Re: Parts & Maintenance Reference
New issue: Shifter cable.
Wanted to alert you to something that happened on my trip out west recently. Drove first day to West Texas. Next day made it through El Paso and stopped at the New Mexico visitor center around 4:30. Came out and the key wouldn't turn at all.
We tried calling TMS and no answer, just busy signal. My husband ended up rocking the Stallion a little and then it started. Moved along to Deming where we spent the night. Next morning, same problem. Reached TMS and they thought it was not reading that it was in Park and they said to go to a Ford dealer and have them call. Local dealer didn't want to mess with it so we headed west to Lordsburg, NM where the folks at Smith Ford were really great. Their tech adjusted the shifter cable to get us rolling and recommended we have it replaced in Calif when we got there.
I would say that the biggest issue with stopping at a random Ford dealership is that they don't understand that the warranty is covered by TMS and not by Ford. I kept trying to get them to call TMS but they felt they knew how to fix it. I tried to explain that it didn't matter if they could fix it, they had to call TMS for warranty repair reimbursement. I also wanted to make sure that their fix would stay within the warranty requirements.
If you ask Nick or Kevin to call the dealer, they just say to have them call TMS. Problem with this is that the service guy doesn't want to call multiple times or be put on hold for several minutes waiting for Nick or Kevin to speak with them. The Ford guy gets frustrated and wanders off to help someone else and when Nick comes to the phone there's no one to talk to. I am hoping that there will be some better awareness among Ford service people about how to deal with TMS. Bottom line: when Nick finally talks to the service person, all goes well, they speak the same language and the end result is positive.
When we got to Calif and had some time to go by the local dealer we had the same issues with connecting to TMS but in the end, the dealer adjusted the shifter cable better and we never had another issue. Wanted you to be aware in case this ever happens to you.
Stallion Girl