A/C Issues?

Gamecock said:

It's not the evaporator. It's a control system. They car thinks it's in an over temperature condition, so it cuts out the A/C. There is an air conditioning compressor relay, so it would be real easy electronically to stop it.

I've been having a problem for a week. With the arrival of hot weather. Sunny and 95 degrees.

Once last week, then three times in last three days. Left car in parking areas. Came back, and when I started the car, the A/C would not come on. Twice, after driving a few miles at speed, I stopped, turned engine off, and restarted it after a few seconds, and A/C worked fine. Proof that it's not the A/C itself. Today, I tried turning it off twice, and neither time worked. But get this, both times today when I restarted, I got an on screen warning: 911 assist is not available. Got same warning a week ago when I was trying to get A/C to run.

No other indicators/warning lights/gauge readings to suggest there is a problem.

Oil temp seems to be a little higher than before, maybe 230 degrees.

I have no doubt A/C will work fine tomorrow AM. Afternoon, if it gets to 90 again, it will conk out.

I'm afraid the service managers and techs at Ford dealerships don't have the intellect required to solve this one. Replacing a compressor is just fixing at it. It is a control problem.

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Great explanation. I have had several A/C issues with cars in the past. It really helped me understand how the A/C system is supposed to work. On the classic car it was more straight forward to work on. I agree that the techs probably won't be able to help. A/C expert might be the best to consult but because these cars were built for performance, the motor is going to leave some things, like the A/C, in the background if the performance parts are getting hot. Which is actually good because if it cuts the A/C out under heat conditions, chances are you won't burn out your compressor clutch.

I think that may be why Ford built the GT350R without the A/C. They knew the R would be mostly, if not always on the track. No need for another component to overheat and take away from engine performance. I wanted a muscle car and ended up with performance on top of that. I'm learning there are so many quirks to my car that I have to live with because these cars weren't built with daily driving in mind. That being said, I have met a few people that drive their cars daily. Back in the day you could turn the heater on for a bit and cool the car down enough to use the A/C again. Not sure if that would work in this instance but might be something to try. Good luck. I feel for you.

RyanSterling1966 said:

So I spent the entire morning on the phone with Ford. Wow, just wow! Kinda good news and kinda bad news. The original owner of my car apparently purchased and extended warranty, some of which is apparently transferable to me. So yay! Here's where it gets super strange in my opinion. They refuse to send me any sort of documentation of that fact. I spoke to 3 separate departments and 3 different people. And, was told I am covered by premium care on everything for 4 years 48k miles. And powertrain for 10 years and 100k miles.

Which while great and all, I believe in documentation on anything and everything that may ever even possibly turn into a legal case. I understand not wanting to disclose previous owner information or anything. But the fact that they can't even send me an email breaking down exactly what sort of coverages I have is mind boggling to me. If the warranty is transferable then legally it's mine now, correct? Ford's answer is.......... Well it belongs to the vehicle. And the vehicle belongs to...... Exactly. LOL

I also found out from my dealer that the vehicle has been in for AC work before and they had to replace one of the hard lines because of a leak. I'm weighing my options as far as extending the service plan even farther vs. just getting out of the car. It's great, but as I have said before, this isn't my "fun" car. It's my commuter car as ridiculous an idea as that may have been.

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Did you register your vehicle with myford.com? If not you might want to do so. You will have to register and provide your VIN number. It shows me past information on my car. My dealership was stupid enough to give me accessory items that had the previous owner's info on them so I know who and where he is. An extended warranty specialist is at 866-631-3788 ext. 77776. She might be able to help you with documentation. This number was given to me also. Not sure if it will help you either. Ford Protect Administration 800-521-4144. My supposed extended warranties were placed on my car by the RAV people. It's a third party company Ford uses so they don't have to deal with us themselves. They haven't provided me with any documentation. I'm still bugging them.

When you google Ford Corp. they won't provide their direct phone number. All you find is customer service and a mailing address. Customer service just reads off of a computer screen and don't know anything. Just in case you don't have it, corp. number is 313-322-3000 I pressed 0 for the receptionist. I spent many months digging around for anyone and everyone to bug. You also might want to talk to customer service about your issue and have them assign you a case number you can use to try and communicate with these people.

Sorry for the novel but if any of this info. helps you I will be quite happy. Let me know how it's going for you and I might be able to guide you further. For me, after everything, Ford agreed to place the Extended Service and bumper to bumper warranty on my car at no cost to me. I didn't get anything from them until I filed a complaint with my attorney general's office. If you go this route, make sure you file a poor business practice complaint, not a lemon complaint. What ever path you chose, always impress upon them that you want Ford to back up their build and product, as this wording asks Ford to be accountable for what they put on the market. Good luck.

Interesting comments from owners. I have had outstanding support and service from Ford Performance. Can’t say enough good things about them. The Ford engineers etc. were incredibly responsive and followed up to make sure any problem I had was fixed. They called the dealership to make sure I was satisfied with work performed. They made it a point to contact me when we were at Carlisle, Barrett Jackson, Watkins Glen and other events.

I met these folks initially at Carlisle in 2016. We had just purchased the car and brought it down to the Ford Nationals. We parked on the Show Field and saw an oil leak on the ground. Stopped at Ford Performance site and they had me immediately bring car over. They put it on a lift and had a swarm of techs underneath. They thought they saw problem and said as soon as they had a break they would work on my car. I hadn’t walked 100 yards away and I got a call from Detroit. An engineer there called to say he just heard about my car and wanted me to know that they would take care of everything. A minute later I got a call from the Ford executive on site saying he was standing under my car and that they were overnighting the suspected part from Detroit. He also invited us to come over and later attend an event that night they were hosting for vendors and guests at the Ford Nationals. Next day they found the problem was a plug on top of oil cooler. They couldn’t get the part that day. They then contacted the dealer we purchased from and told them to repair the car and that Ford would take care of any and all cost and they wanted the car returned to me, better than new. When I went to pick up the car from the dealer Ford corporate called me to be sure I was happy with the repair and service. The dealer was a little miffed that Ford was breathing down their neck.

What I find isn’t that Ford has poor service but, the dealers are the culprits. The dealers have terrible service departments. They have low skilled techs who are especially out of their league working on a car like the GT350. You need to deal with a dealer who knows high performance cars. In New England, Tasca Ford is probably most qualified. They are an authorized Shelby Service Center. They can even make mods to the car without effecting the warranty.

I'm glad to hear you had a positive experience, and I have no doubt that the level of interest and enthusiasm at the design/engineering level is FAR different from what you will find in arbitration or HR or finance. So it's a bit like comparing doughnuts to apricots honestly. You don't become a designer or an engineer at Ford without a serious passion for the product and for cars themselves. But you may very well find yourself working for them in a more administrative role however. Same thing happens in my industry, you have those of us that are passionate about design and strategy and creative and are true Ad people. And then you have people in business operations type roles whose job would be no different if we were selling insurance.

My point is, I am not surprised that you got a lot of attention at a very public event by folks whom work for Ford at the corporate level and in one of those capacities that would require a passion to achieve. I have had very similar responses and stories form cars I helped build for SEMA. Those folks would literally move mountains to get us what we needed. It certainly does not seem to translate what so ever to your normal consumer however.

Hey guys. I'm a new member and wanted to introduce myself as well as state that I woke up this morning to no A/C. I do a lot of spirited driving and last week also brought the car to the drag strip for it's first time. I now have an appointment to bring it in to the dealership (a week away so this should be a toasty week of driving) to have it looked at.

Thought I'd include a pic since I'm a new guy: