I've been chasing parts for my semi all day. On my second trip to Tuscaloosa this afternoon, my pickup let me down. Went through a traffic light, then it didn't want to take the gas. Glanced down, and my dash gauges were all at zero. No electrical stuff at all, AC quit, power windows won't work, door locks, nothing. Went about two miles and then it totally shut down. Wouldn't even click the solenoid. Turn switch on, gauges sweep up a bit, then fall to zero. Everything seemed normal just a few minutes before. Had to have it towed to Ford dealer. First time I've had to have a vehicle towed in years, and the first time I've had to take one to a dealers shop in even more years. I HATE COMPUTER OPERATED VEHICLES!!!!!! Nothing I could check with what I had in the truck. At least insurance will reimburse me for the tow bill. We had to call my wifes cousin to come get us, and in transfering the semi parts to her 4 Runner, I left two pieces in the pickup. Now I've got to go back to Tuscaloosa, 90 mile round trip, in the morning to get the left behind parts so I can maybe get the semi going for a Monday morning delivery. Was supposed to deliver that load today, so it really needs to be there Monday. Just needed to vent over my bad day......
Yeah, I hate computer vehicles too! I won't own one anymore!!! It sounds like your alternator puked! I can't swear to that because You have to have it running to check the circuit. Hopefully you have a decent dealer and the stabbing won't hurt to much!
Now let me add, I hate rip off dealer service departments! They checked out my truck and found out the alternator and supposedly the battery were bad. $50 to check it out, $50 tow bill, ok with both of those. $500 for a battery and an alternator, and then want more to check out the air flow sensor? I DON'T THINK SO! I had it towed again, to my brother in laws shop that he just opened. $169 for an alternator from O Relliy's, battery was fine just discharged, $165 labor, which included changing spark plugs that I already had and a set of plug wires, $69. He also cleaned the air flow sensor, we may end up replacing it. I paid him $175, $10 extra just because he didn't try to rip me off! Now I will only owe the second tow bill. So..... $175 + $169 + $100 to the dealer, = $435 , or $165 LESS than what the rip off Ford dealer wanted for just changing the alternator and battery {which I didn't need anyway}. I figure the second tow bill will be about $100, so after the insurance company gives me back the $50 on the first tow bill, I'll still be only out $485, $115 LESS than the first estimate, with MORE work done! Lesson learned, better to pay a higher tow bill than to fool with a dealer!
I went out an purchased the computer reader for my truck. Each time the air flow sensor went out cost me $300 to "diagnose, fix, and replace" it. Now, when the reader says MAF, it is either $15 or just dab it with an alcohol-infused q-tip, or approximately $0.15. I paid $99 for the reader, and have saved THOUSANDS since then.
I was gonna gamble and say that the battery probobly went bad, due to the high heat, and killed the alternator. I stopped cleaning mine along time ago. Seems to get dirty very fast. Got to where the darn thing wanted to be cleaned every other day.
Glad its fixed. It really depends on the dealer and tech though. I dont have a problem pricing aftermarket parts to keep my customers at the dealer happy. Sometimes the parts guys arent a big fan of me but thats OK. I want my customer to come back to me. The overhead at the dealer is nuts. Its hard to compete with a small shop with low overhead even though they have about the same door rate as us in our area. All I can do is take care of my customers and hope they come back. The dealers need to wake up and stop trying to draw blood out of a stone. I guess they dont have a choice though to pay the bills. The tools alone that Chrysler sends us is crazy expensive. e.g. We have an 11000 dollar chest of tools for Crossfires and we only sold about 4 of them. Its nuts.
Yeah Darrin, maybe I was a little harsh, painting all dealers with the same brush. My brother in law just left the closest Ford dealer to me over their BS {NOT the dealer that I had my truck towed to}. Dealers have their place, servicing their new vehicles, and I figured they would have anything specialized that might be needed to check out my truck. I knew their labor was high, and parts markup was high, but I never thought about a battery being over $200. I even offered to go get my own battery and alternator and let them install it, but they said they didn't install "outsourced" parts. When I told him the battery was still under warranty and I needed to get it made up, he finally relented to letting me come get the battery and bring him a new one back. The more I thought about it, the madder I became. I know as a businessman my self, you gotta make a profit to stay in business, but when you're running customers away by overcharging them, what good are you doing? Like I said above, I'll have my vehicles towed the 50 miles rather than darken their door again. And there are some good dealers out there. The dealer my Mom uses is 40 miles from her home, but they have never tried to rook her or Dad when they took a car in.
if he changed the plugs and alternator for $175 you definately got a good deal. My uncle has one of the service trucks with a 5.4 and it took all day to change the plugs
