FordTechCA

hmm what do i do away from work....probably work harder away from work then i do while im at work. have 4 kids, going to school 4 nights a week taking a Cisco networking class and Windows XP class to get out of this business and im currently off work taking care of my wife who just had back surgery. i usually go to work to rest /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

yeah the 4.5l rumor has been going around since the 6.0l came out. last i heard emission issues was the reason it didnt happen

plain and simple the business sucks when it comes to wages. july brings an insulting $.50 a hour raise which will bring me to $30 a hour.(hourly no flat rape) alot of techs in this country would be very happy with that. i feel we deserve more. im in california east of the san fransico bay area and some of the highest housing cost in the country. where i live houses run $400,000-600,000. $30 a hour just isnt enough when you factor in the dealer charges $120 a hour customer pay and gets $105 a hour from ford for warranty. i support my wife who is a stay at home wife and 4 kids on my pay but dont have anything left over for fun or we have to save for a few months to go have fun. im 37 years old and have been doing this for 19 years now. on the bright side at the beginning of this year i started night courses at the college to learn a new trade. im heading into the computer field hopefully within the next 12 months. i did some research and with some advice from a few friends already in the computer field found i can make close to what im making now starting out and theres alot more room for advancement as long as i continue to learn and get certifications. in our profession we learn, spend loads of money on tools, get the certifications and then get told sorry thats the best we can do. the automotive business has been going the wrong direction the last few years in wages and benefits and until the every man for himself mentality the flat rate system breeds is finally fixed things wont get any better for the techs.

roflmao, i cant believe BG actually did it. i remember a year or so ago when the rep came to me telling me BG was trying to figure a way to do the EGR cleaning and i laughed at him and told him he should go tell the clowns at BG they are wasting their time. i guess in no time they will be coming to our shop buying us lunch to show us how to use a machine i'll refuse to use. no matter how hard you try you just cant fix stupid.

that must be in error, i just had a conversation with someone at IDS 2 days ago, they are still trying to get Vista to play nice with the IDS software. they are having truoble with all the new security stuff microsoft added in. i was told vista certification is coming soon and also they are working on wireless from the laptop to VCM finally.

the slts page on the ford website says the may release will have 6.4 times.

my dealer is averaging about 2 coolers a week right now along with 1-2 bed plate jobs a week

im not surprised. i think Ford is still being a little slow on the roll out of vehicles to try and win back the customers they lost to honda and toyota. the gas prices staying above $2.00 these last few years, Ford had all thier eggs in the truck and sport utility market, is the biggest reason for the huge losses. we only have 1 hybrid and i remember being told there was more on the way when i was first trained on the hybrid. i had heard the focus or fusion and the 500 were in line to have a hybrid version. also heard maybe a truck, like the ranger or f150, was planned to have a hybrid version. its been 3 years now and it seems like Ford has just given up trying to keep pace with Honda and Toyota when it comes to the hybrid. then the last year or 2 seeing Bill Ford on TV trying to promote the FFV E85 vehicles as an alternative to gas vehicles was nothing more then money thrown away trying to keep customers. 1. who wants to buy a vehicle that gets worse mileage on E85 then gas when most people in the last few years have been after high gas mileage vehicles and 2.who wants to buy a vehicle that you cant find the fuel for. Ford has been building FFV vehicles since the early 90's yet still cant find the fuel in most parts of this country. those commercials to me was a clear sign that Ford has lost the fuel mileage game to honda and toyota and were trying everything they can to find something to retain customers

now will this chat room be open 24/7 or just in the evenings?

cool, i still have the IDS stuff from the beta testing. if i didnt i probably would be trying to work some deal with my dealer to buy my own VCM.

ok sorry maybe the use of bandaid wasnt the right term to use. i know coming up for fixes isnt easy. its frustrating in the shop though when just as we are getting a handle on reparing the 6.0L and keeping the customer happy Ford comes and tells us we can no longer do what we have been doing or a new calibration is released that is susposed to fix something to only cause issues somewhere else, i think thats why i used the term bandaid. using turbos as an example, yes we replaced alot of them since 2003 and fixed alot of vehicles, then we get the turbo clean TSB that only caused more come backs til it was made clear what to look for in the cleaning process to determine a good turbo that could be cleaned or one that needed to be replaced. we are made to look like iddiots in the customers eyes even though we are doing what Ford tells us we can do. the 03 engine i think ran the best and the least amount of problems 2-3 calibrations ago. over 50% of the customers that have gotten the latest FICM calibration arent happy with the 30 buzz after shut down. again sorry to offend you Cetane

how many? well thats something we will never know but they sold a ton of 7.3L's that were very reliable at the hp number. i was told when the 6.0L first came out they were wound up about as much as they can handle without the customers taking a perfectly running truck and modifying it. we all know the 7.3L can take more power without issue yet Ford didnt leave the customer any room for error on the 6.0L. is it Ford's fault, the customers fault or internationals fault in the design? the real question is how many 6.0L customers that had 7.3L's before will be lost due to the 6.0L and not willing to give the 6.4L a chance. your other point of the wrong people owning a diesel. i totally agree with that and have been telling my service manager thats one of the biggest issues we have. some of the issues we see at our dealer would not be an issue if the vehicle was used the way it was ment to be used. as for the techs being a problem, yes flat rate is probably a big cause for alot of these trucks not getting fixed the way they should be. i know i wouldnt work on them if i had to work flat rate.

did you check the basic's? engine oil condition, fuel pressure and also vacuum the pump pulls on the suction side of the fuel pump? exhaust leaks? you said replacing the turbo got a few more psi of boost, what condition was the previous turbo in? possible base engine damage like a dusted motor? crankcase pressure test? need more info i would think to give you a more exact thing to look for

there was a message on fmcdealer in the last day or 2 saying the old 6.0L/7.3L additives will be phased out once inventory runs out and all diesels will use the new 6.4L stuff

is the rumor i hear true about Ford has more problems then navistar with the 6.0L? the warranty costs wouldnt be so high if Ford would just let us fix them instead of all the bandaids we have been tossing at the 6.0L since its been out. how many times have we done the same repair or close to the same repair because of some fast money saving TSB that was issued that only delayed fixing it right the first time. Ford screwed up with this engine and dont have the guts to admit its their failure and not navistars. why did Ford have to spec the 6.0L with more HP and rev higher then what international did within their own vehicles? all i can say is i hope this goes bad for Ford because i still believe in international engines. the 7.3L was a great engine and the 6.0L could of been if Ford had left it alone and ran it the way international built it.

yeah PDS does ok for what it is. one of the things(during beta testing) we tried to get Ford to add to IDS and also PDS was generic obd2 abilities. as you can see our requests fell on def ears. another thing that was requested and is still requested to this day is fuel system tests on vehicles that have frp sensors, but we keep getting the same old not enough memory to make it work story

PDS is on borrowed time as it is. it was almost done away with before it was ever released and umless pocket pc's start coming with more base memory i really dont see it lasting much longer(2 years at the most) the posting by Ford about module programming kinda makes me believe that.

i like the one where your looking for a noise and they tell you to pull the torque converter then reinstall the trans and run the engine. we actually had a guy do that on a vehicle that had a clear lower end engine knock.

my work load is usually 70-90% warranty depending on the month. i dont much mind as we are paid hourly. we are very busy right now considering the time of year, about a 3-5 days wait to get a vehicle in depending on what the vehicle needs done and were like that through december too.

wow you have been involved in getting the 6.4L on the road? thats pretty cool. seeing the bottom end is similar to the 6.0L has the problems we have seen in the 6.0L(oil leaks) been fixed in the 6.4L?

Mercon SP is different from synthetic mercon. im pretty sure the 2 arent interchangeable. the synthetic is only for a replacement of regular mercon or used in ZF 5 speed transmissions last i knew.

ive only done it on the round egr coolers but the other day after reading and responding to this thread i looked at the next 6.0L and mentioned the cover pull that was suggested here to another tech and we both said duh! that would be fast too /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rockon.gif

i still laugh at those videos. the older one a very good instructor at the training center i go to use to play that now and then. usually to get our attention and a good laugh to start the day off. ive learned alot from that instructor, he was a former tech that got into teaching and he knows his stuff

heck no, im barely willing to do it for what i make now let alone less. the only reason i keep my certs current is for myself, not the shop. at the rate this business is going, in a few more years maybe we can finally get what we deserve as shops continue to have trouble finding qualified, certified replacements for those that leave. i was on disability for 2 months, it took my shop the whole 2 months to find someone to fill in while i was out, they went through 3 people and it was the 3rd that started 1 day before i came off disability that could actually fix diesels. the other 2 were just warm bodies that didnt work out.

finished it this morning, was falling a sleep at the computer last night doing it. anyways interesting changes from the 6.0L, a few things kept going through my head while watching it. we arent payed enough, i feel sorry for the guys on flat rate and how many shops are truely ready for this truck. the shop im in only has 5 above gound lifts, mine being one of them. cab off for repairs will kill a rack if something happens and at my shop the dang trucks barely fit in the shop now, lifting cabs will create a problem closing bay doors. cant wait for the hands on as ill be filling up a sheet of questions for that first day. biggest question, what the hell are they thinking? /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/shrug.gif if this turn into another 6.0l having some of the same problems we can kiss what few customers we have left goodbye, looking at the bottom end i sure hope they figured out the oil leak issues.