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View Full Version : My First Oil Change.... at a Ford dealership!



Donny Carlson
12-18-2005, 08:48 PM
The worst part of trading in my 2003 Mercury Marauder was losing two of the best service techs I've known -- and two good friends -- Scott Levine and Jason Adams at Team Ford in Marietta, GA. Scott and Jason did all the service work and most of the mods for my MM over the past two years, and I looked forward to going over there to hang out with them as they worked on my car. Team Ford (part of Auto Nation, a chain of dealerships that includes Team Chevrolet in the Atlanta area) is very mod friendly, has an in house Dynojet. It's common to see high performance cars of all makes there, though honestly, this is a Ford house and most of them are Fords.
Scott is one of only 3,000 Senior Master Techs for Ford and used to work for Steeda down in Florida.

Scott and Jason are good friends, as I said, and I know the service manager, have sat at breakfast with him and "the boys" before heading over to the dealership.

Saturday was the monthly Atlanta Breakfast Club, and particpants usually go over to Team to see whose car is getting worked on that day -- what mod is being done. I was happy to see that Scott and Jason were there so I could show them the SSR.

Scott has done all my oil changes, Team uses both Mobil 1 or Royal Purple, so I decided to go ahead with the oil change here, had the SSR added to their maintenance computer. The only hitch was their system couldn't cross reference to the proper oil filter (accorind to the book over at AutoZone, there is a Motorcraft filter that fits), so I used a K&N I had on hand. This was the first opportunity I had to look at her underside on a lift.

Scott gave the SSR his blessing, that goodness. Looks like I will continue to have oil changes and light maintenance done at Team. I'll just go to Chevy for warantee work, looks like I'll drive up to Team Chevrolet in Northport to check them out. I do have a Birmingham fall back dealer for emergency warranty work. Also, Scott's going to handle mod work on the SSR, except of course exhaust, which will be the Toddster's jusidiction. Then the time comes to put on the Hotchkis anti-sway bars, gears, etc.. Scott's gonna don it. I do have to carry it to MTI racing up the street for tuning, as Aric doesn't have GM capability.

Here are some shots:

Scott Levine putting my SSR on the lift:
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/1/3/6/DSC00286.JPG
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/1/3/6/DSC00287.JPG

Donny Carlson
12-18-2005, 08:57 PM
Of the rear underside:

This is the battery box. Yup, the battery is in the rear uderneath.
You'll also notice there's no spare tire. There's no jack and no lug wrench either. The object next to the bumper cover is where the trailering package attaches.

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/1/3/6/DSC00288.JPG

You can see a lot in this picture, from the resonator in the exhaust tips, the 5-link rear suspension, Koni shocks, thick anti-away bar. Notice the control arm to the right under the sway bar. The control arms are tubular, look just like Mac and Zac bars, except a bit longer. The exhaust pipes have to be routed side by side to clear the 25 gallon fuel tank, seen here inboard on the left.
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/1/3/6/DSC00289.JPG
Less flash wash out showing the true colors of the Koni shocks:

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/1/3/6/DSC00292_00.JPG

I recently had the drive shaft repaced under warranty due to noise (there was a TSB out) here are shots of the new DS, note the shield on the gas tank to protect it from debris being thrown up by the DS
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/1/3/6/DSC00290.JPG
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/1/1/3/6/DSC00291.JPG

The brown stains on the cats and muffler are from heat.

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Marauder2005
12-18-2005, 09:51 PM
Thats a sharp truck Donny, good luck with it. I'm glad you can

keep your good service man on the job, thats improtant to us

automobile nuts. A New Chevy at a Ford dealer, gotta love it! :)

Have a question for you though, you said they did the mods to your

Marauder. I wanted to put 4:10 in my MM and its under warranty.

Does this mean I can have my Ford Racing gears put in by a Ford

dealer? Or was it "side work" for the service person/friend? Thanks Donny,

keep her looking shiney, gotta love that black and chrome!

Donny Carlson
12-18-2005, 09:56 PM
Thats a sharp truck Donny, good luck with it. I'm glad you can

keep your good service man on the job, thats improtant to us

automobile nuts. A New Chevy at a Ford dealer, gotta love it! :)

Have a question for you though, you said they did the mods to your

Marauder. I wanted to put 4:10 in my MM and its under warranty.

Does this mean I can have my Ford Racing gears put in by a Ford

dealer? Or was it "side work" for the service person/friend? Thanks Donny,

keep her looking shiney, gotta love that black and chrome!


Some dealers will put them on, no problem.

Scott put them in, noticed the axles were scored, and changed the axles under warrantee at the same time. The warrantee even paid for replacing
axle lubricant!

Thanks for the compliments.