Truck Troubles

The main objective yesterday was to take the truck into the local dealership to have our water leak diagnosed. The dealership is a Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dealership and not a Ford dealer, so I was a bit concerned not only about getting a proper diagnosis, but performing quality repairs on a Ford product. Unfortunately, the closest Ford dealer is in Afton, WY, which is 55 miles away. We were satisfied with our service on the Jeep, and given the fact that they work on Dodge Diesels, we thought we would give them a try.

The truck went in at 10 AM and I heard back from them at 12:30 with the bad news. They discovered that there was a leak in the radiator and the location of the leak prevented any repair and the only solution was a replacement radiator. The cost that was quoted is $1500+. I immediately called a Ford dealer to get a comparison cost, and it was $1600+ from him. Of course, the warranty is expired on the radiator.  I only have 26,000 miles on the truck but the standard warranty was 5 years or 50,000 miles on the power train and only 36 months or 36,000 miles on everything else. Bummer! I will contact Ford directly this morning to plead my case for getting some help on the replacement as it doesn't seem right that a radiator needs to be replaced at 26,000 miles, regardless of the age.

The truck problem has put a damper on our short term plans. The long trip to Pocatello, ID. and the visit to Costco is postponed. For sure, there is no visit to a casino planned. We'll know more later this morning.

I do have a golf date today which I will keep, and Josie will still get her pedicure and her hair done. Other than that, we'll determine the plan for tomorrow following the call to Ford. I guess that we shouldn't be too surprised that we have a problem with the truck as it is only used for the very heavy duty towing of our fifth wheel. However, that is what it is built for and is the reason we purchased this particular vehicle in the first place. It's difficult to accept that the quality is not what we anticipated. It could always be worse though, as we don't have to replace an engine which would be devastating...