forddieseldoctor

I'm at a small dealer too. We only got 3 techs. The last aerostar I worked on had the gas tank fall out going down the road and the guy didn't notice until it rubbed through and drained all the gas out, It came back in for something else shortly after that and he had reached underneath with a can of john deere green and spray painted what he could reach without crawling underneath too far.

Wow. I've worked on quite a few and I'm only a year older than you. And I've spent my entire career at dealerships too. Amazing what a difference a thousand miles can make.

If I didn't replace the intermediate shaft seal it would be no problem. I had a chat with my service manager this morning. He said the manager at the other store said that they didn't replace the seal and the copy of the paperwork that we got emailed to us didn't have a seal billed. So with that being said I still feel that the overcharged the customer because if you are not gonna replace that seal you should be in the neighborhood of 3 hours.

I got to replace a failed dorman fuel pump driver module on an F-150 last night.

Now it makes sense. The time listed in the motor labor guide does not include the time to remove the ptu to replace the intermediate shaft seal. Ptu r&r is another 5.6.

Here's what identifix shows from the motor labor guide.

We had one of our customers call us. They were on a road trip with their 07 Escape. The alternator died. A Ford dealer a few states away helped them out and the proceded to help themselves to the customer's pocket book. They charged 6 1/2 hours to replace an alternator on an awd v-6. They called us once they were on the road again asking what it should have cost them. My service manager looked it up and came up with 2.8 hours. The customer had him call the other dealer and see why the labor number was so high. The service manager there claims that 6 hours was what was printed in Mitchell on demand. Then he proceded to embellish the story claiming he had 3 techs working on it and that they had the axle out, inner fender out, bumper cover off and even the fender off. And he said the customer is lucky they didn't charge them 8 hours.

That actually makes sense cause I thought 80 psi seemed a little excessive and I think the one I was playing with started out a 14 psi.

Spring loaded switches or just regular toggle switches? And all you're doing is just interrupting the power to each injector with the switch right?

Who needs yoga. I got trucks to fix.

At least you gained a socket. But how the hell did they do that in the first place.

I understand that. But I got stubborn customers and there's articles out on the internet that say coolant is coolant no mattet what the flavor.

The ones I've changed previously haven't had the staining there.

I played with it yesterday morning. Maybe it's just me, but I wasn't able to add any symptom codes to any vin that was scanned.

Update: Replaced the leaking radiator and replaced ghe plugged egr cooler. Flushed the engine out with water and refilled with orange. Convinced the customer to buy the Motorcraft coolant for their 6.7's. The radiator looks like it was leaking on both sides where the fins attatch to the aluminum ends.

Anyone happen to know what happens if a customer runs coolant that has nitrates in it? I got a fleet customer who runs the cat red in everything. (and yet they wonder why they chew up 6.0 egr coolers like it's going out of style) I got one of their 6.7's in here and they've got the red in it. I'm gonna try to get it through their on-site mechanic's head that you shouldn't run the red coolant. I dipped a test strip and it comes up with nitrates in it. And I know that the first question out of his mouth is gonna be what's it gonna damage.

Wanna bet? Been there done that.

My dealer has me and my welding skills. There hasn't been a manifold stud that has beat me yet. Some may take a few tries, but I have got them out.

I had a 97 F-350 and the support in mine was just fine. But that's only cause the previous owner replaced it when it got hit in the front. But seriously... I like Bruce's advice. It can't cost that much to ship one. Or else take a trip and go see the south and pick one out for yourself.

I hear that alot too. But sometimes it's coming out of me cause they don't wanna buy equipment that we should really have, or repair what we have. We got one of those too. Only he's been like that for 5 years and he's probably gonna hang around for another 5 years. The worst part is he's letting all his certs drop as they expire and the management is letting him do it. Then they whine cause they gotta watch what kind of warranty stuff they give him.

Had some weird intermittent flares, and came in with gear ratio error codes for gears 1,2 and 3. After chasing my tail with hotline and them having me replace ssa, ssd and then the main control and solenoid body I finally found a small tear in the forward clutch piston.

My F-550 egr cooler turned into a whole motor. Low compression on cyl #1. Looked at a 13 flex ecoboost for no heat, found waterpump leaking out the weep hole. Looked at a 13 6.7 for a check engine light, it needs an egr cooler and primary radiator. Finally looked at an 08 F-450 that got towed in for a reduced engine power warning and runs like crap. It's only about 6" overfull on engine oil and has a cyl 2 and 7 misfire. Relative compression shows 12% low on #2. I still got that other 6.4 sitting outside with a possible dying fuel system waiting for further diagnosis. And I still got a 6F35 ripped apart from a 14 escape.

Those ain't bad. I've had a couple out for oil leaks.

I caught a mouse in the shop this morning.

Smart ass. Some ain't quite that simple.