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DJE624
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Glad you had a happy ending. Nice roof by the way.
AND NOW THE REST OF THE STORY....
- Thread starter Tractorak
- Start date
Let the mods begin!SRT82ECOBOOST
New member
Incredible that your insurance company cut a check for $37,750. Sounds like it worked out in the end, minus all the frustration in between.
IHeartGroceries
New member
Nice looking Jeep. Looks like a shark.
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Great looking Jeep, hope you have nothing but good luck and enjoyable driving with it. We'll miss you here, but understand you moving away. I did the same thing many years ago when Ford just didn't want to fix my Aerostar...it was a nightmare. First I live right in the midst of 3 Ford regions..my selling dealer was in the Buffalo region, I live in the Pittsburgh region, and the dealer who was trying to help me was in the Philadelphia region. It was terrible because everything was being routed to a different region....funny thing is now 25 years later, I am again with the dealer who helped me with the Aerostar and has been a real star when it comes to servicing my vehicles...it's funny how some things don't change.
I hope I am not coming across as insensitive, I definitely would have liked to have seen Ford admit some responsibility here, but they weren't really required to, a car burning down in one manner or another is an insurance case. Unless there is an obvious manufacturing defect, but if there were, the EcoBoost engine would be all over the news (them being in hundreds of thousands of trucks and cars). A car being totaled by your insurance company is always a tough pill to swallow, but it happens to many. Luckily we have insurance so that we aren't out several (tens of) thousands of dollars.
I'm glad you found another vehicle that you are happy with and I can totally understand that Ford has left a sour taste in your mouth. I of course don't know exactly how your conversations went, but in general I don't think it's entirely inappropriate for Ford to have left you at the mercy of your insurance. But judging from the posts here it does sound like Ford customer service was kind of asshole-ish about it and that really sucks. They should be doing everything they can get away with to keep you happy and to keep you as a customer.
I'm glad you found another vehicle that you are happy with and I can totally understand that Ford has left a sour taste in your mouth. I of course don't know exactly how your conversations went, but in general I don't think it's entirely inappropriate for Ford to have left you at the mercy of your insurance. But judging from the posts here it does sound like Ford customer service was kind of asshole-ish about it and that really sucks. They should be doing everything they can get away with to keep you happy and to keep you as a customer.
I am as well glad things worked out for you & i probably wouldn't have been so brave as to throw snow on a burning car. I'd probably broken a sprint record for a 60 year getting the hell away. Anyway I had an issue when i bought my escape, not the same dealer as my SHO. anyway they made a $500 adding error & never let me know until after multiple calls i was running out of time to get my license & tax paid & went in person. Anyway after basically having to make an ass of myself, they let me cancelled my extended warranty with them & I took my money less the $500, which I by contract did owe them & went to my other dealer & got an actual ford extended warranty. well when i got my card from ford to grade the dealer i graded them poor on everything but the salesperson. i'm in sales myself so wouldn't have done that to her. but anyway i was shock that someone from ford never did contact me about it. so i'm as well suspect about ford's customer service.
black99lightning
New member
I'll steal the line from Yowen about not being insensitive, but if I recall the facts your car was tuned. You also went WOT from a dead through atleast 2nd into 3rd in below freezing temperatures until the motor popped. In your original thread I advised you to remove the video and the thread itself, as it was incriminating. Kinda like a thief videoing his latest heist. Did anyone ever verify if the motor did indeed grenade, which is my assumption based on the loss of power and oil getting on the turbo causing the fire? I'm sorry for your loss but to blame the manufacturer is ridiculous.
I'll give you a couple of my personal experiences. I hurt the motor in my first Shelby, '09 GT500. I had a tune from one of the most reputable tuners in the country, VMP. Burnt up the 2nd plug on the pass side, and guessing I broke a ringland. I traded the car for $27K last year, retail was $35-37K at the time. I did disclose to the dealer it had a knocking noise on startup that went away about a minute or two after running. I'm sure they fixed it under powertrain. On my '04 Cobra I was lifting the heads under boost. The car was tuned by RWTD, and had a ported blower and full exhaust. Sold it for $15K when it easily would've sold for $22-25K at the time. On neither car did I blame FORD for my misfortune, nor the tuner. I did try to get Ford to warranty the '09, but in the end I knew it was my $$, and my fault. These unfortunately are the risks we assume when we modify our vehicles from stock then beat on them. If you want reliability buy a 4cyl accord and leave it stock.
If you do indeed report this to the NTSB, make sure you let them know the circumstances. Ditto with bad mouthing the manufacturer on the internet.
I'll give you a couple of my personal experiences. I hurt the motor in my first Shelby, '09 GT500. I had a tune from one of the most reputable tuners in the country, VMP. Burnt up the 2nd plug on the pass side, and guessing I broke a ringland. I traded the car for $27K last year, retail was $35-37K at the time. I did disclose to the dealer it had a knocking noise on startup that went away about a minute or two after running. I'm sure they fixed it under powertrain. On my '04 Cobra I was lifting the heads under boost. The car was tuned by RWTD, and had a ported blower and full exhaust. Sold it for $15K when it easily would've sold for $22-25K at the time. On neither car did I blame FORD for my misfortune, nor the tuner. I did try to get Ford to warranty the '09, but in the end I knew it was my $$, and my fault. These unfortunately are the risks we assume when we modify our vehicles from stock then beat on them. If you want reliability buy a 4cyl accord and leave it stock.
If you do indeed report this to the NTSB, make sure you let them know the circumstances. Ditto with bad mouthing the manufacturer on the internet.
black99lightning said:
Modding is a pay to play game for sure. All the points you make are definitely valid, and I agree with every one….
However they are kind of based on the assumption that the tune was at fault. You knew the problems you had and sometimes parts just fail. The cause of this engine fire and the popping sound will never be known I guess… because right or wrong (no judgement) Ford declined to investigate it (which may have been the best for Dean)….
If it's reported to the NTSB they won't likely take any action unless multiple similar reports are made… like the recent Tesla battery fires where it took three similar. But if there's a possibility of an inherent risk (and I'm not saying there is) that report is the only real avenue to discovering it for the safety and benefit of everyone. Of course it's not even our choice.
Just a little different perspective, I think.
black99lightning
New member
BiGMaC said:
Not really trying to go and forth with you, but in his original post he doesn't state that his car is tuned. He states the Airad didn't cause the problem and that Ford agrees to that. And that Ford is a terrible company for not standing behind what he clearly knows was a modified vehicle. What get's me, is that maybe noone remembers the original thread or do they all want to jump on the **** Ford bandwagon? I feel bad for the guy, but in the end it was never Ford's problem to fix. The car is modified. This is the chance we take. I'm sure LMS would tell him to pound sand also.
black99lightning I'm with you on this one. That pop i heard on the video WAS under full throttle. Ford saying the airaid was not the cause means they were somewhat looking for a cause. Don't know if they looked at the pcm or not since a lot of under hood wiring was burnt up. I can't tell you how many of my Lightning buddies in years past tried to get engines replaced when they blew them up from modifications and were denied. I'm sure Tractorak will enjoy his Jeep.
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Still like to know what happened and if it was preventable, either by driver input or by component upgrade along with the mods/tune. If OEM "accessory" parts like fuel injectors and coils are pretty much at their limits, for example, we need to know that. How much "slop" is in the design vs production.
How heavily modified/tuned was this SHO ? WOT from a dead stop and what was the outside temp? Was the car up to normal operating Temp ? WHY WAS THE VIDEO BEING DONE TO BEGIN WITH ?SHOdded said:
It's begining to look like at least some of the blame might fall on the owner ?!?
black99lightning
New member
JeffsSport said:
Yep. I look every winter for the Noobs with Lightnings that feel they have to race people in the middle of winter, only to throw a rod. I have a buddy that has done it twice. The 2nd motor was supposedly built?
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DJE624
Guest
IIRC there was a spark plug change not long before the incident. I still think it was a plug or a coil.
I was under the impression this car was stock, aside from the air intake, is that not the case?
Regardless, once again, this is exactly the type of reason we carry insurance, because unless there is a pattern of EcoBoosts catching on fire, Ford cannot be expected to be responsible. The problem here is that the fire is of an unknown cause, Ford has to either take all unknown fires seriously, or NONE.
If I were Ford I'd opt for none as well, because it would open them to all kinds of attempts at fraud. Drivers are legally required to carry insurance, in this case the owner was lucky enough to receive $7.5k OVER what he owed. I'd say that is a VERY good outcome. The only better outcome would have been EVEN more money over what was owed.
Someone mentioned this is the cost of modding a car, things can go wrong.... I say this is simply cost of owning a car! Sometimes they get totaled, and it sucks, but that's life sometimes.
Regardless, once again, this is exactly the type of reason we carry insurance, because unless there is a pattern of EcoBoosts catching on fire, Ford cannot be expected to be responsible. The problem here is that the fire is of an unknown cause, Ford has to either take all unknown fires seriously, or NONE.
If I were Ford I'd opt for none as well, because it would open them to all kinds of attempts at fraud. Drivers are legally required to carry insurance, in this case the owner was lucky enough to receive $7.5k OVER what he owed. I'd say that is a VERY good outcome. The only better outcome would have been EVEN more money over what was owed.
Someone mentioned this is the cost of modding a car, things can go wrong.... I say this is simply cost of owning a car! Sometimes they get totaled, and it sucks, but that's life sometimes.
He had a 91 Octane tune from LMS. He had also purchased a 3 bar but I don't know if he ever installed it. He indicated both of those things in another thread.
My first reaction when I saw this thread was, "Why the hell is he mad at Ford?" Of course, we were not privy to the conversations he had with them but, as Yowen and others have said, a car fire of "unknown cause" is for the insurance company to handle.
I don't know if the engine actually blew up, but if it had and there was NO fire, Ford would have been within their rights to refuse to warranty it if they discovered the tune.
My first reaction when I saw this thread was, "Why the hell is he mad at Ford?" Of course, we were not privy to the conversations he had with them but, as Yowen and others have said, a car fire of "unknown cause" is for the insurance company to handle.
I don't know if the engine actually blew up, but if it had and there was NO fire, Ford would have been within their rights to refuse to warranty it if they discovered the tune.
I don't like Ford Customer service that much either, but I had the same reaction as Bruce: "Why are you mad at Ford?".......I think in the end, the result here, Insurance covering, was just and appropriate. If he had NOT had the fire and the engine just blew up, I think he would have been in a more difficult predicament.
