More of a lurker than active poster but love this subreddit - good for fellow techs to gain knowledge and vent. Don't care if anyone from my dealer sees this...been internet famous before lol. This has been weighing on me heavily and I'm still pissed about it with no resolve from it-
Had a POS 260k 2012 F150 a about a month back that was another guys PITA - loss of power/stumbles on acceleration. Did his diag and work, didn't fix it. Light bulb goes off and checks the PCM connectors - PCM connectors are FULL of oil, RH bank VCT solenoids are full of oil. Shop foreman asks me to look it over and verify it - yes it's fucked. Back and forth with tech support (powertrain warranty as engine was replaced 2 years ago) to get them to do anything other than repairs because guess what! PCM and harness are obsolete! Tech support says just fix it.
Pull it in after sitting for 2 months, figure out WTF to do and dig deeper to why the PCM is full of oil - figured it was VCT's leaking into the harness, but nope dry after ~8in from the connectors. Cut back harness tape for engine bay harness, peel back wire insulation. Can't find a cause. Do detective work with guy who replaced engine - said it was leaking oil out of every possible place inside and out.
Fuck it - spliced in "new" (used) pins from donor harness for one PCM connector as every wire had oil in it and all of them were pretty much fused together, replaced pins in the other connector that still had oil, replaced bank 1 VCT solenoids and connectors, and opened the PCM to flush it out (it was swimming lol). Get it all back together - it runs! No codes! It drives normal! Yay! Notate P0420 present prior and may return and ship it.
2 weeks later - recheck for CEL. P0420 - no shit sherlock. Quote cats and O2 sensors - advisor (who I hated before and hate to the deepest depths of hell now) sighs and moans and says he'll call the customer. 3 days later get paperwork from shop foreman with a new quote attached for heater hoses and no reservoir (reservoir was JB welded at the hose neck). Give additional quote for reservoir with another hum and hah and bending the parts guy over for employee pricing. Next day - auth. Order parts and wait.
2 days ago get parts. Put everything in - new cats, new O2 sensors, new heater hoses, new reservoir. Fill the cooling system. Clear codes. Road test. All is good. Yay! Go back to doing other stuff since that POS is out of the way.
~4pm rolls around, advisor confronts me while I'm in the middle of a window regulator: "Did you put cats and O2 sensors in this???" "Yes" "I told you only hoses!" "Uh....noooo...." "Yeah I told you 3 times only hoses!!!!" "No you didn't, and if that's the case it should've been written on the RO or PQ" "Stop making excuses!" *storms off*
I was only told "rock n roll"/"do it". Thus now I'm pissed - shop foreman talks to service manager and customer - customer is pissed, I'm pissed, everyone's pissed. Yell at shop foreman for why advisors get away with everything after being told I'll be shopped time to reinstall original cats and sensors. Get it done...angrily...the next day. Talk to service manager, he's pissed about the situation too and says he'll have the advisor apologize, after I voice my frustration of being called a liar.
2 days later, no apology and he (advisor) still acts like everything is fine and his shit don't stink. He's banished to the shadow realm now for all I care until he mans up and takes responsibility.
Guess this is my payback for trying to do other things other than lightline? Shit happens, but I take my work quality and craftsman ship seriously - calling me a liar is just straight up war IMO.