Wife stranded again

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Ringmaster

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Today our 04 V8 Sport overheated on my wife miles from home and she had to call a tow truck. Tow truck took it to a Ford dealer near where we live. After examining the car they said it needed new upper and lower radiator hoses, a thermostat housing and some other housing that's half covered by the intake manafold and a couple of gaskets. The service writer tells me this experience will cost $1250. $1250 for a couple of hoses and 2 plastic housings!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've about had it. Service writer tells me that the hoses are $125 each. As a side note I don't know if everyone remembers me catching this dealership charging more than MSRP for parts when they service a car but I told the women of the conversation I had with their service manager regarding their rip off practice and that I wanted her to check the parts prices and if they were more than MSRP I was going to have the car towed out of there. Well she calls me later and tells me that they were more than MSRP and that she had adjusted them. I'm sure the bill is still going to be over a grand since the job requires 6.4 hrs. of labor since the intake has to come off. Who design's this :q:q:q:q?
 
holy sh!t....tow it home and do it yourself or take it to a privite shop. if the hoses arent leaking let them be. there prob including those to get some bucks.they really have to figure out the real problem.
 
^ +1..

You can go to Fordparts.com and shop under 5 star ford in Az.. I looked at the prices for the hoses are:

Radiator Coolant Hose
3.9L Dohc EFI NA V8 Gas*HP (Upper)
list $72.87 your cost $61.94

Radiator Coolant Hose
3.9L Dohc EFI NA V8 Gas*HP ; Less Engine Oil Cooler (Lower)
list $80.53 your cost $68.45

Idk about the housings that you are talking about.. Like I said though, go to the website and you can look up more.. I would buy from max and have an independent shop do it if your not too keen on cars..
 
Ringmaster said:
Today our 04 V8 Sport overheated on my wife miles from home and she had to call a tow truck. Tow truck took it to a Ford dealer near where we live. After examining the car they said it needed new upper and lower radiator hoses, a thermostat housing and some other housing that's half covered by the intake manafold and a couple of gaskets. The service writer tells me this experience will cost $1250. $1250 for a couple of hoses and 2 plastic housings!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've about had it. Service writer tells me that the hoses are $125 each. As a side note I don't know if everyone remembers me catching this dealership charging more than MSRP for parts when they service a car but I told the women of the conversation I had with their service manager regarding their rip off practice and that I wanted her to check the parts prices and if they were more than MSRP I was going to have the car towed out of there. Well she calls me later and tells me that they were more than MSRP and that she had adjusted them. I'm sure the bill is still going to be over a grand since the job requires 6.4 hrs. of labor since the intake has to come off. Who design's this :q:q:q:q?
Click to expand...

I recently had to replace just about all of the plastic cooling system parts and hoses on my 04 LS. It cost somewhere around $500/$600 for the parts and I did the work myself. I went slowly and took about a half day to do it. The intake manifold does not have to come off to replace the plastic part that sits partway under it. You just have to work at it a little bit. The dealer quoted me $900 just in labor to do it. It was worth half of a Saturday for me to do it myself.

Plastic parts on cars are a fact of life today, and you can expect to have to do this sort of thing if you keep your cars over five years or so now. I suspect that applies to just about all of the brands out there.
 
Ringmaster said:
Today our 04 V8 Sport overheated on my wife miles from home and she had to call a tow truck. Tow truck took it to a Ford dealer near where we live. After examining the car they said it needed new upper and lower radiator hoses, a thermostat housing and some other housing that's half covered by the intake manafold and a couple of gaskets. The service writer tells me this experience will cost $1250. $1250 for a couple of hoses and 2 plastic housings!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've about had it. Service writer tells me that the hoses are $125 each. As a side note I don't know if everyone remembers me catching this dealership charging more than MSRP for parts when they service a car but I told the women of the conversation I had with their service manager regarding their rip off practice and that I wanted her to check the parts prices and if they were more than MSRP I was going to have the car towed out of there. Well she calls me later and tells me that they were more than MSRP and that she had adjusted them. I'm sure the bill is still going to be over a grand since the job requires 6.4 hrs. of labor since the intake has to come off. Who design's this :q:q:q:q?
Click to expand...

Go get your car back and do it yourself. I just had to replace the same coolant pipes that you are having to replace(plus the upper radiator hose you are replacing). The new adjusted prices seem about right. That one coolant pipe calls for removing the intake, but I just did it without pulling it because I didn't want to spend that time removing it. You just have to work the back bolts of that pipe with your fingers little by little until they are free. Good Luck!!
 
Thanks for the replies. I'm not afraid to do a little work. I've already done coils on my 02 along with door lock motor. My wife spends part of her days on the road so I can't take the time. Interesting how backyard mechanics can get the part out without removing the intake but the high dollar dealer mechanic can't. He probably can but the book says he can't. LOL.
 
He probably says he has to but wont, just says it to charge more. +1 on doing it yourself. You'll save so much money
 
Mechanics at dealerships are allotted a certain amount of time to do each job. They know the shortcuts just like the folks here on this board do. The more jobs in a day the more money they can make. If you call and ask how much is to to replace ___, they can give you a price. I believe the dealership rate is currently $80 an hour. Again, this is what I have been told, maybe other places are different.
 
If you can do it yourself, then by all means, do it yourself. You will save yourself soo much money just in labor. My dealership is about 60 and hour.. And they don't do flat rate.. Which I think is a crock of :q:q:q:q
 
i dont remember where i read this but i DO remember reading it when i bought my 2000 LS V8 Sport. The day after i bought the car it over-heated for no reason so i stopped shut the car off...waited about 10 min then turned the car back on. Few days later samething happened. I searched on the interent for the answer, as i have just dont but was unable to locate the article, the article stated:

"Lincoln LS have a minor malfunction with the thermostat. Due to poor engineering the thermostat will sometimes become stuck and having the car to read HOT when in fact it isn't. SOLUTION: Replace the thermostat."

So i went to the closest Parts store and bought a replacement and replaced the thermostat that was in the car. A year and 4 months have sinced passed, and the car is doing it again. So to remedy the problem im gonna pickup another thermostat and replaced. The best i can remember is that they cost about 20 bucks or so and take about 20-30 to replace, minus the time it takes you to hunt the tools and refill the antifreeze. GL hope this helped
 
I have several illustrations of various cooling systems on here. Search for them and get the numbers. you can then call Five star ford 1800-866-1520 and ask for Larry. he is sorta kinda helping me while I am at home assisting my wife after surgery. You must tell him you are a linconl vs Cad member to get my prices and if you are gold. Please have a vin number as there can be a lot of options.
 
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