Just need to vent...

With a 40 yrs plus background in the Auto repair industry, Ford are renowned for poorly designed parts failing. The door handles on the Aust X series between '79 and '84 was never sorted by Ford after 14 yrs, they just changed the body design and that required a different door handle. The Ford Capri that the sunroof guide failed and Ford simply ran out of replacement stock .... and that was that, the list goes on, but the mechanical issues with all late model ICE manufacturers says design engineers straight out of school are clueless when it comes to building engines and transmissions that last ...... Yet, people keep buying them and then complain that the vehicle spends more time at the manufacturers warranty repair shops than the time they actually get to drive their high priced lemon .....

T1 Terry

 

Man that Busy Forks is a pile, isn't it? Looks like someone were trying to ram contracts thru not to disappoint their relentlessly-vertical mgmt betters

So true, no one need even state it in print But will anyway

Had two Fords, that '78 E150 Chateau, and a '99 Escort. The best thing about the van, was its 351W... which like all the small-block Fords was unflappable even heavily abused, as most domestic V8s popular in '60s were. But the rest of that rat trap may as well have been Soviet produced, what a least-effort hunk of junk with impenetrable diagnosis for anything in the loom... including trblsht'g the ignition.

Worst thing Ford ever did to Mazda, were to abscond with its compacts and subcompacts, and attempt make them Fords -- was very weird to drive an Escort saloon with the handling verve of a Miata, but the 2-valve powerplant of a typical early-'80s domestic compact -- just awful at everything, esp being worked on (the later 4-valve 2.0L motor in higher trims and the Mk1 Focus, were much easier). Not to mention the crap interiors, esp seats and headliner. do not know what Australians got in that same timeframe but we got the usual Ford content-chiseled garbage in everything -- even luxury and performance models.

 

Gave my Tundra an oil change (driving to Tennessee in it soon). Checked her over and did a battery test on the 38-month old 12-bolt....says 48% and the dreaded "REPLACE"
Nice that it's 2-months outside of the 36-month warranty...won't be buying the Super Start Extreme from O'Reillys, anymore!

 

My $50 Walmart Value battery with a one year warranty works perfectly in my rarely driven Toyota truck for seven years now. I credit the battery monitor which gives a very complete picture of voltage and state of charge at any time while driving or not. It stores up to five days of data on a graph. I got the Ancel one for $20 or so.

 

Wow, that's impressive! I thought about driving down to my Yota dealer to get a TrueStart but just don't have time today so did a little research and got a DuraLast Platinum AGM with 885 CCA and it's has a 4-year warranty. (Saved $27 using my Military Discount.)

Installers was a bit cranky....he could use an attitude adjustment....(or yea, it was ME!) I don't let anyone touch my Yota's unless I have no choice.

 

Battery installer a little........'cranky?'

-good one!

I use the same installer, but a very different source for the battery.....and every time he goofs up I'm able to demand, and receive a 100% refund.

 

I'd say they saw less vampire loads while the car was off back then.

 

I like AGMs, every but their price (also flex a vet's discount but tbf it's nowhere near what I'd get as active military ). Lead-acid cells you must top off blind every few weeks under ideal conditions to get to the warranty svc life (100-mo Honda batteries )... should be obsolete... but sadly will always be around, esp the further you get from civilisation, on a roadtrip...

Motorcycle batteries, oy vey -- maint-free... and still drop like flies with perfect charging systems. Must be said, tho... moto charging systems are not and will never be capable of replacing the battery for all loads -- unlike an alternator, metric-std 3-phase stator / rotor systems with regulator / recitifers, only maintain batteries. So living in WA, had pigtails on my SV for a trickle thru the winter. They're pretty snazzy these days... with diagnosis, charge modes and safeties my old crinkle-finished Y2Ks Battery Tender w\ its gator clips & analogue needle, could only dream of.

Of note, tho... once I'd rigged up my Paseo's powertrain grounds to a common plate (as most ground mods do) rather than the body of the car... ate batteries a lot less often, and idled much more stable cold <=> hot, coolant-temp or ambient temp. Especially for off-road or 4-seasons vehicles in salt, pays to know where your ground connections are, and if they're ate-up or not