Knowledge is power.........

[megawatt00]

I just wanted to share this with all of you.

For the 1st time in many many years I had to bring my truck to the dealership.

I had left work and stopped at the store to pick something up for my daughter to finish a school project. Upon leaving the Expy started up and then died, I tried to start again and the same happened, I then noticed the theft light flashing very quickly. I let it sit for about 15 minutes, same result. I had her towed home and did lots of research. I tried to reprogram the key myself, no luck. I called a friend who has a connection at an out of town Ford dealer and he got a key cut for me via my VIN for $17, I was quoted double that. I tried to reprogram the new key, no luck. He came by, and tried as well, you guesses it no luck.

I read the codes with my AE (Auto Enginuity) and there were none. I had her towed to the local Ford dealer and was promptly told that I was looking at a $400 bill, minimum. I was floored, he explained that there was a $99 diagonistic fee, a $100 minimum labor fee ( 1 hr) $60 for the key and programming and so much to do this or that to the Pats module

I asked if it was the same computer that they used for diagnostics as programming and was told yes, so why am I being charged twice for the same thing being plugged in? I told them that I had a key and paid $17 for it, he said that was the wholesale price, I replied " yup" I told him that there were no codes and I was not going to pay $99 for them to do the same thing that I had done for free, with AE and that my Actron scanner was on the front seat too.

All in all I paid !$149 to have the truck towed, the PATS module reprogrammed and both of my keys reprogrammed as well. If I had not educated myself then I would have paid a lot more in bogus charges.

 

[Captain Morgan]

Thanks for that! Any idea why this happened?


.

 

[sgtowing]

Good for you.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

[megawatt00]

Thanks Sarge and Capt.!!
What exactly happened I am unclear on. From what I can tell the Pats module had a glitch and lost its memory as to the key that I had. They basically reflashed the Pats module and then reprogrammed both keys for me. I initially thought that the key had gone bad.

About 2 months ago the theft light flashed rapidly and she wouldn't start. I was in a hurry and took my Super Duty instead, When I got back she fired up as normal. I never gave it a thought after that.

With 160 something K on her I wont complain.

 

[Canyon Man]

And then they wonder why they get a bad rap
This is exactly why I taught myself how to work on all my vehicles. Its not an issue of being able to afford the repair but the trust involved that I am not getting ganged ***** here. In my life ( 41 years) I have only taken my vehicles twice to a garage and still got screwed. Once I was in a cast so I had no choice( $350 for 1 fuel injector in my camaro), and the other for a brake bleed I could not take care of after I replaced all my components in the system. They told me my brake pads were bad and that's why I had no pedal. I then informed the morons that all the pads were 24 hours old!!! I then told them to Get my f++kin truck off the lift and I wouldn't let them work on my gokart. On the way home , out of the blue the pedal got firm and was perfect till the day I sold it.

Sorry, had to vent

 

[CARO'S98EB]

I work at a Ford dealer and for us to cut and prog 1 key is roughly $135 [$35 key $100 labor]. the main cost is the equipment. I always try to get cust to get enough keys so they have at least 3. that way if they loose 1 they still have 2 and can prog a new one themselves with 2 programmed keys.

 

[Big Red Monster]

I work at a Ford dealer and for us to cut and prog 1 key is roughly $135 [$35 key $100 labor]. the main cost is the equipment. I always try to get cust to get enough keys so they have at least 3. that way if they loose 1 they still have 2 and can prog a new one themselves with 2 programmed keys.

I dont want to start anything but seriously what kind of crap is that that the dealers pull? a damn piece of metal with a 10 cent computer chip in it and 5 minutes to program the key and they charge $135? thats like how they wanted to charge me 160 for a second remote and to program it, I went on google searched how to program a remote, bought a used remote for 10 bucks from an alarm shop and presto i now have two working remotes.

 

[spadesluck]

$100 labor charge to cut a key! Is it being done by hand or what? That seems a bit ridiculous.

 

[panda24619]

buy a key off ebay. go get it cut. program yourself. you need 2 keys for the 99+ but for the 97-98 you only need one. or just dont lose a key in the first place.

 

[megawatt00]

Please don't think that I wrote this to knock every dealer. Like any other business they are there to make money. I simply wrote it to let people know that with a little bit of knowledge you can save yourself some money. Simply by reading and knowing what I was talking about allowed me to talk to the service guy about what I knew was wrong with my truck and save me some money on diagnostic fees.