I was one of the first victims of the S197 leak. My car leaked so badly it eventually ended up going to Ford reclamation (or the auction. I believe the auction thing more than the reclamation thing). If you can't find the leak, try this. Open the hood. On the passenger side fender there is a small drainage hole. This hole is near the hood hinge and the point where the firewall meets the fender. Take a hose and aim it right down into the hole. If your car is anything like mine, the passenger side will fill up in seconds. It was pretty obvious that the car was not seam sealed properly at all. The BBB inspector also noted that more than likely the floor pan to A pillar seam was cracked. The seam sealer inside the car had started to pull apart in this areal. It was almost like the whole car was shifting and causing the sealer to seperate. He didn't pull the fender, but he was more than confident that if he had he most likely would have found a wider separation in this seam area. The BBB claimed the car as a total loss. Ford STILL maintained that the car never leaked even after the inspector found water running into the car.
FORD WILL NOT HELP YOU IF YOU HAVE A LEAK.
They will do every thing in their power to ignore the whole issue and lie to you about it. I even think the dealers were also told to ignore the issue. Every time I went to one looking for help I was told it wasn't their problem. All I can say is ... Good luck. You're gonna need it. It took me 6mos and 9 days to dump the rolling piece of garbage. The electrical problems that occur because of the leak are a whole lot of fun. (ABS failure, TCS failure, dashboard failure, Charging system failure, radio only worked in park and neutral. To make things a little more interesting the car would just shut off) Good thing I never needed the airbags. With all of the electrical problems, I wonder if they would have deployed properly.
< Message edited by WaterSoakedLemon05 -- 10/11/2007 8:27:29 PM >
Well I can tell you that with the 2008 model, as you might expect, they have not resovled the issue. My GT stays parked outside and we had our first big rain since I had mine. I happened to notice about 1/2 a gallon of water behind the passenger seat. The saet back was forward since one of my kids had ridden in back. Oddly enough that morning I had gotten into the car to take it to the dealer to have a common syncro issue in the 5 speed looked at. The service guy said their peson that worked on the leak was only there on Thursdays. Looks like my battle is about to begin. In this case, ole Lyyroix may have to go if they cant fix it.
**Update** Got the car back last Thursday (12/27) after the dealer attempted repair the leak. On Friday (12/28) I discovered the carpet was still soaked and took it back. The service dept had not attempted to dry the carpet other than vacuuming out some water. Got the car back on Saturday (12/29) and the carpet was acceptably dry. We had intermittent rain but the leak ahd apparently been stopped. Well last night we had a good rain shower and this AM (12/31) I have found another puddle but smaller this time. I will be taking the car back in on Thursday AM for attempt #2. I checked the SC Lemon Law and here it may begin to apply after the third attempted repair. Oh and the service dept did not observe the gear grinding issue so we we will readdress that too.
Posts: 1082
Joined: 11/28/2005 From: Northern VA Status: offline
Well after 3 years of little rain in Virginia we have had 3 days of non stop rain, My car never had this leak till today. over 3 inches of water on the passanger floor. My car is an 05, I bought in June of 05, it has 46,733 miles so no warrenty and other ideas for people like me that will have to sort to fixing this themselfs?
I just found out I have the SAME problem. Called the dealer was was told that is was not their problem, they never have heard of such problem occurring. Anyone found out what to do to have this fixed? Thanks!
Posts: 4095
Joined: 4/6/2005 From: West Los Angeles Status: offline
Just print out the above TSB and take it to Ford. If you're off warranty then you will know where to look and possible fixes. The main thing you need to do is confirm where exactly the water is coming in.
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RE: MUST READ. leak problem - 
