new 11/03/2003
Hi Larry
Not sure if you are the person I am to email regarding a camshaft failure?
My name is Allen Hiemstra and I live in St.Catharines Ontario Canada.
My 96 Silver SHO serial # is 1FALP54N6TA254117
Had 57000 kilometers or about 36000 miles when my engine started ticking in mid October.
I was aware of your site and was under extended warranty until April 15 of this year, so I told the local dealer and Ford Motor Company that I was aware of the cam problems, prior to the warranty expiring.
Both said they were not aware of any problems and the service manager just told me to drive it and not worry!
Ford motor company recorded my concern and gave me a reference #.
I asked what would happen if I did have a problem in the near future as the warranty was good to 80,000
kilometers.
They said that if something did happen and not too far out of warranty they would still help me.
However in middle of October my engine started ticking and both the dealer and Ford said they could do nothing as now out of warranty.
Dealer offered me a 15% discount on replacing all cams. Not sure if new ones are same design?
I had a mechanic from Mercedes look at my car since he has just bought a SHO cheap on trade and had the same problem, and right away he told me it was the rear cam making the noise.
I ended up finding a garage that had welded others (Marshals Automotive) who welded the cams as there had not been any damage yet, for $750 Canadian and I put in new plugs at the same time
even though old ones looked good.
I still find it hard to believe that a local mechanic was so aware of the problem but yet the Ford dealer and FORD knows nothing about a problem.
Mechanic said FORD would not do anything as car is no longer produced, so they do not care.
He said they had similar lawsuit with FORD re Mustang horsepower ratings, but FORD took care of that problem as car still being produced.
Hopefully I will now have some peace of mind, and thanks to this site as soon as I heard the ticking, stopped driving so no damage was caused!
Good luck with the lawsuit, but as I am Canadian I do not know if it will help me at all?
Unfortunately, our action is limited to the lower 48. We are working to set the precedent you need in the Provinces to file on your own. Glad you were able to catch it before it took out some valves, or the head.
Uncl Lar