steagle
Dedicated LVC Member
hey everyone it's been ages since i posted, hope everyone is doing well. so in 2006 i posted a thread about how i had a code pulled when my engine light came on. went to autozone, it was an O2 sensor for one of the catalytic converters saying the cat was operating below threshold. after pulling the code everyone told me to get it diagnosed by a dealer because you cant trust the autozone generic scanner. i paid the big bucks to have a ford scanner hooked up today... and it pulled the same code with the same exact description. lol.
anyways, here's the kicker - last year when i was addressing this problem, the dealership refused to replace the cat under federal warranty because i had just passed smog check here in CA and they said it had to fail for them to do any emissions work. i passed smog by ONE POINT, literally as close as you can get to failing, and i smelled the cat going bad, it was so obvious. but they still turned me away, nothing they could do, they said. knowing full well the car was 6 years old and rapidly approaching the end of its "freebie" status for emissions repairs. so after a period of time i finally had the time and money to get the car back in the shop. i got those codes pulled again, because the engine light came on again recently. same code, same sensor, same cat. they finally confirmed it had failed. but now, i am TWO MONTHS out of federal warranty. of course, Lincoln is more than happy to charge me the full price for the part & labor to repair. $525 for part and $150 for labor btw.
wtf? i am not taking this crap. they knew damn well something was wrong and intentionally refused to replace the cat under warranty because they could make hundreds off me a few months later when that warranty expired. yes i am at 7 years and 2 months now so i am technically not able to get the free replacement. but considering i did the right thing and took the car to them when the code was pulled and the smog check confirmed my suspicions, and they turned me away, i am using that to my advantage when i speak to the president of the dealership tomorrow to address this problem. fortunately i have everything in writing regarding the history of this problem so it's not just he said she said. but still. what a pain in the ass.
just a word of warning to those of you with crappy catalytic converters (aren't they all?), if you are getting bad performance before your 7 yr / 70,000 mile warranty is up, do whatever it takes to :q:q:q:q that cat up... get it replaced for free... because this kind of thing will piss you off as badly as it did me.
anyways, here's the kicker - last year when i was addressing this problem, the dealership refused to replace the cat under federal warranty because i had just passed smog check here in CA and they said it had to fail for them to do any emissions work. i passed smog by ONE POINT, literally as close as you can get to failing, and i smelled the cat going bad, it was so obvious. but they still turned me away, nothing they could do, they said. knowing full well the car was 6 years old and rapidly approaching the end of its "freebie" status for emissions repairs. so after a period of time i finally had the time and money to get the car back in the shop. i got those codes pulled again, because the engine light came on again recently. same code, same sensor, same cat. they finally confirmed it had failed. but now, i am TWO MONTHS out of federal warranty. of course, Lincoln is more than happy to charge me the full price for the part & labor to repair. $525 for part and $150 for labor btw.
wtf? i am not taking this crap. they knew damn well something was wrong and intentionally refused to replace the cat under warranty because they could make hundreds off me a few months later when that warranty expired. yes i am at 7 years and 2 months now so i am technically not able to get the free replacement. but considering i did the right thing and took the car to them when the code was pulled and the smog check confirmed my suspicions, and they turned me away, i am using that to my advantage when i speak to the president of the dealership tomorrow to address this problem. fortunately i have everything in writing regarding the history of this problem so it's not just he said she said. but still. what a pain in the ass.
just a word of warning to those of you with crappy catalytic converters (aren't they all?), if you are getting bad performance before your 7 yr / 70,000 mile warranty is up, do whatever it takes to :q:q:q:q that cat up... get it replaced for free... because this kind of thing will piss you off as badly as it did me.
i am getting a little tired of LA...