Just a part of life

Everyone has been there and recently I too had to have a maddening talk with the mechanic at my local shop. The maddening thing about the conversation was the high cost of the repair, it wasn’t that my pick broke down in the first place, and it wasn’t that Ford had such a stupid design in the first place. No the reason it was so maddening is that the mechanic seemed to have an inability to break down the costs of the repair and give me an itemized set of prices. How hard is it anyway to create a work estimate? First item labor X hours at Y rates gives Z dollars. Next put in part A in X quantity times a cost of Y dollars gives you again Z dollars. Repeat until all the component costs of the bid are covered, add them together, and walla you have a total. After 40 minutes on the phone and asking several pointed questions I finally got this. Of course I really didn’t know because it was a range based on if this was needed or if that was needed but at least I had a framework to deal with.

So why was I dealing with this mastermind of mathematics? Very simple a factory defect in my 2002 Ford Ranger decided to show itself at only 54,000 miles and we were unable to engage the engine to the transmission. Now looking at the shop bill you would have thought that maybe the transmission had gone out, or that there was a major failure. In reality it was only a $150 dollar part and a simple repair. Yet the bill was much larger than you would have guessed it would be. The reason is that Ford had the brilliant idea of taking a tried and true – as well as very reliable – way of doing something and made it complicated for no apparent reason. Most hydraulic manual transmissions are activated with a similar set up as that used in power brakes. A master cylinder forces fluid through a line the pushes a slave cylinder activating the desired mechanism. On almost all hydraulic manual transmissions the slave cylinder is located external of the transmission and a mechanical lever or fork is used to actually engage the clutch. Ford new and better design was to build this inside the bell housing.

The problem with doing this is that instead of the cylinder being a bolt on part it now requires major work just to gain access to it. Instead of pulling it off and replacing it in ½ hour the mechanic needs 2 1/2 hours just to pull the transmission out of the truck and another 2 1/2 to put it back. Plus another hour of related, and what should be unnecessary work. This extra labor is only half of the cost created by this design. The other half stems from the proximity of other parts to the failed cylinder, which by the way fails by blowing out a seal and leaking hydraulic fluid everywhere. Because the clutch is so close to the cylinder, when the cylinder leaks the fluid ends up on the clutch causing the clutch to fail. Apparently the material that clutches are made out of is quickly destroyed by hydraulic fluid. Therefore instead of a $150 part on it’s own, you must also replace the clutch and resurface the flywheel adding another $400 dollars to the job! So all in all the total cost is easily 5 times the amount to repair the same failure in these Fords than in most other vehicles with manual transmissions.

But I really can’t get that upset about it. While I did get rid of the extended warranty to save money, as long as there is no other major repair in the next 2 ½ years or 46k miles the repair was only 2/5 the cost of the warranty. On top of that the failure was caused by poor design (prompting me to buy an after market replacement part) not from anything I or my GF did. In fact nothing we could have done could have prevented. So as far as I’m concerned since the problem was not caused by either of our driving habits, or from anything we did, and we could not have prevented it I consider the matter simply and act of nature or god. So therefore it’s just a part of life. Make the repair pay the bill and move on. I will think twice from now on about buying a ford, but in all honesty had I know about this flaw I still would have purchased the truck. Automotive repairs are just part of life!