[stanjohn123]

Around June 2020 our Endeavour met with an accident and it got submerged in water. Extensive repair work was done and many engine components were replaced. The bill was a little more than 10 lakh Rs but was covered under Insurance.

The car was returned to us around December 2020 and was fine for just the next few months. Due to the pandemic and lockdown, we did not travel anywhere long, so speeds were only around 50-60 Kmph. We just drove close to another 5,000 Kms but the transmission started acting weird above 80 Kmph. Then almost immediately it failed and stopped falling into gears.

The car was towed to the authorized service center, where they diagnosed the problem to a solenoid failure inside the transmission. I asked them why this was not caught during the insurance claim. They said in the initial quotation to insurance they had asked to replace the transmission, but on inspection of the transmission oil they found no entry of water, so the replacement was rejected. But they say they still replaced the transmission oil.

But now again after several rounds of talks, the customer care manager confirmed to me that their inspection team said that the solenoid failure was due to water entry and they say that they are ready to cover only 20% of parts cost while I have to cover the remaining part of the 1.1 Lakh Rs bill ( I will post the bill here once I receive it ).

I asked them why I should be paying for it when the service center was not able to give me a fully rectified car and failed to cover the part under insurance. They say because it was not an immediate failure and a consequential damage which happened later.

I want to know how to proceed with this issue now. Due to the pandemic, business is quite bad now and we can't really afford to waste much money. Also I feel the issue has occurred due to service centers negligence and there is no guarantee that this will fix the issue 100%. Suppose whole transmission need to be replaced, I will have to again pay upward of 3 Lakh Rs.

The only option I have are

1) Accept the dealers terms of their 20% offer and pray that my car doesn't fail again.

2) Accept their offer and get in writing from them that any other transmission failure after this work has to be completely bore by them.

3) Negotiate further for 50% support by them.

Is there any other option ?

[asit.kulkarni93]

How old is your car? Did you write to Ford?

The dealer should have made this clear to you when the claim was rejected. I see no reason for you to suffer now. The GB on old endys was also notorious for solenoid failures. Ford has looted a lot of people in the past. They can’t be doing the same with the new Endy now.

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93

How old is your car? Did you write to Ford?

The dealer should have made this clear to you when the claim was rejected. I see no reason for you to suffer now. The GB on old endys was also notorious for solenoid failures. Ford has looted a lot of people in the past. They can’t be doing the same with the new Endy now.

Mine is the 2016 model. We did not look into what all work was done since it was between the dealer and the Insurance company and we assumed dealer would replace everything that is affected.

I only wrote to customer care which I found from their website. They don't have email contacts of their top management anymore. At least I couldn't find any.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

in the initial quotation to insurance they had asked to replace the transmission, but on inspection of the transmission oil they found no entry of water, so the replacement was rejected.

I will say it's a bit of bad luck. Water or fire damage can show up in different parts at a later date. Honestly, I would have not got the car repaired and settled for the total loss or if that was not possible, would have got the car repaired and sold. This comes from my personal experiences of spending around 6 Lac Plus on a Toyota Corolla in 2005. It never drove like the new before and I was never happy with the squeaks that keep on coming. But I could put that car to a better use somehow.

Negotiate further for 50% support by them.

Involve FORD India and request them to support you. Remember, this has probably not failed due to a manufacturing issue but likely due to water ingress unless the service centre messed up while changing oil. Do check the old invoice and see if they have used the correct oil (usually replaced at 2 Lac KM)

get in writing from them that any other transmission failure after this work has to be completely bore by them.

Well, your vehicle must be out of warranty and you cannot go back to Insurance for the claim on the parts that were probably damaged but not included. If at all there's a clause, it will be very difficult to pursue. So, practically, the service centre will give you a warranty on the new transmission and beyond that, you are at your own risk.

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

I will say it's a bit of bad luck. Water or fire damage can show up in different parts at a later date. Honestly, I would have not got the car repaired and settled for the total loss or if that was not possible, would have got the car repaired and sold. This comes from my personal experiences of spending around 6 Lac Plus on a Toyota Corrola in 2005. It never drove like the new before and I was never happy with the squeaks that keep on coming. But I could put that car to a better use somehow.

Couldn't claim for total loss since the quote wasn't 75% of the IDV value. Even if they included 3 lakhs rs( transmission replacement ) in the estimate it still wouldn't be total loss claim, so it was very unfortunate or negligence on the dealers side for not including it in the job.

Now might not even be a good time to sell as the market is down and a water affected car means disastrous resale too.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Involve FORD India and request them to support you. Remember, this has probably not failed due to a manufacturing issue but likely due to water ingress unless the service centre messed up while changing oil. Do check the old invoice and see if they have used the correct oil (usually replaced at 2 Lac KM)

Customer care manager is siding with the dealership and not budging from their 20% offer. They are not connecting me to anyone from the top management even after telling them that we have been loyal customers for several years.

But here is the contradiction in their statement. They say in the initial quote that they did not find any water ingress and that is why transmission change was rejected by Insurance. But now they are saying that the inspection team found the reason for Solenoid failure was water ingress.

So my question to them was, if they rejected the transmission replacement due to no water ingress, then how did the solenoid fail due to water ingress.

And if they failed to find water in the transmission oil why did they replace the transmission oil ? So there was water entry in the transmission and they failed to catch it while giving estimate to Insurance.

As per the bill they say they used the correct oil only.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Well, your vehicle must be out of warranty and you cannot go back to Insurance for the claim on the parts that were probably damaged but not included. If at all there's a clause, it will be very difficult to pursue. So, practically, the service centre will give you a warranty on the new transmission and beyond that, you are at your own risk.

Yes my vehicle is out of warranty but if I am not mistaken, any work done at the dealership will have another mini warranty of 6 months and 10,000 Km's. Ford can cover this also under that if they wanted to because we found out this problem within 4 months and 5,000 Kms.

Insurance is now out of the question.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

Couldn't claim for total loss since the quote wasn't 75% of the IDV value. Even if they included 3 lakhs rs( transmission replacement )

I think there is a way to negotiate on the salvage value and instead of Insurance paying for the repairs you can sell the car without repairs and you get a sum closer to the IDV, maybe less than market value. Some other members can pitch with more clarity perhaps.

it was very unfortunate or negligence on the dealers side for not including it in the job.

I am not sure where is the location of the solenoid that you are referring to. If it's inside some sealed part of the gearbox, that should have made them stick with their stand of asking for a new gearbox. So they replaced just the solenoid at that time? or are there not any child parts for the gearbox?

Customer care manager is siding with the dealership and not budging from their 20% offer.

Send an email to this guy - Anurag Mehrotra, his ID should be on the forum somewhere.

any work done at the dealership will have another mini warranty of 6 months and 10,000 Km's.

Yes, but they will be responsible for the work that they did or the parts they replaced. Not something they have not repaired.

It will be a good point to note by everyone that in case of any major repairs, we should try to take extended drives of the vehicle before taking delivery.

I hope, FORD understands this issue and pass you goodwill benefits.

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

I am not sure where is the location of the solenoid that you are referring to. If it's inside some sealed part of the gearbox, that should have made them stick with their stand of asking for a new gearbox. So they replaced just the solenoid at that time? or are there not any child parts for the gearbox?

They said the transmission oil comes in contact with the solenoid. The dealership only replaced the transmission oil, not the solenoid or any other part in the transmission since they said there was no evidence of water mixing with the transmission oil.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Send an email to this guy - Anurag Mehrotra, his ID should be on the forum somewhere.

Ok just found his mail id. Will send a mail to him right now. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Yes, but they will be responsible for the work that they did or the parts they replaced. Not something they have not repaired.

But they replaced the transmission oil that comes in contact with the solenoid. It could also be possible that these guys might have used the wrong transmission oil, but we will never know that now since they drained all that oil out.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

It will be a good point to note by everyone that in case of any major repairs, we should try to take extended drives of the vehicle before taking delivery.

I hope, FORD understands this issue and pass you goodwill benefits.

True but the issue cropped up only after driving it at speeds above 80 kmph. Due to the lockdown now, we did not have a chance to go for any long trips and hence we could not attain that speed much earlier. But the dealership says , they test drove it at all speeds and did not face this issue.

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Send an email to this guy - Anurag Mehrotra, his ID should be on the forum somewhere.

I sent a mail to Anurag and immediately responded that he will look into it and get back to me. In the meanwhile, this is the quote I got for the upcoming repair work.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

I sent a mail to Anurag and immediately

That's nice of him. Hope, he does help to you.

In the meanwhile, this is the quote I got for the upcoming repair work.

So, is this for the complete gear box or some module? Can you match the Fluid part number on this estimate with the Invoice from the previous work?

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

So, is this for the complete gear box or some module? Can you match the Fluid part number on this estimate with the Invoice from the previous work?

This part# FL3Z7A100G is the Ford Automatic Transmission Valve body, they will replace the whole thing I guess.

The previous bill is now worrying me, no where is the Automatic transmission fluid mentioned with the same product # XT12QULV. The only thing I see on that bill is an 80W90 Manual transmission fluid, which I am doubtful my car needs. Maybe they put in the wrong oil ,maybe some experts can chime in.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

This part# FL3Z7A100G is the Ford Automatic Transmission Valve body, they will replace the whole thing I guess.

Doesn't look like, it appears to be a control unit. Its around 450 USD everywhere, just google

https://www.fordpartsgiant.com/parts...z-7a100-g.html

https://www.fordpartsgiant.com/parts...z-7a100-g.html

The previous bill is now worrying me, no where is the Automatic transmission fluid mentioned with the same product # XT12QULV. The only thing I see on that bill is an 80W90 Manual transmission fluid

That seems to be the culprit to me, I will say, you should get the full replacement. There is every chance that the control unit got damaged because of the wrong oil, you cannot put a manual transmission fluid.

Instead of that water ingress story, the cause can very well be this fluid. There are some other threads here, one on the honda city manual oil used in Auto and how the gearbox got almost damaged.

here's the link

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...nsmission.html (Honda dealership fills the wrong oil in my City's CVT transmission!)

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

The previous bill is now worrying me, no where is the Automatic transmission fluid mentioned with the same product # XT12QULV. The only thing I see on that bill is an 80W90 Manual transmission fluid, which I am doubtful my car needs. Maybe they put in the wrong oil, maybe some experts can chime in.

MUL did the same in my case. Link.

But, why give them the benefit of doubt. 3.2 never had a MT, so there should be no confusion and please stand by your ground and whatever is in black & white.

Ford ASC did a botched up job. This is what I can conclude from whatever I see here.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

This part# FL3Z7A100G is the Ford Automatic Transmission Valve body, they will replace the whole thing I guess.

The previous bill is now worrying me, no where is the Automatic transmission fluid mentioned with the same product # XT12QULV. The only thing I see on that bill is an 80W90 Manual transmission fluid, which I am doubtful my car needs. Maybe they put in the wrong oil ,maybe some experts can chime in.

The wrong oil is definitely has a part to play in the transmission failure. Now if they admit that they have put a MT oil in AT ,it will be accepting their mistake and they have to foot the bill. So instead, they have come up with this water ingress theory. You have the bill with the proof that they have put wrong oil in your car transmission. Heck, the same will be in the Ford service history as well. This alone is sufficient for you to use as leverage to get the work done Free of cost

[stanjohn123]

Yes I think the dealership tried to screw me over. No wonder they were hesitant to give the new work quotation to me. I have attached the previous bill here. I have not yet mentioned this to Mr. Anurag and I hope he finds this out while doing inspection with his own team.

[ruzbehxyz]

Dear stanjohn123

From what I understand or guess is that some amount of water may have been found in the transmission and hence they changed the transmission oil or else there is no reason to do so. Unfortunately this cannot be proven now.