December 30th 2003 I bought a BRAND SPANKING NEW 2004 Edge. Nice truck with a 3 yr/36K warranty. All is well. Truck is lifted at the 10K mile mark and running strong. Only problem up to this point was the emergency fuel pump shut off tripping a couple times. 5 months old, and 18k miles into its short life the truck decides to develop a misfire and a CEL. No biggy, probably something ignition related... Coil, plug wire, etc. Take it to the dealer. They run a compression check on it and come back to me with numbers showing all 3 left bank cylinders to be VERY low. They tell me that due to my drop in K&N filter dirt and water got in the motor and scoured the cylinder walls, pistons and damaged/stuck rings. JUST the left bank. Odd, the intake path appears to feed the right bank as well, NO? They void my warranty due to the airfilter. For a grand they offer to tear into the motor and assess the problems. I don't think so. I file a mediation case against them and take the truck to my private mechanic. He properly diagnoses the problem as valvetrain problems. Valve seats were moving, valves were not closing completely, heads are cracked. Both sides are damaged, the left bank slightly worse. A grand later, motor has two new heads on it and running great. No ideas as to what caused the failures.

Fast forward. 4 months later at 29k miles. 300 miles from home, at the river the rearend decides to chunk the pinion seal. Limp it home, stopping several times to keep the gear oil topped off. Replace the pinion seal, all is good. WRONG. 31,500 miles. Same scenario, on the ride home from the river. Still 100 miles out and OUT OF NOWHERE... BAM! Motor throws #3 rod through the oil pan. Rod breaks part of the rod cap and seperates itself from the crank destroying the crank in the process. Piston welds itself to the bore at the top of its stroke destroying the head. Wrist pin breaks clean of the piston. Motors destroyed.

1600 bucks later my nice, new truck has a 55k miles salvage motor in it BUT it runs. Now, the truck has this wierd stumble under load. For some reason its damaging the plug wires and they arc under heavy load. Replace plug wires, same thing. Replace coils, still the same thing. Finally, swap out for Mustang coil and aftermarket wires, its running good now. Hopefully it will stay together... HOPEFULLY...

38k miles in... Truck is running good. Rearend takes a dive again. Replace another pinion seal and off we go...

PRESENT DAY: I spent the day chasing a leak. This time not from the seal though. Fill plug decided to develop a nice leak. Pull it out, teflon tape it and no more leak. WRONG. pull it back out, top it back off and silicone the rat bastard. No more leak hopefully. Looking for a transmission too, this one simply WILL NOT get into 1st gear at a stop without first cycling through various gears. Usually from nuetral, to reverse and then it will kinda go into first but won't stay sometimes...

Well, thats my testimony to built ford tough, I think they built my ford more like a lemon. Sorry for the length. I feel better now...

 

i cant believe they voided your warranty because of the K&N, i would contact K&N and a lawyer, referencing moss magnusson (sp?)

 

wow i remember some of those problems a while ago... really sucks man

 

Thats what I did. I called my buddy that works for K&N, he transfered me to their legal dept. lady which was SUPER eager to bust the dealer/ford's *** and they got their attorney(s) involved. Its all going through a mediation board right now, hopefully I will get some or all of my money back...

 

take the money, sell the truck, buy another with a 4.0

 

Wow. You definitely get the award for worst lemon of the bunch. That totally blows.. Kinda makes the umpteen little problems I've had look trivial. I can only imagine. W/ all the problems I've had, the truck has always operated for the most part. The worst was an issue I had recently where a damaged 02 sensor caused the engine to run rough.. but I've never been stranded, as much as I b!tch about it..

Two words: Bummer man..
I have a problem very similar to this. The tranny locks out of first at times. Often pulling back into second clears it and I can then shift into 1st no problem. This AM on the way to work I had a similar issue w/ 3rd.

Everytime the thing locks me out of 1st I hear Bob (rwenzing) from when we met in Centralia. He basically said something to the effect of: the Mazda transmission in these trucks is crap, it always has been, it always will be, I knew that before I bought it..

I can completely understand your fustration. You buy a new vehicle to have zero problems, not this level of BS. The warranty issues must be insult to injury..

I gotta say, I probably would have cut bait and dumped the truck for something else by now. I almost have w/ my own truck a few times now. Nothing like spending $19k on a brand new 4x4 and getting stuck in a snowy shopping center parking lot because your 4WD won't engage!

 

switching to amsoil tranny fluid should fix the problems you have had with shifting... it did for me anyway

 

ah man i feel bad for you, lol that sucks i think i would still be standing at the dealership telling them they need to fix it for free or im not leaving till its done.

hope everything gets straitened out for you.

 

Wow. Not good.

Tom Barcia had the pinion seal problem in his 2000 Ranger, and Kathy (AngrySyko) on another board had hers leaking when she showed up in Centralia. Doesn't sound like an uncommon problem. The 8.8 is a real good axle, so my guess is crappy seals were installed, or installed badly.

I worry about that with my lift though: is there enough of a pinion angle problem that it will cause or aggravate something like that? You always wonder what mods will do.

 

 

She did! Here and I thought she had the only perfect LII I'd ever seen or heard of..

 

Yes, at the last Centralia meet. Djaye was able to do something to it to push it back in -- I didn't see what he did, but it stopped or significantly slowed the leak.

 

I almost want to blame myself for the rearend. I know with shackles, stock blocks, and AAL's I probably need pinion shims.