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Warranty is now up and i think i have the TSB.... AGAIN!


zporta

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First, the powertrain has a 5yr 60k warranty. In black and white in your owners manual.

 

We have discussed Chuck's clutch on several forums over and over. Chuck believes his car had an issue, got the dealer of his choice to perform the TSB at Ford's expense. The end result was worse than what he started with. His beef is with a dealer that did poor work. How many times does he expect Ford to pay for the same repair? Take the dealer to court is your only recourse for the poor workmanship. Ford already paid them on your behalf because you signed on the invoice saying you were happy with the work performed.

 

I maintain that the clutch installed in the 2007 GT500 is far better than what came in any prior SVT product. I know I have pused far more HP through it than was stock and its fine at 30k miles in city traffic. My 98 Cobra clutch gave up shortly after installing a Vortech. Fixed it on my nickel and so did most other owners. When my current one fails, I'll upgrade and be thankful it lasted this long at 700hp. You guys need to quit fussin about this as no other mfg than Ford has attempted to put this level of performance on the street at this price point. The car is not perfect but it aint 100k either.

 

 

First of all JC......salud. Couldn't agree more.

 

I was fortunate enough to have them replace the tranny very early on. Frankly, I'm not sure if I have the latest/greatest/nickel/aluminum/solid gold/unobtanium pieces or not. I also don't care. Ford did what they were supposed to do and then some. The dealership did as well.

 

At the end of the day, the problem cars have fallen into two categories:

 

1. Not driven very much and the input shaft got rust on it (among some other issues).

2. People riding and/or slipping the clutch too much. (operator error)

 

You can search every thread on this, you can listen to Grabber (who, by the way, has gone WAY out of his way to be helpful to everyone on a number of forums and for that we should all be grateful!) I've done both, as well as spent much time with some close friends at the company. They get what the issue was, they did their best to repair what they could, they modified it for the '10. Those of us with '07s bought early on and suffered a number of early adopter issues. That's the nature of the beast folks. The next car or any item will always be better than yours because it's called progress.

 

I'll also tell you that this clutch and trans is hella-tough. I have a LOT of use on it. It has 15,000+ miles on it (24,000 on the car). Many of those miles were on 1,320 ft excursions. :)

 

bj

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The 'lube on the input shaft' was not a defect but a design change to try and help those owners that let the cars sit most of the time. I have owned and installed clutches in more cars than I can count and have never lubed trans input shaft to prevent rust build up. If the car is drivien regularly the rust simply is not a problem. Heat in the flywheel is from slipping the clutch. Its not a motorcycle with a wet pac clutch. It should be either engaged or not, not slipping. There are quite a few owners of 07 cars that have far more miles than me on the OEM clutch and without diffeculty. Its driver technique that is the variable here.

 

A streetable clutch that will handle 800 ft lbs of torque and drag strip launches is quite a feat to design. The cerra-metalic dual disc clutch in the 07 was a first of design in a production car. Yes things have gotten better since but it was pretty good. Sorry guys, its not a honda or a porsche with 200 ft lbs of torque. Ford is not going to just up and replace all the clutches with new and improved designs because better is available 3 years later. The unit installed is not defective, it passed lengthy durability testing and the vast majority of units sold did not fail during warranty period. (most 2007s are out of warranty now).

 

 

I drove my car with 10k miles and ever experienced the problems I am now. So I disagree about driver technique. Whatever I was doing worked for the first 10 k miles but for some reason does not with the new parts? Makes no sense to me, sounds like parts defect. I agree with you but I mean defective like a bad batch or something ?

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The 'lube on the input shaft' was not a defect but a design change to try and help those owners that let the cars sit most of the time. I have owned and installed clutches in more cars than I can count and have never lubed trans input shaft to prevent rust build up. If the car is drivien regularly the rust simply is not a problem. Heat in the flywheel is from slipping the clutch. Its not a motorcycle with a wet pac clutch. It should be either engaged or not, not slipping. There are quite a few owners of 07 cars that have far more miles than me on the OEM clutch and without diffeculty. Its driver technique that is the variable here.

 

A streetable clutch that will handle 800 ft lbs of torque and drag strip launches is quite a feat to design. The cerra-metalic dual disc clutch in the 07 was a first of design in a production car. Yes things have gotten better since but it was pretty good. Sorry guys, its not a honda or a porsche with 200 ft lbs of torque. Ford is not going to just up and replace all the clutches with new and improved designs because better is available 3 years later. The unit installed is not defective, it passed lengthy durability testing and the vast majority of units sold did not fail during warranty period. (most 2007s are out of warranty now).

 

 

"Lube on the input shaft" was an attempt to deal with a poor choice of finish selection and poor choice of tolerance selection of the parts involved. To tight of a fit, combined with surfaces that rust, is simply poor engineering and defective. The fact that many of these cars are weekend toys that sit all winter, does definitly make the original flaws even more evident, but I am pretty sure that Ford knows that alot of GT500's are drivin in the summer on nice roads, and put away for the winter. I don't think of Ford as "helping" me since my car sits. I see it more that I am helping keep them in business by buying a $55K Mustang.

 

The cars that you installed clutches on that didn't need lube, probably had the more appropriate tolerances than the original Ford spec called for on the early GT500's.

 

I disagree that '07's are almost out of warranty. 2007's I believe came with a 5YR/60K powertrain warranty that specifically covers the flywheel. The flywheel warps due to hanging up clutch and/or it's inhearent inability to shed heat, thus is the causing component of all of the resultant damage and all the parts the TSB covers. Ford denies me after 3 years and it will be go time, in court....

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All cars come with factory warranties, some longer/shorter than others. When the TSB is performed by a certified Ford dealer, wouldn't that work done be under some type of additional warranty for some length of time?

 

 

I think the only warranty on warrany work, is the ramaining new car warranty. I won't say the brand of my wifes SUV, because that causes everybody on here to get pissed off, but I had a radiator replaced at 88K miles or so, they had extended radiator warranty to 90K, due to known problems. Then it developed the same leak again at about 100K miles, and sure enough, they replaced the radiator again for me, free of charge. This is a 6 year old truck, with 100K, and they put a new radiator in it. Needless to say, we just drove thru that brand car lot, and are preparing to purchase another new one, and won't be visiting the Ford / Lincoln dealer for her truck.

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I had the TSB done at about 25,000 miles. The new clutch etc. was about the same. My second clutch went at about 55,000 miles. I switched to the Spec single disc stage 2 plus and couldn't be happier. No shudder, hiss, etc. It also eliminated much of the chatter from the clutch while at idle. The car drives away from a stop perfectly. I'm only making about 580 rwtq so I don't need a monster clutch. This change has been awsome!

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Don't want to salt any wounds, but try a 2010 clutch guys. Thing is awesome. There is debate about it's overall strength, but if you just run around with "merely" 600HP should be fine.

 

 

now could people get this clutch from TSB work?

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"I disagree that '07's are almost out of warranty. 2007's I believe came with a 5YR/60K powertrain warranty that specifically covers the flywheel. The flywheel warps due to hanging up clutch and/or it's inhearent inability to shed heat, thus is the causing component of all of the resultant damage and all the parts the TSB covers. Ford denies me after 3 years and it will be go time, in court....

 

 

The clutch hangs up and CAUSES the flywheel to over heat and warp. ALL flywheels will overheat and warp given enough abuse. Ford designed one that had better resistance to heat build up than was originally specified and used it in the TSB to help. Nevertheless, its the clutch that has failed and CAUSED the flywhee to overheat. The clutch is a wear component, especailly on a modified car, that is not coverend under the 5/60k powertrain warranty. Ford IS warrantying many of these after the expired 12/12 clutch warranty in the name of good customer service but since they refuse to do so forever and replace clutches 3, 4 or more times in one owners car.....Toyota must be better.....BS. Been there, done that and been left out in the cold by asian brands too. At least Ford had the 'bold moves' to bring a car like this to market and continue to stand behind it. But its not on thier nickel forever.

 

I'll stop now. I'll never convince those that have bad clutches that its appropriate that they pay to play. Its always someone elses fault. Go enjoy your wife's camry without a soul.....

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The clutch hangs up and CAUSES the flywheel to over heat and warp. ALL flywheels will overheat and warp given enough abuse. Ford designed one that had better resistance to heat build up than was originally specified and used it in the TSB to help. Nevertheless, its the clutch that has failed and CAUSED the flywhee to overheat. The clutch is a wear component, especailly on a modified car, that is not coverend under the 5/60k powertrain warranty. Ford IS warrantying many of these after the expired 12/12 clutch warranty in the name of good customer service but since they refuse to do so forever and replace clutches 3, 4 or more times in one owners car.....Toyota must be better.....BS. Been there, done that and been left out in the cold by asian brands too. At least Ford had the 'bold moves' to bring a car like this to market and continue to stand behind it. But its not on thier nickel forever.

 

I'll stop now. I'll never convince those that have bad clutches that its appropriate that they pay to play. Its always someone elses fault. Go enjoy your wife's camry without a soul.....

 

 

 

 

Ford has admitted there is a problem with the clutch/flywheel and input shaft on the 07-09 GT500s, they have shown this by releasing the TSB everyone knows about. In all other cases you would be right but not here because Ford has admitted a design flaw. Why do you not understand this and think owners should pay out of pocket?

 

Ford also has admitted to me that the post TSB parts are still not designed as good as they would like and nothing near as good as the 2010 unit. You obviously do not work in a customer service industry like me and many others and this is the problem why companies are failing, they just do not get it.

 

Oh well, I think I'm with alloydroptop, if they won't replace my parts again this Spring, I'm going to Court and we will see who ends up paying.

 

Pay to play? That expression only goes for people that race and mod their cars, not us with a FRPP warrantied air intake system lol

 

I bleed Ford but I am not going to praise Ford for this lack of cooperation and their attitue towards owners of their halo vehicle.

 

"never bite the hand that feeds you"

 

ok- like you said, we gota burry this one :)

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Ford has admitted there is a problem with the clutch/flywheel and input shaft on the 07-09 GT500s, they have shown this by releasing the TSB everyone knows about. In all other cases you would be right but not here because Ford has admitted a design flaw. Why do you not understand this and think owners should pay out of pocket?

 

Ford also has admitted to me that the post TSB parts are still not designed as good as they would like and nothing near as good as the 2010 unit. You obviously do not work in a customer service industry like me and many others and this is the problem why companies are failing, they just do not get it.

 

Oh well, I think I'm with alloydroptop, if they won't replace my parts again this Spring, I'm going to Court and we will see who ends up paying.

 

Pay to play? That expression only goes for people that race and mod their cars, not us with a FRPP warrantied air intake system lol

 

I bleed Ford but I am not going to praise Ford for this lack of cooperation and their attitue towards owners of their halo vehicle.

 

"never bite the hand that feeds you"

 

ok- like you said, we gota burry this one :)

 

Buy a 2010. Problem solved.

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Buy a 2010. Problem solved.

 

 

hahaha i like that thought. better yet buy a 2010 after the 2011 comes out. better deal then. i really feel sorry for chuck cause im sure he's not alone on this. i really hope when i have to take care of this it wont turn into a nad story like chucks. all i can say that at least 90percent of these 07-08 will have some sort of problem with the clutch/tranny setup.

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Chuck,

How come you don't pick up a Spec clutch and spend the 3 hours of labor to have it installed and be done with it?

 

The only reason I say this is because you then could begin enjoying your car again.

 

Life is too short to continue on for years complaining about a botched clutch install.

 

I guess I'm just surprized that your still letting this eat away at you.

 

Your gonna go grey and bald at a young age.

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Chuck,

How come you don't pick up a Spec clutch and spend the 3 hours of labor to have it installed and be done with it?

 

The only reason I say this is because you then could begin enjoying your car again.

 

Life is too short to continue on for years complaining about a botched clutch install.

 

I guess I'm just surprized that your still letting this eat away at you.

 

Your gonna go grey and bald at a young age.

 

 

Yeah I agree, unfortunately for us, Ford has never really been very reliable for warranty work.

 

I've owned a Ford for the last 18 years so I'm very aware of the way warranty work is dealt with... or NOT dealt with to be more specific.

 

I tried to get the TSB performed on my car as well, but much to my surprise (not really) it didn't happen. I was planning to get a Spec or something of that nature at some point, and then came across a deal for a post-TSB clutch and flywheel and that is going in today.

 

If you do take them to court I'll be rooting for you though :)

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I checked my paperwork from ford, no mention about warrenty except the little blurb on the bottom of the paperwork " all Ford installed Ford parts are warrented for 1 year or 20,000 klms.

Spoke with the SVT guy and he said the 1 yr, 20,000 klm parts warrenty only covers work that the customer paid for. TSB does not count. I was also told that once the factory warrenty is up you are sol after that unless some of it falls under the 5 yr 100,000 klm powertrain, like the transmission.

Looks like I'll be taking mine out of storage in April, before the basic warrenty dies. :shift::shift::shift:

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this is becoming to be a large headache. I will be going back to the dealer to talk to him one more time and tell him that my car does have a 5yr powertrain warranty. I cannot see my clutch being burnt up because on my drive the clutch was fine. It has to be the trans witch should be under warranty. The car will not go into 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. All the other gears will engage. So i am hoping that the SVT rep with realize that i have a powertrain warranty and take the car in. If not i will take it to another dealer.

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Chuck,

How come you don't pick up a Spec clutch and spend the 3 hours of labor to have it installed and be done with it?

 

The only reason I say this is because you then could begin enjoying your car again.

 

Life is too short to continue on for years complaining about a botched clutch install.

 

I guess I'm just surprized that your still letting this eat away at you.

 

Your gonna go grey and bald at a young age.

 

 

Rob this is a great point and actually my biggest fear is not even eating the cost of a new Spec clutch or worrying about Fords botched job.

 

It really lies in the fact that I am concerned the internals of my tranny could be damaged or were botched during the TSB process and that adding a Spec clutch/flywheel will not fix the problem and then I am out even more money.

 

I know I am worrying a lot, but as youve seen, I have had some bad luck right out of the gate with this car and that stuff tends to follow me.

 

In conclusion, I love the car and am not selling it, and will roll the dice and put in a Spec this Spring and if that does not solve the issues and Ford will not replace my tranny at that point under my powertrain warranty because I am using an aftermarket clutch... well then I guess at that point I will just sell it and probably take a long break from these high price ticket toys as I make a nice living for my age but am not rich and can not go through a stiuation like this again.

 

I just want my car to drive like Ford intended this new GT500 to drive and I can start enjoying it.

 

I really think the 07 is special, to me and many others as this was the first Shelby GT500 built by Ford in 40 years and while surely the 2011 and even the 2010 outperform it, I feel like this is the original. Pretty cool and lucky IMO to living right now and able to own these amazing machines with such a rich history.

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this is becoming to be a large headache. I will be going back to the dealer to talk to him one more time and tell him that my car does have a 5yr powertrain warranty. I cannot see my clutch being burnt up because on my drive the clutch was fine. It has to be the trans witch should be under warranty. The car will not go into 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. All the other gears will engage. So i am hoping that the SVT rep with realize that i have a powertrain warranty and take the car in. If not i will take it to another dealer.

 

 

Very interesting and I feel the same way about my car as you can see by my last post to Grabber.

 

But, still could be your clutch/flywheel hanging because oddly, my trannny had the same issues after the first clutch that went in but some gears would work so I figured it was my tranny but they put in another clutch and it drove like butter, that was until I hit traffic and literally 1 minute after that, bam, tranny froze, and back in for a 3rd clutch, and that worked for almost a day lol and then same shit.

 

Now I'm on my 3rd I believe and still having issues but not as bad as the first 2 times or what you are experiencing, so in a nut shell, are you possitve it is not the clutch/flywheel?

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I am not positive that its not the clutch, i just find it hard to believe that the clutch would go bad like that. I have had the first TSB done fotr about 4800 miles and not major problems until now. I just dont see me burning up a clutch after a 10 min. drive. This was the first time i drove the car in about 4mo.

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I am not positive that its not the clutch, i just find it hard to believe that the clutch would go bad like that. I have had the first TSB done fotr about 4800 miles and not major problems until now. I just dont see me burning up a clutch after a 10 min. drive. This was the first time i drove the car in about 4mo.

 

 

Can you shift into 1, 2nd or 3rd with the motor shut off? If so, it's probably the clutch, if not, it's the tranny.

 

I have had problems too after my TSB. When I took the car in, the only problem was grinding when going into 2nd and 3rd when cold. Now, the clutch chatters really bad and the tranny still grinds. I took it back to the dealer and they say they can't duplicate it. I'm gong to take it to another dealer when I get it out of storage in the Spring.

 

Good luck!

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Do you need to use the clutch when the engine is off to shift through the gears or should you?

 

I want to try this test to see if my tranny is bad or just clutch because sometimes I get temporarily locked out of gear and in gear, not frozen solid like the last 2 clutches before this but still shifts like crap.

 

fingers crossed just the clutch!

 

ps- according to my dealer the syncros passed that test in the latest TSB but I did not witness them do this test so who knows

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Very interesting and I feel the same way about my car as you can see by my last post to Grabber.

 

But, still could be your clutch/flywheel hanging because oddly, my trannny had the same issues after the first clutch that went in but some gears would work so I figured it was my tranny but they put in another clutch and it drove like butter, that was until I hit traffic and literally 1 minute after that, bam, tranny froze, and back in for a 3rd clutch, and that worked for almost a day lol and then same shit.

 

Now I'm on my 3rd I believe and still having issues but not as bad as the first 2 times or what you are experiencing, so in a nut shell, are you possitve it is not the clutch/flywheel?

 

Chuck maybe this has already been asked, but have you looked into the Lemon Law? I believe it says 3 attempts to fix the same problem and then it kicks in.

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I cannot shift into any of those gears when the car is off... And when I turn the car on and take my foot off the clutch it makes a ticking/knocking sound kind of like the throwout bearing is busted

 

On one of my times in the for the TSB, I had a bad throw out bearing (slave cylinder) and it did exactly what you described, so believe it or not, still may not be your tranny, but it worries me that you could not get it into those gears with the motor off.

 

I could not get to my car today to try this test out but mine does not sound as catastrophic as yours at this point in time

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I cannot shift into any of those gears when the car is off... And when I turn the car on and take my foot off the clutch it makes a ticking/knocking sound kind of like the throwout bearing is busted

 

 

you need to take your car in. there is something wrong with the tranny/clutch setup

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