being out of warranty. Does anyone know how we can contact the Ford zone manager or has anyone had experience doing this?
2000 T-Red SVT, #562/2150
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Originally posted by MystiqueSVT:
Originally posted by musicnut:
I just found out my sister had some work done on her 2000 Mystique w/ duratec.
Phew! I thought you meant something else!! Carry on!
me too. close call.
95 SES Sold
99 SE Sport Sold
99 SVT T-Red Tan Interior. K&N, Magnecors, 19' Theorys, And some audio stuff.
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