darrelld

I purchased the Ford Premium Extended Warranty and traded my Fusion Hybrid about 4 months ago. Filed the refund paperwork with the local dealer and still have not received a refund.

Calls to the local dealer and emails go unanswered. In person visits result in a promise to get the refund expedited but followup call and emails go unanswered.

What recourse is there through Ford before I have to file a complaint with some 3 letter federal agency.

Thanks

So I picked up my car on Friday the 3rd. I drove it around for the weekend and it seems like the issue has been fixed. This morning I am driving to work and I am noticing both sides missed some cars when I passed by them on either lane. Honestly I don't want to believe I still have an issue so I am going to monitor it a bit more.

 

There are some good notes on my work order about what was done and replaced. I will scan it in and post it when I have some time.

Any updates on this?

So after months of complaining and getting nowhere (also pushing this issue aside), I finally reached out to Ford. I did one of those "Contact Us" which would have you fill out a few questions and send out an email which I received no response for 2 weeks. I then sent a message on Facebook and had a response within the hour. Someone then called me a couple days later and asked all the basics questions on what the issue is and when does it happen. I informed him that I have been through this route and even had a field service technician go to the dealership and drive the car 80 miles last year for them to come up with "can not replicate". He said he will get in touch with the dealership to get more information and get back to me.

 

The next day he emails me saying the dealership is well aware of my issue and the next step is to have a mechanic in my car to see the problem happen. I provided many videos of the BLIS system acting up but Ford will not take that as proof of an issue. So finally yesterday I went over to the dealership and drove the mechanic around. I was hesitant because as everyone knows, when you are ready to show a technician/mechanic a problem, it won't happen. I was lucky enough to have a few mild incidents of the BLIS system missing a couple cars and staying on 3-5 seconds longer than it should so he said there is something not right. I loved that he asked the service manager "What was the point of me in the car? Just to say I see it?".

 

During the car ride, I had a chat with him on how does the BLIS system actually work. I thought the 4 back sensors helped locate if the car is in a blind spot. He said those 4 sensors are only for Cross Traffic while in reverse. There are two modules behind the rear bumper to control each side. While i knew this info, I didn't actually know the modules had the sonar detection in them, I thought it was just a controller.

 

So they gave me a loaner and I just received a call that they placed an order with Ford for the replacement module and will program it when they get it in. Crossing fingers that this mess will finally be put to rest.

Good luck, my issue has never returned since they replaced the module. Its really far more hassle than it should be to get Ford to honor warranty issues like this. My module never worked from the day I drove the car from the dealer lot and Ford Corporate refused to do anything without an error code which a dead module will never produce. I haven't had any other problems with the car other than this expensive option I paid for that never worked for 2 years.

 

I just replaced my Xterra with a 2015 Subaru XV Crosstrek with the Eyesight system. I got spoiled with the ACC on the FFH and wanted it on my vehicle.

 

I was told by the dealer that Subaru "Eyesight" will assist in the stopping when the vehicle is traveling at a slow speed. I believe it is 30 mph. If you are going faster than that you will get the warnings and adjusted speeds as the FFH does during ACC.

 

Maybe I need to test it out. :)

 

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I was driving to work in my 2016 Outback with eyesight in heavy rain when a Mustang directly in front of me slammed on its brakes. At the time I was looking to the side mirror before passing and eyesight immediately sounded a warning while quickly applying the brakes to avoid the collision. I was going around 40-45 mph at the time.

 

Congrats on getting it fixed. Would it be possible to write down or scan what was written on the repair log that you sign at the end? Such as parts that were ordered that needed to be replaced to get BLIS working properly again. I need as much information if I am ever going to get this replaced. You gave me some hope in getting this fixed without an error code.

They never gave me anything to followup on my original complaint. I was requested to return my vehicle to the dealership after I filed my complaint with Ford Customer Service and everything from that point was handled by phone. They told me the right rear BLIS module was replaced from a stock vehicle as a trial. After my week long trial where I confirmed the problem as fixed over the phone and the matter was considered closed. They did say the module listed for 1100.00 and they had to pull the rear bumper to replace it.

Update:

Completed the work week with daily driving in heavy traffic and the BLIS is now working perfectly after the module replacement. Dealer is to call on Monday to confirm the fix.

Good luck to everyone in seeking a solution.

 

Mine is the driver side though. Passenger works great actually. Well I already talked to a Ford Rep so that is filed. I guess next is what you said and to file one with NHTSA.

 

Once NHTSA goes live, then who am I sending the complaint to though? Back to Ford? It seems anyone can file one so it is strange to me why Ford would respond differently.

NHTSA registers your VIN number with a specific safety complaint. The motivation from Ford is to handle silently rather than have the embarrassment and publicity of a NHTSA investigation and possible forced recall if it goes that far. Ford doesn't seem to have any motivation at this point to do anything.

The ongoing BLIS problem is why I ended up with a Subaru Outback instead of considering a Ford Edge.

 

Yeah keep me updated because I am going insane with this whole issue and I just want the sensor replaced and hate getting backlash from the dealer I go to and Ford which they both gave the same answer. I understand that they don't want to be replacing parts that might not be bad but I brought it in too many times for the same issue which goes nowhere.

The only thing I could suggest is file directly with Ford Customer Service and file a complaint with NHTSA. Once your NHTSA complaint goes live in about a day you send them a copy of the complaint directly from the NHTSA web site. The BLIS sensor on the right side seems to have a factory defect and the only way Ford will address it is through NHTSA apparently. In my case the dealer took care of this but the primary problem seems to come from Ford Corporate red tape. NHTSA can cut through red tape like no one else and a defective blind spot sensor is definitely a safety issue.

 

Did yours have any error codes coming up for them to approve this or they finally caved in?

I never got any error, the dealer decided to swap my module with a car they had in stock to prove the problem to Ford. On my drive to and from work yesterday and today it has worked flawlessly. I am to report back to the dealership of a successful fix and they will take it from there.

Big thumbs up to Five Star Ford Plano for taking care of this.

Dealer swapped my right rear BLIS module to see if that fixes the problem. Will report back in a few days to let everyone know if this is now resolved.

They did inform me the module cost is $1100.00, good to get this completed under warranty.

 

I am actually able to duplicate the problem pretty easily and showed the dealer. They give me the speech how I need some sort of error or fault. Basically the car needs to say my sensor is bad. It's horrible that mechanics now cannot fix something unless the car tells them to even though they can see the issue. I was told to go to another dealer of a second opinion. It's a shame because this is the only issue as of now that I have with the car and this is my first Ford, will be my last if I can't get this fixed at some point. Right now I am just dealing with it by shutting it off.

 

Oh and it works almost 100% correctly when it's raining. Can anyone figure that puzzle out?

I performed some troubleshooting on my own and informed the dealer of my test methodology. The error detection system is probably built into the BLIS module and delivers any messages to the CAN bus so the central controller can display and capture any codes thrown by the module.

According to the owners manual any degradation in the sensors ability to detect objects within the radar sensing path should warn the driver. I taped a piece of tin foil directly over the sensor and drove through medium traffic to see if the sensor can detect signal degradation and notify the driver. As I suspected the BLIS sensor never detects any problems with its operation. This indicates 2 possible scenarios;

1. Ford had difficulty with the reliability of the BLIS error detection and disabled it in the controller.

2. The sensor on the right rear side is defective and not capable of detecting if it actually works or not and so no error code.

Scenario 1 is an issue for NHTSA similar to the VW case

Scenario 2 means they just need to replace the sensor

My NHTSA complaint is here;

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchResultsByUrlCode.action?referenceSearch.requestId=68961&referenceSearch.urlCode=O0QVM126XKMRXBA

Ford is selling BLIS as a safety enhancement which is clearly doesn't not enhance in my case. Maybe this is more a case for the FTC for false advertising a product that doesn't work reliably.

 

I have the same issue for the most part that you have in your video but on the driver side. The other video you posed shows a fault message when he starts the car. I wish mine did that since I could get it repaired with no issue. My car doesn't say anything is wrong even though the system messes up more than half the time. I had to shut it off since it's bad but I want this damn thing fixed.

I emailed Ford Customer service and this quote sums up their reply.

"Please note that Ford Motor Company’s engineering department will not allow, in most cases, a repair to a vehicle unless one of the following occurs: (a) the dealer is able to duplicate the concern or (b) there is a trouble code found in the vehicle’s computer system. At this time, since the dealership has not been able to duplicate your concern, we would recommend that you test drive with either the technician, shop foreman or service manager of the dealership so that the concern with the vehicle can be duplicated for them.

Please advise how you would like to proceed."

My initial decision to avoid BLIS was because I was familiar with the standard mirror arrangement from owning a Fiesta. Properly adjusted I can have virtually no blind spots so my thought was "why buy this when I can have success with the base setup?" Since then I have toyed with getting it on the next car, and I can cope with it reporting hedges and the like ... but the possibility of the electronic fluff at the wrong time just doesn't sit well with me. These cars are already techno-marvels ... why add more potential for pain?

I have BLIS on my 2016 Subaru Outback and it works perfectly, I believe its a problem with Fords implementation that's the problem. When you think of Ford and advanced technology you think of Microsoft Sync.

BLIS on my 2014 Fusion Titanium has not worked correctly since delivery. This week it returned from Five Star Ford of Plano for the 3rd time without a fix.

I filed a formal complaint with NHTSA regarding this safety issue. Non BLIS equipped Fusions come with a blind spot mirror and BLIS systems do not. Safety problem occurs when the BLIS systems do not work correctly and you have no manual means such as the blind spot mirror to fall back on.

I would encourage everyone with the malfunctioning BLIS to file a complaint with NHTSA here; https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

Video I made clearly demonstrates the problem;

I sent my dealer a video on how to fix the problem;

My daughter has 2017 Volt arriving next week and I will compare how well Fords system works vs Chevy.

On my way to work this morning;

https://youtu.be/135_rdmvsw0

I just hit my best tank ever at 48.94 mpg.

http://www.fuelly.com/car/ford/fusion/2014/darrelld/298222

Consumer Reports recently rated the Fusion Hybrid price premium payback at 5 years even at $2.20 per gallon gas. The FFH had the quickest payback of any hybrid.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/04/are-green-cars-still-worth-the-money/index.htm

 

Ah trolls. A species we know well - those people who bounce around in comments sections flinging language dung all over the intertubes.

Well, that language dung comes in handy when trying to spot a troll, it turns out.

Researchers have found that misspelling and just plain bad writing are among the behaviour characteristics that can be crunched in a new algorithm that can predict commenters who'll be banished for trollery.

The researchers, from Stanford and Cornell Universities, say in their paper that their algorithm can pinpoint future banned users (FBUs) with an 80% AUC (Area Under the Curve is a type of accuracy scoring that takes false positives into account).

The researchers analysed troll behaviour in the comments sections of three online news communities: the general news site CNN.com, the political news site Breitbart.com, and the computer gaming site IGN.com.

Those sites all have a list of users who've been banned for antisocial behavior: a total of over 10,000 antisocial lab rats.

The sites also have all of the messages posted by the banned users throughout their period of online activity, giving the researchers a handy pool of subject material, they said:

Such individuals are clear instances of antisocial users, and constitute 'ground truth' in our analyses.

The algorithm compares messages posted by users who were ultimately banned against messages posted by users who were never banned, managing to spot FBUs after analysing as few as 5 to 10 posts.

They found clear differences between the two groups:

• • Trolls' posts are more garbled. The researchers used several readability tests, including the Automated Readability Index (ARI), to gauge how easy it is to read a given chunk of text. They found that nearly all of the 10,000 FBUs studied displayed a lower perceived standard of literacy and/or clarity than the median for their host groups, with even that lackluster standard dropping as they neared their ultimate ban.
  • Trolls swear more. Not only do they swear more, they're also pretty decisive. They don't tell others to "perhaps" go P off and F themselves, since they don't tend to use conciliatory/tentative words such as "could", "perhaps", or "consider" - words that research has found tend to minimise conflict.
  • Trolls are not sunshiney people. At least, they tend to stay away from positive words.
  • Trolls tend to wander. They have a tendency to veer off-topic.
  • Trolls like to dig in for protracted flame wars. This behaviour differs by community - on Breitbart and IGN, FBUs tend to reply to others' posts, but on CNN, they're more likely to start new discussions. But across all communities, they like to drag others into fruitless discussion, getting significantly higher replies than regular users and protracting the discussion by chiming in far more frequently per thread than normal people.

 

 

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/04/15/new-algorithm-could-auto-squash-trolls/

Fords Pre Collision in Action

https://youtu.be/ud2_2Mo1KeY

For me, its all about the butt in this case. The SE Luxury seats in the FFH were much more comfortable than the ones in the Titanium. The problem I have with the SE is I like stereos to sound good, and the SE just does not sound good, and I for one dont want to dump money into an aftermarket system, especially since this car has no head unit. To much integration with other components, and that is why I got the HyTi. While the Sony is not the "best" in sound quality, its good enough for my purposes.

 

No decisions have been made yet, just tossing around ideas, but if the MKZ has a more comfortable seat in it, with the good sounding system, then that is the one to go for. Since I would be getting rid of my MKT, the replacement will be something I want to replace it with, not a compromise. If I could keep the MKT, that would be a different story.

I agree on the stereo comment, the only reason i was(am) consider(ing)ed a MKZh. :)

I don't know how to put the pic here, but it is showing up on the recent uploads on the Forum page!

When you reply to a topic there should be a My Media option. Within the My Media menu on the left navigation pane chose the Gallery Images, you can then select an image to post within your reply.

From Bloomberg, Jan 26, 2015, 12:02:55 PM

Jan. 26 -- Emirates NBD Group Head of Research Tim Fox discusses the impact of low oil prices on GCC economies with Bloomberg’s Mark Barton on “Countdown."
As the world’s oil producers wring their hands over a global glut that’s pushing down prices, evidence is mounting that Saudi Arabia is more concerned about shrinking demand.

To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/1yZY3EY