2013 Escape (Us Kuga) 1.6L Engine Overheating After Recall Fix

[Jersey Girl]

I don't know what engine the EU Kugas are coming with this year but my 1.6L engine had an issue after the recall fix. See my link below.

http://www.escape-city.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19667

[btmaldon]

Are the hoses pressurised? The symptoms suggest no pressure in the system which allows the coolant to boil at lower temperatures than a pressurised system. Have you checked the expansion tank cap? It wouldn't surprise me if a mechanic forgot to do it up properly.

[Jersey Girl]

Are the hoses pressurised? The symptoms suggest no pressure in the system which allows the coolant to boil at lower temperatures than a pressurised system. Have you checked the expansion tank cap? It wouldn't surprise me if a mechanic forgot to do it up properly.

I'm guessing they were pressurised since I only had 2 intermittent issues with the overheating while driving at highway speed. I still don't understand how it could have overheated since the engine should be air cooled fairly well at highway speed.

The expansion tank cap looked fine. The hoses and all the clamps looked great too. I'm so bummed out :-(

[btmaldon]

_{Just make sure the expansion tank cap is nice and tight and hopefully you don't get anymore problems. I like the look of the US version. Good luck with it.}

[RicHhW]

Our Australian bought KUGA EcoBoost Turbo had full coolant all caps OK decided to slow to a crawl up a steep hill near Perth Western Australia.  Definitely threw a fault code (checked later at the dealers) and was at full heat on the dial.

I have 2 possible causes. This was a Spain built model by the way.

1   The coolant lack of circulation may have a primary cause from a blocked off (Not open in the first case in manufacture) head gaesket so coolant is not circulating as designed.  There have been a number of cases in the past where this has happened.  We keep hearing there is a cooling problem.  Well her is the test. My coolant was up to the correct level but still overheated and software caused it to drop power. Someone is not giving us the full story here!!!

2   The engine is not cooling correctly due to economic design reasons, such as:  (A)  Radiator not up to a realist specification

(B)  Poor circulation design with passages too narrow to dissipate the heat produced by a turbocharged engine (into a too small radiator  or  (C)  Overall pre-sales testing did not include higher temperature climates such as South Africa and Australia etc.

I am finding there is a lack of real information in the sales talk by engineers at Ford.  Is there is a cooling problem before coolant is lost? In my situation thats a YES. Does the next stage go to boiling off coolant and then the head cracks?

Certainly the software power kill indicates the issue is a design fault rather than a driver or maintenance fault. 

I await a reply from Ford Australia via the Dealer service centre.  Will it be another fob off?

I am not the sort of political animal who would take that quietly. 

We live in interesting times.