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Cam Phaser replacement


Kitulu

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Well, my wife called me yesterday and tells me that the fuel light is on on the dash. I had just filled up the tank, so I tell her to take a pic and text it to me...turned out to be the "check engine" light. I told her to take it to Autozone and have them read the codes. The machine spit out the code for camshaft sensor/crankshaft sensor/mechanical.

 

So, we took it to the dealer this morning since I paid for the extended warranty when I bought the car.

 

The service manager called me on the way to work and told me that it was most likely the cam phasers, but they had to dissassemble the engine to check to be sure...to the tune of $900....with a ballpark figure of $2500-ish to replace.

 

The kicker is that they are not sure if the warranty covers it until they get a look at the phasers. :(

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Yeah, that's the same song-and-dance I get when taking the Edge in for work. Diagnostics are out-of-pocket to owner unless a fault covered under warranty is found. You can only hope you are dealing with a competent mechanic/diagnostician. At least you have the DTC in hand to back you up. Might want to call Ford Customer Service about this first, unless you have a great relationship with the dealer.

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Yeah, that's the same song-and-dance I get when taking the Edge in for work. Diagnostics are out-of-pocket to owner unless a fault covered under warranty is found. You can only hope you are dealing with a competent mechanic/diagnostician. At least you have the DTC in hand to back you up. Might want to call Ford Customer Service about this first, unless you have a great relationship with the dealer.

The dealer here is pretty good in regards to customer service. They win the top award from the local residents every year.

 

Anyway, they called me back a few minutes after I posted. Blown head gasket which grenaded the internals...warranty authorized a "Like/Type" replacement, which means I get a certified used engine with around 60,000 miles on it, and all I have to pay is my deductable.

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Curious if this was a Ford extended warranty, or an aftermarket one? The Ford Premium Care warranty has just a short list of items which are not covered.

 

I'm surprised the dealer mentioned they weren't sure if it would be covered until a tear down unless it isn't a Ford warranty. Perhaps they were also making sure there was no negligence or lack of maintenance which may void the warranty even if the part isn't excluded.

 

Glad you did end up with coverage and hope the repair/replacement goes well.

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It is an aftermarket warranty, offered by the dealer. The only thing I was really worried about was that I did the 90,000 mile service myself, but by law that does not void a warranty...although I have heard stories...

 

Now that I think about it, I have owned four Ford/Mercury vehicles, and three of them blew the head gasket. The first was an '84 Mercury Marquis. That gasket blew because some idiot put stop-leak in the radiator at some point, and it collected around the gasket, blocked the water channel, and blew the gasket. The second time it blew the gasket was the bypass hose split...all the collant leaked out, and it melted the thermostat and blew the gasket so badly that all 6 cylinders had water in them.

 

The second was my second Ford Escort, a 1998. The fan warped, causing voltage fluctuations which blew the fuze for the fan motor. Lack of fan caused the car to overheat, which blew the gasket and either warped the head or cracked the block. My dad and wound up replacing the engine.

 

The third one is the Edge, and when I go pick it up I plan to ask if they could determine what caused the gasket to blow.

 

The dealer is Jenkins and Wynne in Clarksville, TN. They win the top dealer award from the local citizenry just about every year.

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Well, got the call today that my Edge was ready for pickup. Took all of 20 minutes to transfer my stuff from the rental to my Edge, pay my $100 deductable, and go over the paperwork. The service manager told me that the block was cracked on my original engine.

 

So, my 94,000 mile Edge has a 61,000 mile engine with a 12M/12K warranty ON TOP OF my existing warranty!

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I'm still not buying this whole story...... from a simple check engine light on and still running (seemingly) fine, to a cracked block. Something seems veeeerrrry fishy here. I'd be in there asking to see the old engine.... if they actually changed it. A cracked block is a pretty serious issue, and would likely cause way more than a simple check engine light..... and I don't see any connection with the cam phaser code

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Do mfrs still put VINs on the block so it's identifiable with the car's VIN code as original, Jared? Would that be doable for the owner, even if it is a "1 to 1" replacement?

 

EDIT: VIN decoder for 2008:

 

https://www.fleet.ford.com/ngtemplates/downloads/maintenance/VIN2008.pdf

Edited by WWWPerfA_ZN0W
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Do mfrs still put VINs on the block so it's identifiable with the car's VIN code as original, Jared? Would that be doable for the owner, even if it is a "1 to 1" replacement?

 

EDIT: VIN decoder for 2008:

 

https://www.fleet.ford.com/ngtemplates/downloads/maintenance/VIN2008.pdf

 

They most certainly do! Each engine has a serial number.... though they put them in different spots so sometimes it's hard to find (sometimes it's engraved into the block near the bellhousing, sometimes it's a little tag on the side of the block)

 

This is just a random OASIS I ran for a car I worked on a few weeks ago

 

oasisserialnumber_zpse7ff6f9e.jpg

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I'm still not buying this whole story...... from a simple check engine light on and still running (seemingly) fine, to a cracked block. Something seems veeeerrrry fishy here. I'd be in there asking to see the old engine.... if they actually changed it. A cracked block is a pretty serious issue, and would likely cause way more than a simple check engine light..... and I don't see any connection with the cam phaser code

 

It started idling rough the night before we took it in, and there was no coolant in the resivour when we stopped to check. It may have been trowing the code due to the lack of adequate lubrication from the water and oil mixing causing the camshaft to not run properly.

 

In any case, what would be the upside for the service department to run a scam, aside from getting the warrantly company to pay for the repair instead of me? Last time I had a cracked block, the car ran almost fine, with a little rough idle and rough acceleration. Keep in mind that they also gave me a 12 month/12K mile warranty on the replacement engine on top of the current warranty.

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