I am having both of my front springs replaced today by Ford under an
extended program, 10 years, 150,000 miles. The right side front spring
is broken I discovered yesterday. I think it's been broken for a very
long time, maybe over a year. It really started makine lots of real
bad noise the last few weeks when going over a speed bump etc. I took
it to my alignment/tire shop and my alignment guy drove it and the
first time it made the noise he looked over at me and said,"you got a
broken spring on the right side". Putting the car on the lift it was
easy to tell the spring was broken. It broke right inside the
protective rubber boot thats about 4 inches long that's around the
next to the bottom coil. He told me that water gets in there and just
a little bit of rust and they break. I'm in Minnesota so we have
plenty of salt.
I called a Ford dealer here in town and he said the year 2000 - 2003
had the extended on the springs and he told me they would replace both
of them, no charge.
I forgot to include this in the first post. I have a 2001 Wagon SE
with 40,000 miles on it.
The bottom line is that I still love the car and would buy another
without hesitation. Sure, some things are not as they should be but
maybe the designers that designed those parts have retired or been
fired by now. An example is the radio and the click stop volumn
control. It's either too loud or to low, it's impossible to adjust
where you want because of the click stops. The gas filler cap is on
the wrong side in my opinion. There are a couple other things but it's
still a very nice fairly cheap car to own and drive.
On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 13:13:14 -0400, "Dave Gower"
<davegow.removethis@magma.ca> wrote:
>
>"Happy Go Lucky" <focus_owner@somewhere-usa.com> wrote
>
>>I am having both of my front springs replaced today by Ford
>
>There's been a precautionary recall here in Canada. What is your year and
>mileage?
>
"Happy Go Lucky" <focus_owner@somewhere-usa.com> wrote
>...some things are not as they should be but
> maybe the designers that designed those parts have retired or been
> fired
The root of the early defects is mostly in third-party suppliers, which of
course doesn't let Ford executives off the hook since they contracted with
the suppliers. Over the years, I've seen two explanations for this, both of
which may have some truth.
First, Ford got too generous at letting suppliers participate in the early
planning stages, rather than the usual practise of simply issuing
requirements and selecting among the various bids. Some suppliers used the
opportunity to boost profits rather than design good parts.
Second, Ford senior management rushed the production deadlines, which gave
the designers insufficient time to test the parts from outside suppliers.
Ford isn't the only company to have had this problem. When Toyota started
assembling vehicles in North America, they had a lot of problem with
domestic suppliers. Ditto Mercedes.
I feel that the root of the problem is Ford Management and to try and save
a buck.
There is no excuse for shoddy workmanship and defect parts. Ford needs to
take responsibility and accountability for the problems they have had with
this Focus car instead of making excuses for them.
Toyota has been making cars in North America for about 18 years now, Ford
has been making cars how long? - Try 100 years plus, and they still can not
get it right.
The Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe are made in the same plant in Freemont
California. The Toyota Corollas and Honda's are made in Canada. If one
thinks about it, the same people who make Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans very
likely worked for Ford at one time.
"Dave Gower" <davegow.removethis@magma.ca> wrote in message
news:wo-dncQLKpzYve_fRVn-rw@magma.ca...
"Happy Go Lucky" <focus_owner@somewhere-usa.com> wrote
>...some things are not as they should be but
> maybe the designers that designed those parts have retired or been
> fired
The root of the early defects is mostly in third-party suppliers, which of
course doesn't let Ford executives off the hook since they contracted with
the suppliers. Over the years, I've seen two explanations for this, both of
which may have some truth.
First, Ford got too generous at letting suppliers participate in the early
planning stages, rather than the usual practise of simply issuing
requirements and selecting among the various bids. Some suppliers used the
opportunity to boost profits rather than design good parts.
Second, Ford senior management rushed the production deadlines, which gave
the designers insufficient time to test the parts from outside suppliers.
Ford isn't the only company to have had this problem. When Toyota started
assembling vehicles in North America, they had a lot of problem with
domestic suppliers. Ditto Mercedes.
"Henri" <henri_latour@hotmail.com> wrote
>.... Ford needs to
> take responsibility and accountability for the problems they have had
> with
> this Focus car instead of making excuses for them.
They do take responsibility and they haven't hidden behind excuses. These
explanations were mine, not theirs.
I've been having similiar problems with my 2001 ford focus se for about a
year now. I have noticed a "crunchy" noise coming from the front end when
I got over speed bumps, and also noticed popping sounds from the front end
as well when turning. I have not had the problem officially diagnosed,
and wondered if you had experienced any of the same symptoms? Per the
Ford website no recalls were issued for my vehicle. Did they consider
this a recall issue with your broken spring?
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