Hi
So I am nowhere close to being an expert or even that good with cars, however, I do have a little experience under the hood (of my own cars). I have this little situation I was hoping to get some advice on.

Back in 2006, my Nanny, 80 years old at the time bought a brand new 2006 Mercury Milan premier 3.0L v6 VIN:1. She primarily used the vehicle around town for errands and what have you. Grocery store, nursey for plants, pharmacy...etc. I have no doubt my Nanny wasn't racing around town. The vehicle was always driven under the speed limit. Oil changes never late. My nanny has always been good at keeping her vehicles maintained and on schedule with maintenance.

My Nanny now 95 years old now wanted to sell the vehicle she was no longer driving. The car was damn near brand new. When I bought the Milan from my Nanny there were only 23,000 miles on, which accumulated over a 15 years span. My nanny and I are the only people who have been in possession of this car.
The Milan runs pretty well but I noticed that once in a while it was kind of slipping gears. There were times it would not change gear but rmps would get to 5000+, it felt like you were in a manual in neutral stepping on the gas. I did some google search and found that this was a common issue with this year and model. What I found was that in older vehicles it's important to keep your PCM & TCM calibrated to the newest calibration. Have the correct calibration makes a world of difference in the drivability of the vehicle.
The gear slipping was happening 3-4 times a week but only once or twice at a given time. As with all vehicles if you notice something is off getting it repaired right away is important. The quicker the issue is fixed the last chance there is to cause more damage.
So I took the vehicle down to the Ford dealership, explained what I was experiencing. I was told that a PCM & TCM calibration would most likely fix the issue. I was told due to the low mileage now at 39000 miles the calibration would probably be all that I needed to do. I was also told there was no guarantee calibrating would fix the issue it was the best place to start. This was also what I was reading online when researching the problem. So I agree to have the dealership calibrate the PCM & TCM to the newest one associated with my in number. 2 hours later I was asked to pay 360.00 (wow), apparently the going rate, and I could be on my way.
After leaving the dealership the car seemed ok. I had not noticed any gear issues until 2 days later. I was driving on the freeway and pressed on the gas and the gas pedal started shaking and the vehicle seemed to be hesitating to gain speed. I took the next exit. While at the stoplight the vehicle felt like it was going to die. The check engine light popped on. The car was running really rough. I then headed back to the dealership to find out what was going on. The car started to misfire really badly and was literally jumping into the wrong gear. Felt like it was going from first to forth making the car jump forward with a squeak

from the wheels.
The car has never acted like this, never misfired before, the first time the check engine light had ever come on.
I was concerned that the calibration was not performed correctly or maybe the wrong verse was programmed to the car. It had to be the new calibration right? It was the only thing that was changed before this erratic behavior.
The dealership said that there was no way the calibration would cause the car to act like that. I was told that I needed to pay another 250.00 to diagnosis the issue. I was speechless. What? I followed their recommendation about having the calibration done, and now all of a sudden the car was barely running. They want more money seriously.
I said forget it and took the car home feeling like I had just been worked. I attached my odbii reader onto the vehicle and was getting codes P0351,P0352,P0353.... The code indicates ignition coils. How the hell could that be with so little use of the car and at only 39000 miles. Not wanting to go back to the dealership because I don't how caused the issue, I took it to our long-time family mechanic. To replace the 6 Ignition coils and 6 spark plugs as well as do a transmission fluid flush is now costing me $1777.00 wtf really? Have I been worked? Did the dealership do something to mess up my car? Or is it merely a stroke of bad luck and coincidence in timing that right after this calibration, my coils go bad. Does this seem normal? I am not sure what to think but am frustrated with the whole ordeal.
Please if anyone has any knowledge or advice about this I could sure use it to help me understand what the hell just happened.

Thanks
Cecilia

 

If there is a issue with module programming/update in my experiance it will 99% show up immediately. Sometimes there is a issue with a new program that ford makes but its very rare especially because its unlikely they recently made a new update so whatever the update it has now has probably been in use for years with no issues. Module updates are automatically given the most up to date programming, its pretty hard to screw up programming and not have the check engine light on immediately. I am curious where the $17XX total came from for spark plugs, coils, and transmission flush, maybe this vehicle has special coils but thats a stupid amount of money for said jobs even if that includes the money spent updating the PCM.
If replacing the plugs/coils fixed the misfire then it was not the dealers fault, maybe the new update did change something with how the PCM runs the coils but they were probably already on the way out and just needed a little push.

Honestly I think you made a bad decision purchasing a 15 year old 23000 mile vehicle, that comes to less then 150 miles a month, yes high mileage vehicles will have issues but after 15 years of sitting with super low usage plastic starts to deteriorate just like tires will have dry rot, other plastic/rubber parts are - spark plug coil boots, cv axle boots, gaskets/seals, silicone sealant, coolant hoses, airbox to throttle tube, vacuum hoses, brake hoses,, engine/transmission mounts.