Driveline Shunt with our GT.

[XRBloke]

This is starting to become a real joke when Ford is concerned.... What is wrong with them, surely they can build a motor vehicle without these kinds of problems. Seems to me that those endless hours of road testing before the BA launch just didnt occur.......

Good luck with the office of Fair Trading, apparently they are pretty hard to get moving on these kinds of things.

Thought about lodging your complaint with notgoodenough.org?? Their representatives might be able to do more for you with regards to the office of fair trading, and could take the matter further to the media if Ford wishes to fob you off.....

As for people who say HSV's have there problems, yes that's correct but atleast Expensive Daewoo is willing to replace engines etc to fix those problems, and as of now the GEN III oil issues are pretty much non-occurent..

Good luck with which ever avenue you take, how about getting a group of blokes from here with the same problem to join together and really give Fords a bashing, I personally feel sorry for anyone who buys the Manual over the Auto.......

[mercturbo]

Sorry to hear, Fmoco are shafting you with this, what I cant believe is why Fmco dont hanball the prob to Dana and make it their responsibility, a supplier should be responsible for their product. FMCO JUST DONT GET IT, they will have nearly lost you as a customer and you will be making it all known to everyone you can, on the internet, or anywhere, the treatment you recieved, and they better not blame you or anyone else for doing this. It is all squarely totally all their fault. Mate if there is anything I/we can do, I will turn up anywhere for a protest if it helps. Fmco and Expensive Daewoo seem to always "almost" get it right, but they dont seem to understand its these things that p!ss people off no end. There is a guy on FF who has been waiting like 2 or 3 months for a new diff, this guy bought a $80k GTP NOT A $20K TAXI. As I've suggested, your shunt may be with your car forever. I hope not. They will continue to fob you off. This Luke guy seems to have a leash around his neck, so is a waste of time. No one should blame you for checking out the dark side.

Anyway, wish I could help, cheers Rob

[FamiliaGTRAe]

Mondie, Good luck as always,

But be warned, the reality is that should you be successful in the consumer commission (of your state) Ford can, and may (please note that I didn't say WILL) appeal it in a legal court, when that happens I am sure you and everyone else on here know that it will get messy. (and expensive)

Up until the 2nd monday in April, Ford appeared to have every intention of fixing my car until they ran out of ideas, or more obviously things that hadn't already been replaced in the car anyway! Then from my dealings with them it has become obvious that they and specifically Head office and engineering and NOT the dealer (NOTE) that they needed something to pass the blame onto.

All I know is that my dealer has liased with me and has organised for one or two Melbourne Engineers to fly up to Sydney and come and see the car. WHilst I pointed out to the contact on the phone that of course this had already been done once, and a Sydney Engineer attended at another time, plus the car was sent to Melbourne so they engineer's could have access to it, and the car still isn't fixed, why would I expect it to be fixed this time, the representative on the phone just wanted it to happen.

So onto Monday we go which is when I get told what flights the engineer (s) will be taking to Sydney. They won't be arriving in Sydney until Tuesday, because they need to book flights and so on and so forth, so it will take longer than a week simply because of booking flights! Here's a tip!!!! $49 one way on the net! fly today!

It is quite apparent to me that during this 7 months I've owned the car (and driven for 4) that the Falcon is on paper a superior car to others in its class, yet it is let down by poor quality control, and a near enough is good enough attitude for the sake of saving some dollars here and there (standard brakes being case in point) I cannot and will not recommend a Falcon in particular to anyone and in fact I have been honest in telling people who ask me why I wouldn't go out and spend my hard earned money on a Falcon. I would also struggle to recommened someone to purchase ANY Ford at the risk of that vehicle suffering a problem that requires this kind of dealings with the dealer, CRC, Head Office and Engineering!

If I am seen in a Ford again it will probably be an older one or a Ford product made by Mazda.

RANT MODE OFF

Lynda has been helpful to a point, but always remember that they are employees of Ford and as such have to balance their position with the customer with the fact they are there to minimize loss (cost) to Ford Australia.

Get ya self a 9" diff! Just like I'm going to end up with a Doof Doof system

Cameron

[hypnodoc]

  Mondie said:

Thanks guys.

After sleeping on it last night l have the fire in my guts more than ever. l will contact CRC today just so l have my complaint logged. Once that proves to be as useless as everyone else has found, l will take Zaps advice and contact the Office of Fair Trading.

Does anyone have any experience with the Office of Fair Trading in Vic? Do they have a seperate motor vehicle division. Hell from what l have read lately they may even have a seperate Ford division :lol:

Henry > Its a joke that the CRC bloke was disappointed you shared your woes with a forum. It obviously spreads the message and puts more pressure on them, what an insult to your intelligence.

Bdennis > Didnt hang around but from what l was told it wouldnt have made one iota of difference if l did. Ford are hardline on this, my car is typical and completley acceptable.

Cro > l guess you would kill to only have one problem to deal with

Cameron > Thanks for the contact at CRC, you have obviously found her helpful, l will try the CRC soon.

Cheers.

Dirty rotten mongel ba$tards, and they are making record profits. A few of you guys with lemons should get together and approach ACA or Today Tonight, that'll make FMC jump real quick. If you want a good contact name and number for ACA pm me Mondie. I will be in Melb next week

[hypnodoc]

  Henry said:

The CRC bloke said he was very disappointed that I had chosen the route I had in publishing my grievances on a public forum. He would have preferred that I dealt with the matter through him. Well I originally did, but after having their field engineer lie to my face I thought enough was enough.

What an absolute bloody cheek they have. You spend a fortune on a car, it doesn't go right, they won't or can't fix it and then THEY get disappointed I know what my reply to that bloke would have been and it couldn't be published here, that absolutely stinks

[Redhawk]

Simon,

E-mailed you about a discussion I had with Barry Batten, very informative.

[Turbo6man]

  Mondie said:

Its now official. Ford have inspected my car today and deemed the driveline shunt normal for the model. Fcuking ridiculous.

So there you go. My $60k+ car is normal according to Ford. Well sorry Ford, but its not fcuking normal nor acceptable according to this customer. This is my 3rd Ford in 3 years and l feel very indignant about the treatment l am receiving ...

Sorry it turned out word for word as I predicted.

For two loooong years I've been fighting Ford over the gearbox in my $60k T3. I have already posted all the avenues I've been down trying to get Ford to fix it. May as well just bash one's head on a brick wall as the saying goes. It has been very stressful and, like you, (or even moreso as I have been a loyal Ford purchaser for over 30 years), I am extremely upset and angry over the treatment I have received.

However, I accidently found a solution just last month.

I rolled the T over an embankment and the insurance co. deemed it a write-off ... so no more driveline shunt for me!

BUT, although I swore to Ford and everyone else I'd not buy another Ford until mine was fixed ... I did. I picked up a T3 identical to mine, and, knowing full-well of the gearbox/driveline problem, was prepared to purchase another one anyway and set aside the money needed to replace the box if needed.

The good news is that the new one is a big improvement over my original. It has very slight rollover noise at idle only and a little tendency to shunt in second gear only. I'm a very happy camper at the moment.

PS. I am NOT recommending that you try resolving the issues with your car in the same way ...

And once again good luck mate with your battle with Ford and I really hope someone is able to help you get satisfaction from the b@stards.

[Mondie]

Thanks for the mail Al, l will look at calling Barry next week

T6man > That was a drastic way of getting the problem rectified. I am not suprised that you were able to buy another T3 that was much better, there seems to be so much variance in the specs of the various components that result in the shunt. There are certainly plently of BA owners who too dont have the problem and probably wonder why l am so pissed at Ford. Did you ever get antwhere with Ford, or were you up against the "There all like that, its normal" line that we all get fed?

Tell us about the rollover, you kept that very quiet. Did you buy a near identical TE50? You would have done well out of that given the poor resale on T3's

Cheers.

[HSE2]

There is no doubt in my mind that the Ford products have the right combination of parts to make this issue a pretty serious one. In the worst cars it isn’t one point that is at fault, it s a combination of several. Clutch diff tail shaft and in BA throttle all conspire against one another. Don’t forget that this particular version of driveline issues has been in play since the AU. Previous models exhibited issues but not in this league. This is now 6 years (over half a decade and the same ol same old is in play. We are continually fed the line that a fix has been found but basically that is crap. 6 bloody years and say that like Murphy at the 5 minute Bathurst penalty.

So the latest instalment has a Ford employee telling a customer that a behaviour of a 2003 premium model is with in acceptable limits when in 1999 XR8s were having diffs thrown at them for behaviour that is very similar.

David, does your company really rate the product behind that of 5 years ago? We have a situation where cars that were deemed problems in the AU era would be prevented treatment in today’s market. How about we contact all those Au owners that got diffs, clutches and driveshaft improvements and we remove them for consistency sake. I mean in that era Ford Aust was in the red and the attempt to improve the product was very evident.

Fast forward to yesterday and a car that clearly falls into the same AU criteria is deemed acceptable. This isn’t a joke, its way beyond that. Yes I know the way the car is driven alters the behaviour, body shape has a lot to do with how bad a particular car is. Seat position is very important believe it or not. In fact it is the easiest way to improve the car. Better control of the clutch release does improve it. Yes these cars can have this problem driven around. For a large percentage of these owners the concentration level required to achieve this is exhausting. Long term the owner hates the product and it is that simple. A driver’s car where there is no enjoyment in driving. Perhaps the single biggest flaw a performance car can have.

This latest piece of information means that Ford has registered the faults from the past and given up on customer satisfaction with the newer model. Interesting way to run a business - Interesting way to promote a premium product.

Edited 07/05/04 05:38 AM by HSE2

[JB]

Mondie, I am in the same boat. whilst still waiting for my 3rd diff (which they agree is a problem) the driveline shunt "is how it is" Even though they have downloaded the 339 'Upgrades' to fix the problem. Seems to be any problem is addressed with a computer upgrade. have they ever thought to check the mechanical components?

Then there is the gearbox which has a whine in 3rd. It is only apparent until the car gets really hot and heatsoak occurs then it's fine. When it was checked by the Ford tester he remarked that it was noisy and he would see what he could do, which indicates to me there is a problem. They changed the gearbox oil (Under warranty) to redline but unfortunately no joy. Now they are telling me that it's normal? And there is nothing they can do, their hands are tied. Why did they change the oil and acknowledge it was whinging? I then asked if I drove another XR manual whether I would have the same problem they said YES. I have driven 2 guess what, not the same.

I have spoken to 13ford and written a letter, as much as they try to help all they do is pass it back to the dealer and we go back and forth from there.

I have basically accepted that once I get my diff done that this is the best I will get, and the car is what it is until I purchase another car. Unfortunately due to lease constraints I will have to hold onto it for 12-18 months more. But in that time rest assured as I have already been asked about my car by various people, I will tell them not to bother with Ford. ( Old man was going to get an XR8 instead cancelled order bought a jag) As much as I love the T, and it's concept it's major downfall is component quality, build quality and shocking customer service from FMCO.

I will never purchase a ford again, and subsequently have convinced my management team that all our company cars will be changed over to Holdens. Even though Ford will not give a sh*t, it makes me feel better. It's european for me next time boys.