Rant

[Coronet 14]

I'm gonna vent for a moment. My truck developed an erratic idle in gear. So I replaced the spark plugs and the coil packs looked old and some of them had very rusty springs in them and cracked boots I replaced those to. All is welll until a week ago when the truck developed an engine vibration that would knock your teeth loose and thinking there is something seriously wrong with engine since it had no power and the vibration. Well dropped it off at repair shop. Get a call they tell me I have bad coil packs. Called Summit they will warrenty the coil packs that are bad. I asked them if they would at least cover some of the repair cost. I was given the number for Davis Unifed Ignition so I called them. Explained to them what was going on since it was their parts that were defective. Was informed that they would not cover any of the bill. I know you are all asking why I didn't just drive the vehicle back home. I didn't trust that it would stay running to get it home. So am I wrong to ask if some of the repair bill would be covered. This happened to be on my Excursion V10. Just can't afford a diesel Dodge with a car payment attached to it right now Thanks for letting me get that out

 

[paladin06]

Breath my friend, breath..

 

[snakeyes]

coronet 14 sent you a pm

 

[kellycom]

Once upon a time I was a ford mechanic. People would bring in their Crown Vics, Grand Marquis with the 4.6l and complain that under load the engine would buck. They already had taken the car to some place other than the dealership and gotten the plugs and wires replaced. But it still had the same problem. I would then tell them they needed new plug wires. To which they would balk and tell me the wires were new and show me the bill from the shop that replaced them. I'd ask if they were motorcraft plug wires. to which the answer was no. I'd convince them to replace plug wires. Guess what, problem solved. I dont know what it was that caused the problems. But new factory wires fixed it everytime. Some times it's just worth the extra money to buy factory parts.

 

[Bruzilla]

I know exactly of what you speak kellycom! I've driven a Crown Vic since 1991, and I've had that problem with plug wires time and time again. I've also talked to dozens of owners who've had it, and it's always the same... you get new wires from an auto parts store, usually made in Mexico, and the problem doesn't go away. Then you put in a set of Motorcrafts, which cost twice as much, but that fixes the problem. But it can be worse. I also know more than a few folks who paid for transmission rebuilds because some shop said the problem was tranny related!!!

As for Coronet 14's problem, I can't fault the manufacturer. The problem is do-it-yourself mechanics are infamous for screwing up the installation of electrical parts, most of the time by not disconnecting the battery before changing them, and they're constantly running back to the point of sale or manufacturer whining about how a part was bad when it was the installer who messed up. I'm not saying Coronet 14 messed up, just that this is a HUGE problem at both the point of sale and manufacture's ends, which is why they usually don't pay for repairs or even offer refunds/exchanges on electrical parts. If they did they would go broke. So I guess if a rant is in order, it should focus on the real villains, which are the morons who don't take the time to disconnect the battery, arc the component when putting it in and ruining, then take it back for a refund/exchange or repair when they know full well they are at fault.

 

[Moparsmitty]

For a while now the quality of aftermarket (part store) electrical parts has gone downhill. Some stores sell two or three grades of parts ranging from just barely adequate to complete crap. And just because the book says a part will fit a certain application doesn't necessarily mean that it's the right part for that particular application. On a couple of different repairs on newer cars, I've learned the hard way that only the exact oem part will work properly. I've even changed spark plugs on some newer cars with plugs that the book showed were replacements for the stock plugs only to have the car not run exactly right and end up going back to the exact factory plugs. Lesson learned. Whenever I'm replacing anything electrical on a newer car I always use the exact factory replacement. If it costs twice as much, so be it.

 

[Coronet 14]

No offense taken. I did disconnect the battery. Did find a broken easyout in the coil bolt hole. Old coil was zip tied to the fuel rail. Had to fix that to. Did use Motorcraft sparkplugs though.

 

[Budnicks]

Sorry for you problems, as I feel for you, Summit racing is usually great about customer service... The mnfgr. of the parts, I think if they cover replacements of the part, that's pretty damn good {especially for anything electrical, usually isn't warrantied, very long, "if at all", usually says "no refund after installation on electronics parts", especially if installed by the owner/shade tree mechanic, type deal, if it was originally installed by the dealership, than maybe labor costs or part anyway, should/would be covered}... They {the parts mfgr.} didn't install the parts originally, they didn't choose to take it to a dealership or the dealership offer the parts installation, so they shouldn't be responsible for labor costs, that's my $0.02 cents... If you get my reasoning... I'm sorry for your situation thou, kind of sucks being the middle man/consumer sometime today...