Title sums it up.. had the tick, car in shop for 38 days with numerous problems - dispute settlement board decided that ford had to fix the tick, but not replace or buyback the vehicle. I am willing to wager they don't actually fix it. Here's a copy of my letter.
"Dear Mr. Schaible & Ford Motor Company,
At the Dispute Settlement Board Meeting on October 12, 2004, the Board reviewed the history and status of the case listed above involving the 2003 Ford Mustang, as reported in the statements and supporting documents submitted by the customer, the dealer, and Ford Motor Company.
After careful consideration of this information and the relevant state law, the Board determined that the fog lamp, steering, and seat belt concerns were resolved. In addition, based on a lack of compelling evidence the board could not confirm if the acceleration noise, window noise, stalls in neutral, stereo noise, CD, seat leather, drivetrain lash, or door panel noise concerns remain unresolved. The Board did find that the hydraulic lifter ticking noise concern remains unresolved, but Ford has not been given sufficient opportunity to repair this concern. The Board notied that this concern does not affect the use, value, or safety of the vehicle. Consequently, the request for a vehicle refund was denied. However, the Board requests that the vehicle be taken to the servicing dealership for further repair of the hydraulic lifter ticking noise."
I sent them the following letter (long, sorry)
Dear Dispute Settlement Board,
I have received your letter and am appalled at the blatant misrepresentation of facts and/or confusion of the facts. After speaking with Terra Taylor, I have found the only method of appeal to be the court system, and I cannot afford that route, because of financial status and time constraints. Maybe my letter will change your next case.
Please allow me to quote, and rebut.
“After careful consideration of this information and the relevant state law, the Board determined that the fog lamp, steering, and seat belt concerns were resolved”
A woman on the board asked about the seat belt, and I responded that it had been fixed once, but the problem has come back.
“In addition, based on a lack of compelling evidence the Board could not confirm if the acceleration noise, window noise, stalls in neutral, stereo noise, CD, seat leather, drive train lash, or door panel noise concerns remain unresolved.”
I have specifically stated every one of these concerns continue to be unresolved. The Acceleration noise and drive train lash are the same concern. When you decelerate (ex. approaching a red light) and attempt to accelerate (ex. Light changes to green) a loud clunking noise is emitted from the rear of the vehicle. Ford states that it is “normal” for “some” vehicles. The terms normal and some are contradictions in my opinion, as well as Mr. Webster’s.
When you roll down the drivers side window, it makes a screeching noise towards the top of the ascend/descend. While this concern does not affect use, value, or safety of the vehicle, Ohio lemon law mentions if the vehicle was repaired for 8 different concerns, it is a lemon. I did not bring the vehicle into service for this, as it is a relatively minor concern, and my main concern was more important.
My vehicle is extremely unsafe. My Mustang Cobra is equipped with vacuum-assisted power brakes (like most new vehicles). The problem is the car doesn’t produce enough vacuum at low engine speeds. If you’re driving on an exit ramp with the transmission in neutral the car will stall when you depress the brake pedal. When the car stalls you lose power steering AND power brakes. This is very unsafe, and the first time it happened I nearly went into a guard rail. Ford has released a “flash” to correct this.
The stereo noise and door panel noise are the same issue as well. When you turn on the stereo to 1/3 volume or more (still relatively quiet) the door panels squeak, and you can hear plastic parts vibrating together. This is typical of aging vehicles, or those with aftermarket sound systems, but I refuse to believe this is acceptable quality for a new, oem $35,000 vehicle. While we’re on the topic of the CD player, most of the time it works great, but when you attempt to eject a CD from slot 5 or slot 6 it sticks, and you’re required to use some small instrument to pull the disk out, usually scratching it.
“The board did find that the hydraulic lifter ticking noise concern remains unresolved, but Ford has not been given sufficient opportunity to repair this concern. The board noted that this concern does not affect the use, value, or safety of the vehicle.”
According to Ohio Lemon Law, Ford has three attempts to fix the problem. Granted, they never actually attempted to repair the problem – they just said they don’t know how to fix it, and a fix is coming. This is unacceptable in my opinion, which is my main motivation for the Board’s services. In addition, Ohio Lemon Law states the vehicle is a “lemon” Ford has the vehicle for more than 30 days. Ford had the vehicle for 38 days, and the majority of my concerns remain unresolved.
The board mentions that this concern does not affect value. I’m unsure how the board came to this conclusion because the concern clearly affects the value. If two 2003 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra’s are identical, but one emits a ticking noise from the engine bay that one is worth less! Additionally, metal on metal ticking is never “ok” and “normal”. Please allow me to briefly describe the two possible scenarios.
Scenario 1: The ticking noise is emitted from unimportant metal (support arms, etc – not the actual valve surface, cam links, journals, etc).
At first the problem doesn’t show significant signs of wear on the engine. Whenever metal hits metal, it “erodes”. This erosion is called a metal “flashing”. Flashings can be microscopic, or quite significant in size. Regardless of the size, modern engines (especially the one found in my Mustang) operate on such small tolerances; one single grain of sand inside a cylinder wall could cause scoring, and eventually reduce compression to the point of inoperability. This would be classified as catastrophic engine failure – all from 1 grain of sand. My engine is emitting thousands of particles every time the engine is started. This could postpone the catastrophic engine failure until well after the warranty is expired, so just because it doesn’t affect performance today, doesn’t mean it won’t in a year.
Scenario 2: The ticking noise is emitted from important metal (valve guides, valves, rockers, pistons, cams, etc)
Catastrophic engine failure is imminent and minor repairs may fix the problem but not the damage taken in every part of the engine.
---
I’m torn because I’m unable to find the facts upon which the Board made its decision. I’m also upset because I was unable to make a quality presentation because I could not get the time off of work to present. Please consider my case when you make your next decision.
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I'm upset that all of these heads are ticking and none of them are getting fixed. Please post here if your head is ticking with some way to get ahold of you. PM or Email me, or something! Thanks
"Dear Mr. Schaible & Ford Motor Company,
At the Dispute Settlement Board Meeting on October 12, 2004, the Board reviewed the history and status of the case listed above involving the 2003 Ford Mustang, as reported in the statements and supporting documents submitted by the customer, the dealer, and Ford Motor Company.
After careful consideration of this information and the relevant state law, the Board determined that the fog lamp, steering, and seat belt concerns were resolved. In addition, based on a lack of compelling evidence the board could not confirm if the acceleration noise, window noise, stalls in neutral, stereo noise, CD, seat leather, drivetrain lash, or door panel noise concerns remain unresolved. The Board did find that the hydraulic lifter ticking noise concern remains unresolved, but Ford has not been given sufficient opportunity to repair this concern. The Board notied that this concern does not affect the use, value, or safety of the vehicle. Consequently, the request for a vehicle refund was denied. However, the Board requests that the vehicle be taken to the servicing dealership for further repair of the hydraulic lifter ticking noise."
I sent them the following letter (long, sorry)
Dear Dispute Settlement Board,
I have received your letter and am appalled at the blatant misrepresentation of facts and/or confusion of the facts. After speaking with Terra Taylor, I have found the only method of appeal to be the court system, and I cannot afford that route, because of financial status and time constraints. Maybe my letter will change your next case.
Please allow me to quote, and rebut.
“After careful consideration of this information and the relevant state law, the Board determined that the fog lamp, steering, and seat belt concerns were resolved”
A woman on the board asked about the seat belt, and I responded that it had been fixed once, but the problem has come back.
“In addition, based on a lack of compelling evidence the Board could not confirm if the acceleration noise, window noise, stalls in neutral, stereo noise, CD, seat leather, drive train lash, or door panel noise concerns remain unresolved.”
I have specifically stated every one of these concerns continue to be unresolved. The Acceleration noise and drive train lash are the same concern. When you decelerate (ex. approaching a red light) and attempt to accelerate (ex. Light changes to green) a loud clunking noise is emitted from the rear of the vehicle. Ford states that it is “normal” for “some” vehicles. The terms normal and some are contradictions in my opinion, as well as Mr. Webster’s.
When you roll down the drivers side window, it makes a screeching noise towards the top of the ascend/descend. While this concern does not affect use, value, or safety of the vehicle, Ohio lemon law mentions if the vehicle was repaired for 8 different concerns, it is a lemon. I did not bring the vehicle into service for this, as it is a relatively minor concern, and my main concern was more important.
My vehicle is extremely unsafe. My Mustang Cobra is equipped with vacuum-assisted power brakes (like most new vehicles). The problem is the car doesn’t produce enough vacuum at low engine speeds. If you’re driving on an exit ramp with the transmission in neutral the car will stall when you depress the brake pedal. When the car stalls you lose power steering AND power brakes. This is very unsafe, and the first time it happened I nearly went into a guard rail. Ford has released a “flash” to correct this.
The stereo noise and door panel noise are the same issue as well. When you turn on the stereo to 1/3 volume or more (still relatively quiet) the door panels squeak, and you can hear plastic parts vibrating together. This is typical of aging vehicles, or those with aftermarket sound systems, but I refuse to believe this is acceptable quality for a new, oem $35,000 vehicle. While we’re on the topic of the CD player, most of the time it works great, but when you attempt to eject a CD from slot 5 or slot 6 it sticks, and you’re required to use some small instrument to pull the disk out, usually scratching it.
“The board did find that the hydraulic lifter ticking noise concern remains unresolved, but Ford has not been given sufficient opportunity to repair this concern. The board noted that this concern does not affect the use, value, or safety of the vehicle.”
According to Ohio Lemon Law, Ford has three attempts to fix the problem. Granted, they never actually attempted to repair the problem – they just said they don’t know how to fix it, and a fix is coming. This is unacceptable in my opinion, which is my main motivation for the Board’s services. In addition, Ohio Lemon Law states the vehicle is a “lemon” Ford has the vehicle for more than 30 days. Ford had the vehicle for 38 days, and the majority of my concerns remain unresolved.
The board mentions that this concern does not affect value. I’m unsure how the board came to this conclusion because the concern clearly affects the value. If two 2003 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra’s are identical, but one emits a ticking noise from the engine bay that one is worth less! Additionally, metal on metal ticking is never “ok” and “normal”. Please allow me to briefly describe the two possible scenarios.
Scenario 1: The ticking noise is emitted from unimportant metal (support arms, etc – not the actual valve surface, cam links, journals, etc).
At first the problem doesn’t show significant signs of wear on the engine. Whenever metal hits metal, it “erodes”. This erosion is called a metal “flashing”. Flashings can be microscopic, or quite significant in size. Regardless of the size, modern engines (especially the one found in my Mustang) operate on such small tolerances; one single grain of sand inside a cylinder wall could cause scoring, and eventually reduce compression to the point of inoperability. This would be classified as catastrophic engine failure – all from 1 grain of sand. My engine is emitting thousands of particles every time the engine is started. This could postpone the catastrophic engine failure until well after the warranty is expired, so just because it doesn’t affect performance today, doesn’t mean it won’t in a year.
Scenario 2: The ticking noise is emitted from important metal (valve guides, valves, rockers, pistons, cams, etc)
Catastrophic engine failure is imminent and minor repairs may fix the problem but not the damage taken in every part of the engine.
---
I’m torn because I’m unable to find the facts upon which the Board made its decision. I’m also upset because I was unable to make a quality presentation because I could not get the time off of work to present. Please consider my case when you make your next decision.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I'm upset that all of these heads are ticking and none of them are getting fixed. Please post here if your head is ticking with some way to get ahold of you. PM or Email me, or something! Thanks
