Ford ESP non-horror story....

[Martinjmpr]

I know we all love us a good rage-bait horror story but I thought I'd buck the trend here and post my first experience using my Ford ESP Extended Service Plan.

I bought my 2018 F-150 used with about 18,000 miles on it. I violated the "conventional wisdom" of the internet knowitalls by buying a former rental truck from Canada (the XTR package was the giveaway - only available in Canada.)

Even though I've never had any problems with the truck (except for a leaking left rear taillight that kept blowing bulbs and was replaced under warranty), I decided that since I wanted to keep the truck for another 4 years, I would look into an extended warranty/service plan. After looking at quite a few, I decided to go with a Ford ESP (Extended Service Plan) and bought it on line in July of 2022 at about 54,000 miles. The plan would cover me to July of 2026 and/or 104,000 miles and covered everything except cosmetic damage and wear.

Right around 56,000 miles, when the truck was approaching the end of the 5/60 powertrain warranty (50,000 miles or 60 months) I got the dreaded cam phaser rattle. I booked an appointment with my local Ford dealer (Phil Long) and they were able to get me in a couple of weeks later. Problem fixed and cam phaser rattle gone. This was covered under the factory 5/60 warranty at no cost to me.

About a year later, while out on a camping trip, I got a strange "chime" and a warning message on my multi-function display (the one on the dashboard between the speedo and the tach) and it read "OIL PRESSURE WARNING." I also noticed that the CEL was on and the oil pressure gauge was showing zero pressure. I immediately turned the engine off (which was running fine) and restarted it. Oil pressure was back up to normal and the oil pressure warning message disappeared but the CEL was on. About an hour later, while driving, I again got the chime and the low oil pressure warning message, but, again, the engine was running just fine.

I did a little Google searching and it turned out that (as I suspected) the culprit was likely the oil pressure sensor. By this time I was OOW from the original warranty so when I got back from the trip I contacted the same Ford dealer and told them what was going on. They couldn't get me in for a couple of weeks but since the truck was running fine, I was OK with it. I would periodically get the low oil pressure warning, but it wasn't a consistent thing. I also needed an oil change and took it to an independent shop for that, and it was there that they noticed the leaking valve cover gasket on the Driver's side.

When they service dept booked the appointment, they asked me if I had an ESP and I said I did. They were able to look it up by the VIN since it was a Ford ESP.

Took the truck in, and two days later they had it back to me, with the oil pressure switch replaced and the valve cover gasket replaced as well. Total charge to me was my $100 deductible plus tax. They never balked at covering either issue under the ESP.

Anyway, it's a long story for such a minute issue but with all the horror stories you see of "extended warranty" repairs being denied, I thought I'd share my non-horror story.

EDITED TO ADD: I deliberately chose the Ford ESP vs a third party ESP because I didn't want to have to deal with getting paid and then getting reimbursed. But the Ford ESP actually turned out to be significantly cheaper than the other 3rd party options I looked at, too. My total cost was around $3100 for the 4 year/50,000 mile plan.

 

[Todd n Natalie]

I know we all love us a good rage-bait horror story but I thought I'd buck the trend here and post my first experience using my Ford ESP Extended Service Plan.

I bought my 2018 F-150 used with about 18,000 miles on it. I violated the "conventional wisdom" of the internet knowitalls by buying a former rental truck from Canada (the XTR package was the giveaway - only available in Canada.)

Even though I've never had any problems with the truck (except for a leaking left rear taillight that kept blowing bulbs and was replaced under warranty), I decided that since I wanted to keep the truck for another 4 years, I would look into an extended warranty/service plan. After looking at quite a few, I decided to go with a Ford ESP (Extended Service Plan) and bought it on line in July of 2022 at about 54,000 miles. The plan would cover me to July of 2026 and/or 104,000 miles and covered everything except cosmetic damage and wear.

Right around 56,000 miles, when the truck was approaching the end of the 5/60 powertrain warranty (50,000 miles or 60 months) I got the dreaded cam phaser rattle. I booked an appointment with my local Ford dealer (Phil Long) and they were able to get me in a couple of weeks later. Problem fixed and cam phaser rattle gone. This was covered under the factory 5/60 warranty at no cost to me.

About a year later, while out on a camping trip, I got a strange "chime" and a warning message on my multi-function display (the one on the dashboard between the speedo and the tach) and it read "OIL PRESSURE WARNING." I also noticed that the CEL was on and the oil pressure gauge was showing zero pressure. I immediately turned the engine off (which was running fine) and restarted it. Oil pressure was back up to normal and the oil pressure warning message disappeared but the CEL was on. About an hour later, while driving, I again got the chime and the low oil pressure warning message, but, again, the engine was running just fine.

I did a little Google searching and it turned out that (as I suspected) the culprit was likely the oil pressure sensor. By this time I was OOW from the original warranty so when I got back from the trip I contacted the same Ford dealer and told them what was going on. They couldn't get me in for a couple of weeks but since the truck was running fine, I was OK with it. I would periodically get the low oil pressure warning, but it wasn't a consistent thing. I also needed an oil change and took it to an independent shop for that, and it was there that they noticed the leaking valve cover gasket on the Driver's side.

When they service dept booked the appointment, they asked me if I had an ESP and I said I did. They were able to look it up by the VIN since it was a Ford ESP.

Took the truck in, and two days later they had it back to me, with the oil pressure switch replaced and the valve cover gasket replaced as well. Total charge to me was my $100 deductible plus tax. They never balked at covering either issue under the ESP.

Anyway, it's a long story for such a minute issue but with all the horror stories you see of "extended warranty" repairs being denied, I thought I'd share my non-horror story.

EDITED TO ADD: I deliberately chose the Ford ESP vs a third party ESP because I didn't want to have to deal with getting paid and then getting reimbursed. But the Ford ESP actually turned out to be significantly cheaper than the other 3rd party options I looked at, too. My total cost was around $3100 for the 4 year/50,000 mile plan.

Thanks for posting this. Always nice to hear a positive story.

 

[plainjaneFJC]

Not to say the glass is half empty but I just read you paid 3100 for a valve cover gasket and oil sensor…😉😆

 

[Todd n Natalie]

Not to say the glass is half empty but I just read you paid 3100 for a valve cover gasket and oil sensor…😉😆

If the glass was half empty, I'd ask the barkeep to top me back up!

 

[Martinjmpr]

Not to say the glass is half empty but I just read you paid 3100 for a valve cover gasket and oil sensor…😉😆

This is like saying is if I pay my car insurance and then never get into an accident I wasted my money

And who's to say what happens in the next 3 years. Have you ever had a transmission fail in the middle of Utah? Wanna guess what that costs?

 

[Todd n Natalie]

This is like saying is if I pay my car insurance and then never get into an accident I wasted my money

And who's to say what happens in the next 3 years. Have you ever had a transmission fail in the middle of Utah? Wanna guess what that costs?

Yep, over the duration that we've had warranty I've always gotten my money out of it.

It's kind of like paying for preventative maintenance. You just don't know what repair your paying for yet, haha

 

[sdwhip]

The leaking valve cover gasket was probably their problem to start with after they did the cam phasers. A few weeks after the cam phasers were replaced on our Expedition ours started leaking from the valve cover and back to them it went. If they charged that to your ESP then they're doing pretty good for themselves.

We also had an alternator go bad and then a couple days after picking it up I got a CEL for a sensor in the area of the alternator was bad. Then shortly after that the transmission had to pulled and rebuilt. A couple days later a CEL for the catalytic converter came on. The truck sat on their lot for 2 months waiting on a back ordered cat after that. I'm starting to think every time it's "fixed" they create another issue. This has all been done under warranty. 2019 Expedition with 45k miles. They've done quite a bit of work on over the 25k miles. It's still a great driver though. Luckily the service work hasn't cost me anything yet but it's probably spent somewhere around 4-6 months at the shop since 2019. It's been at the body shop for a little over a month now after someone pulled out in front of my wife. Pretty minor damage to the passenger side front but enough to run up a $14k estimate. I'm starting to loose faith in the shop it's at though, they're pretty poor at communicating when we're going to get this thing back. I'd be surprised if we have it by Thanksgiving.

Not raining on your parade, just talking out loud.

 

[plainjaneFJC]

This is like saying is if I pay my car insurance and then never get into an accident I wasted my money

And who's to say what happens in the next 3 years. Have you ever had a transmission fail in the middle of Utah? Wanna guess what that costs?

Chris Rock did a skit on that very thing. It was called “in case stuff” but it was a different word than stuff..🤣

 

[plainjaneFJC]

The leaking valve cover gasket was probably their problem to start with after they did the cam phasers. A few weeks after the cam phasers were replaced on our Expedition ours started leaking from the valve cover and back to them it went. If they charged that to your ESP then they're doing pretty good for themselves.

We also had an alternator go bad and then a couple days after picking it up I got a CEL for a sensor in the area of the alternator was bad. Then shortly after that the transmission had to pulled and rebuilt. A couple days later a CEL for the catalytic converter came on. The truck sat on their lot for 2 months waiting on a back ordered cat after that. I'm starting to think every time it's "fixed" they create another issue. This has all been done under warranty. 2019 Expedition with 45k miles. They've done quite a bit of work on over the 25k miles. It's still a great driver though. Luckily the service work hasn't cost me anything yet but it's probably spent somewhere around 4-6 months at the shop since 2019. It's been at the body shop for a little over a month now after someone pulled out in front of my wife. Pretty minor damage to the passenger side front but enough to run up a $14k estimate. I'm starting to loose faith in the shop it's at though, they're pretty poor at communicating when we're going to get this thing back. I'd be surprised if we have it by Thanksgiving.

Not raining on your parade, just talking out loud.

Sounds like my F150 experience- loved that truck when it wasn’t in the shop.

 

[GHI]

The leaking valve cover gasket was probably their problem to start with after they did the cam phasers. A few weeks after the cam phasers were replaced on our Expedition ours started leaking from the valve cover and back to them it went. If they charged that to your ESP then they're doing pretty good for themselves.

We also had an alternator go bad and then a couple days after picking it up I got a CEL for a sensor in the area of the alternator was bad. Then shortly after that the transmission had to pulled and rebuilt. A couple days later a CEL for the catalytic converter came on. The truck sat on their lot for 2 months waiting on a back ordered cat after that. I'm starting to think every time it's "fixed" they create another issue. This has all been done under warranty. 2019 Expedition with 45k miles. They've done quite a bit of work on over the 25k miles. It's still a great driver though. Luckily the service work hasn't cost me anything yet but it's probably spent somewhere around 4-6 months at the shop since 2019. It's been at the body shop for a little over a month now after someone pulled out in front of my wife. Pretty minor damage to the passenger side front but enough to run up a $14k estimate. I'm starting to loose faith in the shop it's at though, they're pretty poor at communicating when we're going to get this thing back. I'd be surprised if we have it by Thanksgiving.

Not raining on your parade, just talking out loud.

I feel your pain. My Wrangler got rear ended while dropping my people at Detroit Metro Airport. Minor damage to the naked eye, but I'm no mechanic so I wanted it completely checked out. From their perspective I needed a new rear bumper, license plate base plate and wheel well thingy. In my opinion less than an hour worth of work. I got an appointment for 3 months later. Dropped it off on a Sunday night so they could get started early on Monday.

I'm receiving their text message status updates saying "we've started, strumming along, almost done." Well 3 days later I call because I need my vehicle on Thursday. They hmmmm and hawwww and then admit they haven't actually started it yet. So I say park it where I can get to it cause I need it for a few days. I picked it up and it had 15.4 miles on the odometer. Yea, somebody has been taking it out to lunch or whatever.

 

[calicamper]

I know we all love us a good rage-bait horror story but I thought I'd buck the trend here and post my first experience using my Ford ESP Extended Service Plan.

I bought my 2018 F-150 used with about 18,000 miles on it. I violated the "conventional wisdom" of the internet knowitalls by buying a former rental truck from Canada (the XTR package was the giveaway - only available in Canada.)

Even though I've never had any problems with the truck (except for a leaking left rear taillight that kept blowing bulbs and was replaced under warranty), I decided that since I wanted to keep the truck for another 4 years, I would look into an extended warranty/service plan. After looking at quite a few, I decided to go with a Ford ESP (Extended Service Plan) and bought it on line in July of 2022 at about 54,000 miles. The plan would cover me to July of 2026 and/or 104,000 miles and covered everything except cosmetic damage and wear.

Right around 56,000 miles, when the truck was approaching the end of the 5/60 powertrain warranty (50,000 miles or 60 months) I got the dreaded cam phaser rattle. I booked an appointment with my local Ford dealer (Phil Long) and they were able to get me in a couple of weeks later. Problem fixed and cam phaser rattle gone. This was covered under the factory 5/60 warranty at no cost to me.

About a year later, while out on a camping trip, I got a strange "chime" and a warning message on my multi-function display (the one on the dashboard between the speedo and the tach) and it read "OIL PRESSURE WARNING." I also noticed that the CEL was on and the oil pressure gauge was showing zero pressure. I immediately turned the engine off (which was running fine) and restarted it. Oil pressure was back up to normal and the oil pressure warning message disappeared but the CEL was on. About an hour later, while driving, I again got the chime and the low oil pressure warning message, but, again, the engine was running just fine.

I did a little Google searching and it turned out that (as I suspected) the culprit was likely the oil pressure sensor. By this time I was OOW from the original warranty so when I got back from the trip I contacted the same Ford dealer and told them what was going on. They couldn't get me in for a couple of weeks but since the truck was running fine, I was OK with it. I would periodically get the low oil pressure warning, but it wasn't a consistent thing. I also needed an oil change and took it to an independent shop for that, and it was there that they noticed the leaking valve cover gasket on the Driver's side.

When they service dept booked the appointment, they asked me if I had an ESP and I said I did. They were able to look it up by the VIN since it was a Ford ESP.

Took the truck in, and two days later they had it back to me, with the oil pressure switch replaced and the valve cover gasket replaced as well. Total charge to me was my $100 deductible plus tax. They never balked at covering either issue under the ESP.

Anyway, it's a long story for such a minute issue but with all the horror stories you see of "extended warranty" repairs being denied, I thought I'd share my non-horror story.

EDITED TO ADD: I deliberately chose the Ford ESP vs a third party ESP because I didn't want to have to deal with getting paid and then getting reimbursed. But the Ford ESP actually turned out to be significantly cheaper than the other 3rd party options I looked at, too. My total cost was around $3100 for the 4 year/50,000 mile plan.

I have a 2019. Ill check out the ESP I have a long warranty already but having an option to add on at the end isn’t a bad idea.

 

[skrypj]

The leaking valve cover gasket was probably their problem to start with after they did the cam phasers. A few weeks after the cam phasers were replaced on our Expedition ours started leaking from the valve cover and back to them it went. If they charged that to your ESP then they're doing pretty good for themselves.

We also had an alternator go bad and then a couple days after picking it up I got a CEL for a sensor in the area of the alternator was bad. Then shortly after that the transmission had to pulled and rebuilt. A couple days later a CEL for the catalytic converter came on. The truck sat on their lot for 2 months waiting on a back ordered cat after that. I'm starting to think every time it's "fixed" they create another issue. This has all been done under warranty. 2019 Expedition with 45k miles. They've done quite a bit of work on over the 25k miles. It's still a great driver though. Luckily the service work hasn't cost me anything yet but it's probably spent somewhere around 4-6 months at the shop since 2019. It's been at the body shop for a little over a month now after someone pulled out in front of my wife. Pretty minor damage to the passenger side front but enough to run up a $14k estimate. I'm starting to loose faith in the shop it's at though, they're pretty poor at communicating when we're going to get this thing back. I'd be surprised if we have it by Thanksgiving.

Not raining on your parade, just talking out loud.

Last time I had the Ford dealer do something to my F150 it was the brake master cylinder recall. I picked it up and the CEL was on because they didnt reconnect 3 sensors. A week later my motor sent a rod through the block with minimal warning.

I have no evidence that it was them, but I find it suspicious that my perfectly running truck crapped so epically after that work was done.

 

[Rabidranger]

I have a positive as well. Bought my 2018 Raptor in 2019 and had them add the ESP. It was an odd used vehicle with 722 miles. Whatever, worked for me, got it for $54k. SCAB with Tech and carbon package.

At around 44k miles there was a weird clunky rattle I swear on my life was coming from the rear. My son even rode in the bed and confirmed it was coming from the back. $100 and new front sway bar links and the sound was gone. Weird, but whatever.
At around 49k miles i got the dreaded cam phaser rattle as well. $100 deductible, they replaced them. Worst was waiting 3 weeks for the parts.
About 53k miles the radio was acting slow to touch and there was a squeak from the left front. $100 a new APIM and a hub assy, all good again.

In August 2024 I will probably renew the ESP as well through Ford.

That being said, our 2020 Explorer ST is hot garbage. Working on lemon law for it. It's at 42k miles, but I raise holy hell with Ford corporate every time it needs to go. Waiting RIGHT NOW for backup cameras. After they fix it, it will be the 4th recorded attempt at repair for it. Sooooooooooooooo ready to dump this thing.