Help Needed Even Ford figures fire is better than fixing a 6.0

Took my truck to a Ford dealer in Tomball Texas for what I thought was another 6.0 diesel blown head gasket. I was pleasantly surprised when they called and said it was just a bad EGR cooler seal. Not cheap but cheaper than a head job. When I showed up to pick it up the service manager sent one of the porters to pull it up, a minute later he came running in yelling its on fire. It took 12 fire extinguishers and a fire truck before the were confident that it would not reignite.

The link below shows some of the damage (before the third flare up). The truck was covered inside and out with water/chemical and foam. Everything that could melt under the hood and behind the dash is now a blob under the truck or on the floor board. They got lucky that it caused very little damage to the new trucks around it. They were packed in so tight you could barely open a door.

Has anyone dealt with a service center destroying a vehicle while it was in there care? I mean the truck drove in with a coolant leak and will probably never drive out of their service center. The service manager said since it was Saturday and late Saturday she could not make a decision on what to do to correct this. We agreed we would talk again Monday. I'm a little nerves as to what they are going to try, I mean a large company as Ford they could go either way, try to stick me with a milted truck and endless legal battle or just flat out blow you away trying to make it right.

A couple pics here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=491208620917591&set=pcb.491208644250922&type=1&theater

From your photos, it looks like the heater core and other associated gear caught fire. How? Who knows. I am not seeing the total damage, but what I see is a totaled truck. Ford has insurance to cover that sort of "Dealer Care", so I would imagine they would make a big effort to make sure you are reimbursed rather well. Good luck on tomorrow's meeting at the dealer.

Dave

Good Luck # 2
Doug

totalled x2
good luck x2
When I have contacted ford about problems with dealer service, I got the "every dealer is independently owned and operated" runaround. I don't think it will be ford's decision, it will be the dealer owner/management/their insurance doing the deal. I would ask for full retail blue book for yours (not trade-in value) and dealer's cost pricing on a new truck. (Don't wanna leave any money on the table when bargaining )

Hope you had full coverage.
Your insurance is going to be the responsible party here.

The dealer's liability is limited to "care in possession" which means, if they wreck it while test driving it, etc.
The only way the dealers insurance is going to cover, would be if one of the dealerships employees/agents CAUSED the fire. Like dropped a ciggy and it ignited the upholstery..

Sorry to harsh on ya, but that's what it is.

Now that being said, you need to call your insurance agent, and have him contact the dealerships' agent, and they're gonna have to hash it out..

You're going to have a choice to make, accept settlement or file suit and prove negligence.

and that may be true but a dropped ciggy or broken/pinched/chafed wire during reinstall of the intake look a lot like care in possession also. but since almost nothing is recognizable and most wires are completely gone it could go either way.

They called today first thing (7:15am) and then again at 3pm to assure me they were working fast. my insurance said they could open the claim and start getting it going then transferred me to the legal department. they informed me that the first thing would be finding out if a part of the vehicle that was serviced or adjusted caused the fire. They were going to pull the step by step for the repair Ford was suppose to do. Said they generally get positive response by just filing the first brief.

hoping for a good outcome.

Hope all goes well for ya!

I believe they should have to give you full BB Value for that truck. It's only fair.



Travis

I see you are from wyoming on your your post, does that mean you have been stuck in texas all this time? That is really an inconvenience. Is the dealer putting you up in a hotel?