I took my 2008 FEH 32,050 miles to the dealer to get a key made. I only had 2 and lost one and in order to get one made the dealer must reprogram the whole system. I waited at Harrisonburg Ford (in VA) from 4pm till after 6pm and finally they said it won't work and now no key will work and the car won't start. Today at noon they called and said the entire instrument cluster must be replaced.
Luckily I bought the extra warranty since now the Escape is 4yrs 2mths old. Hopfully I get it back Friday.
Seems crazy, anyone else heard of this.

 

I'd find a new dealer... and wouldn't think that would have anything at all to do with your warranty, they screwed that up, its on there dime.

 

I'm still trying to get over the fact you drove 32,050 miles to get to a dealer.

What did you do, pull a Forrest Gump and go coast to coast a few times before getting to the dealer?

 

Strange since the instrument cluster shouldn't have anything to do with it. It should be the anti-theft module in the console that controls this kinda stuff. Also, I would agree that if everything was working before you took it to the dealer, they're the ones that mucked it up.

 

I also think they messed something up during the program process. I have a $0 deductible so I don't have to pay for any repairs.
But it looks like to me they may be taking advantage of the fact that I did buy the extra warranty. When I go pick up my car I am going to ask if they would have expected me to pay for repairs if I didn't buy the extra warranty.

 

It should also be noted that you can program a third key yourself. I got a key blank cut at a locksmith for $35 and followed the procedure, worked fine, he even offered to do it for me.

 

It takes two keys to program a third. The OP stated he had only one key.

 

Yes, I only had one key after I lost one during a vacation to Miami last weekend. For the record I will be getting a third key made to hopefully prevent any thing like this in the future.

 

man, you are being gamed by an incompetent service department! My wife lost my 2nd factory key in a lake at 5pm on a friday last summer. A locksmith drove out to the park in Moses Lake WA, and had me a new key in about 2hrs time total. Obviously this guy was a very sharp guy, a master of his trade, and a kind human being. Still, I've encountered some real morons holding down "service writer" jobs, at least morons regarding my vehicle. You need to contact somebody at Ford HQ with the actual, documented facts about what that dealer did. Ford doesn't want these idiots working under a Ford sign either.

 

It sounds like they had an instrument cluster in stock and they wanted to get rid of it so the pawned it off on you since it's "covered under warranty".

However, never underestimate the incompetency of a service department. i had my FEH in a year ago to get the battery replaced and they fried the stereo. I didn't take their word for it so I checked the stereo and sure enough, they fried it.

Did you check for yourself to see if the cluster was fried? It doesn't sound logical that a key would damage the cluster.