new 9/07/02
Hello My name is Don Whitfield (Illinois). I have recently suffered from cam failure. I have a 97 SHO with 54,675 miles, I bought it containing 13,383 miles and the car has been great until it just died on 6-17-02, 1st Sutton Ford (708)720-8000 stated I had a clogged converter and a blown air flow sensor. Upon completion the now dropped the bomb stating there were further damage and wanted and additional $350 to tear down and inspect the rear camshaft and gave me an opinion that the repair could exceed 7k. After 2 months of working OT and racking my brain on which ave to take, I finally had the guts to take it in on 8-12-02. They stated that 1 of the cams had spun and bent all of my exhaust valves. Needed to replace camshaft, filters, spark plugs, valve stem seals, exhaust valves, head gaskets, exhaust and intake gaskets, front cover gaskets, oil and filter and replace battery. I had a friend in parts that gave me a discount on all the parts but they stuck it to me in labor, A cam for a SHO is $1,350 just for the part! With the discount it still ran to 1,113.38 in parts, 2,252.50 in labor 270 in machine shop labor and 30 bucks for disposal fee. The mechanic stated that this was all caused from a poor design on the cam. After dropping 3,800 bucks my car is now driveable but I'm scared to death now because I now the other 3 cams have the same design and what's stopping the new one from failing also. I would like to be included in any legal issues. I was amazed at how similar all the cases where on v8 SHO I too heard the ticking noise for 2 days before failure. Wish I knew about the sight before the failure maybe I could've have saved sum $. Ford must do something. Who's to say what will happen if traveling at high speed when the cam spins, They made it they should fix it at their cost, It's only right