Sean Greene

Another update with a wierd twist. This whole ordeal has been such very see-saw in nature. The service advisor calls me back and tells me the part is 2-months away minimum and there is nothing he can do. He offered me no loaner car or anything basically sorry about your luck. He told me that they could get a used unit with a 90-day warranty which I passed on. My co-worker had performed some legwork and located a new PTU at a Ford dealership near one of our sister dealerships. I'll have it this afternoon and according to my local dealership I should have the Edge back tomorrow afternoon. Basically I did their job for them. I better get a couple oil changes or something on their dime. So I have a new PTU with 1 year , 12,000 warranty. I'm just glad this is coming to an end.

I purchased the vehicle from an independant used car dealer that had the Carproof etc. it wasn't a rental vehicle or anything and the vehicle wasn't used. I'm not sure about purchasing the an extended warranty after that time period or I would've. At any rate it is what is. So here is the latest. My Edge is still at the dealership where I parked it because the Ford is looking for a vendor to produce the new PTUs. Apparently the previous manufacturer went out of business or something which is probably one of the many reasons why there are issues and back orders. I spoke to another dealer and asked the parts department if they had ordered PTU replacements and the gentleman said he's done 3 last fall. Another dealer about 40km away has done a couple and has one in stock (the old part number). The good news is that I spoke with the service manager at my local dealership that was disappointed that my advisor hadn't kept me up to date. He has met with a Ford rep today to see about taking a PTU from a new Edge and swapping it in to get me going but he was unsure if they were compatible. He also stated that normally if the vehicle was under warranty Ford would cover a rental but since my vehicle was just out of a warranty he was going to see about getting me a dealership loaner of some sort which was a nice gesture. This is what I wanted, some sort of acknowledement and attempt at a resolution. Customer service is everything in this industry and you can't make everyone happy but you can make sure that people are taken care of. The service advisor made little to no attempt at this previously. The day before I called Ford Canada customer service which was a futile effort as they didn't tell me anything I didn't know. I work in a parts department and I know that vehicles breakdown, parts fail, and need replacing - it's how I earn my living! I'm that guy on the other side of the counter and when something goes wrong for a client I do my best help be a part of the solution by being honest and exhausting all possible avenues. I felt that my service advisor didn't by misleading me to believe that my Edge would be fixed in a few days and then be told "there's no parts, sorry" Anyhow if I didn't love my Edge this wouldn't be such an issue and maybe the service advisor is to blame for how I was handled. The end result is that I want my vehicle fixed, I want an accurate ETA and cost of the repair so that I can plan my life accordingly, and I want it fixed right.

The PTU does the same function as a center differential, it transfers torque from the transaxle to the rear wheels if slippage is detected. This is done by speed sensors that monitor wheel speed and compares to the other wheels. The PCM then decides whether to transfer engage or disengage the PTU (center diff, or whatever you want to call it). Some vehicles use a viscous coupling, Torsen (torque sensing), or electronically activated or even hydraulically activated. Call it what you want it performs the same function. You've made some good points however you neglected to do basic math. The Edge is a 2007 and I bought it 2 years ago which would make the year of purchase 2009. I obviously bought the vehicle when the extended factory warranty wasn't available or we would've done it. We did purchase an aftermarket powertrain warranty but after doing some more research we found that it was a rip off and we'd be spending more money than what we are spending now at this point. You know what they say when you assume things... Second if all I had to do was replace control arms that cost $345.00 each I wouldn't be on this forum complaining. Furthermore when most responsible automakers identify a design flaw they either perform a "stop sell" or issue a part supercession to replace the defective part to prevent customers from coming back multiple times for the same problem. VW did this with the water pumps in the 1.8t and 2L engines. They also extended the warranty on engines damaged due to sludging well beyond the original factory warranty. My friend had the engine in his 2003 replaced recently. They also had a huge campaign on ignition coils. This reinforces my original statement. I can tell you that there's no way that Nissan, Audi, Honda, or VW would see a problem like the PTU in 2007 it would certainly be corrected by 2012. If you have read posts of other people here they are having the same leakage problems that started in 2007in their NEW vehicles. "I'm not aware of a problem with PTUs failing and having to be replaced outside of the leaking seal problems. So from that respect it sounds like an isolated incident, not a widespread repeated problem." You obviously haven't browsed the issue enough. There are several owners that have had their PTU's replaced under warranty a couple of times due to failure. I'm paying out of my own pocket for this replacement and it sucks but my Edge will be back on the road in a day and my dealer has been good with the exception of me getting the snub on the corrosion warranty. I sell auto parts for a living so I'm very much aware of how this industry and dealerships work. I didn't complain about the price I simply stated how much it cost. I know that dealerships are limited as to what they can do to help customers but I do demand honesty from them when I have an issue. I can and will address Ford formally and from what I've seen they will more than likely do nothing. What people fail to realize is that not everyone is looking for a free ride, a simple acknowledgement would suffice. Send someone a few vouchers for oil changes or a gas card or something. Spending a little money to acknowledge your clients that are unhappy goes a long way especially when there's a class action law suit being filed for the PTU leakage issue. Pay now or pay later Ford will end up being forced to make it right for those people. http://www.seegerweiss.com/law-practices/class-actions/product-liability-actions/ford-edge-ptu-failures/ At any rate if the PTU fails within a year of replacement Ford will end up replacing it and after that we'll be buying a new vehicle, we'll see how Ford deals with all these new old issues that are resurfacing in the "re-vamped offerings." I like the rest of us reading this forum have money to spend on a new vehicle it's just a matter of whom we will spend it with.

My wife and I purchased a 2007 Ford Edge SEL 2 years ago to replace our Volvo 850 Turbo wagon (which I loved). The Edge has been great for our family and lifestyle despite bad in-town fuel consumption c'est la vie. I knew that there were some issues regarding the leaking PTU and actually had performed a check with a dealer to see if the recall had been performed and it was by the previous owner. Great I thought. I did smell subtle oil smells but no leakage. I work at a VW/ Audi dealership and had the truck up on a lift to inspect the PTU seals and saw no evidence of leakage. Now I know my way around vehicles very well having built my own 450hp Nissan 240SX from the engine all the way through to driveline and suspension by myself with the exception of machining. I've also been a technical editor for several aftermarket performance publications for the last 17 years. 3-days ago I was driving our Edge to work when I noticed vibration upon inital acceleration similar to driving over rumble strips along with a slight clicking during deceleration. I knew it was the PTU right away. I called my local dealer and told them that I think my PTU needs service (knowing it was toast). Initially they tell me that it's a misfire which I knew was BS because the engine revved perfectly under load, I told the service advisor that that wasn't the problem and that the vibration was felt through the chassis. Anyhow they call me back telling me that the PTU is destroyed and that it's going to cost me $2100 to replace. Perfect! The Edge has 135,000 km on it and I'm replacing the center differential (PTU) meanwhile my 2000 Audi A4 has 256,000 km on it and all 3 of my differentials are fine. So the vehicle is just out of warranty and I know Ford will do squat in terms of goodwill on labor since they denied my claim on the premature body corrosion (surface rust) because it's not perforated. Just so you know my 2000 A4 has a 12-year corrosion warranty and I'm having 2 fenders, 3 doors repaired, and 2 quarter panels repaired due to surface rust. VW/Audi actually takes care of their customers and doesn't hide behind nuances in a warranty in order to avoid fulfilling what they have promised customers. I've read so many experiences on this forum and others about dealerships giving people the run around on this drivetrain issue from blaming it on tire noise to rear differentials disengaging and making noise being normal. My A4 has 3 mechanical Torsen differentials and regardless of how I'm driving or what I'm driving in; snow, ice, or wet conditions the wheels just grip and the car does it's job transparently. The is true of all late model AWD systems so for a service advisor to state that it's normal operation is a flat out lie. The fact that service advisors at Ford dealerships are willing to lie to get a customer off their back due to lousy product quality is very concerning. I am glad that my advisor was straight up with me about what was going on with my vehicle but it doesn't make up for the lousy product that I'm driving. For a vehicle with the amount of mileage that mine has to experience a major mechanical breakdown and the manufactuer to acknowledge the issue and still do nothing despite thousands of other owners having issues speaks volume about what Ford thinks of their clients. It's not as if the vehicles being sold are cheap bargain bin vehicles where you can expect issues because of the low price tag. This treatment of clients leads one to think Ford has adapted a "You get what you pay for. Go ahead and buy a GM or Dodge they don't care either because you can't afford an import." I've always been an import buyer because I felt that the domestic product was low in build quality, resale, and overall value. I believed domestic cars except the muscle cars were junk but the trucks were good. I owned a Suburban and Avalanche and both were great. I gave the Ford Edge a try because it appeared to be the best in it's class from the domestics. Ford is making me regret that decision and I should've went with a Nissan Murano. We were considering moving up to a Ford Flex but after this fiasco I think that we'll go a different direction or get a FWD version. We love our Edge but if we have to replace the PTU again it will be the last Ford we buy.