Need some advise

[CobraFlyBoy]

Maybe I am just crazy, but I think the dealership here is town is scaming me big time. If anyone could tell me if these 'problems' they keep finding are common please ease my pain. My car has 94k on it and has run beautifully up until about a month or so ago. I took it into Crosstown Ford in Corpus Christi, TX, who first of all claim to be SVT certified but I can't find that printed anywhere on anything SVT related. I needed to get the front suspension worked on thanks to wonderful TX roads. They got it back to me 1,400 bucks later for complete check up, new front rack, oil change, tranny flush, the whole nine yards. Then that night my car would only idle if I had gas going to it. If I let off the gas, it would die. I took it back in and they claimed my idle control sensor had gone bad. Now, I was driving yesterday and heard this god awefulnoise under the hood. I stopped and notice my serpentine belt was shredding. I manged to get it to Crosstown just after it seperating. The thing had shredded inside, there was belt fuzz everywhere. My question is are these things normal to just happen all in this short time span. I would think that SVT preimum service rep's would do a through enough job to catch problems like this. I figure they are either *^#$ing me or they are incompitent. Anyway, enough soapbox. Drive Fast take chances, I lookforward to any input. :guns:

[SNAKEYE]

Maybe I am just crazy, but I think the dealership here is town is scaming me big time. If anyone could tell me if these 'problems' they keep finding are common please ease my pain. My car has 94k on it and has run beautifully up until about a month or so ago. I took it into Crosstown Ford in Corpus Christi, TX, who first of all claim to be SVT certified but I can't find that printed anywhere on anything SVT related. I needed to get the front suspension worked on thanks to wonderful TX roads. They got it back to me 1,400 bucks later for complete check up, new front rack, oil change, tranny flush, the whole nine yards. Then that night my car would only idle if I had gas going to it. If I let off the gas, it would die. I took it back in and they claimed my idle control sensor had gone bad. Now, I was driving yesterday and heard this god awefulnoise under the hood. I stopped and notice my serpentine belt was shredding. I manged to get it to Crosstown just after it seperating. The thing had shredded inside, there was belt fuzz everywhere. My question is are these things normal to just happen all in this short time span. I would think that SVT preimum service rep's would do a through enough job to catch problems like this. I figure they are either *^#$ing me or they are incompitent. Anyway, enough soapbox. Drive Fast take chances, I lookforward to any input. :guns:
At 94K miles things start to go, fast!
SVT certified or not, what they did for you sounds pretty routine.
Your idle problem was probably caused by a dirty IAC. If it was never touched in 94K miles, it did real good. Removing it and flushing it out could restore it to normal operation.
As for the serpentine belt, if at 94K miles it was still the original, you got your money's worth! For $25 or so for the belt, it should be replaced every 40K miles.

[SonicBoy]

The 1996 Cobras had issues with Serpentine belts shredding. I think you are lucky you were able to get it fixed in time. I believe they were also throwing belts as well and for the 98's they redesigned some bracket to prevent the belt thowing.

Any overheating issues? The 96 Cobras had overheating issues as well. Little known fact was that one of the hoses going to the heater core were normally pinched during installation of the engines. Examine your hose and remove the kink and you should be running cooler if you had this problem with your Cobra.

That's the worst feeling to take your car in and feel that you've been shafted after spending big bucks on routine maintenace. Suggest that you call SVT and see if you can find a certified authorized SVT dealer in your area to take your car to.

You have to be comfortable with the dealership working on your car, especially your service advisor.

[Venom460]

Ford and IAC motor failure sorta go hand in hand. If you really got 94k out of yours, then I suppose a new one was a good choice. As for the belt, there are a number of TSB's on that issue. Most deal with the belt falling off but shredding could be caused by the same issues. Ford put a lip on the replacement pullies to help keep the belt in place during deceleration. The belts had a tendency to wrap up under hard decel, and then fall of the pullies. I dont really think it appears that your dealer was out of line on what they did. I know it seems bad when you leave and other things happen, but sometimes thats just the way it goes.