I just bought my F-150 Ford hybrid and have about 3K miles on it. I park it outdoors in my driveway. It started to have a powertrain failure, so I took it in to Riata Ford in Manor, Texas because they are only a couple of blocks away from me. The diagnosis, after 3 days, was that a rodent or squirrel chewed the "harness" behind the battery where there are a lot of insulated electrical wires/connections. The cost to fix was almost $600 and it was not covered by warranty. The shop says they get a lot of these issues - weekly. The problem, from what they told me, is that the insulation is soaked in corn oil to keep the insulation in good condition over thousands of miles. However, that corn oil is sweet tasting to rodents and squirrels, and when they take a bite, they fall in love w/ it and keep eating it.
I can't believe you sold me an $80K vehicle that can be taken out of commission by a squirrel because you cannot figure out how to protect this harness from rodents or how to find an alternative substance to treat the insulation that is not prone to this problem. Do you agree w/ me? How often do I have to get hit w/ a $600 maintenance bill due to your engineering failure?
Do you realize what I have to do to protect my vehicle?
* I've been capturing and relocating squirrels - 4 so far
* I put a small platform on my driveway w/ a bag of moth balls on top. I then park my truck over that platform so the engine is right above the moth balls. Supposedly, squirrels hate mothballs. Hopefully, this helps to keep them away.
* I cannot keep the mothballs in the engine compartment because of the smell when I drive the truck.
* I don't have a garage big enough to house my truck, but I'm not sure that would solve the issue anyways.
If I would have known that I would have to go to these lengths to protect my truck, I would not have bought it. My 2 previous Ford F-150's did not have this issue. At least I did not experience this problem.
Do you think this situation is fair to me?
I think this repair is due to a fault in your engineering, not in the way I care for my truck. You should reimburse me and solve my problem. Not sure how to solve your engineering issue, but you have lots of smart engineers that can figure this out. Can you possibly replace the harness's w/ ones that are better protected from rodents?
Let me know if this is reasonable. I like Ford trucks, but this situation has really soured me on them. I cannot get any answers from your Service Dept or from Ford Pass other than this is a well known problem. Thanks.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I just bought my F-150 Ford hybrid and have about 3K miles on it. I park it outdoors in my driveway. It started to have a powertrain failure, so I took it in to Riata Ford in Manor, Texas because they are only a couple of blocks away from me. The diagnosis, after 3 days, was that a rodent or squirrel chewed the "harness" behind the battery where there are a lot of insulated electrical wires/connections. The cost to fix was almost $600 and it was not covered by warranty. The shop says they get a lot of these issues - weekly. The problem, from what they told me, is that the insulation is soaked in corn oil to keep the insulation in good condition over thousands of miles. However, that corn oil is sweet tasting to rodents and squirrels, and when they take a bite, they fall in love w/ it and keep eating it.
I can't believe you sold me an $80K vehicle that can be taken out of commission by a squirrel because you cannot figure out how to protect this harness from rodents or how to find an alternative substance to treat the insulation that is not prone to this problem. Do you agree w/ me? How often do I have to get hit w/ a $600 maintenance bill due to your engineering failure?
Do you realize what I have to do to protect my vehicle? * I've been capturing and relocating squirrels - 4 so far * I put a small platform on my driveway w/ a bag of moth balls on top. I then park my truck over that platform so the engine is right above the moth balls. Supposedly, squirrels hate mothballs. Hopefully, this helps to keep them away. * I cannot keep the mothballs in the engine compartment because of the smell when I drive the truck. * I don't have a garage big enough to house my truck, but I'm not sure that would solve the issue anyways.
If I would have known that I would have to go to these lengths to protect my truck, I would not have bought it. My 2 previous Ford F-150's did not have this issue. At least I did not experience this problem.
Do you think this situation is fair to me?
I think this repair is due to a fault in your engineering, not in the way I care for my truck. You should reimburse me and solve my problem. Not sure how to solve your engineering issue, but you have lots of smart engineers that can figure this out. Can you possibly replace the harness's w/ ones that are better protected from rodents?
Let me know if this is reasonable. I like Ford trucks, but this situation has really soured me on them. I cannot get any answers from your Service Dept or from Ford Pass other than this is a well known problem. Thanks.
- rbm08, Manor, US