Wiscasset Ford's service department massacred my truck. Long read ahead, TLDR is they did an excessive amount of work for a relatively simple job, which resulted in extra labor and parts cost, and some parts replaced weren't done properly.
Brought my '03 F-350 to Wiscasset Ford because there was diesel in the coolant. The technician there diagnosed it as being bad injector sleeves. Wiscasset Ford claimed that they would have to remove the cab to do the service, but we'll get to that later. I agreed, and they proceeded with the work.
They had my truck for about a month. And during that month, communication was almost non-existant. I had to reach out every so often just to try and get an update on what was going on, and when I would be able to pick my truck up. When I finally was able to pick the truck up, they told me all of these parts had broken during the process and had to be replaced.
They broke a brake line removing the cab. They replaced it, but didn't bleed it properly. The pedal goes to the mat. It was nowhere near this bad when I dropped it off.
Cab mounts broke, but I suppose that's to be expected.
They broke the starter removing it from the motor. $300+ replacement.
They removed my running boards, claimed the mounts were damaged, and threw them in the bed of the truck. They left one mount just hanging on the side. I'm 250lbs and used those running boards every day without issue. Hardware to reinstall running boards is no where to be seen.
When I went to pick the truck up, they didn't disclose that the transmission shifter bracket had been rusted out to the point that it doesn't hold the shifter cable properly. They just stated in the paperwork the shift cable is loose. I went outside, got in the truck, threw it in reverse. It rolled forward. Threw it in park. It rolled forward. Technician and service manager came outside, technician said something along the lines of "Oh, it did this to me before" and crawled under the truck to show me the bracket and where he had zip tied it to try and hold it in place. It never had this issue before I dropped it off with them. The bracket is $35. Why would no one ask me if I wanted to replace it while it's there? Or at the very least disclose the issue?
The cherry on top of this whole situation was the cab never needed to come off to begin with. On the 7.3L Powerstroke, you don't even need to remove the cylinder heads for this job. There's a well known tool that only requires you remove the valve cover and injectors, and then the tool can pull the sleeves out through the injector bores. Saving time, and the headache of having all of the extra work/broken parts.
If they had replaced the broken parts properly, and had called/emailed me to let me know things had broken, I wouldn't care too much. But the fact that I brought them a truck that drove, shifted, and stopped and got back a truck that only did one of the three well really says something.
Overall very dissatisfied with the work. You should see a local mechanic, like JM Automotive, or a different dealer if you need service done. read more