Ford Fiesta Zetec 1.25 Brake Servo & Cylinder Leak After 10K Miles

[Alan60]

I have a June 2010 Fiesta Zetec 1.25. It is used regularly for local journeys but has done only 10,600 miles. I took it to the Ford main dealer for MOT but have just been told that it has failed with a leak of brake fluid. They have investigated and say there is a leak to BOTH the servo and cylinder. I was surprised to have any leak given the age of the car but to be told that I must pay over £750 to replace both is a shock.

Is this an unusual fault? Are they just changing both because they can't decide which is leaking and making me pay? Out of warranty but do I have any claim against Ford for unreasonable failure of a purchased item?

Grateful for any advice. Thanks

[pumahsf]

Very unusual fault on a fiesta,

The servo does not hold any brake fluid and so cannot be 'leaking' it may leak in to the servo by the master cylinder seal.

When out of warranty you dont have a claim as such but if it is recently out of warranty you can complain to ford and get some or all of the cost covered under goodwill

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Ford OC mobile app

[Alan60]

Adam, thanks for the quick reply. Good information. I am back to the dealer this afternoon to collect the car so will update with the outcome.

[Alan60]

Further to my post, I collected the car this morning. It seems that the master cylinder leaked fluid that damaged the seal on the servo so both parts had to be replaced. Spoke to the service Manager who agreed that it was a most unusual fault but said that I was just unlucky. This seemed to imply that it was my fault for being unlucky in buying a new car with a failing component. I told him politely how unhappy I was with Ford to have this failure in a 4 year old car with a low mileage. To be fair, he then took the bill away to see what he could do. He did make a goodwill gesture to reduce the labour charge from £80 per hour to £70 which helped but the bill was still just over £500. Happier but not happy. I have never had such an expensive problem with any of the other make of new cars I have had in the past. I didn't realise that buying a Ford was like doing the lottery, you have to be lucky to avoid a large early maintenance bill!