I totally agree, obviously I don't want my daughter stranded on a snowy highway, two hours away from home on her way back to college... But Ford does not care!

 

Ugh, I replaced mine myself with a Dorman part from Amazon. Finally got to the dealer today w/recall paper & receipt, and you'd thought I walked in with 3 heads!

Uhhh we don't know what to do with that, the warranty person is off until Mon, we'll make a copy & call you then....

 

So, called to see if local dealer (30 minutes away) had parts and told them I did not have any warning lights. They told me that was ok, they could order one and replace it under the recall. Great, I thought and verified it wasn't a problem that I didn't have any problems at the moment but did have the original MECS pump. No problem, they said.

Arrange for a ride home and commence the hour round trip to drop off the car. Check in goes well at 9 a.m. and they said it should be done early afternoon.

Early afternoon, I get a call for an "upsell" to see if I want to replace my battery and engine filters for $105 total, which they claim to notice as a "courtesy" inspection of all vehicles. I say no thanks but indicate I'll call back in 1 hour if I change my mind. I don't. They also mention on the call that they are "still working" on the recall.

I call at 6:02pm because I haven't heard back from them and the job should clearly be done. Told by salesman that repair shop people promptly leave the building at 6pm and no one can tell me about the car even though the dealership is open for another 2 hours.

Get a call 1st thing next morning that the car is ready for pickup and a second attempt to "upsell" me the filters.

Commence the hour long round trip again.

Arrive to pick up car, as they are pulling it around, the repair representative says, "this is odd, it says no work performed." What?!?

So, they inspected the car, found no warning light on (as I had previously told them both at time of scheduling and at drop off) so they refused to repair the part despite earlier assurances it didn't matter.

Representative (the one helpful person) does some calling and digging. Turns out, they don't even have the part in hand despite telling me "they'd order me a part" when I made the appointment. They just did a visual inspection, confirmed I had the original MECS pump and no warning light and left it at that.

Somehow, that took all day. Ridiculous. Service manager was absolutely no help and just threw his hands up, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "I don't know what happened. Uh, sorry"

So some work missed, schedules rearranged, and a bunch of headaches just to get upsold.

I understand that it's hit or miss to get the MECS replacement without a warning light. That is why I was upfront about it when I called and repeatedly verified that it would not be a problem. All to no avail. So the dealership promised to order me a part, never did, let me show up and drop off a car for a 1/2 day repair knowing they didn't have the part in stock and couldn't do the repair, then never bothered to call me that the car was ready that day and only used the opportunity to try to overcharge me for filters.
Safe to say I'll be avoiding that dealership's service department if at all possible.

 

That's not right. Never go there again.

The part is easily replaced with common tools.
Not much effort and easily done.
You'll spill a pint or two of fluid in the process. That's all. You'll be done in 30 minutes. But then you have to fight for a refund but that may be easier.

The good news is, this part fights OVER HEATING so it's less of an issue in winter. The pump is not needed at all on the highway (or constant speed) and is primary needed in hot, demanding, stop and go traffic.

 

John,

Mine failed at 65mph on the highway in winter (50°F), and it overheated (and shutdown) so quickly that I didn't catch it on the SG even though I was monitoring MeT. Maybe they fail closed so coolant doesn't circulate.

My advice for people needing the MECS pump replaced is don't fight with the dealer. If they won't readily cooperate with the recall, then just pay them full price (parts and labor) to have the pump replaced. Take that receipt, submit it to Ford corporate at the address on the recall notice, and you'll get a full reimbursement. My guess is that Ford doesn't fully compensate the dealers for doing this recall so they don't want to do it.

 

That's a good data point.
But when you understand what's going on, it doesn't necessarily disable the car. It's like a circuit breaker. You can reset and go again. It's a heat sink for the high voltage electronics. While you can't drive without them, by driving "gently" not using or generating many amps I drove for a week without this pump until I had a convienent time to change it. If it occurs and "stalls" your car, turn the key to off then restart. The longer you wait the better but 1-2 minutes is usually enough. Then accelerate slowly, using predominately the gas engine. It also helps to reduce battery use by turning on AC or defrost so you avoid EV mode. Brake gently or if you can, put car into 'N' position before braking so there is no Regen.

I've learned strong Regen (just about every time you brake) is what heats things up most quickly. So yes, braking at highway speeds or accelerating briskly at highway speeds can cause an overheat. Then again, driving gently you can nurse this along indefinitely.

So "getting standed" is very low probability, but I agree a sudden unexpected loss of power could create a dangerous situation.
I drove for 5-6 days and over 100 miles with a disabled MECS pump. It wasn't fun. I had to really baby it around town, but it was doable. I also had a ScanGauge the whole time which guided me when to back off. It may be hard without such a tool.

But you can defiantly "limp home" or avoid towing charges if this happens to you. The whole reason the car stops in the first place is like a circuit breaker. A preponderance of caution to protect itself.

-John

 

I was able to limp home as you described. Then I read the factory shop manual which said (literally) to tap the pump with a hammer to restart it. Once I discovered how easy it was to restart with hammer taps I drove it for another week or more until I could replace the pump myself.

 

This is terrible advice... Why should we take on the cost of replacing a part that has been recalled? That's crap! Just like the previous poster mentioned, my dealer had the part until they didn't find a code then they had no parts... That wasn't the basis of the recall! Faulty part that causes cars to stall on the highway... replace the parts! End of story!

This is just yet another case of terrible Ford customer service!!

 

If you submitted a claim and didn't receive your check, call Ford Customer Relationship Center at 1-800-392-3673. The checks are cut at the local dealership level and calling that number will get it going. After my call, I was informed my check had been issued a few days earlier and my dealer forgot to mail it. I picked it up (had waited 8 weeks). Another poster on Escape-City had the same issue and was told the exact same thing. Interesting "coincidence".

 

Again, Why should we take on the cost of replacing a part that has been recalled? That's crap! Just like the previous poster mentioned, my dealer had the part until they didn't find a code then they had no parts... That wasn't the basis of the recall! Faulty part that causes cars to stall on the highway... replace the parts! End of story!

This is just yet another case of terrible Ford customer service!!