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Donald Mallinson - SHO Defender

new 5/21/02


Donald Mallinson wrote:

For those who DID NOT have engine failures, but would like to push for a permanent solution, answer the following question:

1. VIN# 1FALP54N9TA261756

2. Name, address, and good phone #

Donald C. Mallinson

3. Express your concern of the engine failures and your determination of the cause.

As the President of the National SHO Club, I represent hundreds of SHO owners, many own the V8 SHO built from 1996 through 1999.

These people love their V8 SHO's, but they are rightly concerned about the number of failures that have been documented by the club and V8SHO.com.

I have seen several club members sell their cars at fire sale prices, others have refused to buy one when it would serve their purposes perfectly. Of even more concern than my club membership is the fact that this is hurting the reputation of FORD with hundreds and I am sure eventually thousands of people!

As anyone in advertising and public relations can tell you, people will spread bad news much quicker than good news. One hugely dissatisfied Ford customer can effect dozens of sales. We have over a thousand SHO owners that love their cars, the ones with a V8 engine are all concerned about what they should do. It is a huge testament to the car that many are paying up to $450 or more to get their cams welded or have a pin put in them to keep their motors from going bad.

These repairs can cost from $4000 to over $6000 and higher! For many this equals totaling the car out. Imagine the sour taste left in the mouth of a V8 SHO owner that bought the BEST sport sedan that Ford offers, just to have the motor fail before the first tune-up is due! Note that the vast majority of failures we have documented happen WELL before 100,000 miles, many before 50,000 miles.

The cause of this problem is a failure of the inner cam sprocket to stay attached to the cam shaft tube. This is not in doubt. We know that any of the FOUR cams can fail. We also know that some motors that have been repaired, with just one cam replaced, have had ANOTHER cam go bad soon after the original repair. Imagine how these owners feel.

4. What would you like for FOMOCO to solve this problem?

I would like to see Ford Motor Company help the owners of these cars under 100,000 miles at least, by the payment of at least part of the repair.

I would hope that owners with previous failures would be reimbursed for their expenses, or at least a big part of the expenses.

Ford needs to determine why the cams were built defective and to insure that REPLACEMENT cams are not going to fail in the same way. So far, we can only assume that any replacement cams available will have the same problem, since Ford has been mute on this issue, many months after it was brought to the attention of Ford Motor Company.

I would like to see a viable fix, for existing cams that have not gone bad yet, for owners that want to keep their SHO. If this is a Ford approved Weld/pin or other procedure, or a Ford paid (or partially paid) replacement of existing cams with known good replacements.

I would like Ford to comment on the two "solutions" that many V8 SHO owners have gone to in trying to stave off an engine failure: the cam sprocket welding or the cam sprocket pin procedure.

A quick and helpful program to help the 20,000 or so SHO V8 owners out there would go a long way towards keeping these families in the Ford "family" and I am sure eventually result in sales that will more than pay for any program to repair these cars and reimburse these owners for expenses that they certainly should never have been expected to have.

 


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