I called the dealers bluff, and it worked perfectly...

I'm experiencing some grinding noises when my transmission downshifts. The issue is still up in the air, but I'm hoping to get it taken care of soon.

Truck has 7000 miles on it. Bone stock. Except I got a Magnaflow muffler put on a while back by my local exhaust guy.

Dealership tried to claim the noise I heard was my muffler rattling.



I have chalked this up to a misunderstanding between the techs, service writer, and the other tech who drove it after I left it with them. No hard feelings on my part, just frustration.

So on to the part where I won.

Me: "If the muffler is the cause, replace it with a new stock one from Ford. I will pay. It should be around $700 or so, based on my research. I have my credit card with me, how soon can you get it in?"

Service advisor: "I'm not sure we can do that."

Me: "Oh by the way, what will you guys do if that doesn't fix the problem? Because I am telling you right now, it won't."

Service advisor: "You wouldn't have to pay for the muffler then."

(I still can't believe he just blurted that out)

Me: "How many mufflers will you guys have to buy me before you'll diagnose this properly and fix the actual problem?"

Service advisor: (head explodes) "I'm going to go get my manager."



It shouldn't be this hard.

BTW I still love my truck.

Brilliant! Everybody on this forum owes you a debt of thanks for this technique.

All they would do is put on the stock muffler and say, oh shit that didn't fix it. Now lets fix the real problem and tell the customer that the muffler fixed it (omitting what really fixed it) and get paid for some warranty work and customer paying for unneeded muffler.

RDFTS said:

All they would do is put on the stock muffler and say, oh shit that didn't fix it. Now lets fix the real problem and tell the customer that the muffler fixed it (omitting what really fixed it) and get paid for some warranty work and customer paying for unneeded muffler.

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I doubt it would have gone down that way. Doesn't matter, I still won.

Stupid muffler bearings

Bulletnjm said:

Stupid muffler bearings

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**** me, right?

It was an honest mistake on their part. They let a junior tech drive it and he didn't know the conditions needed to recreate the noise, or what to listen for. The service advisor took his diagnosis and ran with it, all the way to his own end zone.

What a lousy tech, are you even required to go to training anymore, i mean come on

So true, when you discover a GOOD tech , it's like hey everybody , holy smokes look what I found, a mechanic that is actually a mechanic! Lights flash, horns sound, and confetti falls from the sky.

Ask them to check the muffler fluid while they're at it. Maybe it's low.

So what's the rest of the story? Did you leave the truck there? Taking it back later?